The True Bride
The true bride is a fairy tale (ATU 313). It is in the Children's and Household Tales of the Brothers Grimm from the 5th edition of 1843 instead 186 (KHM 186) and comes from the magazine for German antiquity by Moriz Haupt, who published the story of the Upper Lusatia there in 1842. Ludwig Bechstein took it over from the same source in his German fairy tale book of 1845 under the title Helene.
Content
A beautiful and hardworking girl is tormented by his stepmother increasingly heavier tasks. First it must one day twelve pound of feathers abschleißen, then empty a lake with a holey spoon, then build a castle. Every time an old woman comes and helps him while he sleeps. In the commission of the castle cellar, the stepmother plunges to death. The girl engaged to a prince. When he wants to obtain his father's consent to the marriage, she kisses him on the left cheek and waiting under a lime tree, before she goes looking for him after three days. After no one knows of him, she lives a few years sad as a shepherdess. Twice rides her lover wants to marry another princess, past her without realizing it. During the three -day festival she dances with him one evening in a dress with sun, then in a with moons and finally in a with stars. When she kisses him on the left cheek, he recognizes her. They married in the castle of the true bride.
Comments
The tale has a tripartite division into the portion of the wicked stepmother ( as KHM 21 Cinderella, KHM 130 One-Eye, Two-Eyes and Three-Eyes ), the search hike as lonely shepherdess (KHM 69 Jorinda and Joringel KHM 181 The mermaid in a pond) and finally the hard nights (KHM 21 Cinderella, KHM 65 Allerleirauh, KHM 88 The Singing springing lark, KHM 113 De two Künigeskinner, KHM 127 The iron furnace, KHM 193 The drummer ). Here are the first and the last section, in turn, a sequence of three tasks and three nights. In the three tasks, the three elements of air, water and earth seem represented to be (as in KHM 17, 33, 62, 193, 107a ), which is repeated in the mention of the weather vane, the water in the pots and the cellar.
In the middle section the girl speaks as a shepherdess to her calf a poem:
" Little calf, little calf, kneel, do not forget thy shepherdess again, As the prince forgot his betrothed bride, the green under the lime tree was sitting. "
In this case, the calf for a child or her husband seems to be. When they near it speaks the poem the second time it stops, holds the hand in front of his eyes as he were trying to remember something, but he soon rode onwards, and was soon gone. Basile's tragic tale Viso sounds here but down significantly.
Interpretation
According to Wilhelm Salber move here excessiveness and make small side. He cited the example of a thirty year old who found her true form only in unpretentious Meet and Benörgeln foreign tasks.
Origin
The tale is in the Children's and Household Tales of the Brothers Grimm from the 5th edition of 1843., You will not notice that they have taken the tale from the Upper Lusatia from Moriz Haupt's magazine for German antiquity (No. 2, 1842, p 481 -486 ). There, the castle is not described in detail and also not mentioned at the end. The poem she speaks once alone and once in his earshot, but quietly and with a trembling voice. It reads as follows:
" Kälbchen kneel and forget your honor not know how the prince Lassmann forgot the poor Helene, as she sat under the green linden. "
Comparisons
See Giambattista Basile in Penta Meron II, 7 The dove, III, 3 Viso, III, 9 Rosella. See, Ludwig Bechstein's Deutsches storybook The boy with the golden stars, as well as in the edition of 1845, the three nuts and Helene.