The gold egg
The gold egg is a fragmentary fairy tale ( ATU 567). In the children's and house tales of the Brothers Grimm, it was only in the 1st edition of 1812 in place 60 (KHM 60a).
content
A few poor broom-making boys fetch sticks for brooms every day in the forest and the little sister sells them. Then the youngest child finds a bird on a birch that lays a gold egg for them every morning, which they sell to the goldsmith. When the bird no longer lays eggs, he lets himself be carried to the goldsmith, to whom he sings:
- Who eats my little heart
- will soon be king;
- who eats my liver,
- every morning finds a gold bag under the pillow!
The goldsmith wants to marry the little sister and they should roast the bird on a spit for him for the wedding. Two pieces fall out, which they cost. When the goldsmith sees that the heart and liver are missing, he chases them all away.
Origin and reception
The magic fairy tale probably comes from Dortchen Wild . Wilhelm Grimm's handwriting from 1810 is almost identical, except that there are two chimney sweep boys who have to get the sticks for their brooms in the forest. From the 2nd edition, the fragment is only included in the note on the similar Die Zwei Brüder (KHM 60).
Hans-Jörg Uther apparently finds a version based on this in Johann Andreas Christian Löhr's Book of Maehrchen for Childhood and Adolescence, with annoying gnats and purrs from 1819 (Vol. 2, No. 16). See gold cockerel in Ludwig Bechstein's German book of fairy tales .
literature
- Brothers Grimm: Children's and Household Tales . Last hand edition with the original notes by the Brothers Grimm. With an appendix of all fairy tales and certificates of origin, not published in all editions, edited by Heinz Rölleke. Volume 3: Original Notes, Guarantees of Origin, Afterword. Pp. 114, 468-469. Revised and bibliographically supplemented edition, Stuttgart 1994. (Reclam-Verlag; ISBN 3-15-003193-1 )
- Heinz Rölleke (Ed.): The oldest fairy tale collection of the Brothers Grimm. Synopsis of the handwritten original version from 1810 and the first prints from 1812 . Edited and explained by Heinz Rölleke. Pp. 266–269, 384. Cologny-Geneve 1975. (Fondation Martin Bodmer; Printed in Switzerland)
Web links
- The magical bird heart on Märchenlexikon.de (AaTh 567)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Hans-Jörg Uther: Handbook on the children's and house tales of the Brothers Grimm . Berlin 2008. pp. 448-449. (de Gruyter; ISBN 978-3-11-019441-8 )