The fairy tales from the Rhine

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Illustration by Edward von Steinle

The fairy tales from the Rhine are four short stories that Clemens Brentano wrote from 1810 to 1812 but did not publish during his lifetime. In 1846 Görres published the Rheinmärchen posthumously at Cotta in Stuttgart and Tübingen.

While the first and second fairy tales belong together, the third and fourth are independent. Schultz names the second to fourth triggering fairy tales . The three storytellers - Müller Radlauf, Frau Marzebille and a tailor from Mainz - each have to entertain the Rhine father with a fairy tale in order to get back a loved one (Ameley, Ameleychen and Garnwichserchen) who has sunk in the Rhine.

content

The Rhine fairy tale

Illustration by Edward von Steinle

The young Müller Radlauf lives with his star , the black Hans, in a lonely mill on the Rhine, where Rüdesheim is now . The tame bird just flown to the miller. Radlauf once dreams of a beautiful virgin who will put a delicious old crown on him. The miller wakes up, steps out onto the Mühldamm, looks upstream and sees Hatto , the King of Mainz, who comes along on a golden ship. His only daughter, Princess Ameley, sits at his side. From Trier , Prince Rattenkahl, Ameley's future bridegroom, approaches on the Rhine with the old Queen of Trier on board. When the two ships meet, Ameley falls into the water “out of horror at” the “unpleasant appearance” of the groom. The king promises the rescuer of the unfortunate daughter the royal crown and on top of that the princess as wife. Radlauf jumps into the Rhine. With the last of his strength and with the support of his father Rhein - a "very venerable, tall and strong old man" with a long green reed beard - he saves Ameley. When he leads them into his mill, nothing can be seen of the two royal ships. Radlauf, who actually eats roasted flour and scrambled eggs every day, serves the princess roast starling.

The black Hans can speak all at once, just before he stabs himself with a golden hairpin that he wears under his wing:

I was once Prince von Staarenberg, ...
... Goodbye you beautiful Ameley
Forgive me for my gossip
The most beautiful grave will honor me
If you want to consume me at once,
The miller should also eat with
I wish you bon appetit.

After each one has eaten half the heart of the suicide, the two eaters feel great love for one another. When the miller brings the princess to Mainz, the king no longer wants to hear about his promise. Radlauf is hunted from Mainz. When he arrives at his mill, father Rhein helps him - again in a dream - on. The miller wakes up, steps out, cuts a pipe and takes it to Prince Rattenkahl in Bingerloch . Once there, he receives help from the Rat King on one condition. Radlauf has to bury Prince Rattenkahl and his wife mother, who drowned in Bingerloch, on the Rhine island next to the site of the accident. After the funeral, the miller goes to Mainz. Ameley warns the lover about her treacherous father. Radlauf whistles an army of mice against the royal couple. But the king had all Mainz cats caught, won and had the miller thrown into the dungeon. The mouse plague causes famine in the Mainz region. Radlauf is freed from the Rat King and reads the Prince of Staarenberg's will in the mill at home. The miller's further path is mapped out in it. With the starling's signet ring on his finger, Radlauf goes to Grubenhansel in the Black Forest .

Great damage is done with a pipe whistle like the one that was taken from Müller Radlauf during his imprisonment. Prince Mausohr von Trier, Rattenkahl's little brother, whistles a song in Mainz. Then the beautiful Ameley and all the Mainz children dance in the Rhine and sink into it. Mouse-ear defeats Hatto. The king has to turn his back on Mainz, but can have a tower built on a Rhine island . Hatto had starving Mainz people locked up during the above-mentioned mouse plague. For this he now gets the punishment he deserves. After his wife leaves him with the cat, the rats get brave. At night they invade the tower and devour the king.

The Mainz children cannot be found. The lamenting Mainz parents also include the good wife Marzebille and her husband, the poor fisherman Petrus. Their little daughter Ameleychen drowned with the other children. Marzebille is friends with the goldfish. This tells her that the children and also Ameley still live in a glass house deep down in the Rhine, guarded by the old gray Aquarius . He speak to the fish:

Softly, softly, don't splash,
Don't wake the children for me
Those around in glass cradles
Lying in the sweet slumber.

In that very place, quite different miracles are gathered. Down there is also “the Niebelungen Hort ”, protected by “Frau Lureley ”, the “Magician”. Her castle is, "from the outside rugged, a rock / umbrausset from the wild Rhine". Father Rhein also resides there. He promises salvation for all sunken people on one condition. Every time someone tells him a fairy tale up on earth, he releases one of the children. All the parents in Mainz who are affected are thinking of a fairy tale in anticipation. The Müller Radlauf, having returned from the Black Forest, becomes King of Mainz and declares: “From now on the coat of arms of this country is a wheel because I was a miller.” The new king opens the fairytale dance. To save his Ameley, he tells the following fairy tale to his father Rhein.

First morning on the Rhine. Radlauf tells his journey

Illustration by Edward von Steinle

During his stay in the Black Forest, the miller learned of his princely descent. Radlauf derives directly from the moon. Fräulein Mondenschein, the moon man's daughter, married the moonshepherd Damon against the wishes of her paternal grandmother. This is the first Prince of Staarenberg. The curse of the grandmother, who lives above the zodiac , was: "May your offspring be a miner, a bird-maker, a coal burner, a miller." Mrs. Moonshine gave birth to Johannes. The second Prince of Staarenberg, that is Radlauf's great-great-grandfather, was indeed a busy miner and was called Grubenhansel. For John had turned his people into miners and labored on the philosopher's stone. Johannes married Miss Edelstein, the daughter of Mrs. Earth. Frau Edelstein gave birth to Veit. The third Prince of Staarenberg really caught birds and was called Veit der Vogler or Kautzenveitel. Veit married Fraulein Phönix Federschein, the daughter of Frau Luft. By the will of fate, Ms. Federschein had to take on the shape of a bird every four weeks. The huge owl was her mortal enemy in the critical time. Frau Federschein gave birth to Jacob. The fourth prince of Staarenberg was really active as a charcoal burner and was called the charcoal jockel. Jacob married Miss Phosphorus Feuerschein. The couple had several children. Christel, one of the sons, actually worked as a miller on the Rhine and took blond Lureley as his wife. Two of her four sons become princes - black Hans and Müller Radlauf.

With the temporary transformation of the Staarenberger into birds it has the following reason. Damon, the first prince of Staarenberg, had been locked up in a cave with Frau Mondenschein for a long time and, in the meantime, had plundered eggs from starfish nests. On that occasion he had devoured the fateful egg of the star queen Aglaster. A star prince could not be hatched. Aglaster condemns selected Staarenbergers to the starling species until a later heir dies voluntarily. Another reason for turning into a star is Hansen's loquacity. In general, all marriages of the Staarenberg princes are burdened with a taboo of contemplation by the respective Melusinen wife. The wives call the breaking of a taboo treason. Anyone who looks at it as a person and is amazed at the periodic transformation of women into mermaids - or even bird form - will be punished. For his curiosity, Lureley's son Georg is transformed into a white mouse and the son Phillip into a goldfish. After Christel saw the fish figure beneath his wife's breast, she took his memory as punishment. From now on the prince thinks he is a miller. But he doesn't just grind. This fifth Staarenberger leaves the beautiful Lureley when Hans and Radlauf are six years old. Christel fathered the Princes Rattenkahl and Mausohr with the Queen of Trier. Father Rhein takes care of cycling. The good old man appoints Aquarius as educator. Hans grows up with Princess Ameley. He loves her. Ameley likes him, but she disgusts his talkativeness. She puts him to the test. He should be silent about the golden hairpin that Ameley gave him. The notorious babbler Hans does not pass the test. Suddenly he turns into a star and flies away.

There are many taboos in the fairy tale. While driving over a Black Forest lake, when Hansen's remains were buried in a starling procession, Radlauf got into the underwater realm of the Lureley during a storm. The mermaid identifies herself as his mother and warns: Further openings and continuation of the happy reunion are only possible if the son does not interrupt the mother in any way.

The miller's fairy tale comes to an end. Father Rhine returns his bride Ameley to King Radlauf of Mainz. The couple are getting married. At the end of the very first Rhine fairy tale, Radlauf had chosen Mrs. Marzebille to be the next one to redeem her child Ameleychen. She dutifully tells the following fairy tale.

Fairy tales from the marmot

The angry Mrs. Wierx kidnapped the little king's daughter of Burgundy and his little bathtub from the castle on the Rhine to her house in Hesse in the mountains. Mrs. Wierx and her daughter Murksa later call the child Murmelthier. Because when Murksa blows the king's daughter as thanks for her daily work, she grumbles. Once Mrs. Lureley is traveling overland. When the mermaid is looking for a well to spend the night in, the marmot that tends the sheep shows her a well. For this, the girl from the Lureley is rewarded with pearls, precious stones and a silver dress. The bad sister takes away the dress and jewelry from the marmot. Fortunately, Mrs. Lureley continues to help the poor girl. The marmot gets to know the beaver through the mermaid. He, in turn, stands by her against the cruel Müller Kampe. In addition to their flour, the marmot receives a bouquet of flowers from the miller. The beaver confesses to the girl that he was a fisherman, was called Biber, and that the nasty miller turned him into an animal. Murmelthier replies that it only has to touch him with the bouquet. Then he'll become a fisherman again. One time, marmot has to pick pears. A beautiful hunter rides by and buys the pears from her for good money. The hunter even takes quarters in Mrs. Wierx's house. He would like to take a foot bath in his room. Murmelthier has to bring that little bath tub to the well-paying guest at the behest of the wicked mother. The hunter recognizes from the coat of arms on the little tub and a birthmark on Murmelthier's neck that this is his lucky day: “I am your twin brother. Your father was King of Burgundy. ”The brother Conrad takes the princess on his horse to Burgundy. The Queen Mother dies of joy. Wierx and Murksa burn their house in Hesse and sneak into the court in Burgundy. The good-natured princess forgives the two Hessians for all nastiness and appoints Frau Wierx to be the chief court master and Murksa to the first lady in waiting. Brother Konrad, the King of Burgundy, searches the Rhine for the beaver. When he finds him at Biberich's , he takes him to the princess. Konrad, on horseback, finally swims the Rhine and reaches the castle. The beaver follows him. The princess touches the beaver with her ostrich and the animal immediately becomes a beautiful young fisherman. Konrad caught a cold while crossing the Rhine and dies. Before that he gives the fisherman the sister to wife. According to the wishes of the dying, the couple should rule Burgundy. Said and done. Mrs. Wierx is weaving an intrigue. The angry woman puts her daughter Murksa in the fisherman's bed so that she should become queen. The intrigue fails. Murksa dies and Wierx kills himself. The Burgundian people are not so easy to govern. The royal couple leave their kingdom forever and ever. It goes to Biberich. The beaver lives there as a fisherman. Marmot gives birth to a girl. The couple call it Ameleychen.

Fairy tales from Schneider Siebentodt in one fell swoop

The brave little tailor peeps out from the title of the motley little fairy tale bouquet . The narrator has a friend in Mainz. His father tailors in Amsterdam . The reader's expectation is not disappointed. This knight Siebentodt, an extremely short tailor, tells of the feuds of his professional colleagues in Amsterdam, then personally murders seven flies in one fell swoop, before this thumbs-fat becomes a hero at the foreign royal court. His three deeds, the victory over the king's enemies - the wild boar, the giant and the unicorn - are not really taken from him by his wife, the king's daughter. Has she not seen the three fights with her own eyes and yet in a dream the tailor speaks of needle and thread every night. In addition, the king's daughter discovers the pierced fingertips of her husband. The marriage cannot be consummated because the hero is exhausted - he fights monsters for hours during the day. The tailor leaves the royal level, messes with thieves, clears the royal treasury and thus rises to Rinaldo Rinaldini . His dwarfism is his undoing. With the green fodder it gets into the belly of a goat and when it is slaughtered it gets into the sausage. But in the end he finally comes out safely, becomes a master tailor in Mainz and marries the friend who has stayed there. His wife, the rose, gives little Thumble a son. The couple call the boy thread jerks.

Poetry

  • The Müller Radlauf complains to the father Rhine of his suffering after the perjured King of Mainz did not hand over the beautiful Ameley:
The high stars sway
So gloomy in you today
The thoughts fluctuate
So gloomy in me today.
  • The Müller wheel arch in front of his destroyed water mill:
How does the wave sound
Like a wind blows
O soulful threshold
Where we are born.
The celestial thread of fate
Can you only confuse?
At last he comes to the suns
No matter how fine he is.
  • The Sibille Schwalbe joke declaimed:
I saw stars blink and sink
Drowning the moon in the sun ...
  • Radlauf's mother, the beautiful blonde Lureley, sings with a "friendly voice":
Sing softly, softly, softly
Sing a lullaby in a whisper
White learns from the moon
Who moves so quietly in the sky ...
Sing a song so sweetly, mildly
Like the springs on the pebbles
Like the bees around the linden tree
Humming, mumbling, whispering, tinkling.

shape

Sometimes Brentano's prose rhymes: “Now they both knelt on their knees and thanked God bit early in the morning.” On July 3, 1826, Brentano wrote to Böhmer from Koblenz : “Incidentally, the fairy tales [Rhine fairy tales] are very upscale; but I can no longer revise such things myself. "

Testimonials

  • On April 12, 1812 to Savigny : “I wrote ... two tragedies [Aloys and Imelde, The Foundation of Prags ] and three fairy tales [Rhine fairy tales]. I wasn't lazy, but without joy ... "
  • In a letter of December 28, 1812 to the pastor Johann Heinrich Christian Bang (1774-1851) Brentano remembers the girl in the marmot fairy tale with love.
  • In a letter accompanying the manuscript to the publisher Reimer , dated February 26, 1816 , Brentano outlined parts of the fable.
  • On March 5, 1827 from Koblenz to Böhmer: Brentano would like to remove "some taunts on Voss " from the marmot .
  • In a letter from Munich on November 11, 1839, Brentano asked Steinle for illustrations for an edition of the Rheinmärchen . Two days later he wrote to Böhmer: “For the time being I would like the fairy tale of the Rhine to be printed alone.” In January 1840, Brentano expressed his views on the printing process in a letter to Böhmer.

reception

  • Towards the end of 1826, Böhmer published parts of the Rhine fairy tales without Brentano's knowledge.
  • Achim von Arnim on October 8, 1828 from Frankfurt am Main to his wife Bettina : "The fairy tales of the Rhine should be printed here."
  • When Brentano wrote the text, the Rhineland was under French occupation. Riley sees these fairy tales as the author's search for identity. Brentano's Lureley figure does not symbolize the later German lust for power .
  • Brentano draws generously from the fairy tale fountain. For example he uses the Pied Piper of Hameln and the legend about Hatto of Mainz. Schillbach describes this approach, which is not uncommon among the Romantics, as associative.
  • Schulz goes into the origins of the princesses Staarenberg from the four elements and the vice of talkativeness of the princes.
  • Meaningful names : Brentano chose the names of the ancestors Radlaufs to match their ancestors. The miner Johannes is married to Frau Edelstein, the bird maker Veit to Frau Federschein and the charcoal burner Jakob with Frau Feuerschein. The court of the princesses also votes by name. For example, Mrs. Feuerschein appears with her seven embers. These are hot flames, peaks, heat, blaze of lights, smoke, coal blacks and ashlings. In the bird world of Frau Federschein, the ladies are called Miss Peacock, Nightingale, Schwanensang, Fläumchen, Schwalbenwitz, Turtel and Reiherbusch. In addition, Radlauf's father, the water miller Christel, was married to the mermaid Lureley in his first marriage. The seven little daughters of the water woman are called Herzeleid, love affair, love oath, love envy, love joy, remorse and sorrow as well as mildness.
  • The prose flows unmistakably from the pen of a lyric poet: "But what pleased me most, a few hundred duzzend of the most beautiful rainbows, wrapped in wet straw."
  • Tales from the Schneider Siebentodt in one fell swoop: Brentano uses and parodies folk tales and other fabulous subjects. Schultz and Härtl go into the beginning of the fairy tale. When it does not want to get dark in the morning in Amsterdam, the tailors' guild unceremoniously turns the Jews into scapegoats and robs them of their long day. It then turns out that the shadow of an approaching giant was the cause of the darkening.
  • Riley names further leading works: E. Skokan (dissertation Graz 1938), L. Wurzinger (dissertation Graz 1938) and H. Plursch (dissertation Vienna 1945).

literature

sorted by year of publication

Quoted text edition

Web links

Individual evidence

“Source” means the quoted text edition; mostly in the form (side, line from above).

  1. ↑ Schulz, p. 469, 18. Zvo
  2. ↑ Schultz anno 1999, p. 90, 6. Zvo
  3. ↑ Schillbach in the source, p. 455, 21. Z.
  4. ↑ Schultz anno 1999, p. 100, 13. Zvo
  5. ↑ Schultz anno 1999, p. 100, 11. Zvo
  6. ↑ Brentano does not keep the spelling of the name. For example, he sometimes writes Radlof.
  7. ↑ Source, p. 13
  8. ↑ Source, p. 48, 3rd line.
  9. ↑ Source, p. 31, 9th line.
  10. ↑ Source, p. 32, 8th line.
  11. ↑ Source, pp. 104, 14. Z.
  12. ↑ Source, p. 109, 18. Z.
  13. ↑ Source, p. 121, 28th line.
  14. ↑ Source, p. 123
  15. ↑ Source, p. 186, 25th line.
  16. ↑ Source, p. 260, 16. Z.
  17. ↑ Source, p. 267
  18. ↑ Source, p. 302
  19. ↑ Source, p. 37, 16. Z.
  20. ↑ Source, p. 118, 19th line.
  21. ↑ Source, p. 175, 10th line.
  22. ↑ Source p. 234, 1st line.
  23. ↑ Source, p. 252 above
  24. ↑ Source, p. 293, 25th line.
  25. ↑ quoted in Vordtriede, p. 176, 1. Zvu
  26. ↑ quoted in Vordtriede, p. 173, first entry
  27. ↑ quoted in Vordtriede, p. 173, second entry
  28. ↑ quoted in Vordtriede, pp. 174–176
  29. ↑ quoted in Vordtriede, p. 178, 1. Zvu
  30. ↑ Voss is the son of the miller Kampe with Brentano (source, p. 281, 31. Z.).
  31. ↑ quoted in Vordtriede, p. 184, last entry
  32. ↑ Feilchenfeldt, p. 168, entry November 11, 1839
  33. ↑ quoted in Vordtriede, p. 185, first entry
  34. ↑ quoted in Vordtriede, p. 185, last entry
  35. ↑ Feilchenfeldt, p. 135, last entry
  36. ↑ quoted in Vordtriede, p. 179, second entry
  37. ↑ Schultz anno 1999, p. 96, 11. Zvo
  38. ↑ Schultz anno 1999, p. 96, 10th Zvu
  39. ↑ Schultz anno 1999, gives Brentano's sources on pp. 100–101. Mostly texts by the Brothers Grimm are used.
  40. ↑ Schultz anno 1999, p. 94, 8. Zvo
  41. ↑ Source, p. 395, 13th line.
  42. ↑ Schulz, p. 468, 25. Zvo
  43. ↑ Source, p. 184, 33. Z.
  44. ↑ Schulz, p. 468, 23. Zvo
  45. ↑ Schultz anno 1999, p. 106, 7th Zvu to p. 107
  46. ↑ Härtl, p. 194, 20. Zvo to p. 196, 12. Zvo
  47. ↑ According to Schultz (anno 1999, p. 107, 7. Zvo) the long day means Yom Kippur .
  48. ↑ Source, p. 312, 29. Z.
  49. ^ Riley, p. 125, second entry