Little Claus and Big Claus by Hans Christian Andersen. Short summary

5 Seconds

Little Claus is very cunning and makes a lot of money by tricking him. Big Claus wants to kill him out of jealousy, but Little Claus manages to escape death and eventually drowns Big Claus.

1 minute

Little Claus had 1 horse and Big Claus had 4. Because Little called the horses his own, Big killed his horse.

Little decided to sell the horse’s hide, but got lost. At the farmer’s house he pretended to have a sorcerer sitting in his hide, and swindled both the farmer and his wife’s lover out of a measure of money.

At home Little told Big that he had got it all for the horse’s hide. Big unsuccessfully tried to do the same, and when he was beaten, he decided to kill Little with an axe, but struck his grandmother’s corpse.

After dressing up his grandmother’s corpse, Little cunningly convinced the innkeeper that he had killed his grandmother. For his silence, he earned another measure of money and told Big that he had earned it for his grandmother’s corpse. Big killed his own, but instead of money, he was facing execution.

Realizing he had been fooled, Big decided to drown Little and put him in a sack. But Little lured first the shepherd, then Big Claus himself into the sack, drowned him, and left with the shepherd’s flock.