The dwarf nose

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Terracotta relief in Vienna (1939):
The transformed Jakob with the goose Mimi

The dwarf nose is a fairy tale by Wilhelm Hauff , which he published in 1826 in his fairy tale almanac for the year 1827 for sons and daughters of the educated classes .

action

Bertall : Jakob carries the fairy herb white's purchases

The story tells of Jakob, the son of a cobbler who lives in a small German town. He is described as a boy of twelve years with a handsome face and handsome figure. His mother Hanne sells vegetables and fruits at the market ; Jakob helps her and carries the customers home with their purchases.

One day an ugly old woman with a long, curved nose and a thin neck comes to her mother's stand and wants to buy herbs. It is - as the fairy tale turns out - the fairy herb white. It throws everything upside down and spoils the good herbs, so that nobody wants to buy them anymore. That is why Jakob insults her and goes on about her appearance. Then she wishes him a long nose and no throat at all. After all, she buys a couple of heads of cabbage and lets Jakob carry them home.

Carl Offterdinger : Jakob as a boiling squirrel

When the woman arrives at her house, the cabbages turn into human heads. Guinea pigs and squirrels live here, behaving like humans and serving the old woman. She offers Jakob a soup and speaks of a herb that he will never find. After eating the soup, he thinks he falls asleep and dreams that he lives and works as a squirrel in the woman's house. He stays for seven years and learns to cook, among other things. He finds a herb, smells it and wakes up.

Bertall: Jacob's return after seven years

But when he returns to his family, nobody and everyone recognizes him, including his mother and father, calls him a hideous dwarf and chases him away. In fact, he has turned into a dwarf with a long nose, no neck, humpback and brown hands.

Jakob then decides to try his luck as a cook and goes to the Duke of "Frankistan" (This means a country in Europe - the framework story takes place in the Orient, where a German tells this fairy tale from his homeland, the land of the "Franks", narrated) who is known as a gourmet . There he can convince the kitchen master of his talent, and the duke also loves his food, hires him as a sub-kitchen master and gives him the name dwarf nose . Jakob has a great reputation. After two years, Jakob buys three geese at the market , one of which is talking to him. She tells him that she is Mimi, the daughter of the wizard Wetterbock from the island of Gotland . She was also cursed by an evil sorceress. However, she knows about magic herbs and reports that Jacob had to find the herb that transformed him in order to be redeemed.

At this time, the duke receives a visit from another prince , which is why Jakob should serve him special dishes. The guest likes the food, but then he demands the queen of all dishes, the pate Souzeraine (or Suzeräne). Jakob doesn't know this, but Mimi does. He prepares the pie, but the guest lacks the herb Sneeze in it . Jakob has to find this and cook the pie again, otherwise he will be beheaded. This time too, Mimi helps him and goes looking for the herb with him. When he finds it, he smells it. This transforms him back.

As a thank you he brings Mimi to her father, who also redeems her.

Everything will be fine for Mimi and him, but Jacob's escape leads to war (“herb war”) between the duke and his guest , which can only be ended with a properly prepared souzeraine (“pie peace”).

interpretation

Wilhelm Hauff often comments on the political situation of his time in his works. In the pre-March period Germany had split up into numerous small countries, each under the arbitrariness of its king, duke or count. Hauff dreamed of seeing their injustices punished. And he believed that a good and strong king could bring happiness and prosperity to people.

In Der Zwerg Nase, his criticism also shimmers through the names of the dishes that the bewitched boy has to prepare for his prince: the Danish soup , red Hamburger dumplings and - at the special request of a prince who is a guest - “the queen of dishes that Pastete Suzeräne ”, a clear allusion to the political concept of suzerainty . So it is no coincidence that Hauff puts a “pie peace” at the end of his story.

The art of cooking becomes Jacob's purpose in life, who thereby compensates for the expulsion from his family.

It is typical of a Hauff fairy tale that Jakob does not marry a utopian princess, but Mimi, an ordinary woman (daughter of the magician).

Cultural-historical transformations

Opera

  • Dwarf nose . A children's opera by Samuel Hogarth (music) and Wolfgang Willaschek (text) , 2013.

theatre

Film adaptations

Radio plays

Web links

Commons : The Dwarf Nose  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files
Wikisource: The Dwarf Nose  - Sources and Full Texts

literature

  • Wilhelm Hauff: fairy tales. Berlin 1939
  • Hinz, Ottmar: Hauff. (= Rowohlt's monographs edited by Schröter, Klaus) Hamburg 1989
  • Klotz, Volker: The European Art Fairy Tale (= series UTB Bd. 2367) Munich 2002
  • Mayer, Mathias and Tismar, Jens: Kunstmärchen Stuttgart 1997 (= Metzler Collection 155)

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Paul-Wolfgang Wührl: The German art fairy tale: history, message and narrative structures. Schneider Verlag, Hohengehren, 2012, p. 196
  2. ↑ E 207
  3. ↑ MC: 515 457.0