The good trade
Good trade is a sway ( ATU 1642, 1610). From the 2nd edition of 1819 onwards, it is in position 7 (KHM 7) in the children's and house fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm .
content
A farmer sells his cow for seven talers. On the way home, frogs croak "ak, ak, ak, ak." He thinks they mean "eight" thalers, wants to teach them and throws the money into the pond for them. When he brings the meat of the next cow to town, a dog barks “what, what, what, what.” The farmer thinks he wants “what” and lets the pack eat everything. The butcher who owns the dog is supposed to pay him back after three days, but he beats him out. He complains to the king, and his daughter laughs for the first time in her life. For this he should marry her, but his wife is enough for him. The angry king promises him "five hundred". The gatekeeper takes 200 of this as a gift, the rest is exchanged by a Jew for bad groschen and complains when it turns out to be beating. The king laughs and the farmer can help himself from the treasury. In the tavern he counts the money and scolds the king for not giving it to him himself. For this the Jew reports him, is supposed to bring him to the king and lends him his coat. The farmer accuses him of lying, gets money again and keeps the coat.
Language and style
The farmer scolds the frogs, "they also scream into Haberfeld", "you water bats (cf. KHM 1 ), you stubborn heads, you lumpy eyes". He insists on "his own", so to the butcher: "Joking aside, I want my money ...". His cumbersome report makes the girl laugh, followed by a derogatory remark about his wife (cf. KHM 19 ): "When I come home, I feel no different than if there was someone standing in every corner." don't say twice ”(cf. KHM 61 ), only when he has to count himself does he mean“ duped ”(cf. KHM 44 , 61 ). The real punch line is the victory over the Jew, whose lofty style underlines his negative portrayal: “God's miracle, what a lucky child you are! I want to change you, I want to convert it into Scheidemünz, what do you want with the hard thalers? ", then:" Oh, yelled! "(cf. KHM 110 ). The farmer smells “Mauschel”, “what a Jew says is always a lie”, the king allows “to pay back in hard talers”, which is popularly known as blows (cf. KHM 20 , also in lever's infidelity beats one's own master , 1808).
As Lutz Röhrich notes, the fairytale motif of understanding animal languages (e.g. KHM 33 ) is mocked here. The focus is not on the wonderful, but on the simplicity of the farmer. For anthroposophist Edzard Storck , making the king's daughter laugh, as in KHM 64 The Golden Goose, is an expression of astonishment at something new and not yet comprehensible ( 1 Mos 17.17 EU ). However, this happens accidentally here. Instead of the king asking for more samples, he gives them to him right away, only he doesn't want to. Doing similar business KHM 32 The clever Hans , KHM 83 Happy Hans , KHM 84 Hans is getting married .
origin
Grimm's comment notes “From the Paderbörnischen” ( von Haxthausen family ) and also mentions Tamerlan's fool Nasureddin in Flögel's history of court jesters “S. 178 ”and a poem by the“ Kalenberger Pfaffen ”in vd Hagens Narrenbuch “ S. 272–277, in Flögel p. 255 ”, Sacchettis 195. Novella“ about a farmer who brings back his lost sparrowhawk to a king of France. ” Bertoldo is supposed to be beaten, asks to spare the“ capo ”, which means head, but also leader means, and is spared, appeases frogs by throwing gold pieces, "s. Hagen's introduction to Morolf p. 18. 19. "
The indication "From the Paderbörnische" refers to the von Haxthausen family . Heinz Rölleke's assessment was that the text was converted from Low German into High German. The many proverbial idioms were already part of the original text, with the exception of the farmer's saying from the 6th edition: “What can you expect from an ox other than beef”, cf. from Andreas Gryphius : "How come you can hear oxen barking out of you in the yard / You are not used to stuffing yourself with beef".
The course of such fluctuations has probably no fixed scheme. Hans-Jörg Uther finds possible models for the individual episodes, such as the misinterpretation of animal voices and throwing money to frogs in Giulio Cesare Croce's Bertoldino , who went into contemporary collections through countless prints and which the Brothers Grimm also owned. Surrender of threatened beatings and the ruse with the coat, which in the process often makes the testimony of a Jew implausible, were common motives. The anti-Jewish stereotype has tradition here, see also KHM 110 The Jew in the Thorn . A similar motif can be found in Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice .
literature
- 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. 18-19.
- Lothar Bluhm and Heinz Rölleke: “Popular sayings that I always listen to”. Fairy tale - proverb - saying. On the folk-poetic design of children's and house fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm. New edition. S. Hirzel Verlag, Stuttgart / Leipzig 1997, ISBN 3-7776-0733-9 , pp. 45-47.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Lothar Bluhm and Heinz Rölleke: “Popular speeches that I always listen to”. Fairy tale - proverb - saying. On the folk-poetic design of children's and house fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm. New edition. S. Hirzel Verlag, Stuttgart / Leipzig 1997, ISBN 3-7776-0733-9 , pp. 45-47.
- ^ Lutz Röhrich: Fairy tales and reality. 3. Edition. Steiner, Wiesbaden 1974, ISBN 3-515-01901-4 , pp. 58-59.
- ↑ Edzard Storck: Old and new creation in the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm. Turm Verlag, Bietigheim 1977, ISBN 3-7999-0177-9 , p. 182.
- ↑ Wikisource: Grimm's note from 1856 on The good trade
- ^ Brothers Grimm: 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. Revised and bibliographically supplemented edition. Reclam, Stuttgart 1994, ISBN 3-15-003193-1 , p. 445.
- ↑ Lothar Bluhm and Heinz Rölleke: “Popular speeches that I always listen to”. Fairy tale - proverb - saying. On the folk-poetic design of children's and house fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm. New edition. S. Hirzel Verlag, Stuttgart / Leipzig 1997, ISBN 3-7776-0733-9 , pp. 45-47.
- ↑ Andreas Gryphius: To Bubalum on nddg.de
- ↑ 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. 18-19.