Cover art for a German-language audiobook of "How Six Men Made Their Way in the World" and other stories by the Brothers Grimm.
"How Six Made Their Way in the World" (German: "Sechse kommen durch die ganze Welt"; also translated into English as "How Six Men Got On in the World", "How Six Traveled Through the World", "How Six Men Traveled Through the Whole World", "Six Go Through the Whole World" and "Six Soldiers of Fortune") is a German fairy tale. Similar stories exist in Italian, Czech and Russian folklore. The story is included in the 1819 second edition of Kinder- und Hausmärchen (Children's and Household Tales), the anthology of German folktales compiled by the Brothers Grimm, and all subsequent editions. A translation of the story appears in The Yellow Fairy Book, the 1894 compilation of children's stories compiled by the Scottish folklorist Andrew Lang.
The plot is set in motion when an old soldier leaves the army and is greatly disappointed with the ridiculously small pension that he receives. He sets off to see the king with the intention of getting the monarch to hand over a large treasure. On his way, the old soldier meets five other characters who all have superhuman abilities. The old soldier convinces those five other men to accept him as their leader, telling each one that together they can easily take on the world.
Although "How Six Made Their way in the World" is not among the best known of Grimms' fairy tales in the English-speaking world, it has been adapted to other media numerous times. many of those adaptations were produced in Germany.
Plot[]
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The old soldier is disappointed with his ridiculously small pension. Image from a 1977 East German postage stamp.
When he retires from the army, an old soldier is given nothing but three small coins. He is very unhappy with that. He makes up his mind to get the king to give him all of the treasure in the kingdom. He is certain that, if he gets help from the right people, he can make the king do that.
The old soldier meets five remarkable men. They are the strong one, the huntsman, the blower, the runner and the one with the cap. The strong one uproot five tress and carries all of them at the same time, calling them a bundle of sticks. The hunter is an excellent shot and has excellent eyesight. He shoots the left eye off a fly on a branch two miles away. By closing one of his nostrils and breathing out of the other one, the blower moves the sails on seven windmills two miles away. The runner is able to take off one of his legs and out it back on again. He has chosen to detach his leg because he thinks that he runs too fast and wants to move more slowly. The one with the cap has to wear his cap over one of his ears. If he puts his cap on straight, everything around him gets covered by a freezing frost. The old soldier persuades each of the five men to join him and be his servants.
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The runner with his detached leg. 1853 illustration by the British artist Edward Henry Wehnert.
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The runner outruns the princess. Image from a 1977 East German postage stamp.
The king declares that if any man is able to run faster than his daughter, he can marry her. If the man loses the race against the princess, however, he will be beheaded. The old soldier asks if his servant can run the race instead of him. The king agrees to this but says that both the soldier and his servant will be put to death if the servant loses the race. The old soldier gets the runner to put his other leg back on so that he can run more quickly.
It is agreed that the winner of the race will be the first one to run to a far off well, fill a pitcher with water and carry the pitcher back to the king. The runner arrives at the well and fills his pitcher long before the princess. He decides to stop for a short sleep on his way back. He uses a horse's skull as a pillow because he does not want to get too comfortable and sleep too long. The princess, who is also a fast runner, comes upon the sleeping runner and empties his pitcher. Fortunately, the huntsman can see the faraway runner. He wakes the runner up by shooting the horse's skull out from under him. The runner is so fast that he is able to go back to the well, refill his pitcher and carry the water back to the king long before the princess reaches him.
The princess does not want to marry a common soldier. The king comes up with an evil plan to get rid of the old soldier and his five servants. He tells the six men that a feast has been prepared for them The feast is in a room with iron walls and an iron floor that is above the kitchen. After the six men go inside the room, its doors are bolted. The cook is then ordered to start a very hot fire beneath the room. The six men realize that the king is trying to kill them. The one with the cap puts his cap on straight, causing a freezing frost to fill the room. The cold saves the six men's lives.
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The blower creates a wind that scatters the soldiers. 1853 illustration by the British artist Edward Henry Wehnert.
The king asks the old soldier if he will take gold instead of marrying the princess. The old soldier says that he will take all of the gold that one of his servants can carry. The servant who is sent to collect the gold is the strong one. The strong one is able to carry as much gold as is brought to him in seven thousand carts. It is all the gold in the kingdom.
When the king realizes that the six men have taken all of his wealth, he sends two regiments of soldiers to capture them and take back the gold. The blower breathes out from one of his nostrils. The wind that he creates carries carries all of the soldiers up into the air and scatters them for miles. When the king finds out what has happened to his soldiers, he decides not to pursue the six men anymore and to let them keep their gold.
Adaptations[]
A 69-minute live-action film adaptation of "How Six Made Their way in the World" was released in East Germany in 1972.
The story was adapted as the fourteenth episode of the first season of the anime series Grimm's Fairy Tale Classics (Japanese: グリム名作劇場; Gurimu Meisaku Gekijō). The episode is known in English as "The Six Who Went Far in the World", although its original Japanese title (6人のごうけつ; 6 nin no go uke tsu) could be more literally translated as "The Six Renowned Men". It first aired on TV Asahi in Japan on January 20, 1988.
An hour long live-action TV movie based on the fairy tale was first shown on the German television channel Das Erste on December 25, 2014.
The Swiss composer Roland Zoss set a version of the story in the Swiss-German dialect to music in 2004.
A children's opera based on "How Six Made Their Way in the World", with music by Gordon Kempe and libretto by Dorothea Hartmann, was first performed in Berlin on April 28, 2015.