Godfather Death

There was once a poor man who had twelve children, and he had to work day and night just to give them bread. When his thirteenth child was born, he was so worried that he didn't know what to do. He ran out onto the main road, planning to ask the first person he met to be the child's godfather.

The first to meet him was God, who already knew what was in the man's heart. "Poor man, I feel sorry for you. I will hold your child at the christening and take care of him, and make him happy on earth," said God.

"Who are you?" asked the man.

"I am God."

"Then I don't want you as godfather," said the man. "You give to the rich and let the poor go hungry." The man said this because he did not understand how wisely God gives out riches and poverty. So he turned away from God and went on.

Then the Devil came to him and said, "What are you looking for? If you take me as godfather for your child, I will give him plenty of gold and all the joys of the world."

The man asked, "Who are you?"

"I am the Devil."

"Then I don't want you as godfather," said the man. "You trick people and lead them astray."

He walked on, and then Death came striding up to him with withered legs and said, "Take me as godfather."

The man asked, "Who are you?"

"I am Death, and I make everyone equal."

Then the man said, "You are the right one. You take the rich as well as the poor, without distinction. You shall be godfather."

Death answered, "I will make your child rich and famous. Whoever has me as a friend will lack nothing."

The man said, "Next Sunday is the christening. Be there on time." Death appeared as promised and stood as godfather in the usual way.

When the boy had grown up, his godfather came to him one day and told him to come along. He led him into a forest and showed him a herb that grew there. "Now you will receive your godfather's gift. I will make you a famous doctor.

When you are called to a patient, I will always appear to you. If I stand by the sick person's head, you may confidently say you will make him well. Give him some of this herb, and he will recover.

But if I stand by the patient's feet, he is mine, and you must say that no remedy can help him, and no doctor in the world can save him. But be careful never to use the herb against my will, or it might go badly for you."

Soon the youth became the most famous doctor in the whole world. People said, "He only has to look at a patient, and he knows at once whether he will get better or must die." From far and wide, people came to him, sent for him when someone was ill, and gave him so much money that he soon became rich.

Then it happened that the king fell ill. The doctor was called and asked to say if recovery was possible. When he came to the bed, Death was standing by the feet of the sick man. There was no herb that could save him.

"If I could only cheat Death this once," thought the doctor. "He will surely be angry, but I am his godson, so he might overlook it. I'll risk it." So he picked up the sick man and turned him around so that now Death stood by his head.

Then he gave the king some of the herb, and the king recovered and became healthy again.

But Death came to the doctor, looking very angry and black, shook his finger at him, and said, "You tricked me. This time I will forgive you because you are my godson. But if you do it again, it will cost you your life. I will take you away with me."

Soon after, the king's daughter fell seriously ill. She was his only child, and he wept day and night until he began to lose his eyesight. He announced that whoever rescued her from death would marry her and inherit the crown.

When the doctor came to the sick girl's bed, he saw Death by her feet. He should have remembered his godfather's warning, but he was so dazzled by the princess's beauty and the thought of becoming her husband that he forgot everything. He did not see how angrily Death looked at him, how he raised his hand and threatened him with his withered fist. He lifted the sick girl up and placed her head where her feet had been. Then he gave her some of the herb, and at once her cheeks turned red, and life stirred in her again.

When Death saw that he had been cheated of his property a second time, he walked up to the doctor with long strides and said, "Now it is over with you. Your turn has come." He grabbed him with his ice-cold hand so firmly that the doctor could not resist, and led him into a cave underground. There the doctor saw thousands and thousands of candles burning in countless rows. Some were large, some half-sized, others small. Every moment some went out, and others lit up, so that the flames seemed to jump here and there in constant change.

"See," said Death, "these are the lights of people's lives. The large ones belong to children, the half-sized to grown-ups in their prime, the small ones to old people. But children and young people often have only a tiny candle."

"Show me the light of my life," said the doctor. He thought it would still be very tall.

Death pointed to a tiny stub that was just about to go out, and said, "There it is."

"Oh, dear godfather," said the horrified doctor, "light a new one for me, please. Do it for love of me, so that I can enjoy my life, become king, and marry the beautiful princess."

"I cannot," answered Death. "One must go out before a new one is lit."

"Then put the old one on top of a new one, so it will keep burning when the old one ends," pleaded the doctor.

Death pretended he would fulfill the wish and took a tall new candle. But because he wanted revenge, he purposely made a mistake in putting it together, and the little piece fell down and went out. At once the doctor fell to the ground, and now he himself was in the hands of Death.