Three hazelnuts for Cinderella (fairy tale)
Three Nuts for Cinderella (original Czech title: O Popelce , German translation: About Cinderella ) is an artistic fairy tale by the Czech writer Božena Němcová . It was created between 1842 and 1845 and is an adaptation of the fairy tale Cinderella by the Brothers Grimm . The fairy tale is known in German-speaking countries under the name Three Hazelnuts for Cinderella ( Czech Tři oříšky pro Popelku ) due to the popular fairy tale film from 1973 .
plot
A girl lives with her father, stepmother and stepsister Dora. The girl is called "Cinderella" because her stepmother and step-sister let her do any work. Dora gets all the beautiful clothes, while Cinderella has to wear a smock made of rough linen .
When the father goes to mass one day , he asks his stepdaughter and his biological daughter what he should bring them. Dora wishes for beautiful dresses, pearls and precious stones. Cinderella wishes for the first rice that smacks her in the face along the way. After mass, her father gets everything that Dora wanted. On the way back, he is walking through a forest, lost in thought, when he brushes against a hazel bush and smacks a piece of hazel rice in the face. He remembers Cinderella's wish and breaks off the rice. When he got home, he was welcomed by his wife and two daughters. Cinderella is happy that she came home healthy and takes her rice.
The next day, a Sunday, everyone gets ready for church. Cinderella asks her stepmother to give her a dress so that she too can go to church. Instead of granting Cinderella's wish, the stepmother throws a bowl of lentils into the ashes and orders Cinderella to pick them up. When her family is gone, Cinderella goes to the well to wash, crying. As she leans toward the fountain, her hazelnut rice falls into the water. Suddenly a frog jumps out of the well and puts a hazelnut on the edge. Cinderella should open the nut and the contents are hers, says the frog and disappears. When she opens the hazelnut, she finds a sundress. She is very happy about the dress, but the work assigned by her stepmother remains to be done. Then six pigeons fly down from the roof into the room. Three pick the lentils from the ashes, three dress Cinderella. Before she goes to church, she says: “Fog in front of me, fog behind me, the sun above me!” In the church everyone looks at her curiously, but nobody recognizes her. The young prince in particular cannot take his eyes off her and tries to follow her after mass. But on the threshold, Cinderella says again, "Fog in front of me, fog behind me, the sun above me!" and has disappeared. When she gets home, she takes off her sundress and hides it in the hazelnut under a stone by the well. When the stepmother returns, everything is as before; everyone only talks about the mysterious maiden .
The following Sunday, Cinderella again asks her stepmother to come to church with her, but instead she is supposed to pick poppies from the barley . When her stepmother and stepsister are out of the house, Cinderella goes to the well again and meets the frog with a hazelnut in its mouth. This time, Cinderella finds a moon dress in the nut that glitters like silver. Again the six doves come to help her. Again Cinderella lets fog appear in front of her, fog behind her and the sun above her and goes to the church. Prince and Cinderella meet again, but after the fair she disappears before he can stop her. So he decides to make a ruse. Meanwhile, Cinderella rushes back home and hides the dress under a second stone by the well. Again everyone is talking only about the mysterious beauty and the young prince.
On the third Sunday, Cinderella asks her stepmother again if she can come to church. However, the stepmother scolds her and pours hemp seeds into the ashes. As soon as the family is gone, Cinderella goes to the well, where the frog is already waiting with the third hazelnut. Cinderella happily asks the frog how she can thank him. The frog says she has been good to the animals, so she should be happy too. This time, when Cinderella opens the nut, she finds a star dress that appears to be made of precious stones. Again, the doves help Cinderella to dress and tell her that they want to do the work for them too, since she has been good to them too. Cinderella speaks again: "Fog in front of me, fog behind me, the sun above me!" and hurries to the church.
The young prince is waiting in the church. Suddenly Cinderella stands glowing in front of the altar. Again the prince looks at Cinderella and Cinderella looks at him too, because she likes him and thinks that this is the last time she will see him. After the mass she hurries out of the church before everyone else, but this time the prince is faster. He asks her to tell him where she is from and if he can accompany her home. But Cinderella can't get a word out and just shakes her head. He then asks her to allow him to follow her, but again she can only shake her head. She drops fog in front of and behind her and disappears. However, her golden slipper got stuck in the bad luck that the prince had painted on the street in front of the church. When his family returns, Cinderella learns that the prince has used a ruse, but she is not angry with him. She's only sorry that she won't be able to wear the dresses anymore because she only had this one pair of shoes.
Soon after, the prince goes from house to house and has every young girl put on the slipper so that the one who fits the shoe may become his wife. The prince also comes to Cinderella's house, but the stepmother drives away and hides the girl. Dora puts the shoe on, but it doesn't fit her. Then Dora cuts off her toe, as her mother advised her. When the prince sees that she is wearing the slipper, he thinks that she must be the right one, even if he doesn't recognize her as the beauty from the church. He asks the stepmother if she has any other daughters, to which she says no, and the father, afraid of her stepmother, does not dare mention Cinderella. But a rooster crows: "Kikiriki, the one on the right, that's here too!" The prince then orders the father to fetch the other daughter as well. Cinderella runs quickly to the fountain and opens the nut with the sun dress. She enters the room with one shoe on her foot.
Now everyone recognizes her as Cinderella. Dora has to take off her shoe; It fits Cinderella like a glove. Then the prince asks Cinderella to be his wife, because he could never find a better one. Cinderella also likes the idea and so her father gives her his blessing. When Cinderella, the prince and her father are sitting in the carriage, the girl turns around to thank the frog. The rooster and the doves accompany the carriage on the way to the castle. Only the stepmother and Dora remain alone - "without love and without joy", as Němcová writes at the end.
Similarities to Grimm's Fairy Tales
The fairy tale of Cinderella by Božena Němcová contains various motifs from Grimm's fairy tales , such as The Frog King or Iron Henry , Allerleirauh and Frau Holle .
film adaptations
- Three Nuts for Cinderella , film by Václav Vorlíček , Czechoslovakia/GDR 1973.
The film production differs significantly from Němcová's fairy tales in many places. There is only one ball and therefore only one ball gown instead of three. Therefore, the other two nuts are used for a "hunter's costume" and a wedding dress. In addition, the film dispensed with religious motifs and references to other fairy tales.
- Three Nuts for Cinderella , film directed by Cecilie Mosli , Norway 2021.
soundtrack
Three hazelnuts for Cinderella - The radio play , radio play by Markus Topf and others, 2014.
literature
- Božena Němcová: The King of Time. Slovak Fairy Tales . Translated by Dr. Peter Hrivnak. Mladé letá, Bratislava 1978, pp. 80–86.
itemizations
- ↑ The literary model by Božena Nemcová translated by Dr. Peter Hrivnak. (No longer available online.) In: www.dreihaselnuessefueraschenbroedel.de. Archived from the original on September 23, 2015 ; retrieved October 10, 2015 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
