The Lazy Spinner
Introduction
'The Lazy Spinner' is the 128th tale in Grimm, classed by folklorists as ATU 1405, 'The Lazy Spinner' — one of those joke-stories of married couples matching wits (in German, a Schwank) made purely to raise a laugh. To get why it's funny, you first have to know how important spinning was in an old farm household: from the Middle Ages into modern times, spinning wool and flax into thread was the near-daily drudgery of farm women, and how hard-working a woman was thought to be often came down to how much yarn she spun — the English word 'spinster' (an unmarried woman) literally means 'a woman who spins.' The delightful twist here is that the story turns the usual fairy-tale logic upside down: in a tale like 'Mother Hulda,' the diligent girl is rewarded and the lazy one punished; but this lazy spinner, armed with a quick tongue and a few sly tricks — hiding in the bushes to scare her husband off with a fake 'forest curse,' secretly swapping a lump of tow into the pot to pass for yarn — fools her plain, honest husband every time and wins outright. The Brothers Grimm clearly knew the ending was 'unfair,' so they let the teller wink at the reader at the very end: 'you yourself must own she was an odious woman!' It pairs nicely with 'The Three Spinners,' another tale of a girl scheming her way out of spinning. Read this one not for any grand moral, but as a clever, mischievous farm comedy — and a chance to ask a child: is that the kind of 'clever' worth copying?
Vocabulary from "The Lazy Spinner"
12 key words from this story with definitions and original context sentences for language learners.
Lazy; unwilling to work.
懒惰的；游手好闲的。
In a certain village there once lived a man and his wife, and the wife was so idle that she would never work at anything.
从前，在一个村庄里住着一对夫妻。妻子非常懒惰，从来不愿意做任何工作。
Told someone off angrily for doing something wrong.
责骂；斥责。
If the man scolded her, she was always ready with her tongue.
如果丈夫责备她，她总是嘴上有理。
A round device on which thread or yarn is wound.
绕线轴；卷线器。
"Well, how should I wind it, when I have no reel? Just you go into the forest and get me one."
"哎呀，我没有绕线轴，怎么绕线呢？你去森林里给我弄一个来吧。"
A dense group of bushes or small trees.
灌木丛；密林。
She crept into the thicket below where he could not see her.
她钻进了树下的灌木丛里，让他看不见她。
To die, especially in a sudden or violent way.
死亡；丧生。
"He who cuts wood for reels shall die, and he who winds, shall perish."
"砍木做轴者必死，绕线纺纱者必亡。"
Thought about something carefully for a while.
沉思；仔细考虑。
He stopped, and felt afraid and alarmed, and pondered over the circumstance.
他停了下来，感到害怕和惊慌，思考着这到底是怎么回事。
A feeling that makes you want to do something; a willingness.
意愿；倾向；干劲。
That was enough for him, and all inclination had departed from him, so he hastily descended the tree.
这下他受够了，所有的干劲都消失了，于是他匆忙下了树。
A sitting room in a private house (old-fashioned).
客厅；起居室（旧式说法）。
So when he entered the parlour, she put on an innocent look as if nothing had happened.
当丈夫走进客厅时，她装出一副无辜的样子，仿佛什么都没发生过。
A room or space directly under the roof of a house.
阁楼；顶楼。
Go you up into the loft, and I will stand down below, and will throw the yarn up to you.
你上阁楼去，我站在下面，我把纱线扔上去给你。
Cleverly planning or scheming something.
谋划；策划（诡计）。
But she was secretly contriving another trick.
但她心里却在策划另一个诡计。
Short, coarse fibres of flax or hemp before they are spun.
（纺前的）粗麻絮；短麻纤维。
Early in the morning she got up, lighted a fire, and put the kettle on, only instead of the yarn, she put in a lump of tow, and let it boil.
清晨，她起床生了火，把水壶架上，但这回她没放纱线，而是放进了一团粗麻絮，让它煮着。
Extremely unpleasant; deserving hatred.
可憎的；可恶的。
But you yourself must own she was an odious woman!
但你自己必须承认，她是个可恶的女人！
Reading Together & Learning More
The Moral
This is pure comedy for a laugh, not a lesson in being good — even the storyteller can't resist a jab at the end: 'you yourself must own she was an odious woman!' The lazy spinner is undeniably quick-witted, but she pours all that wit into dodging work and fooling her trusting husband. So the real fun of reading it is sorting out, together with a child, that 'cleverness' is neither good nor bad in itself — what matters is where you aim it. The same sharp mind is admirable when it solves problems, but merely 'wicked and funny' when it's used to shirk work and deceive the person who trusts you most.
Educational Value
Good for talking about an 'upside-down story': in most fairy tales the diligent are rewarded and the lazy are punished (as in 'Mother Hulda'), yet here the lazy one gets away with it through trickery — an unusual comedy in which the 'bad example' wins. Precisely because the ending is 'unfair,' it makes excellent discussion material: ask your child, was what she did right? If you were the husband she fooled, how would you feel on learning the truth? Along the way, children meet 'spinning,' the hard daily labour that fell to women in old farming households.
Tips for Parents
This is a rare light-hearted marital comedy in Grimm, with a plot like a stand-up routine — read it a little larger than life and let your child laugh. It's a nice moment to share a fact: for centuries, spinning was practically the number-one daily task for a farm woman, and the English word 'spinster' (an unmarried woman) originally meant 'a woman who spins' — how much yarn a woman spun was almost a measure of how capable others thought she was. Don't be too quick to cheer the lazy spinner on, either: she is clever, yes, but the person she fools is the husband who trusts her most. Afterwards, gently ask, 'Is using your cleverness to trick someone who loves you really something to be proud of?'
Talk About It
- The lazy spinner hides in the bushes to fake a 'forest curse,' then swaps tow for yarn to fool her husband. She really is clever — but do you think using cleverness this way is a good thing?
- In most fairy tales the lazy get punished, yet here she wins. Why do you think the author wrote a story where the 'bad one' gets away with it? Do you like that ending?
- The honest husband believes his wife the whole way through, and even ends up thinking it was his own fault. If one day he discovered the truth, how do you think he'd feel?
- The husband is willing to chop wood in the forest, and even to go on a pilgrimage, all to help his wife. Is he good to her? And how does she repay him?
- If you could add an ending in which the lazy spinner's tricks are found out, how would you write it?
