The strange minstrel
The strange minstrel is a fairy tale ( ATU 38, 151). In the children's and house tales of the Brothers Grimm, it is at number 8 (KHM 8).
content
A violinist wanders through the forest. Out of boredom, he wants to bring a friend over. But he doesn't want the wolf who comes to learn to play from him. He has him put his paws in a hollow tree and weighs them down with a stone. He makes him wait and moves on. It is similar to a fox, whose paws are tied to two hazelnut bushes, and a bunny, which he makes hop around an aspen with a string around its neck until it is stuck. The wolf comes loose and frees the others. You want to tear up the minstrel. But in the meantime he has found a wood chopper who listens with enchantment and uses an ax to protect him from the animals. The minstrel was looking for someone. He plays again in thanks and continues.
origin
The fairy tale is in Grimm's children's and house fairy tales from the 2nd edition of 1819 on position 8 (instead of The Hand with the Knife from the 1st edition). Her comment notes “From Lorsch near Worms ”, compares Orpheus and “a similar fairy tale among the Saxons in Transylvania , as Haltrich notes No. 50.” They explain the minstrel 's cruel behavior for no reason with the incompleteness of the tradition.
For the trapping of unholy beings cf. KHM 4 , 20 , 91 , 99 , 114 , 161 , 196 . Hans-Jörg Uther names the medieval animal poem Roman de Renart as an early example of self-harm of an animal through the cunning of another (oath on iron). Cf. Die Wünschdinger in Ludwig Bechstein's New German Book of Fairy Tales .
interpretation
What is striking is the description that he thought back and forth until “there was nothing left for his thoughts”, the belittling forms “foxes”, “bunnies” (cf. KHM 126 : “giant pigs, little birds”), and the torture of animals . In fairy tales the forest is often interpreted as an unconscious full of primeval instinctual impulses, for which the minstrel has no "desire".
Eugen Drewermann interprets the minstrel who attracts animals just to send them away as an attempt to deny his original instincts, perhaps to become more human. This leads to an abstraction of feeling and sensation, which deepens the rift between art and life and makes it less alive.
literature
- Grimm, brothers. Children's and Household Tales. Complete edition. With 184 illustrations by contemporary artists and an afterword by Heinz Rölleke . Pp. 77-79. Düsseldorf and Zurich, 19th edition 1999. (Artemis & Winkler Verlag; Patmos Verlag; ISBN 3-538-06943-3 )
- Grimm, brothers. 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. P. 31, P. 445. Revised and bibliographically supplemented edition, Stuttgart 1994. (Reclam-Verlag; ISBN 3-15-003193-1 )
- Uther, Hans-Jörg: Handbook to the children's and house fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm. Berlin 2008. pp. 19-20. (de Gruyter; ISBN 978-3-11-019441-8 )
- Breitkreuz, Hartmut: Trapping unholder beings. In: Encyclopedia of Fairy Tales . Volume 3. pp. 1261-1271. Berlin, New York, 1981.
- Drewermann, Eugen: Dear little sister, let me in. Grimm's fairy tales interpreted in terms of depth psychology. 11th edition 2002, Munich. Pp. 123-124. (dtv; ISBN 3-423-35050-4 )
Individual evidence
- ↑ Uther, Hans-Jörg: Handbook to the children's and house tales of the Brothers Grimm. Berlin 2008. pp. 19-20. (de Gruyter; ISBN 978-3-11-019441-8 )
- ↑ Drewermann, Eugen: Dear little sister, let me in. Grimm's fairy tales interpreted in terms of depth psychology. 11th edition 2002, Munich. Pp. 123-124. (dtv; ISBN 3-423-35050-4 )
