The gifts of the little people
The gifts of the little people is a fairy tale ( ATU 503). It is in the children's and house fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm from the 6th edition of 1850 at position 182 (KHM 182) and is based on Emil Sommer's Der Berggeister Presents in sagas, fairy tales and customs from Saxony and Thuringia from 1846.
content
A tailor and a hunchbacked goldsmith meet little, singing people in the moonlight, with whom they dance. The chief, an old man with an ice-gray beard, shears their hair and gives each of them a heap of coals, which turn into gold overnight. The goldsmith, who was at first the more fearless, went back with large bags. But this time his gold turns into coal again, the hair does not grow back either and he has two humps, one in front and one behind. The tailor shares with him.
origin
The magic fairy tale with motifs from the legend replaced The Pea Sample from the 5th edition as No. 182 in the children's and house fairy tales . Orally from Halle. is identical in action, but v. a. in the second half in more detail. Instead, the tailor's characterizing speech is missing that he is now marrying his "pleasant object" (as he called his loved one) . This corresponds to the characterization of other tailors in Grimm's fairy tales. Her comment explains the distortion of the miser as a typical punishment for angry elves. Compare also Grimm's Irish Fairy Tale No. 3 Thimbles . In a manuscript from Grimm's estate, two girls receive an apron full of coals that turn into gold for service at the christening of a toad.
The story is something like v. a. known in Western Europe. More essential for the plot structure than the ambivalent character assessment of the deformity (in Europe usually a hump) is the unsuccessful imitation, which also appears in other narrative types (cf.KHM 13 , 24 , 29 , 87 , 89 , 135 , 142 , 147 , 165 , 201 ).
literature
- 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. 266, 510. Revised and bibliographically supplemented edition, Reclam-Verlag, Stuttgart 1994, ISBN 3-15-003193-1 )
- Rölleke, Heinz (Ed.): Grimm's fairy tales and their sources. The literary models of the Grimm fairy tales are presented synoptically and commented on. 2., verb. Edition, Trier 2004. pp. 418–423, 578. (Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier; series of literature studies, vol. 35; ISBN 3-88476-717-8 )
- Uther, Hans-Jörg: Handbook to the children's and house fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm. Berlin 2008. pp. 375-378. (de Gruyter; ISBN 978-3-11-019441-8 )
- Uther, Hans-Jörg: Gifts of the small people. In: Encyclopedia of Fairy Tales. Volume 5. pp. 637-642. Berlin, New York, 1987.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Sommer, Emil: The mountain spirit gifts. Orally from Halle. In (Ders.): Legends, fairy tales and customs from Saxony and Thuringia. First issue. Halle 1846. pp. 82–86.
- ↑ Rölleke, Heinz (ed.): Fairy tales from the estate of the Brothers Grimm. 5th improved and supplemented edition. Trier 2001. P. 74, 113. (WVT Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier; ISBN 3-88476-471-3 )