Fearless Giovanni Fairy Tale

Long ago, in a small Italian village, there lived a young man named Giovanni. Ever since he was a child, he had been afraid of nothing. When lightning flashed, the other children hid indoors, but he went outside to admire the sky. He walked into dark rooms alone and whistled as he passed the graveyard.

When he grew up, he said, "Everyone talks about fear. But what is it? If only I could see it just once." And he set off to travel the world in search of fear.

He visited many places. One evening he came to a strange village and asked for a place to sleep. The innkeeper shook his head. "I'm sorry, young man, all the rooms are taken. There is only one empty place, the old castle on top of the hill. But nobody spends the night there. They say whoever goes into that castle won't come out alive by morning."

"Wonderful! Then that is where I'll sleep," said Giovanni happily. The innkeeper gave him a lantern, a pot, a few potatoes and a piece of meat, and he made the sign of the cross as Giovanni walked away.

Giovanni went into the castle. It was old and dusty, and cobwebs hung from the walls. In the great hall he lit a fire in the hearth, hung up the pot and began to cook his supper. He sat there, whistling a tune.

At midnight a deep, eerie voice came down the chimney: "Shall I fall?" Giovanni stirred his pot. "Fall, fall!" And down the chimney, along with the ashes, fell a long leg.

"Shall I fall?" the voice asked again. "Fall, but don't knock over my supper!" Down fell another leg. Then an arm, another arm, a body and at last a head. They all came together by themselves, and a giant stood before Giovanni. He looked at Giovanni and gave a terrible laugh.

But Giovanni ladled out some stew. "Sit down, my friend, and have supper with me. It's no fun eating alone." The giant was astonished. For hundreds of years everyone who saw him had run away. He sat down without a word and ate supper with Giovanni.

After supper the giant picked up the lantern. "Follow me." They went down an old staircase into the castle cellar. In the middle of the cellar lay a big stone slab. "Lift this stone," said the giant. "You're strong, lift it yourself," said Giovanni. "No, only a living person can lift it."

Giovanni lifted the stone with all his might. Beneath it stood three big pots, each one full of gold coins. The giant smiled. "When I was alive, I hoarded this gold out of greed. As punishment, I have found no peace in this castle for hundreds of years. Only someone who was not afraid of me could set me free. You have set me free."

"Listen: give one pot to the church, share the second among the poor, and the third is yours. You have earned it," said the giant. At that moment he began to glow, turned into a wisp of smoke, rose up and vanished.

In the morning the villagers came with a stretcher to carry away Giovanni's body, and there he sat at the castle gate, whistling! He told them everything that had happened. He divided the gold as the giant had told him, built houses for the poor and opened a school in the village.

Giovanni stayed in that village and lived a long, happy life. But they say that even in his old age he never found out what fear was. And the castle became a bright, warm home where people lived once again.