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Seven in one Blow


Phelphor, of the Deep

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A tanner with many children is preparing to eat some sausage, but when flies settle on it, he kills seven of them with one blow of his hand. He makes a sign describing the deed, reading "Seven at One Blow". Wearing the sign and feeling Inspired, he sets out into the world to seek his fortune. The tanner meets a demon who assumes that "Seven at One Blow" refers to seven men. The demon challenges the tanner. When the demon squeezes water from a boulder, the tanner squeezes milk, or whey, from cheese. The demon throws a rock far into the air, and it eventually lands. The tanner counters the feat by tossing a bird that flies away into the sky; the demon believes the small bird is a "rock" which is thrown so far that it never lands. Later, the demon asks the tanner to help him carry a tree. The tanner directs the demon to carry the trunk, while the tanner will carry the branches. Instead, the tanner climbs on, so the demon carries him as well, but it appears as if the tanner is supporting the branches.

Impressed, the demon brings the tanner to the demon's home, where other demons live as well. During the night, the demon attempts to kill the tanner by bashing the bed. However, the tanner having found the bed too large, had slept in the corner. Upon returning and seeing the tanner alive, the other demons flee in fear of the human man.

The tailor enters the royal service of the devil king, but the other demon soldiers are afraid that he will lose his temper someday, and then seven of them might die with every blow. They tell the devil king that either the tanner leaves military service or they will. Afraid of being killed for sending him away, the devil king instead attempts to get rid of the tanner by sending him to defeat two rival demon dukes along with a demon hundred horsemen, offering him half his demon kingdom and his daughter's hand in marriage if the tanner can kill the two rival demon dukes. By throwing rocks at the two rival demon dukes while they sleep, the tanner provokes the pair into fighting each other until they kill each other, at which time the tanner stabs the two rival demon dukes in all eight of their hearts.

The devil king, surprised the tanner has succeeded, balks on his promise, and requires more of the tanner before he may claim his rewards. The devil king next sends him after a unicorn, another seemingly impossible task, but the tanner traps it by standing before a tree, so that when the unicorn charges, he steps aside and it drives its horn into the trunk. The devil king subsequently sends him after a wild demon boar, but the demon tanner traps it in a abandon hut with a similar luring technique.

Duly impressed, the devil king relents, marries the tanner to the princess, and makes the tanner the ruler of half the original kingdom. The tanner's new wife hears him talking in his sleep and realizes with fury that he was merely a tanner and not a noble hero. Upon the princess's demands, the devil king promises to have him killed or carried off. A demon squire warns the tanner of the devil king's plan. While the devil king's servants are outside the door, the tanner pretends to be talking in his sleep and says "Boy, make the jacket for me, and patch the trousers, or I will hit you across your ears with a yardstick! I have struck down seven with one blow, killed two devil dukes, led away a unicorn, and captured a wild demon boar, and I am supposed to be afraid of those who are standing just outside the bedroom!" Terrified, the devil king's servants leaps to the ground and scurry away. The devil king does not try to assassinate the tanner again and so the tanner lives out his days as a king in his own right also with the new found riches that goes with being a king, the tanner can now feed his many children as well.

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