A little man stands in the forest

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"The little man [...] can only be the rose hip."

A little man stands in the forest is one of the numerous popular children's songs by August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben from 1843.

text

A little man stands in the forest
quite still and mute,
It has
a little cloak of pure purple on.
Says who can be that little man,
That stands alone in the forest
with the purple-red cloak?

The little man stands
on one leg in the forest
and has a
small black cap on his head .
Says who can be that little man,
That stands alone in the forest
with the little black little kid?

spoken:

The little man there on one leg,
with his red cloak
and his black little skull,
can only be the rose hip!

description

The song belongs to the group of riddle songs . The correct solution to the riddle is the rose hip , as Hoffmann von Fallersleben reveals in a stanza added in 1860, which, according to the poet, is only spoken. But the song also contains misleading hints that suggest the fly agaric as the (wrong) solution, as the musicologist Hans-Josef Irmen explains . Irmen explains:

“In fact, the rose hips do not grow in the forest alone, but at least on the edge of the forest, 'at the rain', and their fruits are numerous. In the first stanza, Hoffmann shows the person guessing the wrong way; everyone thinks first of the fly agaric. Only when the 'black Käppelein' is known as a further indication of the second stanza does it become clear that it is the rose hip. The contradiction between the two stanzas suggests that the poet tried to unite incompatible models. "

The song follows a folk tune that has been known since around 1800 and for which the Lower Rhine is specified as the origin in some song books. The melody consists of 16 bars , begins with an upbeat and is in 2/4 time. Since the motif is often repeated within the melody, one speaks of the reprise bar form , i.e. aaba ′.

It was only through the inclusion of the song in 1893 in the fairy tale opera Hansel and Gretel by Engelbert Humperdinck that it became popular as a folk song . However, in this opera only the two original first stanzas are sung, so the riddle is not resolved.

History of material and motifs

Riddles that have the rose hip as a solution have a long tradition that goes back to early modern times. A version can already be found in a Reterbüchlein ( riddle book) from 1562 that Hoffmann von Fallersleben claims to have found in 1833. However , it cannot be found in the Wroclaw University Library , where Hoffmann was curator in 1833 .

What has his bosom full of stones?
And is seldom found alone;
Also has a red skirt on?
If some things do nothing, they are let go.
  Retherbüchlein, Frankfurt 1562

As early as 1829 Hoffmann had quoted a related poem by Huldrichus Therander (= Johannes Sommer , 1559–1622), which had appeared in print around 1605:

It has a red skirt on.
In company one always sees it stahn,
Has moved out of the city,
Is raised in the green field,
Has his bosom full of stones
And stands alone on one leg.
You mustn't be afraid for him:
if you let it stand, it won't sting you;
But
if you want to break it, take care that it doesn't sting you.
Tell me: do you know what might it be?
This is how you earn a wreath.

Karl Simrock quotes several related texts in his German People's Books :

It stands on the rain,
has a bosom full of stone,
has a red cloak on,
and a black cap on it.

Male in the bush
Has a black cap on,
A red cloak around
And stones in his stomach:
what's the name of the male in the bush?

A Latin variant of these puzzle texts can already be found in the Carmina Burana (before the 13th century) in the first stanza of CB 177. However, this text variant is more likely to have the onion as the puzzle solution .

Steady puella
rufa tunica;
si quis eam tetigit,
tunica crepuit.
  eia!

Stood a girl
in a red shirt;
when you touched it,
the shirt crackled.

Trivia

  • Because of the wrong solution to the riddle as a fly agaric, the text by R. Gordon Wasson was seen as evidence of a childish Soma cult in Germany with the intoxicating effects of the fly agaric poison. This was refuted in 1985 by RE Emmerick.
  • In the film Hannibal Rising - How everything began or the novel Hannibal Rising , the song has a leading role and runs through the plot, starting in the prologue, about the killing of Hannibal Lecter's sister Mischa and repeatedly in the subsequent campaign of revenge.
  • The song is also popular in advertising. For example in an alienated version for the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge or as a party advertisement for the CSU (“A little man stands in the forest, all green and stupid.”).
  • The British pop singer Grant Tracy released the one-man-stands-in-the-forest- twist in 1963 . The recording was also re-released on the third installment of the CD series 1000 Nadelelstich , a collection of German-language songs sung by well-known American and British artists.
  • The song serves as background music at a sad point in the film Jungle Child.
  • Andreas Kowalewitz composed humorous variations of the song for choir and piano in the style of Bach, Orff, contemporary, jazz, Verdi and Mozart.

See also

literature

  • Theo Mang, Sunhilt Mang (ed.): The song source . Noetzel, Wilhelmshaven 2007, ISBN 978-3-7959-0850-8 , pp. 665-666 .

Web links

Commons : A little man stands in the forest  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Text version 1860
  2. ↑ a b Lutz Röhrich : Riddle song. In: Rolf Wilhelm Brednich, Lutz Röhrich, Wolfgang Suppan (Hrsg.): Handbuch des Volkslieds. Volume 1. Wilhelm Fink, Munich 1973, pp. 205–233, here p. 231. Printed in: Lutz Röhrich: Gesammelte Schriften zur Volkslied- und Volksballadenforschung. Waxmann, Munich 2002, ISBN 3-8309-1213-7 , pp. 165–200, here p. 197 ( limited preview in the Google book search).
  3. ↑ Hans-Josef Irmen: Hansel and Gretel. Studies and documents on Engelbert Humperdinck's fairy tale opera. Schott, Mainz 1989, ISBN 3-7957-1850-3 , p. 83.
  4. ↑ Heinz Rölleke (Ed.): The folk song book . Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 1993, ISBN 3-462-02294-6 , pp. 356 .
  5. ↑ Ingeborg Weber-Kellermann : The book of children's songs (= series music. 8370). New edition. Schott, Mainz 2010, ISBN 978-3-254-08370-8 , p. 95.
  6. ↑ Anne Diekmann (Ed.), Tomi Ungerer (Ill.): The great song book. Diogenes, Zurich 1975, ISBN 3-257-00947-X , p. 135.
  7. ↑ The Reter Booklet. Which ancestor should pass away, May this little book find out. He found in it a clever lesson, of talker poem and newer more. Now made by newem in the truck. Printed in Franckfurt am Mayn, by Nicolaum Bosse, vnd Sigmundt Feyrabend, in the Jar MDLXJJ.
  8. ↑ a b Hoffmann von Fallersleben: Räthsel (Räthersche, Rätherle). In: Anzeiger für Kunde des deutschen Mittelalter, 2 (1833), Sp. 310–312 ( digitized in the Google book search).
  9. ↑ Heike Bismark: Riddle Books: Origin and Development of an Early Modern Book Type in the German-speaking Area (= Early Modern Age. Volume 122). Niemeyer, Tübingen 2007, ISBN 978-3-484-36622-0 , p. 53 and 357 (accessed via De Gruyter Online; limited preview in Google book search).
  10. ^ Franz Magnus Böhme : German children's song and children's game: folk traditions from all countries with the German tongue. Breitkopf and Härtel, Leipzig 1897, p. 689 ( Textarchiv - Internet Archive ).
  11. ^ The German riddle book. Third collection. No. 14. In: Karl Simrock: The German People's Books. Volume 10. Brönner, Frankfurt am Main 1864, p. 131 ( Textarchiv - Internet Archive ), resolution p. 205.
  12. ↑ Hoffmann von Fallersleben: Oddities from the Royal. and University Library in Breslau: 5. Ancient riddles. In: Monthly by and for Silesia. 1 (1829), 1st volume, March 1829, pp. 160-164 ( digitized in the Google book search).
  13. ↑ Aenigmatographia rythmica / A news art-rich puzzles book out of the most famous and excellent old and new Latin scribes diligently drawn together / And the dear Germans to explore many natural mysteries / lovely and graceful pleasure / and passing time too well in Teudian rhyme / composed by Huldsche Therandrum. o. O. [Magdeburg] o. J. [1605/06], OCLC 165914086 / HAB Wolfenbüttel .
  14. ^ The German riddle book. No. 80. In: Karl Simrock: The German People's Books. Volume 7. Brönner, Frankfurt am Main 1850, p. 289 ( Textarchiv - Internet Archive ), resolution p. 360.
  15. ^ The German riddle book. Third collection. No. 131. In: Karl Simrock: The German people books. Volume 10. Brönner, Frankfurt am Main 1864, p. 153 ( 153  - Internet Archive ), resolution p. 207.
  16. ↑ Hans Naumann : Stetit Puella. In: Contributions to the history of German language and literature , 1917, issue 42, pp. 163–167, doi: 10.1515 / bgsl.1917.1917.42.163 .
  17. ↑ CB 177 , quoted from the Bibliotheca Augustana
  18. ^ R. Gordon Wasson: Soma and the fly-argaric. Cambridge MA 1972, p. 58, OCLC 652147338 .
  19. ^ RE Emmerick: A little man stands in the forest. In: Papers in Honor of Prof. Mary Boyce (= Acta Iranica. 24) Brill, Leiden 1985, ISBN 90-6831-002-X , pp. 179-184 ( limited preview in Google book search).
  20. ↑ Grant Tracy: Ya, Ya Twist / A little man stands in the forest twist at 45cat, accessed on January 29, 2018
  21. ↑ 1000 Pinpricks Vol. 3 from Bear Family Records, accessed January 29, 2018