Grimms' Fairy Tales The Turnip Summary

Summary

Two brothers, both formerly soldiers, live very different lives: one is rich and well known, the other poor. The poor brother gives up his red coat and becomes a gardener, sowing turnips; when one enormous turnip grows—bigger than any seen before—he brings it to the king as a respectful gift. The king, amazed, rewards the gardener with wealth and lands, making him richer than his brother. The rich brother, enraged and jealous, seeks to secure the same fate for himself.

Hoping to force a kingly reward, the jealous brother assembles a lavish present and takes it to court, but receives no greater favor than his sibling did; he returns furious and hires villains to murder the gardener. The murderers ambush and bind the gardener, then abandon him in a sack hung from a tree when they are startled by a passing horse. A passing student hears the gardener's cries and, tricked by the gardener's boastful claims that the sack is a seat of wisdom, agrees to take the gardener's place briefly. The gardener persuades the student to lower the sack, then shoves the student head-first inside, ties the sack, and leaves with the student's horse, leaving the student to 'gather wisdom' in the tree until someone releases him. The tale ends with the gardener escaping death and the student left to his unexpected fate.

Key events

1. Poor ex-soldier-turned-gardener grows an enormous turnip and presents it to the king.
2. King rewards the gardener with wealth, making him richer than his brother.
3. Envious brother gives a lavish gift to the king but receives no special favor.
4. Jealous brother hires villains to ambush and murder the gardener.
5. Villains bind the gardener in a sack and hang him in a tree but flee hastily.
6. A passing student is tricked into swapping places and is left dangling in the sack.

Analysis

This tale compresses common Grimm motifs—envy, social reversal, cunning survival—into a short, tightly wound narrative. The enormous turnip functions as a catalytic object: its absurd size overturns social expectations, granting the humble gardener sudden elevation and provoking his brother's envy. Wealth here is portrayed as capricious and performative; the king's favor depends less on intrinsic worth than on the novelty of a gift. The tale pivots on deception as both a social weapon and a means of self-preservation. The gardener's initial humility (bringing the turnip as tribute) contrasts with his later ruthless pragmatism when he engineers the student's entrapment; this moral ambiguity forces readers to question simple dichotomies of virtuous poor and wicked rich.

Narratively, the story uses irony and comic reversal: the promised 'sack of wisdom' inverts expectations about learning and status. The student's eager credulity satirizes scholarly ambition detached from prudence. The tale's economy—rapid setup, a singular extraordinary object, and a decisive final trick—keeps moral and social commentary tight and memorable. Symbolically, the turnip may stand for arbitrary fortune, while the sack represents both false authority and the hazards of vanity. The tale declines explicit judgment, letting events show the costs of envy and the precariousness of sudden fortune.

Important quotes

“There were two brothers who were both soldiers; the one was rich and the other poor.”

NarratorOpens the tale by establishing the opposing social positions of the two brothers.

“Here I sit in the sack of wisdom; here have I, in a short time, learned great and wondrous things.”

the gardener (speaking from the sack)The gardener invents the 'sack of wisdom' story to trick the passing student into taking his place.

“Then the other answered, as if very unwillingly, 'A little space I may allow thee to sit here, if thou wilt reward me well and entreat me kindly; but thou must tarry yet an hour below, till I have learnt some little matters that are yet unknown to me.'”

the gardenerThe gardener delays and manipulates the student, setting up the final switch that leaves the student trapped.

Characters in The Turnip

• the poor man
• the gardener
• his brother
• The King
• some villains
• the student