The three wishes (mare)

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The three wishes is a fairy tale of the knitter , a Middle High German poet from the first half of the 13th century. It addresses the motif of three ill-considered wishes. It is about a poor couple who waste three wishes they received from God.

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Although they have never done anything reprehensible, one couple lives in great poverty. As the husband and wife hope to change this, they pray day and night. You thus meet all religious requirements such. B. Fasting and Prayer.

One day an angel comes and gives them three wishes that God will grant. He also tells them that God would have made them rich if they should have been rich. With the wishes they should now try to overcome their poverty. If they fail to do this, they would be poor through their own fault.

After learning this, the man runs home to his wife and tells her about the three wishes. The woman then asks to be allowed to express one wish, because she has also complied with the religious rules and two wishes would satisfy her husband. After the man agrees, she wishes for the most beautiful dress a woman has ever wore. Because the man thinks this is pointless, he inadvertently wishes the dress on her stomach out of anger. As a result, she gets very painful, which is why the man is forced to sacrifice the third wish and to wish her the pain away. Due to the ill-considered wishes, the two remain poor - but now it is their own fault.

The moral of the fairy tale: If you get a chance to get out of a painful situation and give it away lightly, the pain then weighs much more heavily than before, because you were previously in this situation through no fault of your own, and now you have to struggle with yourself.

literature

  • Novellistics of the Middle Ages. Märendichtung (= Deutscher Klassiker-Verlag in the paperback. Volume 47). 2nd Edition. Edited, translated and commented by Klaus Grubmüller. Deutscher Klassiker Verlag, Berlin 2014, ISBN 978-3-618-68047-5 , pp. 56–67 and pp. 1046–1049 (= commentary) (texts in German and Middle High German).