The Hanging Game
folktales of Aarne-Thompson-Uther type 1343
(formerly Aarne-Thompson type 1066)
translated and/or edited by
D. L. Ashliman
© 2000-2022
folktales of Aarne-Thompson-Uther type 1343
(formerly Aarne-Thompson type 1066)
translated and/or edited by
D. L. Ashliman
© 2000-2022
The one who won the drawing stood up on a milking stool, tied a rope around a beam, put his neck in the noose, and said to his companion: "Now I'll kick the stool away, but when I start spluttering, you must put the stool back under me."
The other fellow stood there with the stool in his hand, ready to look after his companion; but just then a white hare came hopping very slowly through the cowshed. The fellow thought he could catch it, but he didn't succeed. Out of breath, he had to give up the hunt. When he came back to his hanging companion, he was dead.
It must have been the devil, disguised as a hare, who lured the living fellow away.
It is said that the hare was not of this world, that it must have been the Evil One.
At that same moment a magnificent bird with glistening feathers flew out of the willow tree. The boys who first saw it chased after it, and the others heard music that was so seductively tempting that they ran to the place where the sound seemed to be coming from. When both groups disappointedly returned to the meadow, their comrade was hanging motionless from the cord.
Some years ago, when driving past a gallows standing in a field at Melton Ross, an old man told me a curious tale. He said:
Some hundred of years ago, three or four boys were playing at hanging, and seeing who could hang the longest in a tree. Just as one of them got up and put the noose on, a three-legged hare (the devil, sir) came limping past, and off the other lads ran after him, and forgot their comrade. They very nearly caught the hare several times, but he got away. And when they came back the lad in the tree was dead. That's what the gallows was put up for.
When they were on the way, they saw a gallows on the top of a hill, and the Shifty Lad said to the Black Rogue, "Come up till we see the gallows; some say that the gallows is the end for the thieves at all events."
They went up where the gallows was, and they were looking all about it.
Said the Shifty Lad, "Might we not try what kind of death is in the gallows, that we may know what is before us, if we should be caught at roguery. I will try it myself first."
The Shifty Lad put the cord about his own neck, and he said to the Black Rogue, "Here, draw me up, and when I am tired above, I will shake my legs, and then do thou let me down."
The Black Rogue drew the cord, and he raised the Shifty Lad aloft off the earth, and at the end of a little blink the Shifty Lad shook his legs, and the Black Rogue let him down.
The Shifty Lad took the cord off his neck, and he he said to the Black Rogue, "Thou thyself hast not ever tried anything that is so funny as hanging. If thou wouldst try once, thou wouldst have no more fear for hanging. I was shaking my legs for delight, and thou wouldst shake thy legs for delight too if thou wert aloft."
Said the Black Rogue, "I will try it too, so that I may know what it is like."
"Do," said the Shifty Lad; "and when thou art tired above, whistle, and I will let thee down."
The Black Rogue put the cord about his neck, and the Shifty Lad drew him up aloft; and when the Shifty Lad found that the Black Rogue was aloft against the gallows, he said to him, "Now, when thou wantest to come down, whistle, and if thou art well pleased where thou art, shake thy legs."
When the Black Rogue was a little blink above, he began to shake his legs and to kick; and the Shifty Lad would say, "Oh! Art thou not funny! Art thou not funny! Art thou not funny! When it seems to thee that thou art long enough above, whistle."
But the Black Rogue has not whistled yet.
The Shifty Lad tied the cord to the lower end of the tree of the gallows till the Black Rogue was dead.
Then he went where he was, and he took the money out of his pouch, and he said to him, "Now, since thou hast no longer any use for this money, I will take care of it for thee."
And he went away, and he left the Black Rogue hanging there.
So the first thief was hanged, and when the rope tightened he grinned horribly, and was let down by his comrade as they had agreed.
"Well," said he, "What was it like?"
"Not so bad as I expected," said the other. "Now I will hang thee and when thou hast enough, whistle."
So the second agreed, and he was strung up in his turn, and he grinned too; but because he would not whistle, his friend let him hang, and when he was tired of waiting, he emptied his pockets and left him there.
Bruhnke was relieved, but as he took leave of the little man, he noticed that the latter had a chicken's foot. He ran as fast as his feet would carry him to the herding place, but it was too late. The head of one of the herders was already rolling on the ground.
The boys had wanted to see what beheading was like. For this they had built an actual guillotine, fastening an old blade from a flax cutter onto a platform to serve as an ax. They all had tried it, but just as they tied the last one to the block, a three-legged hare came limping by, and the boys ran after it, completely forgetting their comrade and the cattle. The prisoner tried to free himself of his bonds, but his motions released the blade, and the unfortunate boy paid for this game with his life.
The butcher, as agreed, approached the little boy who was supposed to be the sow, pulled him down, and cut his throat with a little knife. The assistant cook collected the blood in her little dish.
A councilman who happened to pass by saw this tragedy. He immediately took the butcher with him to the mayor's house, who then called together the entire town council. They did not know how to treat this case, for they recognized full well that it was done as child's play.
One of them, an old white-haired man, gave the advice that the chief judge should take a beautiful red apple in one hand and a gold coin in the other. He should then call the child to him and stretch out both hands towards him. If the child were to take the apple, then he would be declared innocent. But if he should take the gold coin, he should be executed.
They did just that. The child laughed and took hold of the apple, and thus he was freed from all punishment.
When they wanted to play together in the afternoon, one child said to the other: "You be the little pig and I'll be the butcher."
He took a naked knife and thrust it into his little brother's neck.
The mother, who was sitting upstairs in the room bathing her youngest child in a tub, heard her other child crying, ran downstairs at once, and when she saw what was happening, she pulled the knife out of the child's neck and in anger thrust it into the heart of the other child, who was playing the butcher.
Then she immediately ran upstairs to see what her child was doing in the bathtub, who in the meantime had drowned in the bath. The heart-broken woman could not be comforted by her servants, and in desperation she hanged herself.
The man came from the field and when he saw all this, he became so sad that he died shortly afterwards.
One of them said to the others, "I'll back myself to make that girl laugh," and a supper was at once staked by both sides on the result.
Our hero then ran out in front of the pony, and kept on shouting "I'm going to die! I'm going to die!" at the same time pulling out from over the top of a wall a stalk of millet, to which he attached his own waistband, and tying the latter round his neck, made a pretence of hanging himself.
The young lady did laugh as she passed by, to the great amusement of the assembled company; but as when she was already some distance off their friend did not move, the others laughed louder than ever. However, on going up to him they saw that his tongue protruded, and that his eyes were glazed; he was, in fact, quite dead.
Was it not strange that a man should be able to hang himself on a millet stalk?
It is a good warning against practical joking.
Return to D. L. Ashliman's folktexts, a library of folktales, folklore, fairy tales, and mythology.
Revised September 9, 2022.