The robber bridegroom
The robber groom is a fairy tale ( ATU 955). It is in the children's and house tales of the Brothers Grimm at position 40 (KHM 40).
Content (from the 2nd edition)
A miller promises his daughter to a rich man. But she is not comfortable with him. He insists that she visit him at his home in the woods. To her excuses he replied that he had already invited the guests and that he would throw her ashes on the path so that she could find him. The frightened girl follows the so-called path and sprinkles peas and lentils. It reaches the house in the evening. Inside, a bird calls out to him twice: Turn back, turn back, you young bride, you are in a murderer's house. In the cellar is an old woman who explains to her that the robbers want to chop her up, cook and eat her. She hides them behind a barrel. The robbers come and bring a virgin with them, give her white, red and yellow wine, tear off her clothes, chop them up and sprinkle salt on them. When one of them hacks a gold ring from her finger, the latter jumps behind the barrel, but the old woman stops the robbers from looking there with the food and gives them a sleeping draft in the wine. The bride cautiously climbs over the sleeping and flees with the old woman. The ashes were blown away by the wind, but the peas and lentils have sprouted and show her the way to her father, to whom she tells everything. At the wedding, she tells her story in front of the groom and all of the father's relatives, as if she had only dreamed it, and then shows the chopped off finger with the ring. The guests hold the robber tight. He and the gang are judged.
Comparisons
- lost track in the forest: Hansel and Gretel , Das Waldhaus ; Theseus and Minotaur
- warning bird: alluded to in Hansel and Gretel , Jorinde and Joringel
- Murderer's House: The Devil with the Three Golden Hairs , The Murder Castle , Fitchers Bird , The Three Craftsman Boys , The Devil and His Grandmother , The Griffin , The Buffalo Leather Boot , Prince Swan , The Riddle , KHM 43a The Whimsical Gasterei , KHM 70a The Okerlo
- Dark house in the forest: The twelve brothers (No. 9), The three little men in the forest (No. 13), The riddle (No. 22), The girl without hands (No. 31), Snow White (No. 53), De Gaudeif un sien Meester (No. 68), The Raven (No. 93), The Old Woman in the Forest (No. 123), The Devil and His Grandmother (No. 125), The Iron Stove (No. 127), The Glass Coffin (No. 163), The Forest House (No. 169).
Cf. in Giambattista Basiles Pentameron IV, 6 The three crowns , V, 9 The three lemons . Cf. The golden roebuck and the beautiful young bride in Ludwig Bechstein's German fairy tale book as well as The hoffärtige Braut and the golden egg of the edition of 1845, about the Vogelvers star and bath tub
origin
The tale is in the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm included since the first edition of the 1812th In their notes, they cite two stories from Niederhessen as a source and mention a third, incomplete one from the main areas , whereby v. a. the type of route designation varies, as do literary sources.
literature
- Brothers Grimm: Children's and Household Tales. With 184 illustrations by contemporary artists and an afterword by Heinz Rölleke . Complete edition, 19th edition. Artemis and Winkler, Düsseldorf et al. 2002, ISBN 3-538-06943-3 , pp. 239–242.
- Brothers Grimm: Children's and Household Tales. With the original notes of the Brothers Grimm. Volume 3: Original notes, guarantees of origin, epilogue (= Universal Library 3193). With an appendix of all fairy tales and certificates of origin, not published in all editions, published by Heinz Rölleke. Reprint, revised and bibliographically supplemented edition. Reclam, Stuttgart 1994, ISBN 3-15-003193-1 , pp. 80, 459.
Adaptations
- Margaret Atwood The Robber Bride, 1993. German edition: Die Räuberbraut, 1994
