The Nail–A Fairy Tale Re-Telling

Retold by Harlow Berny

Centuries ago, in a long forgotten kingdom, a merchant had finished his business at a local fair. He had sold all his trinkets and toys, leaving his money sacks filled with gold and silver. He packed his trunk with money and mounted it onto his horse before he traveled homewards, hoping to be back home before nightfall.

At mid-day he stopped in a town, leaving his horse in a stable while he rested and ate. When he went to collect his horse to continue on his way, the stableboy told him that one of the nails on its rear shoe was loose. “Let it stay loose,” the merchant said; “it only needs to stay for another six miles. I’m in a hurry to be home.” In the afternoon when he stopped to eat again, another stableboy told him that his horse was missing a shoe on its rear foot. When asked if his horse should be taken to a blacksmith for a new one, the merchant said, “Let it be missing. The horse can hold out for the last few miles until I’m home.”

He rode along the path again, but soon after departure his horse began to limp, and soon it was stumbling. The horse eventually threw the merchant off its back before falling down and breaking its leg. The man unbuckled the trunk from the horse’s saddle and hiked back home, leaving the steed behind. He got home after midnight, and found that much of his gold had fallen out of a crack in the chest that formed when his horse fell. “Damn that loose nail!” he shouted, furious at his loss.

Let this be a lesson; the bigger the rush, the worse the results.

Editor: Holden Hartle

A Re-Telling of Grimm’s