The riddle
The riddle is a fairy tale ( ATU 851). It is in the children's and house tales of the Brothers Grimm at position 22 (KHM 22). There the title The Riddle was written .
content
A prince travels the world with his servant. One evening he couldn't find a restaurant, just a lonely house. But the beautiful daughter of the house warns the prince and his companions not to stop; her stepmother is a wicked witch . The prince fearlessly accepts the black artist's invitation, but he takes heed of the stepdaughter's advice not to take anything to eat or drink from the hostess.
The next day, the stepmother still wants to give the prince, who is ready to leave, a farewell drink. When she fetches the drink, the prince rides away quickly. His squire is still busy saddling his horse. When the witch tries to give the cup to the squire, the squire jumps and the poison immediately kills the servant's horse. A raven eats the horse and dies immediately. The servant takes the raven with him as food.
The next evening the two travelers find a hostel. You give the raven to the cook. The restaurant is a murder pit. The twelve murderers, who are after the prince, enjoy a raven soup with the witch and the innkeeper before the act. But they all die from the poison.
Prince and servant move on and come to a town where a king's daughter, who is enigmatic, lives. She gives advertisers an opportunity to marry her: if they can tell the princess a riddle that she cannot solve in three days, that person would become her husband. But if she can solve the riddle, the advertiser would be killed.
Impressed by her beauty, he asked her the riddle: "What is that [...] one person didn't hit anyone and still hit twelve" . The king's daughter cannot find a solution and wants to use such a trick. She first sends her maid to listen to the prince in his sleep. The servant, however, had taken the place of the prince. He notices the maid, takes her coat and chases her away. The next night the princess sends her maid , but this attempt also fails. On the third night the princess actually comes to the prince herself this time. After he deliberately reveals the solution to her, he also takes her coat.
The next day the princess thinks she has solved the riddle. The prince accuses them of fraud. As proof he cites the three coats. The twelve judges then decide that the prince can marry the princess.
The solution to the riddle: One did not beat anyone: “A raven that ate from a dead and poisoned horse and died of it” , but still beat twelve: “ There are twelve murderers who ate the raven and died from it” .
origin
Grimm's comment notes on the origin from Zwehrn (probably by Dorothea Viehmann ) and sketches a different version, which was also included in the text above from the 3rd edition: The witch mother of a beautiful girl is chasing a prince with a poison glass that she gives to his servant, the but breaks and so kills the horse. The prince has the host roast the raven that ate from the horse. The murderers eat it and die. The landlady's daughter shows him treasures, but is allowed to keep them. The prince puts the riddle before the princess: someone struck none and struck twelve . The Grimms also name Turandot and Laßbergs Liedersaal 1, 537.
The fairy tale is actually a swank . On the riddle princess compare v. a. KHM 191 The sea rabbit , for feeding the ravens with the dead horse cf. KHM 16a Mr. Fix and done .
The arrogant puzzler or solver (like Turandot) has been encountered in many European texts since the Middle Ages - here with the coat as a symbol, a motif that is typical of Grimm's fairy tales (e.g. KHM 133 ). In an example from Compilatio singularis exemplorum (13th century), the knight wins with a question whose answer she would have to admit to have slept with him.
interpretation
Jobst Finke refers to possible interpretations of the behavior of the riddle princess (also in KHM 71 , 114 , 191 ) as a repulsed longing for closeness or projected fears of annihilation of the men ( Oedipus complex , as in KHM 181 ).
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. Revised and bibliographically supplemented edition. Reclam, Stuttgart 1994. ISBN 3-15-003193-1 , pp. 51-52, 452.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Hans-Jörg Uther: Handbook on the children's and house tales of the Brothers Grimm. de Gruyter, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-11-019441-8 , pp. 55-56.
- ^ Jobst Finke: Dreams, Fairy Tales, Imaginations. Person-centered psychotherapy and counseling with images and symbols. Reinhardt, Munich 2013, ISBN 978-3-497-02371-4 , pp. 154, 196-197.
