The wren and the bear
The wren and the bear is an animal tale ( ATU 222). It is in the children's and house tales of the Brothers Grimm at number 102 (KHM 102).
content
Bear and wolf go for a walk in the forest. The bear wants to know which bird sings so beautifully. When he hears that it is the king of the birds (the wren), he wants to see the palace. He looks into the nest after the parents have flown away. He thinks it is a poor palace and the children are dishonest. That offends them. Your father has to declare war on the bear, flying animals against four-legged friends. The mosquito spies out that the cunning General Fuchs is holding his tail up like a plume as long as it goes ahead, but deep when it is time to run away. In battle, the wren lets the hornet sting the fox under the tail until it has to lower it and the entourage flees. The wren children are only satisfied when the bear comes and apologizes, then they eat again.
origin
According to Rolf Wilhelm Brednich , stories about the war of animals condense the daily observation of their struggle for survival into the idea that they would wage war organized like humans. Grimm's text is the oldest evidence of this v. a. proven form of quarrel between birds and quadrupeds in Central and Eastern Europe.
Cf. KHM 48 The Old Sultan , KHM 171 The Wren .
cartoon
- Gurimu Meisaku Gekijō , Japanese cartoon series 1987, episode 44: The wren and the bear
literature
- Rolf Wilhelm Brednich: Animal War . In: Encyclopedia of Fairy Tales . Volume 8. Berlin, New York 1996. pp. 430-436.
- 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. 231-232.
