Fairy Tales Kinder- und Hausm

1
Fairy TalesKinder- und Hausmärchen

• Jakob Grimm (1785-1863) and his brother Wilhelm
  (1786-1859) wrote the best-known book in the
  German language.
• Romanticism project of discovering the true
  spirit of the German nation, which resided in the
  language and literature of the people.
• Approx. 1795-1830. Age of Goethe and Napoleon.

2
Kinder- und HausmärchenWho were the Grimm
brothers?

• Their father is a respected court official, but
  dies young, thrusting the family into poverty.
• Jacob and Wilhelm, the two oldest children,
  become overachievers to provide for their family.
• Study of law in Marburg brings them to Friedrich
  Karl von Savigny, professor of law.
• Savigny is an important figure in German
  romanticism, believes in the unification of
  Germany. Teaches the Grimms to study German
  culture through the history of its laws.

3
Kinder- und HausmärchenWho were the Grimm
brothers?

• Savigny introduces the Grimms to the older circle
  of romantic poets in the area.
• 1806 Jacob decides to make a living as a scholar
  of philology and literature instead of law.
• 1806-1807 a job in the War Commission until the
  country is defeated by Napoleon.
• 1808 Jacob and later Wilhelm become Royal
  Librarians in Kassel. First scholarly
  publications.
• 1812 publication of Kinder- und Hausmärchen.

4
Kinder- und HausmärchenWho were the Grimm
brothers?

• 1829 they resign their positions in the library
  due to a denied promotion and disgust with local
  politics.
• 1830 they both accept positions at the University
  of Göttingen. Gifted and stimulating teachers.
• 1837 they and five colleagues protest the
  restoration of absolutistic rule and are
  dismissed.
• Grimms blacklisted because of their liberal
  views.
• 1841 Savigny and Bettina von Arnim help them find
  positions in the University of Berlin.
• 1848 Grimms are representatives in the National
  Assembly in Frankfurt. Failed March Revolution in
  Germany.

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Kinder- und HausmärchenWho were the Grimm
brothers?

• Jacob retires from politics and teaching (but not
  from research and writing).
• The brothers spend their final years working on a
  complete historical dictionary of the modern
  German language (similar to the OED). They make
  it to the word Frucht (fruit).
• The project is assumed by other scholars upon
  their deaths it is completed only in 1960, with
  teams from both East and West Germany working in
  collaboration.

6
Kinder- und HausmärchenWhy did they collect
folklore?

• In 1806, Achim von Arnim and Clemens Brentano
  publish a collection of German folk songs, Des
  Knaben Wunderhorn, which inspires the young Grimm
  brothers.
• Through their mutual friend Savigny, the Grimms
  are asked to collect tales for a third volume of
  The Boys Wonder Horn.
• Grimms see the project as a scholarly
  contribution to discovering and recording German
  cultural artifacts. Early form of cultural
  anthropology.

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Kinder- und HausmärchenWhy did they collect
folklore?

• Contrary to legend, they did not travel the
  countryside in search of the tales.
• Most tales were told to them by family friends,
  mostly upper-middle-class women, some with a
  French background.
• Wilhelm later married one of their primary
  sources, Dörtchen Wild. Wilhelm was the primary
  editor for later editions of this book.
• Two brothers collaborated on most of their
  projects, always on extremely close terms with
  each other.

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Kinder- und HausmärchenWhy did they collect
folklore?

• They send Brentano a copy of their tales, but he
  neglects the text and later donates the
  manuscript to a monastery (discovered only in the
  20th century).
• Translations of a few of these tales sent by
  email.
• When Volume III of Des Knaben Wunderhorn does not
  materialize, the Grimms publish an edition of
  tales with many scholarly footnotes (1812).
• Unexpectedly, the book is a popular success, and
  the brothers prepare a second volume of tales
  (1815).

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Kinder- und HausmärchenWhy did they collect
folklore?

• In their lifetime, Kinder- and Hausmärchen
  (Childrens and Household Tales) sees seven
  editions.
• After they realize the popularity of the book,
  they delete the scholarly commentary and seek to
  improve the tales for children much less moral
  ambiguity in later editions.
• Although their aim was to preserve the authentic
  voice of the common people, they revised the
  tales, some quite extensively.

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Kinder- und HausmärchenWhat else did the Grimm
brothers do?

• In addition to fairy tales, the Grimm brothers
  were the first scholars to do groundbreaking
  research in a number of areas.
• In fact, they were two of the first professors of
  German literature ever, and helped shape the
  academic discipline as it is know today.
• Most of the topics discussed in this course
  Eddic poetry and Norse mythology, Germanic
  languages, Germanic history and legends were
  first studied by the Grimm brothers!

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Kinder- und HausmärchenWhat else did the Grimm
brothers do?

• Grimm Brothers selected publications
• 1813-1816 Collections of Essays on Germanic
  folklore
• 1815 Lays of the Elder Edda, edited volume
• 1816 German Legends
• 1819-37 German Grammar (Jacob)
• 1821 On German Runes (Wilhelm)
• 1829 The German Heroic Legend (Wilhelm)
• 1835-54 German Mythology (Jacob)
• 1848-53 History of the German Language (Jacob)
• 1852-1960 Historical Dictionary of the German
  Language

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Kinder- und HausmärchenWho first wrote fairy
tales?

• Marie-Catherine de Barneville, Baroness d'Aulnoy
  (1650-1704) wrote a famous collection of tales,
  which gave the genre its name Les Contes des
  Fées, or Fairy Tales (1697).
• She was an influential member of a literary
  movement in Paris that allowed women a voice in
  the salon culture of the time.

• She wrote literary fairy tales that are often far
  removed from traditional, oral folk tales.
• Her tales, many of which portray strong female
  characters, were first recited to an adult,
  upper-class audience in her salon, and later
  published.

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Kinder- und HausmärchenWho first wrote fairy
tales?

• Charles Perrault (1628-1703) was the first major
  writer of stories derived from folk tales.
• He was also a central figure in the querelle des
  anciens et des modernes.
• His publication, Histoires ou contes du temps
  passé, avec des moralités Contes de ma mère
  l'Oye (1697), contained his version of eight
  popular French tales.

• He appended a moral in verse to each of the
  tales.
• His work also reflects the French salon culture
  of Louis XIV, and the influence of Baroness
  dAulnoy.

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Kinder- und HausmärchenWho first wrote fairy
tales?

• Perraults tales, like those of Baronness
  dAulnoy, are literary works rather than simple
  folk tales.
• His collection contains some of the best-known
  versions of popular tales today

English title French title Aarne-Thompson-Uther type
The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood La belle au bois dormant Type 410
Little Red Riding Hood Le petit chaperon rouge Type 333
Blue Beard La Barbe bleüe Type 312
The Master Cat or, Puss in Boots Le Maistre Chat, ou le Chat Botté Type 545B
The Fairies Les Fées Type 480
Cinderella or The Little Glass Slipper Cendrillon, ou la petite pantoufle de verre Type 510A
Ricky of the Tuft Riquet à la Houppe Type 711
Little Thumb, Le petit Pouçet Type 327B
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Kinder- und HausmärchenHistory of Fairy Tale
Studies

• 1812 1814 Jacob and Wilhelm publish volumes I
  and II of Kinder- und Hausmärchen (Childrens and
  Household Tales).
• Unlike earlier collections, the Grimms were not
  trying to be literary or original, but to
  preserve the oral tales of the common people.
• Later editions expanded and standardized the
  tales.
• They understood their revisions as recapturing
  the spirit of the oral tradition. Later
  folklorists are much more exact in recording
  variants!

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Kinder- und HausmärchenWho also collected fairy
tales?

• After the Grimms, Franz von Schönwerth also
  collected tales, mostly in Bavaria.
• His notes were discovered in 2009, and translated
  into English by Maria Tatar (2015).
• Schönwerths collection shows less polish and
  greater variety than the Grimm collection
  bawdier, racier, with stronger female characters.

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Kinder- und HausmärchenWho followed the Grimm
brothers?

• 1835 Hans Christian Andersen publishes Fairy
  Tales Told for Children, some such as The Wild
  Swans and The Princess on the Pea based on
  traditional folklore.
• 1845 Norwegian Folk Tales, collected by Peter
  Christen Asbjornsen and Jorgen Moe appears,
  includes East of the Sun and West of the Moon
  and The Three Billy Goats Gruff.
• 1870-1910 The Golden Age of Illustration for
  children's books Walter Crane, Gustave Dore,
  Arthur Rackham, Warwick Goble, et al.
• 1866 Aleksandr Afanasyev collects and publishes
  his first volume of Russian fairy tales.

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Kinder- und HausmärchenHow are fairy tales
adapted?

• Most other European cultures also collect
  folklore in the style of the Grimms in the
  nineteenth century.
• 1890 Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky's ballet The
  Sleeping Beauty premieres in St. Petersburg.
• 1893 Engelbert Humperdinck's opera, Hansel und
  Gretel premieres.
• 1937 Walt Disney releases his first feature
  length animated film, Snow White and the Seven
  Dwarfs.
• 1945 Sergei Prokofiev's ballet, Cinderella,
  premiers.
• In the following decades, new print, television,
  and film versions of fairy tales appear
  regularly.

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Kinder- und HausmärchenWhat is a Fairy Tale?

• Grimms collection contains many kinds of
  stories, including the magical (or wonder) tales,
  humorous tall tales, animal fables, and realistic
  folk tales.
• Originally oral folk tales, with countless
  variants throughout Europe.
• There are no original versions of tales, only
  different variants.
• Social context of tales changed when they were
  transformed into written literature.

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Kinder- und HausmärchenWhat is a Fairy Tale?

• Short stories in prose, originally for
  adolescents or young adults, but commonly for
  children nowadays (a development begun at the
  time of the Brothers Grimm).
• A peasant perspective, quite unlike the
  aristocratic perspective in heroic legends or
  middle-class perspective of early modern legends.
  
• Unlike legends, which deal with ostensibly
  historical events, fairy tales are set in a
  vaguely medieval, indeterminate time and place.

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Kinder- und HausmärchenWhat is a Fairy Tale?

• Fairy tales typically have no character
  development strong contrasts between good and
  bad characters are typical.
• Use of magic and magical items is common.
• Familial setting is typical, often dysfunctional
  or incomplete nuclear family setting. Many tales
  present a childs perspective of the action.
• Family tensions tend to play important roles.
• Strong reliance on stock characters and
  well-known motifs and plot structures.

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Kinder- und HausmärchenWhat is a Fairy Tale?

• A few common fairy tale motifs
• Triumph of the youngest, laziest, dumbest,
  weakest, most oppressed, least promising, etc.
• Triadic structure, circuitous journey with
  reversal of fortune.
• (Familial) adversariesestablishment of improved
  and secure familial structure at end.
• Helping figures, with magical objects and
  creatures.
• Rewards in the form of honor, wealth, spouse,
  power.
• Talking animalsanimate world, with enchanted
  cosmos.
• Happy end, poetic justice, reward and
  retribution.

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Kinder- und HausmärchenWhat is a Fairy Tale?

• It is difficult to generalize about folk tales.
• Morally unambiguous tales a product of the modern
  concern for proper child-rearing.
• Original versions of many fairy tales contain a
  lot of sex and violence.
• Protagonists can be active or passive, male or
  female, successful or unsuccessful.
• Tales may be innocent or cynical in tone.
• Tales may support or subvert existing
  hierarchies.

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Kinder- und Hausmärchen How does one interpret
fairy tales?

• A Historical Approach to fairy tale research is
  very complicated.
• Origins of fairy tales are impossible to trace,
  since motifs are common in Europe and even beyond
  Cinderella stories are found everywhere.
• Unlike many legends, there is absolutely no
  factual historical basis for folk tales.
  Actually, there are no truly realistic plots in
  any of the tales.

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Kinder- und Hausmärchen How does one interpret
fairy tales?

• A Psychological Approach
• Bruno Bettelheim argues that fairy tales present
  an internal psychological truth In a fairy
  tale, internal processes are externalized and
  become comprehensible as represented by the
  figures of the story and its events.
• Some Common Topics Power and class relations,
  Freudian sexual fantasies, Jungian archetypes,
  cultural images, Christian and pagan ideologies
  and rites, collective class consciousness, etc.

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Kinder- und Hausmärchen How does one interpret
fairy tales?

• A Cultural Approach
• Robert Darnton argues that Folktales are
  historical documents, each colored by the mental
  life and culture of its epoch.
• Different variants of tales in one country or in
  different countries point to regional or cultural
  differences.
• Details in fairy tales are often very arbitrary,
  depending on the interests of a particular
  audience.

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Kinder- und HausmärchenHow does one study Fairy
Tales?

• A Comparatist Approach
• 1961 Stith Thompson expands and translates
  Finnish scholar Antti Aarne's The Types of the
  Folktale (1910) into English in 1961.
• Further revisions done in2004 by Hans-Jörg Uther.
  
• The ATU Classification System becomes the most
  widely used for classifying Indo-European
  folktales, cataloging some 2,500 basic plots and
  over 10,000 motifs.
• There are dozens or hundreds of variants for all
  of the Grimm fairy tales.

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Kinder- und HausmärchenHow does one study Fairy
Tales?

• A Structuralist Approach
• Vladimir Propp (1928) publishes Morphology of the
  Folktale (English translation 1958). He
  emphasizes the recurring structural features of
  folk and fairy tales.
• Both the ATU classification system and Propps
  structural models are considered essential tools
  for the current study of folk tales.
• Oral folk literature is difficult to interpret a
  flexible, holistic method is probably best.

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Kinder- und HausmärchenTypical Structure of a
Folk Tale

• Wish Fulfillment as Folk Tale structure
• Frame with circuitous journey.
• Dysfunctional family in opening frame. Suffering,
  helplessness and victimization of protagonist.
• Adventures and tests in supernatural realm
• Reversal of fortune, reward of marriage or power
• Vengeance or punishment of villains suffering
  projected onto the former oppressors.
• Nearly everyone capable of cruelty and vengeance.

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Kinder- und HausmärchenFairy Tales and Wish
Fulfillment

• The Fisherman and his Wife is a good example of
  wish fulfillment.
• A fisherman catches a talking flounder that is
  really an enchanted prince, so he lets him go.
• His wife, however, makes repeated requests from
  the fish, since he now has an obligation to the
  family cottage, castle, king, emperor, pope,
  God.
• Enchanted flounder grants all their wishes, which
  eventually bring them back to the hovel in which
  they began. Be careful what you wish for!

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Kinder- und Hausmärchen Why and how did they edit
the tales?

• Lukewarm reviews led Wilhelm to edit the tales,
  with increasing changes in later editions, which
  removed the tales from their peasant origins.
• Grimms aimed for a Platonic ideal of the folk
  tales as they understood them.
• Transmission and translation of tales often
  involves censorship or bowdlerization.
• Grimms emphasize bourgeois values strict gender
  roles, strong work ethic, sexual virtue,
  importance of property.

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Kinder- und Hausmärchen How did the Grimms edit
the tales?

• Oral tales for young adults commonly dealt with
  the transition from puberty to adulthood.
• Fairy tales did not originally teach lessons, but
  dealt with fears and anxieties of adolescents.
• Revisions for children as a new audience caused
  sexual themes to be disguised or omitted.
• Violent subject matter was actually increased in
  many fairy tales (unlike U.S. versions!).
• Revisions standardized the narrative style,
  expanded the tales, added details.

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Kinder- und Hausmärchen How did the Grimms select
the tales?

• Tales that were obvious copies of foreign tales
  were usually deleted from later editions.
• Fragments were sometimes combined with other
  tales to create a single, coherent tale.
• Some tales, such as How some children played at
  slaughtering (77-79) were considered too
  gruesome for a childrens audience, and were
  deleted.
• In general they kept tales that seemed to reflect
  German folk customs.

34
Kinder- und Hausmärchen How did the Grimms edit
the tales?

• A comparison of the manuscript with the first
  edition illustrates some of the changes
  expansion of details, dialogue, and conclusion.
• Briar Rose in the manuscript version is less
  than half the length of the published version.
• In the manuscript version, everyone in the
  castle began to sleep, even the flies on the
  walls. In the published version, the King, the
  courtly retinue, the pigeons, the dogs, the
  flies, the cook, the maid, the boy and even the
  fire in the hearth went to sleep!

35
Kinder- und HausmärchenCensorship and Fairy
Tales
Disneys Tangled (2011). Good example of editing
and revising of a fairy tale for new audiences.
Disney interpretation of Rapunzel as repressed
adolescent desire. Girl empowerment.
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Rapunzel AT 310 The Maiden in the Tower
(Rapunzel)

• Prelude of a husband and a wife wishing for a
  child.
• Theft of rapunzel-lettuce leads to an agreement
  with the sorceress to collect the girl.
• Rapunzel grows up to be a beautiful girl. She is
  locked away in a tower in the forest when she is
  twelve years old (hidden from boys with the onset
  of puberty!).
• One day, a young prince sees the sorceress
  climbing the tower with the help of Rapunzels
  hair.
• At night, he calls Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down
  your hair for me!
• She meets the prince in her tower (cite 39.).

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Rapunzel
38
Changes to Rapunzel

• The first edition deals quite obviously with
  premarital sex and teenage pregnancy.
• The twins are a sign of the great passion of the
  two young lovers.
• Both are punished and tested by the sorceress,
  but their lover and perseverance lead to a happy
  end.
• In later editions, the Grimms try to erase the
  pregnancy The prince proposes marriage and
  promises to escape with her to his parents!
  (proper middle-class virtue).
• The sorceress learns of their plan through a
  thoughtless comment by Rapunzel. The twins are
  retained, but the context changed to obscure the
  parents indelicate behavior.

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Kinder- und HausmärchenAnimal Bridegrooms

• The Frog King, or Iron Heinrich (13-15)
• ATU 440 The Frog Prince
• Another example of revisions and differences in
  variants of a fairy tale!
• In the popular American version, the princess
  kisses the frog who turns into a prince, and they
  live happily ever after

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Kinder- und HausmärchenAnimal Bridegrooms

• The German version presents more violence!
• The Frog fetches her golden ball in return for
  her friendship and affection.
• The Frog wants more from the princess than just a
  kiss (13).
• The Frog follows the princess everywhere, even
  into her bed!
• The girl is afraid of the Frog, so she throws him
  against the wall (3).

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Kinder- und HausmärchenAnimal Bridegrooms
42
Kinder- und HausmärchenAnimal Bridegrooms
43
Kinder- und HausmärchenAnimal Bridegrooms

• But the frog didnt fall down dead. Instead,
  when he fell down on the bed, he became a
  handsome young prince. Well, now indeed he did
  become her dear companion, and she cherished him
  as she had promised, and in their delight they
  fell asleep together.
• The manuscript version is somewhat more direct
  But when he hit the wall, he fell down upon her
  bed and lay there as a beautiful young prince, so
  the kings daughter lay herself down to him.

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Kinder- und HausmärchenAnimal Bridegrooms

• In later editions, Wilhelm Grimm erased all hints
  of sexual liberty.
• When he fell to the ground, he was no longer a
  frog but a prince with kind and beautiful eyes
• Instead of lying in each others arms, they rush
  off to see the king and ask his permission to
  become man and wife.
• Her father gives his blessing, they become dear
  companions and get married.

45
Kinder- und HausmärchenOther Animal Bridegrooms

• Beauty and the Beast
• The Singing Springing Lark
• Adolescent heroines perceive their bridegrooms to
  be bestial and dangerous monsters, wild animals
  but succeed in rescuing or transforming them
  into attractive men. Domestication fantasy?
• Psychological reading of the text emphasizes the
  transformation in the girls perception of
  masculinity rather than the physical
  transformation of the beast.
• Adolescent anxiety with maturity and sexuality.

46
Kinder- und HausmärchenProhibition,
Transgression, Punishment

• In Bluebeard (or variant Fitchers Bird), the
  bridegroom truly is a monster in human form.
• The bride is given a key (or egg) for
  safekeeping, but her curiosity leads her to open
  a forbidden door and discover a monstrous secret.
  
• Key/egg falls into blood the stain is a mark of
  guilt.
• The forbidden chamber represents carnal knowledge
  the blood-stained key hints at the onset of
  puberty (loss of innocence), loss of virginity,
  or marital infidelity (different
  interpretations).

47
Kinder- und HausmärchenProhibition,
Transgression, Punishment

• Oddly, narrators (and later editors) condemn her
  curiosity more than his serial murder!
• Stories seem to deal with adolescent fear of
  adults secrets, of maturity, marriage, and
  sexuality.
• In both Bluebeard and Fitchers Fowl, the
  heroine defeats the would-be bridegroom and
  returns to her family and to her brothers.
• In effect, she returns to her childhood existence
  and no longer has to worry about confronting the
  horrors of marriage or sexuality.

48
Kinder- und Hausmärchen Review of Interpretative
Difficulties

• Interpretation of fairy tales is complicated
• Many different variants of folk tales.
• No one original authoritative text.
• Details of variants are especially arbitrary.
• 4. Supernatural events invite interpretation.
• 5. Simple tales encourage allegorical readings.
• 6. Many interpretations tell us more about the
  anxieties of the interpreter than about the text!

49
Fairy TalesVariants of Little Red Cap

• Tame American version (based on Perraults story)
  is well known.
• In another French variant, the heroine
  unwittingly consumes the flesh and blood of her
  grandmother, is called a slut by her cat, and
  performs a slow striptease for the wolf.
• In an Italian variant, the wolf kills the mother,
  makes a latch cord of her tendons, a meat pie of
  her flesh, and wine from her blood.

50
Fairy TalesLittle Red Cap 85-87.

• The German variant is slightly different
• Cake and Wine for grandmother.
• Wicked Wolf tempts the juicy morsel with
  flowers and birds to distract her.
• Wolf gobbles up the grandmother.
• Big ears, big hands, terribly big mouth
• Wolf gobbles up Little Red Cap and snores.
• A huntsman happens by, hears odd snoring

51
Fairy Tales Little Red Cap
52
Fairy TalesLittle Red Cap
53
Fairy TalesLittle Red Cap

• The Huntsman wants to shoot the sleeping wolf,
  but fears harming Grandmother.
• He cuts open the belly, and out jump Little Red
  Cap and Grandmother.
• They fill his belly with large stones he leaps
  up and falls down dead.

54
Fairy TalesLittle Red Cap

• Wilhelm Grimm added a short epilogue and a moral
  for Little Red Cap
• The Huntsman gets the fur of the wolf.
• Grandmother gets the cake and wine.
• Little Red Cap gets the admonition never to stray
  from the path her mother has given her.
• This nice little fairy tale has led to some
  surprising interpretations.

55
Fairy TalesLittle Red Cap

• Tale records contact with actual werewolves.
• Little Red Cap represents the burning sun setting
  forth on her westward journey home.
• Wolf represents male pregnancy envy, killed
  ironically by stones, symbols of his sterility.
• Wolf is a projection of Little Red Caps pubertal
  sexual desire, an example of female
  self-assertion.
• A parable of rape and female helplessness.
• Usual reading Dont trust talking wolves.

56
Kinder- und Hausmärchen Enhanced Gender Roles in
Fairy Tales

• Strictly defined gender roles created by the
  Brothers Grimm (originally more variation).
• Boys use luck (and sometimes) wits to achieve
  power and wealth. Hard work never makes boys
  wealthy or successful!
• Girls use obedience and willingness to work to
  achieve a proper marriage.
• All female protagonists are beautiful but
  industry and obedience make them desirable.

57
Kinder- und Hausmärchen Enhanced Gender Roles in
Fairy Tales

• The changes in Rumpelstiltskin illustrate some of
  the gender roles of the Brothers Grimm.
• In the manuscript edition, the girls unusual
  gift she can only spin gold from flax is
  portrayed as a source of misery.
• The first edition presents a more typical
  heroine, who sits and weeps because she cannot
  spin flax into gold.
• The little mans aid makes her seem industrious
  and capable, which prompts the king to marry her.

58
Kinder- und Hausmärchen Gender roles

• Mother Holle (81-83) a good example of the tale
  of the kind and unkind daughters.
• The kind daughter willingly undertakes demeaning
  and difficult tasks, and reaps a great reward.
  She demonstrates the prime female virtues of
  humility, obedience, and diligence.
• The unkind daughter refuses to demean or debase
  herself, does not learn humility, and is punished
  for her disobedience.

59
Kinder- und Hausmärchen Patriarchal Control

• King Thrushbeard (167-170) is also a good
  example of gender roles as emphasized by the
  Grimms patriarchal perspective.
• The princess does not want to obey her father, so
  he marries her to the first beggar to appear.
• She must learn peasant chores and servant work.
• The beggar humiliates her several times to
  teach her the value of humility and obedience.
• Once she learns her place, she is rewarded with
  a marriage to her true husband, King Thrushbeard.

60
Kinder- und Hausmärchen Male Heroes

• Active male heroes are actually very rare.
• More typical are the young, naïve, stupid boys
  who lack common sense.
• Peasant perspective is clear in that not a single
  male hero ever succeeds through hard work or
  study.
• Compassion and humility make hero good, allow
  for his eventual reward.
• The goal for male heroes is the transition into
  adulthood, with successful integration into the
  established social order, status, spouse, and
  wealth.

61
Kinder- und Hausmärchen Male Heroes

• Good Bowling and Card Playing (21-23) features
  a typical naïve hero. His bravery is not far
  removed from foolhardiness.
• The tale is altered to The boy who went forth to
  learn fear in later editions. (Wagner used this
  figure in his characterization of Siegfried in
  his Ring Cycle opera).
• He succeeds in situations where his lack of sense
  is an advantage in reversing his fate, he seems
  to have reversed his character traits as well.

62
Kinder- und Hausmärchen Male Heroes

• The Devil with the Three Golden Hairs and
  Puss-in-Boots also present tales with clever
  (rather than hard-working) male protagonists.
• Both tales have important helper figures who have
  the qualities needed to aid the hero and provide
  him with the objects he will need.
• In acquiring outside aid and objects, the hero
  symbolically acquires these qualities as well.
• Tales end with reversal of fortune, providing the
  hero with wealth, position, power, and a spouse.

63
Kinder- und HausmärchenParental Desire for the
Child

• Dysfunctional families and patterns of abuse are
  a common beginning point in fairy tales.
• The theme of incest is not uncommon in the
  manuscript versions of some of the tales.
• Jacob and Wilhelm sought to erase images of
  parental misbehavior, or to refocus such desires
  in ways that were more socially acceptable.
• All Fur (Thousandfurs) and The Maiden
  Without Hands both dealt in early versions with
  a fathers desire for his daughter.

64
Kinder- und HausmärchenThe Maiden Without Hands
99-103

• This story is not well known in the U.S.
• A miller falls into poverty, and is tricked by
  the devil into trading his daughter for wealth.
• The sinless girl is too clean for the devil.
• The father chops off her hands so that the devil
  can take her she complies, but is still too
  clean!
• The girl takes her hands and leaves home.
• A prince discovers her in his orchard and marries
  her.

65
Kinder- und HausmärchenThe Maiden Without Hands

• She gives birth, but the devil tricks them into
  banishing her and the child.
• She lives in the forest a miracle returns her
  hands.
• King learns of devils deception, searches and
  finds the girl in a happy reunion.
• The Devil is an insertion in an earlier version,
  the Father wanted to marry the daughter.
• Her refusal led him to cut off her hands and her
  breasts. That is why she did not want to stay
  with him, despite all his money.

66
Kinder- und HausmärchenThe Maiden Without Hands

• Wilhelm Grimm was able to erase the theme of
  incest by introducing the devil.
• Incest also appears in other tales, such as All
  Fur, in which the daughter runs away from home
  to avoid a father who wants to marry her.
• Much more common are fairy tales with strong
  suggestions of Oedipal and Electra complexes
  the child desires the parent of the opposite sex.
• Grimms also actively erased such desire where it
  was obvious in the text.

67
Kinder- und HausmärchenFreudian Electra Complex

• Electra Complex places a girl in competition with
  her mother for her fathers love.
• Most Stepmothers in tales were originally
  mothers! (Wilhelm changed that).
• Note change of perspective in the audience focus
  changes from adult to child.

Evil Stepmother / Witch / Mother-in-law
68
Kinder- und Hausmärchen Hansel and Gretel

• Originally, the mother wanted to leave the
  children in the forest.
• The Mother in Mother Holle also transformed
  into a wicked stepmother with a step-child.
• Child abuse, abandonment and infanticide are
  often seen as Freudian projections of childhood
  resentment as parental malice.
• That is, a childs I hate you is refashioned
  here as you hate me.

69
Kinder- und Hausmärchen Hansel and Gretel

• The supernatural realm contains heightened
  versions of the problems faced at home.
• The witch of the forest figures as the wicked
  stepmother without her disguise.
• By overcoming the obstacles in the magic forest,
  they solve their true problems at home.
• Death of the witch coincides with the
  disappearance of their mother at home.
• Little Brother and Little Sister has similar
  conflict with a wicked stepmother/witch.

70
Kinder- und Hausmärchen Little Snow White

• Little Snow White
• Disneys first full-length feature film(1937) .
• The villainess in the first edition was her own
  mother not a wicked stepmother.
• Good example of Electra complex.

71
Kinder- und Hausmärchen Little Snow White

• Many folklorists see the voice in the mirror as
  the father figure when he decides the daughter
  is more attractive than his wife, she is forced
  to eliminate the competition.
• In the manuscript, Little Snow White only had to
  cook for them, but Wilhelm exaggerated her work
  ethic by adding quite a few chores! (175)
• The evil queen is punished at the wedding by
  being forced to wear glowing iron slippers and
  dancing until she falls down dead.

72
Kinder- und Hausmärchen Snow White

• Some recent film versions of Snow White!

73
Kinder- und Hausmärchen Freudian Family Romance

• According to one psychological interpretation,
  the mother is split into two different maternal
  images, a good, absent mother, and an evil
  stepmother.
• Generally dysfunctional families of fairy tales
  often reflect Freudian Family Romance.
• Children imagine themselves misplaced in the
  wrong family their true home is much nicer,
  wealthier, more respected
• Orphan and foundling tales reflect such wishes.

74
Family Romances The Goose Girl

• The tale describe the attempts of the protagonist
  to be accepted in her true home.
• The Goose Girl is a princess whose servant has
  stolen her position and relegated her to a life
  of poverty and labor. Why should she get
  everything and I have to suffer?
• She is eventually recognized and restored while
  her adversary is killed as punishment.
• Brementown Musicians (added in later editions)
  also portrays search for a suitable home.

75
Kinder- und HausmärchenThe Juniper Tree 148-157.

• Some fairy tales do not fall into any neat
  categories, such as The Juniper Tree
• This tale contains a dysfunctional family, an
  evil stepmother, child abuse, infanticide,
  cannibalism, transformations, magical animals,
  and murder.
• The good mother gives birth to a boy, then dies.
  
• She is buried beneath the Juniper tree.
• Next wife has a good daughter, but she mistreats
  the boy and favors her own girl.

76
Kinder- und HausmärchenThe Juniper Tree

• The mother kills the boy, blames the girl, cooks
  him in a stew that only the father eats.
  Delicious!
• The girl takes her brothers bones to the Juniper
  Tree, which transforms them into a talking bird.
• The singing bird gets a golden chain, a pair of
  shoes, and a heavy millstone.
• Father hears the bird, gets the golden chain.
• Marlene hears the bird, gets the red shoes.
• And the evil mother

77
Fairy TalesThe Juniper Tree
78
Kinder- und HausmärchenThe Juniper Tree

• Mother hears the bird, gets the millstone on her
  head!
• The little boy returns to his usual shape.
• Despite his wifes death, the father is now very
  happy, and the three of them go back inside, sit
  down at the table, and eat.
• This tale was the one that inspired Brentano and
  von Arnim to ask the Grimms to collect fairy
  tales!
• If you have a good interpretation of this fairy
  tale, I would love to hear it!

79
Kinder- und Hausmärchen Folk Tales

• Unlike fairy tales, which are conservative and
  tend to uphold a strong patriarchal sense of
  order and propriety, Folk Tales reflect a peasant
  perspective that relishes inversions of the
  social order.
• Folk tale heroes come from most downtrodden
  social levels, peasants, retired soldiers,
  tailors, etc.
• Folk tales tend to be more satirical and more
  realistic than the supernatural fairy tales.
• Folk tales more often offer adult perspectives
  rather than a childs point of view.

80
Kinder- und Hausmärchen The Blue Light 383-386

• The Blue Light describes the life of a retired
  soldier he is old and useless, so the King has
  sent him away with nothing. He is at the bottom
  of the social order, has neither money nor
  property.
• A witch exploits his labor, but he gains a
  magical blue light that summons a little black
  dwarf (like a genie in a bottle).
• The dwarf aids him in getting his revenge,
  eventually gaining the kingdom and the kings
  daughter. Folk heroes are ruthless to
  competitors.

81
Kinder- und Hausmärchen Dr. Know-it-All

• Dr. Know-It-All is a good example of a folk
  tale in which a poor (though foolish) man uses
  his wits (and his luck!) to improve his station
  in life.
• Medical profession mocked from a peasant
  perspective to be a doctor one needs only a
  picture book, some nice clothes, and a sign!
• The peasant acquires the superficial appearance
  of a doctor, and is then treated by everyone as
  if her were indeed wise and learned.
• A little Luck helps him to earn his fortune.

82
Kinder- und Hausmärchen Jew in the Thornbush
360-363

• Early variants of the story cited by Grimms
  contain anti-Catholic rather than anti-semitic
  sentiments.
• The Jew in the story is accused by the simpleton
  of having skinned enough people and now
  getting the justice that he deserves. (Jewish
  peddlers and moneylenders had the reputation of
  cheating peasants).
• His mistreatment of the Jew (torturing him and
  extorting his money, then denying him justice)
  appears to contradict the tales premise that the
  simpleton has a good heart.
• The unquestioned anti-Semitism of the tale is
  given justification in the ending, when the Jew
  (again, under torture) confesses that he had
  stolen all of his money.
• The reversal at the end represents a typical folk
  tale fantasy, that peasants can invert social
  power hierarchies.

83
Kinder- und Hausmärchen Folk Tale Heroines

• While fairy tale heroines demonstrate their
  virtue through a strong work ethic (Cinderella,
  Mother Holle, Snow White), folk tale heroines try
  to avoid work!
• The girl in Rumpelstilzkin cannot spin straw
  into gold, and does not ever try she succeeds
  in avoiding work through the intercession of the
  evil little man.
• Another example of work avoidance is the tale
  The Lazy Spinner.

84
Kinder- und Hausmärchen The Lazy Spinner 418-420

• A lazy wife wishes to avoid spinning, and tells
  her husband she does not have the proper tools.
• She tricks him into thinking that carving a new
  reel for her would be dangerous.
• Eventually she tricks him into thinking that he
  is responsible for ruining the wool, so he never
  asks her to work again!
• The three Spinners (added in later editions)
  also portrays rewards given for not working!
• Triumph of the laziest girl! Reversal of usual
  order.

85
Kinder- und Hausmärchen Grimm Summary

• The collection of the Grimm brothers was not the
  first publication of fairy tales, but it was the
  first comprehensive collection, and the first to
  attempt to record tales as they might have been
  told in an authentic folk context.
• They were enormously influential, not only on
  other scholars who started collecting folk tales
  in different countries, but on literary figures
  in Germany, who began to write literary fairy
  tales (Kunstmärchen) imitating the style of the
  folk tales.
• Their influence continues. Folk tales are adapted
  for modern audiences to this day.