Cat and mouse in company

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Cat and mouse in company is an animal fairy tale ( ATU 15). It is in second place in the children's and house tales of the Brothers Grimm (KHM 2). Until the 2nd edition, the title was Cat and Mouse in Society .

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A cat and a mouse become acquainted. The cat confesses friendship and even great love to the mouse, so that the mouse agrees to move into a common house. Together they decide to stock up for the winter so that they don't have to go hungry in the cold season. They buy a pot full of fat , which they hide under the altar of the church , as this seems to be the safest place. After a while, the cat will feel like enjoying the reserve. So she pretends the mouse is invited to the christening of her cousin's child as a godfather . As soon as she arrives at the church, she goes about the fat supply and licks off the fat skin of the pot. The cat repeats the same story two more times until the pot is empty. When winter comes, the mouse wants to go to church with the cat to feast on the fat. However, she realizes that the pot is already empty and immediately suspects the cat. The cat then grabs its companion and devours her.

Origin and text history

Illustration by Otto Ubbelohde , 1909

The fairy tale is in Grimm's children's and house fairy tales from the 1st edition from 1812 and in the original handwritten version from 1810 as No. 2. It probably comes from Gretchen Wild . The note reports a similar Hessian variant of chickens and chickens who find a gem in the dung and buy a fat pot that the chicken gradually eats up. Chicken chops it to death and buries it in remorse as in KHM 80 On the Chicken's Death . Furthermore, “from the chicken and chickens in Western Pomerania, where the children are called Schlichtaf, Halsut, Stülpum”, according to Firmenich's Völkerstimmen . From fox and rooster who find a honey pot, the children are christened "Randaus", "Halbaus", "Ganzaus". At Müllenhoff No. 28 by Fox and Bear, in Norwegian at Asbjörnsen No. 17 by Bear and Fox (names: "Began", "Halbverzehrt", "Licked") and "The Negro Tale of the Hen and the Cat (No. 2) ".

The first edition was based exclusively on Wilhelm Grimm's writing after Gretchen Wild, but is about twice as long due to the form and double speech. From the 2nd edition onwards the cat scoffs that the mouse will "taste the same as if you stick your tongue out the window." From the 3rd edition onwards, it says to itself: "Nothing tastes better ... than what you yourself eats ”and“ When everything is consumed, you have peace and quiet. ”The story of how the cat goes for a walk after snacking and the mouse only answers monosyllabic is now told much longer. If the original text with the title can still be understood as the living community of animals, Wilhelm Grimm now describes how the cat first woos the mouse as a bride. The text then didn't change anymore, only from the 6th edition with the final sentence: "You see, that's how the world works."

Hans-Jörg Uther points out that parts of the plot already appear in later additions to the animal poem Roman de Renart . The fable is in the 19th and 20th centuries. Century often with wolf and fox as Schwank with a softened ending spread worldwide. For the sentence of the mouse “Now comes the day” cf. later KHM 16 , 60 , 115 ; Mk 4,22  EU , Lk 8,17  EU . The first edition contained with KHM 6a From the nightingale and the blindworm , another animal fairy tale from the cheated housemate. The laconic morality is similar to KHM 143 Up Reisen gohn .

Parodies

Ludwig Emil Grimm drew a caricature The good eater and wrote about it: "Nothing tastes better to a good man than what he eats himself and the good thing is that he does not get tired of it".

In Janosch's parody, the mouse wants to marry the cat if it spares it, and is eaten with all the wedding guests.

literature

  • Brothers Grimm: Children's and Household Tales. Last hand edition with the original notes by the Brothers Grimm. With an appendix of all fairy tales and certificates of origin, not published in all editions, published by Heinz Rölleke. Volume 3: Original Notes, Guarantees of Origin, Afterword. Revised and bibliographically supplemented edition. Reclam, Stuttgart 1994, ISBN 3-15-003193-1 , p. 19, p. 443.
  • Heinz Rölleke (Ed.): The oldest fairy tale collection of the Brothers Grimm. Synopsis of the handwritten original version from 1810 and the first prints from 1812. Edited and explained by Heinz Rölleke. Cologny-Geneve 1975 (Fondation Martin Bodmer, Printed in Switzerland), pp. 32-35, 349-350.
  • Hans-Jörg Uther: Handbook to the children's and house fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm. de Gruyter, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-11-019441-8 , pp. 6-7.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Heinz Rölleke: The fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm. An introduction. Reclam, Munich 2004, ISBN 978-3-15-017650-4 , pp. 39-40.
  2. ↑ Hans-Jörg Uther: Handbook on the children's and house tales of the Brothers Grimm. de Gruyter, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-11-019441-8 , pp. 6-7.
  3. ↑ Lothar Bluhm and Heinz Rölleke: “Popular speeches that I always listen to”. Fairy tale - proverb - saying. On the folk-poetic design of children's and house fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm. New edition. S. Hirzel Verlag, Stuttgart / Leipzig 1997, ISBN 3-7776-0733-9 , p. 41.
  4. ↑ Lothar Bluhm and Heinz Rölleke: “Popular speeches that I always listen to”. Fairy tale - proverb - saying. On the folk-poetic design of children's and house fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm. New edition. S. Hirzel Verlag, Stuttgart / Leipzig 1997, ISBN 3-7776-0733-9 , p. 40.
  5. ^ Janosch: Cat and Mouse in Society. In: Janosch tells Grimm's fairy tale. Fifty selected fairy tales, retold for today's children. With drawings by Janosch. 8th edition. Beltz and Gelberg, Weinheim and Basel 1983, ISBN 3-407-80213-7 , pp. 205-208.

Web links

Wikisource: Cat and Mouse in Society  - Sources and full texts