Things went badly for the scholar. He was plagued by sorrow and troubles, and what he said about truth, goodness, and the beautiful was for most people like giving roses to a cow. Finally he was really ill.
“You look like a shadow,” people told him, and it made the scholar shudder when he thought about it.
“You should go to a spa,” said the shadow, who had come to visit him. “That’s the clear ticket. I’ll take you along for old time’s sake. I’ll pay for the trip, and you can write and talk about it, and amuse me on the trip. I want to get to a spa because my beard isn’t growing the way it should, and that’s an illness. You have to have a beard, you know! Be sensible now and accept my offer. We’ll travel as friends, of course.”
And so they went. The shadow was the master now, and the master was the shadow. They drove together, they rode and walked together, side by side, in front or back of each other, depending on the sun. The shadow was always careful to be on the controlling side, and the scholar didn’t think much about it at all. He had a very kind heart, was gentle and friendly, and one day he said to the shadow, “Now that we’ve become traveling companions as we are, and since we’ve grown up together from childhood, shouldn’t we say ‘du’ to each other? It’s more intimate.”
“There’s something in what you say,” said the shadow, who was now really the master. “What you say is very frank and well meant, and I will be just as straight-forward and well meaning. You know, as an educated man, how strange nature is. Some people can’t tolerate touching grey paper; they get sick from it. Others get a shiver up their spine from hearing a nail scratch glass. I get the same feeling when you say ‘du’ to me. I feel as if I’m pressed flat to the ground as in my first position with you. It’s a feeling, you see, it’s not pride. I can’t let you say ‘du’ to me, but I’ll gladly say ‘du’ to you. I’ll meet you halfway.”
And then the shadow started addressing his former master with “du.”
“This really is the limit,” thought the scholar, “that I have to say ‘De’ and he says ’du,’” but he couldn’t do anything about it.
Then they came to the spa where there were many foreigners and among them a lovely princess, who was afflicted by a sickness that caused her to see too sharply, and it was very worrying to her.
Right away she noticed that the man who had just arrived was a quite different kind of person than anyone else. “They say he’s here to get his beard to grow, but I see the real reason: He can’t cast a shadow.”
She had become curious, and so she immediately engaged him in conversation while on her walk. As a princess, she didn’t need to stand on ceremony, so she said, “Your illness is that you can’t cast a shadow.”
“Your royal majesty must be much improved,” said the shadow. “I know that your failing is that you see too well, but you’re improving. You must be cured. I just happen to have a very unusual shadow. Do you see that person who is always with me? Other people have an ordinary shadow, but I don’t go in for ordinary things. Often you give your servants better clothes for uniforms than you wear yourself, and I have had my shadow dressed up like a human being. You can see that I have even given
“What?” the princess thought. “Have I really gotten better? This spa is the best in the world! The waters certainly have quite remarkable powers these days. But I won’t leave, because now it’s going to be amusing here. I think a lot of this stranger, and I just hope his beard doesn’t grow because then he’ll leave.”
That evening the princess and the shadow danced in the big ballroom. She was light on her feet, but he was even lighter. She had never had such a dancing partner. She told him what country she was from, and he was familiar with that land. He had been there, but she hadn’t been at home then. He had peeked through the windows above and below and had seen both this and that so he could answer the princess and throw out hints so that she was quite surprised. He must be the world’s wisest man! She gained such a respect for his knowledge, and when they danced again, she fell in love with him. The shadow noticed this because she almost looked through him with her gaze. Then they danced once again, and she almost told him, but she was cautious. She thought about her country and kingdom and about the many people she would rule over. “He’s a wise man,” she said to herself, “and that’s good. And he’s a wonderful dancer, and that’s also good, but I wonder if he’s truly very knowledgeable. That’s just as important! He must be tested.” And so she started ever so gradually to ask him about some of the most difficult things she couldn’t have answered herself, and an odd expression came to his face.
“You can’t answer that!” said the princess.
“I learned that as a child,” said the shadow. “I think even my shadow over there by the door could answer that!”
“Your shadow!” exclaimed the princess. “That would really be extraordinary!”
“Well, I’m not saying that he can for sure,” said the shadow, “but I should think so. He has followed me and listened for so many years—I would think so. But your royal highness must allow me to remind you that since he is so proud of passing as a human, he must be in a good mood in order to answer well for himself. He has to be treated as a human being.”
“That’s fine,” said the princess.
She went over to the scholar by the door and talked to him about the sun and the moon, and about people, both their insides and out, and he answered everything so cleverly and well.
“What a man he must be to have a shadow like that!” she thought. “It would be a true blessing for my people and kingdom if I were to choose him as my husband—I’ll do it!”
And they soon agreed upon it, both the princess and the shadow, but no one was to know about it before she was back in her own kingdom.
“No one, not even my shadow,” said the shadow, and he had his own reason for that!
And then they arrived in the country where the princess reigned when she was home.
“Listen to this, my good friend,” said the shadow to the scholar. “Now I have become as happy and as powerful as anyone can be, and I want to do something special for you. You’ll always live with me at the castle, drive in my royal coach with me, and have a hundred thousand dollars a year. But you must allow yourself to be called shadow by each and all. You mustn’t tell anyone that you were ever a human being, and once a year when I sit on the balcony in the sunshine to be admired, you must lie by my feet as a shadow does. I’ll tell you: I am going to marry the princess. The wedding will be this evening.”
“No, this is really over the top!” said the scholar. “I don’t want to do that, and I won’t do that. It would be deceiving the whole kingdom, as well as the princess. I’ll reveal everything! That I’m the human being and that you are the shadow. You’re only dressed up as a man.”
