The godfather of death

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Illustration (perhaps by George Cruikshank )

The Grim Reaper is a fairy tale ( ATU  332). It is in the children's and house tales of the Brothers Grimm at position 44 (KHM 44). Ludwig Bechstein took it over in his German book of fairy tales as Gevatter Tod (1845 No. 20, 1853 No. 12).

content

A desperate poor man is looking for a godfather for his thirteenth child. But he rejects the good God ("you give to the rich and starve the poor") as well as the devil ("you deceive and seduce people") and only accepts death "which makes everyone equal". Death shows the boy a herb with which he can heal the sick when he sees death by their head, but not when he sees it at their feet, and warns him not to break the commandment . Soon he was famous and rich as a doctor for his clarity. When first the king and then his daughter become seriously ill, and she is promised to be a wife to the savior, it occurs to him to turn her in bed. Death looks after him once, the second time he fetches him and shows him the lights of life in a cave. His is going out. At his request, death appears to fetch a new one, but lets the remainder fall over and the doctor dies.

origin

Illustration by Otto Ubbelohde , 1909

In the 1st edition from 1812 the sentence "This is how the man spoke because he did not know how wise God distributes wealth and poverty" is missing. The devil does not appear. Instead of the herb, the doctor lets the sick smell a bottle and uses it to anoint their feet. His godfather does not kill him in the end, but only shows him his weak light among the rest and says: "This is your life, beware!" Heinz Rölleke explains such changes as the Grimm brothers' reaction to criticism of their fairy tales, here above all the accusation of non-religiousness. In a final fragment from Grimm's estate, the doctor asks for a final Our Father and tricked death by not praying it to the end (cf. KHM 81 , 86 ).

Illustration by Otto Ubbelohde , 1909

Grimm's comment notes “From Hessen” (by Marie Elisabeth Wild ), where the doctor is only warned that the present conclusion comes from Schillings Abendgenossen 3, 145-286. The age of the fairy tale is also proven by a master song by Hans Sachs , 1553, in another by Heinrich Wolf, first the devil, then death rejects the peasants. In Jakob Ayrer's carnival game of “Baur with his godfather” he rejects Jesus and the devil, who sends him death, who is godfather. They also name Praetorius' lucky pot "S. 147–149 ", Pröhle's children's fairy tale No. 13, Wolf's house fairy tale " p. 365 ". You will notice how the idea of ​​the lights of life also echoes in the saying “blow out the light of life”, and in Greek myth, too, life is tied to a burning log. Jacob Grimm also examined this idea in relation to the fairy tale in his German mythology and later uses it in the preface to the German dictionary : “My days after the common human losz are almost worn out, and the rest of the light of life can suddenly come to me overturn ". The Brothers Grimm jointly published Hartmann von Aues Der poor Heinrich in 1815 , where it says:

Dirre werlte veste,
ir staete and ir best
and I have the greatest strength,
diu stât âne championship.
we must stand by the candles
a ware picture happened,
daz sî zeiner ash host
in the middle of this sî lent birt.

The phrase "there was no more herb for him" is widespread, as in Hans Sachs ' poem Gevatter Tod (1547):

That's why it was when the saying went:
Cain krawt grew for the dot,
Landlord also spared Hans Sachsen.

The doctor still uses the herb of life and hopes that death will “probably turn a blind eye”, which threatens him “You have led me behind the light” (cf. KHM 7 , 61 ), “that's how it hurts you” (ex 6th edition; cf. KHM 27 , 29 , 171 , 199 ), but who “threw all thoughts to the wind”, it says “it is over with you and it is now your turn”, and he was now himself “got into the hand of death” (cf. KHM 60 , 71 , 85 ).

According to Hans-Jörg Uther , an authoritative model was Jakob Ayrer's carnival game Der Baur with his godfather , which Jacob Grimm knew, and in the final part also a story in Friedrich Gustav Schilling's evening companions . Cf. KHM 27a Death and the Goose Shirt . The fairy tale text should be placed near the example and resemble many allegorical stories from the late Middle Ages and early modern times. Cf. KHM 42 Der Gevatter , on the sponsorship gift also KHM 126 Ferenand trü and Ferenand untrü .

The copper engraving series by the Dutch artist Salomon von Rusting from 1707, based on the folk tale that a sick person must die if death stands at the foot of the sick bed, describes a similar situation in which death stands at the head of the bed , but still, while the doctor was still busy with the uroscopy , touched a young woman from the patient's family on the arm and brought them to her.

Receptions

Ludwig Bechstein sticks to Grimm's version with Gevatter Tod in Deutsches Märchenbuch , but lets the princess appear at the king's bed and plead for her father. Bechstein also names Hermann Schiff's godfather. A fairy tale novella (1838), as well as own works: Der Herr Gevatter, a fairy tale retold in Zeitspiegel 2 (1832), Der Herr Gevatter in Novellen und Phantasieblüthen (1835) and Gevatter Tod, a fairy tale in stories and songs with pictures as a continuation of the festival calendar by Franz Pocci 3 (around 1845). Cf. also The three stupid devils in Bechstein's German fairy tale book , also The Devil's Godfather in the 1845 edition, or the Breton fairy tale The Just Man , in which the boy's father, however, takes center stage as the friend of death. B. Traven's novella Macario (1950) (also under the title: The Third Guest ), which was voted the best short story of the year by the New York Times in 1953, is the slightly varied transfer of the fairy tale The Grim Reaper in a Mexican setting. Terry Pratchett wrote a novel Grim Reaper (1987).

interpretation

It seems surprising that death is a fatal disease in the feet and a harmless disease in the head. In some stories it is the other way round. This may indicate that death does not destroy people, but only robs them of their physical attachment to earth. If one continues to assume that the king and his daughter are interpreted as spirit and soul, the doctor may act wisely, despite his presumptuousness to manipulate death, as he preserves mental and spiritual health. Hedwig von Beit interprets it to mean that consciousness prevails on the head, the underworld at the feet, but ultimately death is free. He is to be understood here as a spiritual father and unites light and darkness in himself. In an Icelandic variant, he teaches the hero.

The misfortune of the 13th child drives the poor father to a headless cry for help to the godfather, who, like the doctor, is expected to have extraordinary abilities. He rejects God and the devil because of injustice or moral ambiguity. The directness of death (which acts independently of any religion) appeals to him. His son inherits it as a life theme. Death as equalizer (in “equal” there is “light”, that is, “having the same body”) is a parable for the paradoxes in life. The death wish of the desperate father changes in the son, which also corresponds to the meaning of baptism ( Romans 6 : 3 ff.). Death leads him to the herb in the forest, d. H. on the healing power in the unconscious (cf. The three snake leaves , Gilgamesh ). The doctor is always only the healing assistant of nature or the soul. Near-death experiences or synchronicity events are particularly impressive. In Greek myth, too, the world is divided between Zeus , Poseidon and Hades . Hades is also invisible, the entrance to his underworld is also in caves. As Pluto, he has medicinal plants and wealth. Heracles wants to outsmart him. Asklepios , the most famous doctor in the ancient world, learned from the healer Chiron , the brother of the ferryman Charon , also found a medicinal herb and was struck by Zeus' lightning. The method of his successors included a healing sleep, whereby the god proclaimed the remedy in a dream (sleep was considered death's brother). According to Paracelsus , medicine is based on knowledge of the “light of nature” (philosophy), on the knowledge of the “timing” of death (astronomy), which one must adhere to, and on knowledge of the remedies (alchemy). One can suspect size fantasies in such a successful young doctor. For the first time he falls out as a trickster with one of his father figures in order to artificially extend an already sick reign, although he should only say "whether recovery would be possible". The second miracle healing is motivated by love, which is made difficult by difficult homes. The journey to the hereafter into the cave with lights, in terms of depth psychology, a journey into the unconscious with death and rebirth of the ego, corresponds to a shaman ordination or birth in psychedelic experiences. The divine punishment, as in Prometheus ' fire robbery or the expulsion from paradise, is typically occidental.

Eugen Drewermann shows how the rejection of prevailing obsessional dogmas, according to which rejection of the "dear God" should have led to seduction by the devil ( Mt 4,1-11  EU ), is not a psychological but a moral question in the poor man's life experience . This practical atheism and pragmatism fits modern medicine. Through the risk of love, the doctor becomes man again and death his enemy (cf. Inanna , Isis , Alcestis , Orpheus ). How to deal with the despair remains open. Homeopaths compared the fairy tale with the remedy pictures of Causticum Hahnemanni and Plumbum .

Movies

Radio plays

In 1951 and 1954, the NWDR Hamburg and Radio Bremen produced two radio plays in Low German under the title Krut gegen den Dood (herb against death) based on the fairy tale, which was redesigned by the Low German poet Hans Heitmann and with one changed ending, in which the Lord God intervenes and gives the young people free, provided.

Information about the productions:

Playing time: 45'50 minutes. The audio document is still preserved.

Playing time: 84'57 minutes. The audio document is still preserved.

literature

  • Brothers Grimm: Children's and Household Tales . Complete edition. With 184 illustrations by contemporary artists and an afterword by Heinz Rölleke. 19th edition. Artemis & Winkler Verlag, Patmos Verlag, Düsseldorf / Zurich 1999, ISBN 3-538-06943-3 , pp. 247-250.
  • 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-Verlag, Stuttgart 1994, ISBN 3-15-003193-1 , pp. 81-83, 461.
  • Hans-Jörg Uther: Handbook to the children's and house fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm. de Gruyter, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-11-019441-8 , pp. 105-108.
  • Lothar Bluhm and Heinz Rölleke: “Popular sayings 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. 75-80.

Web links

Wikisource: Der Gevatter Tod  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Heinz Rölleke. In: Brothers Grimm: Children's and Household Tales . Complete edition. With 184 illustrations by contemporary artists and an afterword by Heinz Rölleke. 19th edition. Artemis & Winkler Verlag, Patmos Verlag, Düsseldorf / Zurich 1999, ISBN 3-538-06943-3 , pp. 865–866.
  2. ↑ Heinz Rölleke (Ed.): Fairy tales from the estate of the Brothers Grimm . 5th improved and supplemented edition. WVT Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier, Trier 2001, ISBN 3-88476-471-3 , pp. 42, 108.
  3. ↑ 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. 75-80.
  4. ↑ 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. 105-108.
  5. ↑ The scene of death or the dance of death in coppers and verses. Amsterdamm 1707.
  6. ↑ Friedrich v. Zglinicki : Uroscopy in the fine arts. An art and medical historical study of the urine examination. Ernst Giebeler, Darmstadt 1982, ISBN 3-921956-24-2 , p. 94 f.
  7. ^ Hans-Jörg Uther (Ed.): Ludwig Bechstein. Storybook. After the edition of 1857, text-critically revised and indexed. Diederichs, Munich 1997, ISBN 3-424-01372-2 , p. 383.
  8. ↑ So z. B. Traven, Macario , Mexico 1961, p. 64: "(...) because if I stand at the head of the sick person, he will die, regardless of whether you do something or not".
  9. ↑ Hedwig von Beit: Symbolism of the fairy tale. Attempt at an interpretation. 4th edition. Francke, Bern and Munich 1971, pp. 112–114.
  10. ↑ Helmut Hark: The godfather death. A godfather for life . 2nd edition, Kreuz Verlag, Zurich 1991, ISBN 3-268-00025-8 .
  11. ↑ Eugen Drewermann : Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let your hair down. Grimm's fairy tales interpreted in terms of depth psychology . 8th edition. dtv, Munich 2004, ISBN 3-423-35056-3 , pp. 283-315.
  12. ^ Martin Bomhardt: Symbolic Materia Medica. 3. Edition. Verlag Homöopathie + Symbol, Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-9804662-3-X , p. 416.
  13. ↑ Jane Cicchetti: Dreams, Symbols and Homeopathy. Archetypal dimensions of healing. Homeopathy + Symbol, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-937095-16-5 , p. 244.