The three chatting princesses
De three black princesses (The three black princesses) is a fairy tale (cf. ATU 400). It is in the children's and house tales of the Brothers Grimm at position 137 (KHM 137) in Low German . There the title was written De three black princesses .
content
A city is besieged and is supposed to pay 600 thalers. Anyone who brings them up should therefore become mayor. So it becomes a poor fisherman because the enemy steals his son and gives him 600 thalers in return. Whoever does not call him Mr. Mayor should hang. The son escapes and finds an enchanted black castle with three black-clad princesses in a mountain in the forest, whom he can redeem if he does not look at them or speak to them for a year, but just say what he wants. When he wants to see his father, he gets money, clothes and eight days' time. In town he is looking for his father, whom he addresses Fischer . On the gallows he asks to be allowed to go to the fisherman's hut again, he puts on the old clothes, identifies himself and is accepted. He tells about the castle. On the advice of his mother, he drips consecrated wax onto the faces of the princesses. It makes them half white, but curse him because they are now unsolvable. He jumps out of the window, breaks his leg, and the lock disappears.
origin
The text is in Grimms Märchen from the second part of the first edition (since no. 51) at position 137. Your comment is noted from Aus dem Münsterland (by Jenny von Droste-Hülshoff ). They explain that the disruption of the developing magic brings ruin and compare with regard to the need for secrecy KHM 58 The Donkey , with regard to silence KHM 3 Child Mary . The image of the enchanted castle with captive or cursed noblewomen or princesses also appears in several medieval epics (cf. ' Parzival ' by Wolfram von Eschenbach ) and is often assigned to the Celtic saga. It could point to a Celtic idea of the afterlife.
Comparisons
- Cursed castle: KHM 62 The queen bee , KHM 121 The king's son who is not afraid of anything , KHM 92 The king of the golden mountain , KHM 197 The crystal ball
- Mother's advice: KHM 193 The Drummer , KHM 186 The True Bride , KHM 113 De Zwei Künigeskinner
- Curse of candle wax: Cupid and Psyche
The narrative researcher Hans-Jörg Uther suspects that, unlike in KHM 121, redemption does not succeed because the people involved are not virtuous, the father sold his son. The mother notices about the planned salvation that it may not be good what the hero internalized ( do you roar em so ).
literature
- Grimm, Brothers: 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. 231–232, 497. Revised and bibliographically supplemented edition, Reclam-Verlag, Stuttgart 1994, ISBN 3-15-003193-1 .
- Uther, Hans-Jörg: Handbook on the children's and house fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm , de Gruyter, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-11-019441-8 (pp. 292-293).
