The murder castle
The murder castle is a fairy tale ( ATU 311, 955). It was only in the first edition of 1812 at position 73 in the children's and house tales of the Brothers Grimm (KHM 73a).
content
A shoemaker's daughter lets a well-dressed gentleman lead her to his castle while her father is away. When he has to travel on business the next day, he gives her all the keys so that she can look around the lock. On her tour, she finally meets an old woman in the cellar who processes human intestines. In shock, the shoemaker's daughter falls the cellar key into a basin of blood, which makes her suspicious of the lord of the castle. The old woman then helps her escape on a hay wagon. In this way, she gets to another castle, where she is well received and can entrust her discovery to the lord of the castle there. At a party that the righteous lord of the castle gives a little later, the lord of the murder castle can finally be convicted with the help of the shoemaker's daughter and go to prison. The shoemaker's daughter gets his fortune transferred and marries the son of the good lord of the castle.
Stylistic peculiarities
The murder castle differs from the other versions in two particularly impressive dialogues: On the carriage ride to the castle, the murderer speaks:
- the moon shines so bright, ('t maantje schynt zo hel,)
- my horses run so fast, (myn paardtjes lope zo snel,)
- sweet dear, don't you regret it? (soete ran rouwt 't uv niet?)
In the cellar the old woman says: I scrape intestines, my child, tomorrow I'll scrape yours.
origin
The Brothers Grimm had the fairy tale orally from the Dutch woman de Kinsky . It is very similar to Charles Perrault's Bluebeard , which is why they replaced it from the second edition with the animal tale The Wolf and the Fox . Fitchers Vogel and The Robber Groom are also related .
Grimm's comment compares the Totenreiterlied in Gottfried August Bürger's Lenore and reproduces the original Dutch text of the fairy tale, which Jacob Grimm had apparently translated literally.
Comparisons
See the story of the third calendar from 1001 nights . Cf. in Giambattista Basiles Pentameron II, 8 Die kleine Sklavin , IV, 6 Die Drei Kronen . See The Three Brides and The Golden Egg in Ludwig Bechstein's German Book of Fairy Tales from 1845. See also Bluebeard
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, published by Heinz Rölleke. Volume 3: Original Notes, Guarantees of Origin, Afterword. Pp. 87-88, 530-532. Revised and bibliographically supplemented edition, Stuttgart 1994. (Reclam-Verlag; ISBN 3-15-003193-1 )
