The Devil and his Grandmother

German fairy tale

"The Devil and his Grandmother" or "The Dragon and His Grandmother" (Der Teufel und seine Großmutter) is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm, number 125. According to Jack Zipes, the source of the story was Dorothea Viehmann, the wife of a tailor from Hesse. Andrew Lang included it in The Yellow Fairy Book. A version of this tale also appears in A Book of Dragons by Ruth Manning Sanders. It is Aarne Thompson Uther Index type 821, the devil's riddle.

Three soldiers cannot live on their pay, and so desert by hiding in a cornfield. When the army does not march away, they are soon caught between starving or emerging to face execution. A dragon happens to fly by, however, and offers the three men salvation under the condition that they must serve him for seven years. When they agree, the dragon, named Westerlies, carries them off. However, the dragon is in fact the Devil. He gives them a whip with which they can make money, but says that at the end of seven years, they are his unless they can guess a riddle, in which case they will be freed and can keep the whip. At the end of the seven years, two of the soldiers are morose at the thought of their fate. An old woman advises them to go to a cottage for help. The third soldier, who does not fear the riddle, goes and meets the Devil's grandmother. She is pleased with his manners and hides him in the cellar. When the Devil comes, she questions him, and the soldier learns the answers to the riddle. The Devil finds them at the end of the seven years and says he will take them to Hell and serve them a meal. The riddle is: What was the meat, the silver spoon, and the wineglass for that meal. The soldiers give the correct answers: a dead sea cat in the North Sea, a whale rib, and an old horse's hoof. No longer in the Devil's power, the soldiers live happily ever after thanks to the money making whip.