Maid Maleen

Virgin Maleen is a fairy tale (ATU 870). It is in the Children's and Household Tales of the Brothers Grimm from the 6th edition of 1850 instead 198 (KHM 198) and comes from Karl garbage collection Hoffs legends, fairy tales and songs of the duchies of Schleswig, Holstein and Lauenburg from 1845.

Content

A prince and a princess named Virgin Maleen love and want to marry. However, your father will give it another, and because Maleen opposes his intention to be the king walled her and her servant for seven years in a tower. As of the deadline runs out of food and no one can get out, the two young women get out of the tower and see the kingdom destroyed. They continued walking and feed on nettles. At the court of her lover, the unrecognized Virgin Maleen finally finds a job as a maid. The Prince is about the arranged marriage of his father with a wicked and ugly bride. This is ashamed of their appearance so much that it forces Virgin Maleen secretly to attract the wedding dress in its place and to represent them at the wedding. On the wedding procession Maleen speaks to a nettle, the foot-bridge and to the church door and makes it hints that it was the wrong bride. On the question of the prince she says she was only thinking of Maid Maleen. He hangs her as a gift for an ornament. As the evening veiled ugly bride is brought to him, he again asks her enigmatic words. The ugly bride apologizes three times with the assertion that her maid would wear their thoughts, and then enforces the correct answers of Maleen. Last asks the prince after the jewels, has retained the Virgin Maleen for themselves. The ugly bride thereupon to the interchange and wants to behead Virgin Maleen, but the prince comes and recognizes them. They are happy together, the ugly bride is beheaded.

Stylistic features

The usually printed on high German text contains some formulas in dialect. Virgin Maleen says on the way to the church:

The false bride helps against the questions of the Prince with the sentence:

The text ends with a poem that children sing at the abandoned tower of the Virgin Maleen

Origin

Bridesmaid Maleen comes According to Karl garbage collection Hoffs legends, fairy tales and songs of the duchies of Schleswig, Holstein and Lauenburg (1845 ) from Meldorf. The Brothers Grimm took it over for their children 's and Household Tales from the 6th edition ( 1850) as number 198 Virgin Maleen. They changed the wording, such as can be in the original the girl down from the tower ( instead of jumping ). The final poem is reported separately as presumably based on such a fairy tale, with the following variant from Line 5:

Comparisons

The lonely faithful Virgin, comparing here with rubble nettle plant corresponds to many other fairy tales. The motif of the Virgin in the tower corresponds to the Greek myth of Danaë and also comes in KHM 12 Rapunzel, KHM 69 Jorinda and Joringel KHM 76 The Clove ago. With Virgin Maleen is well thought of Mary Magdalene (see KHM 76 The Clove). Even the false bride who has no own thoughts (KHM 13, 21, 65, 89, 135, 186), invite you to participate deeply psychological interpretations. That the Prince to the prison tower of his beloved wandering is not in Müllenhoff'schen original. The Brothers Grimm completed the well in accordance with KHM 69 Jorinda and Joringel and KHM 181 The Mermaid in the pond, as the name Cinderella for the kitchen help. Conversely, the story might already be under the influence of earlier editions of the Children 's and Household Tales. Similar tales are:

• Virgin in the tower: KHM 12 Rapunzel, KHM 69 Jorinda and Joringel KHM 76 The Clove; Giambattista Basile in Penta Meron III, 3 Viso.
• False bride KHM 13 The three little men in the wood, KHM 21 Cinderella, KHM 65 Allerleirauh, KHM 89 The Goose Girl, KHM 135 The white bride and the black, KHM 186 The true bride.

Effect

Maurice Maeterlinck wrote in free variation of the fairy-tale motifs 1889 stage play La Princesse Maleine where unrolled before the film of the tale of the Virgin Maleen a mystical tragedy of resignation dramatically. In the German translations of Friedrich von Opole - Bronikowski by Stefan Gross, the piece of Maeterlinck Princess Maleine means. Following the presentation of the play by Maeterlinck wrote Lili Boulanger opera La Princesse Maleine, although the fragment remained makes this fairy tale a source of inspiration interesting music - compositional innovations.

Borries von Münchhausen wrote in 1910 a ballad from the nettle, which apparently is based on the fairy tale. The fairy tale collector Sigrid breakfast was personally affected by the tale she heard as a child in the shelter. Holger Teschke produced in 2003 a children's storyteller. In the Brothers Grimm fairy tale festival in Hanau Virgin Maleen 2005 was in the program. The passage to the transposed bride to church and talks to nettle, church steps and the church door and the eventual confession of the bride were used in the DEFA fairy tale Rapunzel or the Magic of tears.

Günter Eich wrote: