The Grave Mound (Der Grabhügel in the original German) is a lesser-known Fairy Tale collected by The Brothers Grimm. It can be read online here
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The story opens with a wealthy farmer who has an epiphany that he has lived a selfish, miserly life. As he's trembling with shock and horror, he hears a knock on his door. His much poorer neighbor, a single father, has steeled himself to visit the rich farmer and beg for four measures of corn. The rich man offers the peasant eight measures, but asks the peasant to do something for him in exchange: when the rich man dies, he wants to peasant to stand watch by the grave for three nights.
Three days later, the rich man dies suddenly. The only member of the community who cares is the peasant, who keeps his promise and stands guard in the cemetery for two uneventful nights. On the third night, however, the peasant meets another man in the graveyard: a world-weary but fearless retired soldier who has come to the churchyard to spent the night. The two men become fast friends and keep each other company as they watch the grave.
At midnight, the Devil himself arrives at the grave and tries to scare the two men off so he can claim the dead man for himself. However, the two men are not scared, so the Devil changes tactics and tries to bribe them instead. The soldier sets the price: the Devil must bring enough gold to fill one of the soldier's boots, and then they will go away.
While the Devil leaves to fetch the gold, the two men cut a hole into the soldier's boot, and place the shoe in the high grass concealing a small but deep pit. When the Devil returns, he finds that the boot remains empty. He leaves to fetch more gold, but no matter how much he brings, the boot does not fill up, and he is forced to flee with the first light of morning.
With the rich man's soul saved and a giant heap of gold between the two of them, the peasant and the soldier decide to donate the excess wealth to the needy and move in together, living in peace for the rest of their days.
"The Grave Mound" includes:
- "Begone" Bribe: The Devil spends the night offering these to the two men, but he never seems to have enough gold.
- Chromosome Casting: Every character in the story is male.
- Con Man: Our heroes are noble examples whose mark is Satan himself.
- Dark Is Evil: The Devil only has the power to claim his prize at night, and is forced to retreat at sunrise. Throughout the story, the soldier insults the devil by likening him to "dark" things, like a coal miner or chimney sweep.
- Deal with the Devil: A very literal and comical example, where the Devil is undeniably the losing party.
- The Devil Is a Loser: The Devil is humiliated by two poor but courageous humans and conned out of his fortune.
- Greed: The rich man's cardinal sin in life. The soldier pretends to have the same vice when he cons the Devil.
- Gruesome Goat: The soldier calls attention to the Devil's cloven hooves when he accuses him of stinginess
- Homeless Hero: The soldier has no place to stay, so he spends the night in the churchyard where he meets the peasant. In the end, the two men move in together and live happily ever after.
- Homoerotic Subtext: The peasant and the soldier are functionally a co-habitating same-sex couple at the end.
- Jerkass Realization: The story begins with the rich man hearing a voice from within himself asking him what he has done with his earthly wealth, and he realizes that he has been greedy and cruel.
- Just Like Robin Hood: After conning a sizable amount of gold out of the Devil, the heroes donate it to the poor and live together happily on what remains to support themselves and the peasant's children.
- Karma Houdini: The rich man knows that he has lived a wicked life and thus rightfully belongs to the Devil in the hereafter, so he recruits the peasant to keep that from happening.
- Morally Bankrupt Banker: The Devil mentions in passing that he is going to an unscrupulous (apparently human) money-lender a couple towns over the get the gold he needs to bribe the grave-watchers.
- Nameless Narrative: Nobody in the story is named, except, arguably, the Devil.
- Old Beggar Test: Played with. The beggar who comes to the rich man's door is really just a beggar, but this first and only act of kindness on the rich man's part is what ultimately saves him from eternal damnation.
- Rule of Three: The rich man dies three days after meeting the poor man, and then the poor man watches the grave for three nights.
- Satan: The main antagonist of the story.
- Shout-Out: The soldier likens himself to the protagonist of another lesser-known Grimm story, The Story of the Youth Who Went Forth to Learn What Fear Was. Like the hero in that story, the soldier has never learned how to feel fear. But unlike the protagonist of that story, who marries a princess and lives happily ever after, the soldier is poor and homeless.
- The Trickster: The soldier is unafraid of the Devil and manages to trick him into giving him an exorbitant amount of gold.
- Wealthy Ever After: The peasant and the soldier move in together and live peaceably on their new fortune, donating the rest to people in need.
- Working-Class Hero: The peasant is a struggling single father who is financially dwarfed by the farmer and the devil.
