The Elves and the Shoemaker

This story is called The Elves and the Shoemaker written by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm and read by Madeline Walton-Hadlock. This is a LibraryCall adaptation and recording. Once upon a time, there was a man who owned a small shoe shop in a village in Germany. His job was to make shoes out of leather and sell them to the villagers. Although the shoemaker was talented and hard-working, it took him many hours to make each pair of shoes, so he never had many shoes ready to sell. For this reason, he was quite poor. Each evening, he cut the leather pieces he would need to make a pair of shoes the next day. This way, he could wake up early in the morning and get straight to work. He hoped that eventually all his hard work would bring him good fortune. One winter morning, the shoemaker woke up before sunrise and sat down at his workbench. To his great surprise, he saw the pair of shoes he had planned to make completely finished and ready to wear. The shoemaker was amazed. The shoes were beautiful, with perfection in every stitch. “Who could have constructed these shoes?” he thought in bewilderment. Later that day, a customer walked in and inspected the pair of shoes. “What magnificent shoes! I must try them on!!” he said. The shoes suited him so well that he insisted on paying a higher price for them. The clever shoemaker used the extra money to buy enough leather to make two pairs of shoes the next day. When evening arrived, the shoemaker sat down at his workbench to prepare for the next day. He cut his leather pieces and laid out all the tools he would need in the morning. Then he went upstairs, pulled his quilt over himself to keep out the cold, and settled down to sleep rather earlier than usual. He now had two pairs of shoes to make in the morning, and he didn’t expect to receive help from mysterious visitors again. A bitter cold night passed, and the shoemaker slept soundly. When he woke up in the morning, the shoemaker returned to his workshop to find not one, but two pairs of fully constructed, flawless shoes. “It’s a miracle!” he said. Soon, more villagers heard about the magnificent shoes and came to visit the shoemaker’s shop. When they saw the superb quality of his shoes, they paid him handsomely. The shoemaker used the money to buy more shoe leather, which he then cut and prepared each night. And every morning, he found fully made shoes when he woke up. So it went on for some time: the leather the shoemaker cut in the evening was always turned into shoes by daybreak, no matter how many pieces of leather he prepared. Before he knew it, the shoemaker was selling dozens of pairs of expensive shoes each day. Over time, he became quite wealthy, or at least wealthier than he had been before. One snowy evening around Christmas, the shoemaker said to himself, “It’s been a whole year, and I still don’t know who’s been helping me. Tonight I will stay up late and solve the mystery of who is making the shoes!” So he hid himself in a corner of his workshop behind a curtain and waited to see what would happen. At the stroke of midnight, the shoemaker saw a dozen little elves silently enter his workshop, sit at his bench, and begin working together to make the shoes. The shoemaker couldn’t believe his eyes. The elves, who were barefoot themselves, sat stitching and rapping and tapping away at lightning speed. The shoemaker couldn’t take his eyes off them. They worked like this until the job was done, and the shoes stood ready for use on the table. Then, satisfied with their work, they bustled away as quickly as they had come. The shoemaker thought, “These generous elves have made me rich by helping me make shoes, yet they don’t have any shoes of their own. I should show them my appreciation by doing something nice for them.” So, he got to work sewing a small coat and a sturdy pair of shoes for each elf. When everything was ready, he placed the gifts on the table in his workshop. At midnight, the elves returned like clockwork. This time, rather than finding leather pieces ready to be turned into shoes, they found the gifts the shoemaker had left for them. Delighted, they put on their coats and danced about in their new shoes, singing a happy winter song. At last, they danced right out the door. This was the last time the shoemaker ever saw the mysterious elves. But as long as he lived, the shoemaker remembered the elves’ generosity and made sure to share his good fortune with those around him. This story was The Elves and the Shoemaker by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, read by Madeline Walton-Hadlock. This has been a LibraryCall adaptation and recording.