The Lord Godfather

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Herr Gevatter is a fairy tale ( ATU 332, 334). It is in the children's and house tales of the Brothers Grimm at position 42 (KHM 42).

content

A poor man, father of many children, does not know who else to ask to be a godfather (godfather). In a dream, he asks the first person he meets in front of the gate. He gives him a bottle of water as a godparent gift, with which he can heal the sick, if death is on the head of a dying person and not on his feet. The man becomes famous and rich. He can also save the king's child twice, but the third time the means fails because death is at the child's feet and the child dies. When the man wants to visit the godfather to tell him how he got on with the godfather's gift, he sees a strange mess in his house. On the first flight of stairs a shovel quarreled with a broom, on the second flight of stairs there were dead fingers, on the third one skulls and on the fourth fish were baking themselves in a pan and then carrying themselves baked on the table. After the fifth flight of stairs he sees the horned godfather through the keyhole, who quickly lies down in bed when the man opens the door.

The short text ends abruptly with the denial: “Well, that's not true.” From the 3rd edition on, the man runs away.

origin

Illustration by Otto Ubbelohde , 1909

The fairy tale is in the children's and house tales from the 1st edition of 1812 according to Amalie Hassenpflug . Grimm's comment only mentions another one in Aurbacher's little book for young people . There the ending is even more drastic, the curious woman is killed.

Compare in particular KHM 44 Der Gevatter Tod , but also KHM 43 Frau Trude , KHM 43a The miraculous Gasterei , KHM 177 The Messengers of Death , on the doctor's visit KHM 118 The three field shearers, on the search for a godfather KHM 126 Ferenand betrü and Ferenand untrü and the note on KHM 6 Faithful John ; The devil's godfather in Ludwig Bechstein's German book of fairy tales from 1845; see also water of life .

interpretation

Hedwig von Beit notes here the unity of death and the devil, as in the godfather-death variant The Doctor of Fougeray . Apparently it can animate dead objects, fish refer to the content of the unconscious, the fifth floor to the number of materiality. According to Eugen Drewermann , the "godfather" is death, whose friend the doctor has to be in order to use the deadline he gives us. The dark side of it is a cold medicine as in Ivan Turgenev's novel Fathers and Sons or Otto Dix 's Portrait of Hans Koch , 1921. In view of the constant suffering, as Anne Philipe describes in Just a Sigh , the Lord of the World appears at the same time as the devil. Shovel and broom, man and woman in trauma psychology, serve as slaves and rubbish in his house. The " scorzonere root " is a remedy or food, like the fish are all symbols of a hideous backside of life.

literature

  • Grimm, brothers. Children's and Household Tales. Complete edition. With 184 illustrations by contemporary artists and an afterword by Heinz Rölleke. Pp. 244-245. 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. P. 81, 460. Revised and bibliographically supplemented edition, Stuttgart 1994. (Reclam-Verlag; ISBN 3-15-003193-1 )
  • 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. 101-103.
  • 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. 253-282.

Web links

Wikisource: Der Herr Gevatter  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ 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. 101-103.
  2. ↑ Hedwig von Beit: Symbolism of the fairy tale. Attempt at an interpretation. 4th edition. Francke, Bern and Munich 1971, pp. 114–116.
  3. ↑ 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. 253-282.