The three green branches
The three green branches is the sixth of ten children's legends in the appendix to the children's and house tales by the Brothers Grimm (KHM 206; ATU 756A).
content
A hermit lives godly on a mountain and brings water up every evening for animals and plants, and an angel accompanies him. When he was already old, a sinner was hanged one day and he thought he was doing the right thing. The angel no longer comes to that. He fasts and prays until he learns from a bird that God is angry with him because he alone is allowed to judge. He has to move around begging with a dry branch as a pillow until three green branches sprout from it. So once he comes to an old woman in a cave who does not want to let him in at first because of her three predatory sons. They are also angry when they see him. But when they hear his story, they are terrified of their own lives and repent. The hermit is found dead in the morning and the branch bears three green branches.
In the description of how the hermit watered the birds and was fed by the angel, the prophet Elijah was alluded to ( 1 Kings 17.4 LUT ).
origin
From the second edition (1819) the legend is included as children's legend No. 6, according to Grimm's comment from the Paderbörnische of the Haxthausen family . For comparison you name Der Tannhauser . A similar text with a more cumbersome entry was found in Grimm's estate, whereby the hermit is redeemed after he kills the three robbers.
literature
- 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. 275-276, 517.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Rölleke, Heinz (ed.): Fairy tales from the estate of the Brothers Grimm. 5th improved and supplemented edition. Trier 2001. pp. 95-97, 117-118. (WVT Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier; ISBN 3-88476-471-3 )