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Brief Contents
Part 1: The Tools of Strategic Analysis
Chapter 1 What Is Strategy and the Strategic Management Process? 2
Chapter 2 Evaluating a Firm’s External Environment 26
Chapter 3 Evaluating a Firm’s Internal Capabilities 62
End-of-Part 1 Cases PC 1–1
ix
x Contents
End-of-Part 1 Cases
Case 1–1: You Say You Want a Revolution: Case 1–3: Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. PC 1–32
SodaStream International PC 1–1 Case 1–4: Harlequin Enterprises: The Mira
Case 1–2: True Religion Jeans: Will Going Decision PC 1–46
Private Help It Regain Its
Congregation? PC 1–11
Organizing to Implement Cost Leadership 119 Compensation Policies and Implementing Cost
Strategy in the Emerging Enterprise: The Oakland A’s: Leadership Strategies 124
Inventing a New Way to Play Competitive Baseball 120
Summary 124
Organizational Structure in Implementing Cost
Challenge Questions 125
Leadership 121
Problem Set 126
Management Controls in Implementing Cost
End Notes 127
Leadership 123
End-of-Part 2 Cases
Case 2–1: Airasia X: Can the Low Cost Model go Case 2–3: The Levi’s Personal Pair Proposal PC 2–43
Long Haul? PC 2–1 Case 2–4: Papa John’s International, Inc. PC 2–53
Case 2–2: Ryanair—The Low Fares Airline:
Whither Now? PC 2–17
xii Contents
To Develop New Core Competencies 319 The Organization of International Strategies 332
Learning from International Operations 319 Becoming International: Organizational Options 332
Leveraging New Core Competencies in Additional Summary 337
Markets 321 Challenge Questions 338
To Leverage Current Core Competencies in New Problem Set 339
Ways 321 End Notes 340
Contents xv
End-of-Part 3 Cases
Case 3–1: eBay’s Outsourcing Strategy PC 3–1 Case 3–5: Aegis Analytical Corporation’s Strategic
Case 3–2: National Hockey League Enterprises Alliances PC 3–44
Canada: A Retail Proposal PC 3–14 Case 3–6: McDonald’s and KFC: Recipes for Success
Case 3–3: Starbucks: An Alex Poole Strategy in China PC 3–54
Case PC 3–19
Case 3–4: Rayovac Corporation: International
Growth and Diversification Through
Acquisitions PC 3–32
All the other opening cases have been reused and updated, along with all the examples
throughout the book.
Two newer topics in the field have also been included in this edition of the book: the
business model canvas (in Chapter 1) and blue ocean strategies (in Chapter 5).
This edition features several new and updated cases, including:
to see what we were studying as an integrated whole rather than a disjointed sequence of
loosely related subjects. This text continues to be integrated around the VRIO framework.
As those of you familiar with the resource-based theory of strategy recognize, the VRIO
framework addresses the central questions around gaining and sustaining competitive
advantage. After it is introduced in Chapter 3, the VRIO logic of competitive advantage is
applied in every chapter. It is simple enough to understand and teach yet broad enough to
apply to a wide variety of cases and business settings.
Our consistent use of the VRIO framework does not mean that any of the concepts
fundamental to a strategy course are missing. We still have all of the core ideas and theories
that are essential to a strategy course. Ideas such as the study of environmental threats,
value chain analysis, generic strategies, and corporate strategy are all in the book. Because
the VRIO framework provides a single integrative structure, we are able to address issues
in this book that are largely ignored elsewhere—including discussions of vertical integra-
tion, outsourcing, real options logic, and mergers and acquisitions, to name just a few.
We also have designed flexibility into the book. Each chapter has four short sections
that present specific issues in more depth. These sections allow instructors to adapt the
book to the particular needs of their students. “Strategy in Depth” examines the intellectual
foundations that are behind the way managers think about and practice strategy today.
“Strategy in the Emerging Enterprise” presents examples of strategic challenges faced by
new and emerging enterprises. “Ethics and Strategy” delves into some of the ethical dilem-
mas that managers face as they confront strategic decisions. “Research Made Relevant”
includes recent research related to the topics in that chapter.
We have also included cases—including many new cases in this edition—that pro-
vide students an opportunity to apply the ideas they learn to business situations. The cases
include a variety of contexts, such as entrepreneurial, service, manufacturing, and interna-
tional settings. The power of the VRIO framework is that it applies across all of these set-
tings. Applying the VRIO framework to many topics and cases throughout the book leads
to real understanding instead of rote memorization. The end result is that students will find
that they have the tools they need to do strategic analysis. Nothing more. Nothing less.
Supplements
At the Instructor Resource Center, at www.pearsonhighered.com/irc, instructors can download
a variety of digital and presentation resources. Registration is simple and gives you immediate
access to all of the available supplements. As a registered faculty member, you also can receive
immediate access to and instructions for installing course management content on your campus
server. In case you ever need assistance, our dedicated technical support team is ready to help
with the media supplements that accompany this text. Visit http://247.pearsoned.custhelp.com
for answers to frequently asked questions and toll-free user support phone numbers.
The following supplements are available for download to adopting instructors:
• Instructor’s Manual
• Case Teaching Notes
• Test Item File
• TestGen® Computerized Test Bank
• PowerPoint Slides
Videos
Videos illustrating the most important subject topics are available in two formats:
• ON DVD—available for in classroom use by instructors, includes videos mapped to
Pearson textbooks.
xviii Preface
Other Benefits
All these people have given generously of their time and wisdom. But, truth be told,
everyone who knows us knows that this book would not have been possible without
Kathy Zwanziger and Rachel Snow.
Author Biographies
Jay B. Barney honorary doctorate degrees from the University of Lund
(Sweden), the Copenhagen Business School (Denmark),
Jay Barney is a Presidential and the Universidad Pontificia Comillas (Spain) and has
Professor of strategic manage- been elected to the Academy of Management Fellows and
ment and the Lassonde Chair of Strategic Management Society Fellows. He has held hon-
Social Entrepreneurship of the orary visiting professor positions at Waikato University
Entrepreneurship and Strategy (New Zealand), Sun Yat-Sen University (China), and Peking
Department in the David Eccles University (China). He has also consulted for a wide vari-
Business School, The University ety of public and private organizations, including Hewlett-
of Utah. He received his Ph.D. Packard, Texas Instruments, Arco, Koch Industries Inc., and
from Yale and has held faculty Nationwide Insurance, focusing on implementing large-scale
appointments at UCLA, Texas organizational change and strategic analysis. He has received
A&M, and OSU [The Ohio State teaching awards at UCLA, Texas A&M, and Ohio State. Jay
University]. He joined the faculty at The University of Utah served as assistant program chair and program chair, chair
in summer of 2013. Jay has published more than 100 journal elect, and chair of the Business Policy and Strategy Division.
articles and books; has served on the editorial boards of In 2005, he received the Irwin Outstanding Educator Award
Academy of Management Review, Strategic Management for the BPS Division of the Academy of Management, and
Journal, and Organization Science; has served as an associ- in 2010, he won the Academy of Management’s Scholarly
ate editor of The Journal of Management and senior editor Contribution to Management Award. In 2008, he was elected
at Organization Science; and currently serves as co-editor as the President-elect of the Strategic Management Society,
at the Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal. He has received where he currently serves as past-president.
xxi
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PA R T
1 THE TOOLS OF
STRATEGIC ANALYSIS
CHAPTER
What Is Strategy
1 and the Strategic
Management Process?
L E A R N I N G O B J E C T I V E S After reading this chapter, you should be able to:
MyManagementLab®
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Over 10 million students improved their results using the Pearson MyLabs.
Visit mymanagementlab.com for simulations, tutorials, and end-of-chapter problems.
2
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
So the youth allowed himself to be persuaded, and he became,
under the man’s instruction, such a clever thief that nothing was safe
from him which he had once made up his mind to have.
Meanwhile the second brother had met a man who put the same
question to him as to whither he was going and what he intended to
do.
“I don’t know yet,” answered the youth.
“Then come with me and be a star-gazer,” the man advised. “It is
the grandest trade in the world, for you gain the power to see
everything.”
The youth was pleased with the idea, and he became such an
expert star-gazer that, when he finished his apprenticeship, his
master gave him a telescope, and said, “With this you can see all
that happens in the sky and on the earth, and nothing can remain
hidden from you.”
The third brother was taken in hand by a huntsman, and received
such instruction in the art of shooting that he became a first-rate
marksman. When he had learned all there was to learn and was
ready to depart, his master presented him with a gun, and said,
“Whatever you aim at with this gun you will hit without fail.”
The youngest brother met a man who asked him if he would like to
be a tailor.
“I don’t know about that,” said the youth. “I haven’t much fancy for
sitting cross-legged from morning till night, and everlastingly pulling a
needle in and out.”
“There, there!” said the man, “you don’t know what you are talking
about. You will find that tailoring as I teach it is easy. It will be
pleasant to you and win you honor.”
The youth allowed himself to be persuaded, and went with the
man, who taught him tailoring very thoroughly. At length the time
came for him to depart, and his master gave him a needle and said,
“With that you will be able to stitch anything, even a thing as tender
as an egg-shell, or one as hard as steel, and no seam will be visible
after you are through.”
On the very day that the four years agreed on came to an end the
four brothers met at the place where they had parted, and after
embracing each other they hurried home to their father.
“Well,” said he, quite pleased to see them, “so the wind has blown
you back to me.”
They sat under a big tree in the yard and told him all that had
happened to them. When they finished, their father said, “Now I will
put your accomplishments to the test, and see what you can do.”
He looked up into the tree and said to his second son: “There is a
chaffinch’s nest up there on the topmost branch. Tell me how many
eggs there are in it.”
The star-gazer took his telescope, looked through it, and said,
“There are five.”
“Fetch the eggs down,” said the father to his eldest son, “and be
careful not to disturb the mother bird, who is sitting on them.”
The cunning thief climbed the tree, and removed the five eggs
from underneath the bird so deftly that she never noticed what he
had done, and he brought them down to his father. The father took
them and put one on each corner of a table, and the fifth in the
middle, and said to the huntsman, “You must cut all those eggs in
half at one shot.”
The huntsman aimed and divided each egg in half at one shot, as
his father desired. He certainly must have had some of the powder
that shoots round a corner. The eggs had little birds in them, and the
neck of each had been severed by the bullet.
“Now it is your turn,” said the father to the fourth son. “I expect you
to sew the birds and the shells together so they will be none the
worse for that shot.”
The tailor produced his needle, and stitched away as his father
had desired. When he finished the task, the thief climbed the tree
with the eggs, and put them back under the bird without her
perceiving him. The bird continued to sit on the eggs, and a few days
later the fledgelings crept out of the shells. Each had a red streak
round its neck where the tailor had sewn them together, but were
none the worse otherwise.
“I can certainly praise your skill,” said the father to his sons. “You
have used your time well while you have been away, and you have
all acquired very useful knowledge.”
Not long after this a great lamentation was made in the country
because the king’s daughter had been carried away by a dragon.
The king was overcome by grief and sorrowed for her day and night,
and he had it proclaimed that whoever rescued the princess should
have her for his wife.
The four brothers said to one another, “This will be an opportunity
for us to show what we can do;” and they agreed to sally forth
together to deliver the princess.
“I will soon discover where she is,” said the star-gazer.
He looked through his telescope, and said: “I see her already. She
is a long way from here, sitting on a rock in the middle of the sea,
and the dragon is there watching her.”
Then they went to the king, who, at their request, furnished them
with a ship, in which they sailed away over the sea till they
approached the rock. The princess was sitting there, and the dragon
was asleep with his head on her lap.
“I dare not shoot,” said the hunter, “for fear I should kill the
princess as well as the dragon.”
“Then I will try my luck,” said the thief, and he rowed a boat to the
rock and took the princess away so lightly and stealthily that the
monster continued to sleep and snore.
The thief got the princess safely on board the ship, and, full of joy,
the brothers spread the sails to the wind, and steered for the open
sea. But the dragon soon awoke, and when he realized that the
princess was gone, he started in pursuit of the ship, flapping through
the air at his best speed, snapping his tail savagely, and foaming at
the mouth with rage. Just as he was hovering over the ship about to
plunge down on it, the huntsman took aim with his unerring gun and
shot the dragon through the heart. The monster was killed instantly,
but his huge body fell on the ship and smashed it to pieces.
The brothers and the princess managed each to grasp a plank and
thus kept themselves afloat. They were in great straits, but the tailor
was equal to the emergency. With his wonderful needle he sewed
together the planks on which he and his companions were sustaining
themselves, and then they paddled about and collected all the other
floating fragments of the ship. The tailor stitched them together so
cleverly that in a short time the ship was seaworthy once more, and
they sailed happily home.
When the king saw his dear daughter again, he was very glad, and
said to the four brothers, “One of you shall marry her, but you must
settle among yourselves which one that shall be.”
They discussed the matter with a good deal of warmth, for each
pressed his own claims. The star-gazer said: “Had I not discovered
the princess all your doings would have been in vain. Therefore, she
is mine.”
The thief said: “What would have been the good of discovering her
if I had not stolen her away from the dragon? So she is mine.”
The huntsman said: “But you all would have been destroyed by
the monster had not my ball reached his heart. So she must be
mine.”
“That is all very fine,” said the tailor, “but if it had not been for my
sewing the wreck together, you would all have been miserably
drowned. Therefore the princess is mine.”
When they had all voiced their claims to the princess, the king
said: “Each of you is equally entitled to her, but since you cannot all
have her, none of you shall have her. Instead, I will reward you each
with half a province.”
The brothers were quite satisfied with this decision, and said, “It is
better so than that we should quarrel.”
So each of them received half a province, and they lived happily in
the home of their father the rest of their days.
THE YOUTH WITHOUT FEAR
T
HERE was once a father who had two sons. One was
ambitious, and sensible, and clever enough to do almost
anything. But the younger one was so stupid he made no
progress at all. When people saw how useless he was, they said,
“His father will have plenty of trouble with him.”
If there was any task that needed doing, it fell to the lot of the elder
son, who never failed to do his work faithfully and well, unless his
father asked him to fetch something in the evening after dark. Then,
if the errand would compel him to pass through the churchyard or
along a dismal stretch of roadway, he would say: “Oh no, father, I
cannot go! I am afraid. It would make me shiver and shake.”
Occasionally when the household gathered around the fire after
supper, with very likely the company of a neighbor or two, some one
would tell a ghost story which would cause the listeners’ flesh to
creep, and they would exclaim, “How you make me shiver!”
The youngest son, however, as he sat in the corner and heard
these exclamations, could not imagine what was meant. “There’s
something queer about it,” said he. “They say: ‘It makes me shiver! It
makes me shiver!’ But it doesn’t make me shiver a bit. Shivering is
an accomplishment I don’t understand.”
One day his father said to him, “Listen, you lad in the corner there,
you are growing big and strong. You must learn some trade by which
to get a living. See how your brother works, but you are not worth
your salt.”
“Well, father,” he responded, “I am quite ready to learn something.
With what shall I begin? I would very much like to learn how to shiver
and shake, for about that I know nothing.”
The elder son laughed when he heard him speak thus. “Good
heavens!” he thought, “what a simpleton my brother is! He will never
be good for anything as long as he lives.”
His father sighed and said, “What shivering means you may learn
easily enough, but such knowledge will not help you any in getting
your bread.”
Soon afterward the sexton called at the house, and the father
confided to him his anxiety about his younger son. “It is quite
evident,” said he, “that the lad will never be any credit to us. Would
you believe that when I asked him how he was going to earn his
living, he said he would like to learn to shiver and shake?”
“If that’s what he wants to learn,” said the sexton, “we can easily
gratify him. I can teach him that myself. Just let him serve me for a
while and I’ll put the polish on him.”
The father was pleased, for he thought, “Anyhow the lad will gain
something by the experience.”
So the sexton took the youth home with him, and he had to ring
the church bells. A few days passed, and the sexton woke him at
midnight and told him to get up and go to the church tower to ring the
bells. “You shall soon be taught how to shiver and shake,” thought
the sexton as he hastened to the belfry ahead of the lad, and crept
stealthily up the stairs.
The youth arrived a few minutes later and stumbled along up the
stairway in the darkness. He was about to grasp the bell rope when
he observed a white figure standing at the head of the stairs. “Who is
there?” he called out, but the figure neither stirred nor spoke.
“Answer!” cried the lad, “or get out of the way. You have no
business here in the night.”
But the sexton wanted the boy to think he was a ghost, and he did
not stir.
The lad called out a second time: “What do you want here? Speak,
if you are an honest fellow, or I’ll throw you down the stairs.”
“He never would dare undertake such a thing,” thought the sexton.
So he made no sound and stood as still as if he were made of stone.
Once more the lad threatened the shrouded figure, and as he got
no answer he sprang forward and threw the ghost down the stairs.
The apparition bumped along down the steps and lay motionless in a
corner. Then the lad rang the bells, walked home, and without saying
a word to anybody went to bed. Soon he was fast asleep.
The sexton’s wife waited a long time for her husband, but he did
not come, and at last she became anxious and woke up the lad. “Do
you know what has become of my husband?” she asked. “He went
up into the church tower in front of you.”
“No,” answered the lad; “but there was somebody standing at the
head of the stairs in the belfry, and as he would neither reply nor go
away, I thought he was a rogue and I threw him downstairs. Go and
see if he was your husband. I should be sorry if he was.”
The woman hurried away and found the sexton moaning with a
broken leg. She carried him home, and the first thing in the morning
hastened with loud cries to the lad’s father. “Your son has brought a
great misfortune on us,” she said. “He has thrown my husband
downstairs and broken his leg. Take the good-for-nothing wretch
away out of our house.”
The father was horrified. He went back with her and gave the lad a
good scolding. “What is the meaning of this inhuman prank?” he
said. “The evil one must have put it into your head.”
“Father,” responded the lad, “I am quite innocent. He stood there
in the dark like a man with some wicked purpose. I did not know who
he was, and I warned him three times to speak or to go away.”
“Alas!” said his father, “you bring me nothing but disaster. Get out
of my sight. I will have nothing more to do with you.”
“To travel elsewhere is just what I wish,” said the lad, “for I hope
that will lead to my learning how to shiver and shake. I want at least
to have that accomplishment to my credit.”
“Learn what you like,” said his father. “It’s all the same to me. Here
are fifty silver pieces for you. Go out into the world, but tell no one
whence you come, or who your father is, for you would only bring me
to shame.”
“Just as you please, father,” said the lad. “If that is all you want I
can easily fulfil your desire.”
So the lad put his fifty silver pieces into his pocket and betook
himself to the highroad. As he tramped along he said over and over,
“Oh that I could learn to shiver! Oh that I could learn to shake!”
A man overtook him and heard the words he was saying. They
went on together till they came to a gallows whereon seven men
were hanging. “Sit down here,” said the man, “and when night comes
you will learn to shiver and shake.”
“If nothing more than that is needed,” said the lad, “I shall be well
pleased; and I promise you, in case I learn to shiver so speedily, that
you shall have the fifty silver pieces now in my pocket. Come back to
me early tomorrow morning.”
Then the lad sat down beside the gallows. It grew cold after
sundown, and a sharp wind blew and made the bodies on the
gallows swing back and forth with a dismal creaking of the ropes by
which they were suspended. “Poor fellows!” said the lad, “I am none
too warm down here in a sheltered nook on the ground, and you
must have a chilly time of it up aloft there.”
Then he curled up and went to sleep. Next morning the man who
had been his companion on the day before came and said, “Well, I
suppose you know now what shivering means.”
“No,” said the lad, “how could I learn it? Those fellows on the
gallows never opened their mouths.”
The man saw that he would get no silver pieces, and he went
away, saying, “Never before in my life did I meet such a person as
that.”
Soon afterward the lad resumed his travels, and again began
saying to himself: “Oh that I could learn to shiver! Oh that I could
learn to shake!”
A carter, who chanced to be on the road, heard his plaint, and
asked, “Who are you?”
“I don’t know,” said the youth.
“Who is your father?” the carter questioned.
“That I must not say,” was the lad’s response.
“What is it you are grumbling about to yourself as you walk along?”
the carter inquired.
“Ah,” said the youth, “I wish to learn what shivering is, but no one
can teach me.”
“Nonsense!” said the carter. “Just you come with me and I’ll see
that your desire is gratified.”
So the youth went with the carter, and in the evening they reached
an inn and arranged to stay there for the night. “Oh that I could learn
to shiver! Oh that I could learn to shake!” sighed the youth as he sat
down to wait for supper.
The landlord laughed, and said, “If that’s what you want, you can
have plenty of opportunity for learning here.”
“Hold your tongue,” said the landlady. “Many an imprudent fellow
has paid the penalty for his curiosity with his life already. It would be
a sin and a shame not to have this stranger’s bright eyes see the
light of day again.”
But the youth said: “However difficult it may be to learn what
shivering is, the lesson is one I am eager to learn. I left my home to
seek such knowledge.”
He would not be put off with evasions, and at last the landlord told
him that not far distant stood an enchanted castle, and that any one
who stayed there over night would surely learn to shiver. Moreover,
the king had promised his daughter in marriage to the man who
would spend three nights in the castle, and every one said she was
the most beautiful young lady the sun ever shone on. Such a vigil
would break the spell that was on the castle, and he who
accomplished this would become master of a great treasure hidden
there and guarded by evil spirits. But many, aspiring to win the
princess and the treasure and the renown, had gone into the castle,
and not one had ever come out.
The next morning the youth went to the king, and said, “By your
leave, I would like to pass three nights in the enchanted castle.”
His request was granted, though with some reluctance, for the
king took a fancy to the lad, and was sorry to think of his probable
fate.
When night came, the youth went to the castle, made a bright fire
in one of the rooms, and sat down beside it. “Oh, if I could only
shiver!” said he, “but I doubt if I can learn how even here.”
At midnight he got up from where he was sitting and freshened the
fire. Suddenly some creatures in a corner of the room began to
shriek, “Mew, mew! how cold we are!”
“Simpletons!” he exclaimed, “what are you screeching for? If you
are cold, come and warm yourselves by the fire.”
Immediately two big black cats sprang forth from the gloomy
corner and sat down one on each side of him. They stared at him
with wild, fiery eyes until they had warmed themselves, and then
said, “Comrade, shall we have a game of cards?”
“Certainly,” he replied, “but show me your paws first.”
They each lifted a front foot and stretched out their claws.
“Why,” said he, “what long nails you’ve got! Wait a bit. I must cut
them for you.”
He picked up a sword he had brought with him, but instead of
cutting their nails he seized each cat in turn by the scruff of the neck
and killed it by thrusting his sword through its body. That done, he
dragged them to a window and heaved them out. But no sooner had
he got rid of these cats and was about to sit down by his fire again
than crowds of dogs, all jet black, swarmed out of every nook and
corner of the room. They howled horribly and trampled on his fire,
and tried to put it out.
For a time he looked quietly on, but at last he got angry, took up
his sword, and cried, “You rascally pack, away with you!” and he let
fly among them right and left. Some of them escaped, and the rest
he struck dead and threw out of the window.
When he finished, he returned to the fire, scraped the embers
together, and set it to blazing. At the far side of the room was a big
bed, and he went and lay down on it, intending to sleep the
remainder of the night. But just as he was closing his eyes the bed
began to move. It crossed the room, went out at a door, and soon
was tearing round and round the castle. “Very good,” he said, “the
faster the better!”
The bed careered along as if it were drawn by six horses.
Sometimes it was in the castle, sometimes outside, and the way it
jolted over the thresholds and jigged up and down the stairs was
very surprising, to say the least. Suddenly it went hop, hop, hop, with
more violence than ever, and turned topsy-turvy so that it lay on the
lad like a mountain. But he pitched the pillows and blankets into the
air, and soon he had disencumbered himself and got on his feet.
“Now some one else may ride,” said he, and he made his way back
to his fire and lay down on the hearth and went to sleep.
In the morning the king came to the castle and found the youth
stretched out on the floor. He thought the ghosts had killed him, and
he said, “It is a pity that such a vigorous, handsome fellow should
thus perish.”
But the youth heard him and sat up, saying, “It has not come to
that yet.”
The king was much surprised, and asked him how he had fared.
“Very well,” he answered. “One night is gone, and I expect to get
safely through the others.”
Presently he returned to the inn. The landlord opened his eyes
when he saw him, and said: “I never thought to behold you alive
again. Have you learned how to shiver yet?”
“No,” replied the lad, “it’s all in vain.”
The second night he went again to the castle, started a fire, and
sat down by it and began his old song, “Oh if I could only learn to
shiver!”
At midnight he commenced to hear a ringing, rattling noise, first
soft, but increasing till there was a great uproar. Then there was a
sudden silence. At last, with a loud scream, half a man’s body came
tumbling down the chimney and rolled out on the floor in front of the
lad. “Hello!” he said, “here is only half a man. This is not enough.”
The rattling and ringing were renewed, and soon, amidst shrieks
and howls, the other half fell down.
“Wait a moment,” said the youth, “and I’ll poke up the fire.”
When this was done, and he looked around, the two halves had
joined themselves together, and a hideous man sat on the bench.
“We didn’t bargain for that,” said the lad. “The bench is mine.”
He went to sit down, and the man tried to push him out of the way.
Then the youth became angry and flung the man aside and sat down
in his usual seat. Presently more men fell down the chimney, one
after the other, and they fetched with them nine thigh bones and two
skulls, and began to play skittles. The youth felt inclined to join in the
sport, and he called out, “I say, can I play too?”
“Certainly,” said they.
“Then here goes!” he cried. “The more, the merrier!”
He played with them till ten o’clock, when they disappeared. So he
lay down, and soon was fast asleep.
Next morning the king again came to see him, and said, “Well,
how did you get on this time?”
“I have been playing skittles,” he answered.
“Didn’t you learn to shiver?” the king asked.
“Not I,” he responded. “I only made merry.”
On the third night he once more was in the enchanted castle
sitting on his bench by the fire. “Oh, if I could only learn to shiver!” he
said, in great vexation.
When it grew late, six tall men came in carrying a coffin. “Hello
there!” said he, “set down your burden and make yourselves
comfortable.”
They put the coffin on the floor and he went to it and removed the
lid. Inside lay a man. He felt of the man’s hands and face. They were
as cold as ice. “I will soon see whether there is any life left in you,”
said he, and he picked up the man and sat down with him close by
the fire and rubbed his arms to make the blood circulate.
After a time the man grew warm and began to move. “There,” said
the youth, “you see I have got you warmed at last.”
But the man rose up and cried, “Now I will strangle you!”
“What!” exclaimed the youth, “is that all the thanks I get? Back you
go into your coffin then.”
So saying, he grasped him, threw him in, and fastened down the
lid. Then the six men carried the coffin away. “Oh, deary me!” sighed
the youth, “I shall never learn to shiver if I stop here all my life.”
Just then a huge man entered the room. He was frightful to look
at, very old, with a long white beard. “You miserable wretch!” he
cried, “now you shall learn what shivering is, for you shall die.”
“Not so fast,” said the youth. “If I am to die, some one must kill
me.”
“I will make short work of you,” declared the old monster.
“Softly, softly!” said the lad. “Don’t boast. Very likely I am stronger
than you are.”
“We shall see about that,” said the old man. “Come with me.”
Then he led the way through numberless dark passages to a
smithy, took a sledge hammer, and with one blow struck an anvil
down into the earth so it was nearly buried out of sight.
“I can better that,” affirmed the youth, and he went to another
anvil, took an ax, and with one blow split the anvil half in two.
The old man had come so near to watch that his beard had
dropped down on the anvil, and it was wedged into the crevice by
the blow of the ax. “Now I have you,” said the youth, “and you will be
the one to die.”
Then he seized an iron rod and belabored the old man till the
sufferer shrieked for mercy and promised him great riches if he
would stop. So the lad pulled out the ax, and the released captive led
the way back into the castle and showed the youth three chests of
gold in the cellar. “One is for the poor,” he said, “one is for the king,
and one is for you.”
The clock struck twelve just as the old man finished speaking, and
he disappeared and left the youth alone in the dense darkness of the
cellar. “I must manage to get out somehow,” said the lad, and he
groped about till he found his way back to the room where he had his
fire. There he lay down and went to sleep.
Next morning the king came and said, “Surely you have now
learned to shiver.”
“No,” said the youth, “a coffin was brought to me containing a man
who was nearly frozen, and when I revived him he wanted to
strangle me. Afterward, an old man came who wanted to kill me, but
I got the better of him, and he showed me a lot of gold. However, no
one can show me what shivering means.”
Then the king said, “You have broken the spell on the castle, and
you shall be made a prince and marry my daughter.”
“That is all very fine,” said the youth, “but still I don’t know what
shivering is.”
The gold was brought out from the castle cellar, and the marriage
was celebrated; but happy as the youth now was, and much as he
loved his bride, there yet remained one cause for discontent, and he
was always saying: “Oh that I could learn to shiver! Oh that I could
learn to shake!”
This became quite a source of vexation to his wife as time went
on, and at last her waiting-woman said, “I will help you to teach him
the meaning of shivering.”
She went out to a brook that ran through the garden, and got a pail
of cold water full of little fishes. At night, when the prince was asleep,
his wife took off the coverings and poured the cold water over him.
The little fishes flopped all about him. Then he woke up and cried,
“Oh, how I am shivering, dear wife, how I am shivering! Now I know
what shivering is!”
THE WONDERFUL TURNIP
T
HERE were once two brothers who were soldiers, and one had
become an officer and grown rich. The other remained a
common soldier and was poor. At last the poor one, with the
hope to improve his fortune, took off his soldiering coat and became
a farmer. He ploughed a small field and sowed turnip seed. The seed
came up, and the farmer soon observed that one turnip was growing
much faster than any of the others. It grew till he thought it would
never get done growing, and at the end of the season, when he
uprooted it, that one turnip filled a cart and required two oxen to draw
it. Truly it was the queen of turnips, and its like had never been seen
before, nor ever will be again. The farmer knew not what to do with
it, and was uncertain whether it would bring good fortune or bad.
“If I sold it I should not get much money for it,” said he. “As for
eating it, the ordinary turnips would do as well for that. I think I will
take it to the king.”
So away he went, with oxen dragging the cart that contained the
turnip, and in due time he arrived at court and presented the turnip to
the king.
“What an extraordinary object!” the king exclaimed. “I have seen
many marvels, but never anything so remarkable as this. You must
be a child of good luck, whether you raised this turnip from seed or
found it full grown.”
“Oh no!” said the farmer, “lucky I certainly am not. For many years
I was a poor soldier, but recently I hung my uniform on a nail, and
now I till the earth. I have a brother who is rich and well known to
you, my lord king; but I, because I have nothing, am forgotten by all
the world.”
Thereupon the king pitied him and said, “You shall be poor no
longer;” and he presented him with gold, land, flocks, and herds that
made him richer than his brother.
When the brother heard what had happened he was envious and
pondered how he might gain a like treasure for himself. Presently he
took jewels and swift horses and gave them to the king. “If my
brother got so much for a single turnip,” thought he, “what will I not
get for these beautiful things?”