The Merchant (Giambattista Basile)

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The merchant ( Neapolitan original: Lo mercante ) is a fairy tale ( AaTh 300, 303). It is in Giambattista Basile 's Pentameron collection as the seventh story of the first day (I, 7).

content

Because he smashed pumpkin in the prince's contest, Cienzo has to flee. He sleeps in a haunted house, three goblins leave him a treasure and disappear, but he takes nothing. At a stream he saves a fairy from bad guys, but he refuses the reward. He saves a princess from a dragon whose head has been cut off by means of magic herbs. He cuts off all heads at once, keeps the kite's tongues and the herb, then he rests. Meanwhile a peasant brings the dragon's heads to the king and claims that it was him. Cienzo has his dog bring a letter, they fetch it and he shows his tongue as proof and receives the princess. A sorceress ties him with her hair. Cienzo's brother follows him, is mistaken for him everywhere, but does not sleep with his wife. He sets the dog on the witcher in good time and frees Cienzo. Jealously he cuts off his head, but learns of his chastity, repents and heals him with the herb.

Remarks

The “pumpkin” is probably the prince's head, the translation is not entirely clear here. Basile still varies the chopping off of the head with Dragon and Brother. The text is a two-brother tale . Compare with Basile I, 9 The deceitful doe and already with Straparola Cesarino di Berni ( Le Piacevoli notti ). The dragon fight has ancient models, e.g. B. Heracles , Perseus or St. George . According to Rudolf Schenda , the seven heads are influenced by frequent illustrations from Rev 12.3  EU . Schenda mentions the Italian reception of the fairy tale Gonzenbach I, No. 40 Of the Two Brothers , in Imbriani's Novellaja No. 28 Il mago delle sette teste , Domenico Comparetti's La Nuvolaccia in Schenda's fairy tale from Tuscany , No. 25 The gloomy cloud ( The fairy tale der Weltliteratur , 1996) and more recent records in Cirese / Serafini and De Simone I, No. 14 O serpente a sette cape . An early German translation by the businessman can be found in Adelbert Keller's Italian Novellenschatz . Cf. in Grimm's fairy tale The two brothers , Die Goldkinder , The trained hunter , Von Johannes-Wassersprung and Caspar-Wassersprung , to the haunted house and a. The three languages , the herb of life The three snake leaves . Walter Scherf thinks that Cienzo is following a pattern. The bewitching stems from his mother bond or that of the woman.

literature

  • Giambattista Basile: The fairy tale of fairy tales. The pentameron. Edited by Rudolf Schenda. CH Beck, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-406-46764-4 , pp. 70–81, 523–524, 581–582 (based on the Neapolitan text of 1634/36, completely and newly translated).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Giambattista Basile: The fairy tale of fairy tales. The pentameron. Edited by Rudolf Schenda. CH Beck, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-406-46764-4 , pp. 523-524 (based on the Neapolitan text of 1634/36, completely and newly translated).
  2. ^ Giambattista Basile: The fairy tale of fairy tales. The pentameron. Edited by Rudolf Schenda. CH Beck, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-406-46764-4 , pp. 581-582 (based on the Neapolitan text of 1634/36, completely and newly translated).
  3. ↑ Walter Scherf: The fairy tale dictionary. Volume 1. CH Beck, Munich 1995, ISBN 978-3-406-51995-6 , pp. 671-674.