The Lazy Spinner or The Lazy Spinning Woman is a German fairy tale

Fairy tale

A fairy tale is a type of short story that typically features such folkloric characters, such as fairies, goblins, elves, trolls, dwarves, giants or gnomes, and usually magic or enchantments. However, only a small number of the stories refer to fairies...

 collected by the Brothers Grimm

Brothers Grimm

The Brothers Grimm , Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm , were German academics, linguists, cultural researchers, and authors who collected folklore and published several collections of it as Grimm's Fairy Tales, which became very popular...

, tale number 128. It is Aarne-Thompson type 1405.

Synopsis

A lazy woman did not like to spin and when she did, did not wind onto a reel, but left it the bobbin. Her husband complained, and she said she needed a reel to do that, but when he went to cut one, sneaked after and called that whoever cut a reel would die. This put him off cutting it, but he still complained. She made some yarn and said it must be boiled. Then she put some tow in the pot instead and set her husband to watch. After some time, he opened the pot, saw the tow, and thought he had ruined the yarn. He did not dare complain after that.

External links

• The Lazy Spinner
• The Lazy Spinning Woman