The bearskin

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The bearskin is a fairy tale ( ATU 361). It is in the children's and house fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm in place 101 (KHM 101). Until the 4th edition it was called Der Teufel Grünrock . Ludwig Bechstein took it over in his German fairy tale book in 1853 as Rupert, the Bear Skin (No. 74).

content

Illustration by Otto Ubbelohde , 1909

A brave young soldier is not accepted anywhere after the end of the war, not even by his two brothers, and does not know what to live on. On a heather under a ring of trees he meets the devil, who first tests his courage with a bear and then offers him a deal: He has to live and sleep in the fur of the shot bear for seven years, is not allowed to wash, comb who have favourited cut nails and don't pray the Lord's Prayer If he dies during this time, he belongs to the devil, he never runs out of money for that. The bearskin wanders around enjoying life. Because he is kind to the poor whom he asks to pray for him, and because he pays well, he is always tolerated, although he looks worse every year. When he pays a poor man's debts, he promises him one of his daughters to wife. Only the youngest is ready and he gives her half of his ring before he leaves for the last three years. When the seven years are up, he lets the devil wash him, puts on good clothes and drives to his bride in a carriage with four white horses. She recognizes him when she finds his half of the ring in her goblet of wine. Her two sisters, who often ridiculed her for her husband, but now would have liked to have the rich man, commit suicide. In the evening the devil comes and says: "You see, now I have two souls for your one."

origin

Illustration by Otto Ubbelohde , 1909

Until the 4th edition, the hero of the fairy tale under the title Der Teufel Grünrock is not a soldier, but as the youngest brother of the others cast out (as in many Dummlingsmärchen : KHM 57 , 62 , 63 , 64 , 97 , 106 , 165 ). The devil gives him his green coat, in which there is always money. Also missing is the detail that he lets the devil do his hair at the end. Grimm's comment notes on the origin “From the Paderbörnischen” (probably from the von Haxthausen family ). The devil appears here as in Hebel's “Alleman. Poems 50 “as a child of the world in a green skirt. Grimm's final version The Bärenhäuter from the 5th edition is influenced by Grimmelshausen's story The First Bärenhäuter .

The piety of the hero and the loyalty of the youngest daughter are only characteristic of Grimm, others are told in a vague manner. The bearskin motif has only been associated with the popular fairytale type since Grimmelshausen's influential art version. Referring back to Tacitus ' honorable mention of the bear warriors ( Germania 15 and 17), perhaps also with knowledge of the berserkers , he turns against the contemporary valuation, which understands it to mean people who “stay on their bear skin out of laziness and never nothing Brave “align. After the bearskin is dressed very differently, Heinz Rölleke sees the pact conditions as the core motive: do not comb, do not wash, etc.

language

Portrait of the first berry skinner , Grimmelshausen 1670

There are also some idioms apparently from the Brothers Grimm: "When it rains blue beans"; "Money and Good"; "I want to tickle your nose"; "Was in good spirits"; “What hurt him and what hurt the money”; “The host let himself be softened”.

interpretation

Hedwig von Beit interprets the getting dirty in The Devil's Sooty Brother and Der Bärenhäuter as an adaptation to the shadow that isolates people and allows them to develop spiritually. The Odin or berserk belief lives on here collectively : horsefoot, green skirt and split ring are common attributes of Odin, berserkers were men who turned into bears. The devil is only dangerous when there are personal shortcomings, such as the envy of the sisters. According to Wilhelm Salber , this is essentially about revaluations that lead to the hope of making the impossible available simply by enduring. The homeopath Martin Bomhardt compares the fairy tale with the drug picture of Sulfur . For Regina Kämmerer , his good deeds and the love of the people helped the soldier to mature and turn fate.

Comparisons

The bearskin bride keeps her father's promise as in KHM 88 The singing, jumping little lion , there as the main character. The course of action from the seven years that have to be spent until redemption corresponds to the fairy tale KHM 9 The twelve brothers , KHM 25 The seven ravens , KHM 49 The six swans . Usually the woman is looking for her husband or her brother. Unique among Grimm's fairy tales is the ambivalence of the good ending in connection with the Christian motif.

Receptions

Heinrich Heine's poem Michel after March begins with "As long as I knew the German Michel, he was a bearskin". Michel , politically passive on the bear skin, falls back into political lethargy after a brief awakening during the March Revolution .

Ludwig Bechstein tells the fairy tale as Rupert, the bearskin in German Fairy Tale Book from 1853 with a lot of humor, the plot is like Grimm's. The devil gives him the green money coat in the forest and has to lick it in at the end before Herr Rupert travels to his fiancée in an extra mail. Bechstein's Schab den Rüssel in New German Fairy Tale Book is similar .

Opera

Both operas mix Der Bärenhäuter with the preceding fairy tale The Devil's Sooty Brother from Grimm's collection.

Hermann Wette published Der Bärenhäuter in 1897 . Devil's tale. , Wilhelm Pleyer 1928 The bearskin. The German fairy tale for the puppet stage. , Otto Bernhard Wendler 1935 The bearskin .

Movie and TV

literature

  • Grimm, Brothers: Children's and Household Tales. Complete edition. With 184 illustrations by contemporary artists and an afterword by Heinz Rölleke. Pp. 501-505. Düsseldorf and Zurich, 19th edition 1999. (Artemis & Winkler Verlag; Patmos Verlag; ISBN 3-538-06943-3 )
  • 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. Revised and bibliographically supplemented edition, Stuttgart 1994. S. 194, pp. 485-486. (Reclam-Verlag; ISBN 3-15-003193-1 )
  • Heinz Rölleke: Bearskins. In: Encyclopedia of Fairy Tales. Volume 1. pp. 1225-1232. Berlin, New York, 1977.
  • Walter Scherf: The fairy tale dictionary. First volume A – KS 46–49. Munich, 1995. (Verlag CH Beck; ISBN 3-406-39911-8 )
  • Hedwig von Beit: Symbolism of the fairy tale. Bern, 1952. pp. 189–192, 240, 264. (A. Francke AG, Verlag)
  • Hedwig von Beit: Contrast and Renewal in Fairy Tales. Second volume of «Symbolism of Fairy Tales». Second, improved edition, Bern 1956. P. 34, 472. (A. Francke AG, Verlag)

Web links

Wikisource: The Bearskin  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Rölleke, Heinz: Bear skins. In: Encyclopedia of Fairy Tales. Volume 1, Berlin, New York 1977, pp. 1225-1232.
  2. ↑ Lothar Bluhm and Heinz Rölleke: “Popular speeches that I always listen to”. Fairy tale - proverb - saying. On the folk-poetic design of children's and house fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm. New edition. S. Hirzel Verlag, Stuttgart / Leipzig 1997. ISBN 3-7776-0733-9 , pp. 113-114.
  3. ↑ Hedwig von Beit: Symbolism of the fairy tale. A. Francke AG, Bern 1952, pp. 189-192.
  4. ^ Wilhelm Salber: fairy tale analysis. 2nd Edition. Bouvier Verlag, Bonn 1999, ISBN 3-416-02899-6 , pp. 59-61.
  5. ^ Martin Bomhardt: Symbolic Materia Medica. 3. Edition. Verlag Homeopathie + Symbol, Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-9804662-3-X , p. 1315.
  6. ↑ Regina Kämmerer: Fairy tales for a successful life. KVC-Verlag, Essen 2013, pp. 138-139.
  7. ↑ Donald Ward: Glasberg. In: Encyclopedia of Fairy Tales. Volume 5, Berlin / New York 1987, pp. 1265-1270.
  8. ↑ Wikisource: Heines Michel after March