Grimms' Fairy Tales THE ELVES AND THE SHOEMAKER Summary

Summary

A hardworking but poor shoemaker has only enough leather left to cut out one pair of shoes. He prepares the pieces before bed and, after praying with a clear conscience, sleeps; the next morning he finds the finished shoes expertly made and ready on his table. A customer pays a generous price, enabling the shoemaker to buy leather for more pairs. The pattern repeats: each evening he cuts out work, and each morning the completed shoes appear, sold to customers who pay well, allowing the shoemaker to improve his fortunes.

Curious to learn who helps him, the shoemaker and his wife hide one night behind a curtain with a light burning. At midnight two little naked dwarfs enter, sit at the bench, and swiftly stitch the shoes to perfection before disappearing at dawn. Grateful and concerned for the dwarfs' lack of clothing, the wife decides to sew garments and shoes for them. They leave these gifts on the table and hide to watch. When the dwarfs arrive and find the clothes, they dress in an instant, dance with joy, and then skip away over the green; they never return. The shoemaker and his wife prosper thereafter and live comfortably for the rest of their lives.

Key events

1. Shoemaker cuts leather for one pair of shoes and goes to bed with a clear conscience.
2. Next morning, finished shoes appear on the table and sell well.
3. The pattern repeats: evening cutting, morning completed shoes; the shoemaker grows prosperous.
4. Shoemaker and wife hide to see who helps and discover two little naked dwarfs working through the night.
5. The wife sews clothes and shoes for the dwarfs; the couple leave them as gifts and watch.
6. The dwarfs dress, dance with delight, and depart over the green, never to return; the couple prosper thereafter.

Analysis

This tale centers on gratitude, industry, and supernatural aid rewarding honesty and humility. The shoemaker’s clear conscience and diligent habit frame him as morally praiseworthy, creating a moral economy in which virtue, not cunning, attracts magical benefactors. The elves function as ambiguous, nonhuman agents of providence: their silent labor restores the shoemaker’s livelihood, suggesting a folk belief that small, hidden forces intervene in the lives of the deserving.

Narratively, the story uses a simple, repetitive structure—cutting work by night, completed shoes by morning—to build rhythm and to underscore miraculous provision. The midnight revelation scene adopts the classic fairy-tale peek-behind-the-veil motif: human curiosity yields knowledge but also loss (once seen and then clothed, the elves leave). Clothing here serves as both practical charity and symbolic closure: by offering garments the couple acknowledges the elves’ personhood and completes an exchange, which ends the magical labor. The tale’s tone is straightforward and didactic rather than ironic; it emphasizes reciprocal kindness and the appropriate human responses to unexplained good fortune: gratitude, generosity, and respect rather than exploitation. The elves’ silence and sudden departure leave a gentle wonder rather than a full explanation, preserving the tale’s enchantment while affirming its moral lesson.

Important quotes

“In the morning after he had said his prayers, he sat himself down to his work; when, to his great wonder, there stood the shoes all ready made, upon the table.”

NarratorThe first miracle: the shoemaker discovers the expertly finished shoes and begins to prosper.

“As soon as it was midnight, there came in two little naked dwarfs; and they sat themselves upon the shoemaker’s bench, took up all the work that was cut out, and began to ply with their little fingers, stitching and rapping and tapping away at such a rate, that the shoemaker was all wonder, and could not take his eyes off them.”

NarratorThe hidden-watch scene reveals the identity and activity of the mysterious helpers, emphasizing their smallness and swift industry.

“Then they dressed themselves in the twinkling of an eye, and danced and capered and sprang about, as merry as could be; till at last they danced out at the door, and away over the green.”

NarratorAfter receiving clothes from the grateful couple, the dwarfs joyfully depart, bringing the episode and their assistance to a close.

Characters in THE ELVES AND THE SHOEMAKER

• a shoemaker
• his wife
• two little naked dwarfs