Dearest Roland

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The dearest Roland is a fairy tale ( ATU 1119, 313, 407). It is in the children's and house tales of the Brothers Grimm at position 56 (KHM 56). In the 3rd edition, the title The Dearest Roland was written .

content

A witch loves her ugly, bad daughter and hates her beautiful, good stepdaughter. The daughter wants the other's beautiful apron. The witch has her put in the back of the bed so that she can cut off the stepdaughter's head at night. But she listens in and pushes the daughter forward at night so that she is accidentally killed. Then the stepdaughter goes to her lover Roland, on whose advice she takes the witch's wand before fleeing. She drips three drops of blood from her dead head onto the stairs, into the kitchen and into bed. When the witch wakes up and calls her child, first the drop from the stairs answers her, then the one from the kitchen, then the one from the bed. Then she realizes her mistake and pursues the couple with seven-league boots, but they turn into a lake with a duck on it, which cannot be attracted by food, the next day into a beautiful flower in a thorn hedge with a violinist in front of it. He plays the witch a magic dance that she has to dance and is torn by the thorns.

While Roland goes to his father to order the wedding, the girl turns into a red field stone to wait for him undetected. When he doesn't come back because he meets someone else, she turns into a flower so that someone might turn her over. A shepherd breaks it off and puts it in his box. From then on, his household will take care of itself. On the advice of a wise woman, he throws a white cloth over the flower that has just come out of its box. The girl transformed back in this way tells him her fate. When they propose to marry, they say 'no', they want to remain loyal to their lover Roland. When all the girls are supposed to sing for the wedding couple, they don't want to go. But when it sings, Roland recognizes the right bride and remembers. They get married and become happy.

Grimm's note

Illustration by Otto Ubbelohde , 1909
Illustration by Otto Ubbelohde , 1909

Grimm's note notes “From Hessen” (by Dortchen Wild ) and describes a variant that begins like Hansel and Gretel : Gretel flees with Hansel and lets her spit answer in front of the stove when the witch asks for hot water until she dries. The witch chases them on ice skates. The children turn into a pond with a duck. She wants to drink him up and bursts. The Brothers Grimm suspect old material in the fairy tale. The drops of blood or spit are the creative principle as in legends, where gods create things by spitting. In the "Eyrbiggiasaga C. 20" Katla always transforms her son to protect him. You also mention KHM 51 Fundevogel , KHM 79 Die Wassernixe , KHM 110 The Jew in the Thorn , KHM 113 De two Künigeskinner , Voss ' remarks on his idyll The Riesenhügel , in the "Brunswick Collection" ( fairy fairy tales. For entertainment for friends and Friends of the fairy world , anonymously in Braunschweig, 1801 with publisher Friedrich Bernhard Culemann ) "the giant forest p. 44-72", Müllenhoff No. 6, Kuhn No. 1, Norwegian with Asbjörnsen Vol. 2, Swedish with Cavallius No. 14, Hungarian at Mailath No. 12 “die Zauberhelene”, at Stier “S. 28 the magic horse ”, with Gaal “ the glass hoe p. 53 ”, with Aulnoy no. 8 The orange tree and the bee , Pentameron II, 7 The dove , III, 9 Rosella , a Danish song to turn to stone from suffering and pain von Rosmer, it has a deep meaning and is like freezing when light and warmth are withdrawn, to transform sorrow into a flower on the path a folk song in Meinert's songs from Kuhländchen 1, 6:

"Ai, Annle, lot dos Maene stohn,
I took a lot of love on the month. "-
"Eh, if I loosen it,
how i love ouff de Wagschaed gohn,
I really wanted to go to a field flower.
Virmeittichs how I seemed uofblihn,
I still felt sad;
where olle Leit vorieba gohn,
I wiel but sadly moan. "

Interpretation and comparisons

Illustration by Otto Ubbelohde , 1909

In a story by Ovid , which was often received even in the Middle Ages , Klytia was loved by the sun god and, after long and in vain waiting and staring into the sun, turned into a sunflower. The flower name Wegwarte comes from this. There is also a folk ballad from the Wegwarte. The beloved helper also appears in KHM 51 , 186 , 193 , 59a and is similar to Ariadne from the Greek myth.

A text from Grimm's estate contains a similar escape episode.

The speaking blood is reminiscent of 1 Mos 4,10  EU : “I hear the blood of your brother crying out to me from the ground!” (Cf. KHM 89 ). Edzard Storck sees a duality of the earthly and the "ideal human" ( Schiller ), who are actually one, whose loyalty determines all paths. The longing for a new earth shimmers from fairy tales with precious stones.

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. 318–321.
  • 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. 108-110, 467.
  • Jacob Grimm: About women's names made from flowers. Read in the academy on February 12, 1852. In: Jacob Grimm: Self-biography. Selected writings, speeches and treatises (= dtv 2139 dtv classical literature, philosophy, science ). Edited and introduced by Ulrich Wyss. Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, Munich 1984, ISBN 3-423-02139-X , pp. 190–215.
  • Lutz Röhrich : fairy tale - myth - legend. In: Wolfdietrich Siegmund (ed.): Ancient myth in our fairy tales (= publications of the European Fairy Tale Society. Vol. 6). Röth, Kassel 1984, ISBN 3-87680-335-7 , pp. 113-125.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Röhrich: fairy tale - myth - legend. In: Siegmund (ed.): Ancient myth in our fairy tales. 1984, p. 27.
  2. ^ Röhrich: fairy tale - myth - legend. In: Siegmund (ed.): Ancient myth in our fairy tales. 1984, p. 14.
  3. ↑ Heinz Rölleke (Ed.): Fairy tales from the estate of the Brothers Grimm (= series of literature studies. Vol. 6). 5th, improved and supplemented edition. WVT, Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier, Trier 2001, ISBN 3-88476-471-3 , pp. 51-53, 109.
  4. ↑ Edzard Storck: Old and new creation in the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm. Turm Verlag, Bietigheim 1977, ISBN 3-7999-0177-9 , pp. 99, 186-187, 266.

Web links

Wikisource: The Dearest Roland  - Sources and full texts