Week 25- #GRIMMread2019

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http://shonnaslayton.com/grimm-read-2019-challenge/
   

     This week I am focusing on a tale, which I did not like. "The Devil's Sooty Brother" is pretty creepy. The protagonist isn't a likeable man, and he is rewarded for doing evil. An ex-soldier is down and out, when the Devil offers him a job, under some pretty gross conditions. He cannot wash himself, nor can he cut his nails, nor his hair while he is in the Devil's service. The man agrees to this, and he works in hell, where he finds his former bosses, each in a boiling pot, and he tortures them further by adding more wood to the fire. He was warned by the Devil not to open the pot lids before this, but when the man's contract is up the Devil just tells him that it's a good thing he added more wood to the fire under the pots, or else his life would've been lost. He is let go with a bag of sweepings that turns into gold. He is told not to clean up his appearance, and to tell anyone who asks him that (1) he comes from hell, and (2) he is the Devil's sooty brother. He comes across a landlord who wants nothing to do with him until he sees the soldier's gold. The soldier rents a room, but the landlord robs him in the night. The soldier goes back to hell to ask the Devil for more gold, and the Devil cleans him up and trims his nails and his hair and gives him more sweepings. He then sends the soldier off to reclaim his gold from the landlord by threatening the landlord with hell. He gets his money back and then some. He's rich now, and he goes about in raggedy clothes while playing music, which he learned in hell, by the way. The king loves his music playing, so he offers him his eldest daughter (of course he does). She refuses, but the youngest is happy to take her place, and he gets the girl and the kingdom.

     I have some questions: What the Hades did I just read?!?! Why is the Devil so accommodating? Why is the soldier rewarded for doing evil? Why does he enjoy working in hell? This isn't the first story with an ex-soldier, who does some shady things, and ends up with wealth and power. Are the Brothers Grimm saying something about soldiers? What is the actual point of this story? Do people actually enjoy this story? Am I missing something?

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