Bittern and Hoopoe

The bittern and the hoopoe are a legend ( ATU 236 *). It is in the children's and house tales of the Brothers Grimm from the 4th edition from 1840 on position 173 (KHM 173) and comes from Johann Jakob Nathanael Mussäus , who published it in 1840 as The Cowherds in the yearbook of the Association for Meklenburg History and Archeology . Ludwig Bechstein took it over according to the same source in his New German Fairy Tale Book 1856 as Die Kuhhirten (No. 23).

content

An old cowherd explains that he prefers to graze the cows where the grass is neither too fat nor too lean. The bittern and hoopoe were also cowherders. One of them drove the cows to rich meadows with lots of flowers, the other to arid mountains. In the evening the bittern wanted to round up his cocky animals: "bunt, herüm" (colorful cow, around). Hoopoe wanted to straighten his tired animals: “Up, up, up!” - “This is how it works if you don't keep your measure. Even today, when they are no longer keeping a herd, the bittern screams 'colorful, herüm,' and the hoopoe 'up, up, up!'

origin

Illustration by Otto Ubbelohde , 1909

Wilhelm Grimm took over the legend together with KHM 171 Der Zaunkönig and KHM 172 Die Scholle von Mussäus . In the former, the hoopoe is also briefly mentioned. As there, Grimm emphasizes the etiological explanation at the end and integrates Mussäus' final moral “Not too fat, and not too lean!” At the beginning of the text. It is also based on the archaic idea of the bird shape of the human soul. See KHM 9 , 21 , 25 , 46 , 47 , 49 , 51 , 57 , 69 , 88 , 93 , 96 , 123 .

Bechstein

Bechstein tells in more detail how a hiker is amazed at the noise. The one cowherd tells him a shorter version first: The “Rohrtumb”, also “Rohrtrummel”, “Ur-Rind”, “Moor-Rind” or “Mooskuh” was a lazy servant who was therefore turned into a bird. He yells like this out of anger, indicating rain.

literature

Grimm, brothers. 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. Pp. 259, 507-508. Revised and bibliographically supplemented edition, Stuttgart 1994. (Reclam-Verlag; ISBN 3-15-003193-1 )
Rölleke, Heinz (Ed.): Grimm's fairy tales and their sources. The literary models of the Grimm fairy tales are presented synoptically and commented on. 2., verb. Edition, Trier 2004. pp. 330–331, 574. (Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier; series of literature studies, vol. 35; ISBN 3-88476-717-8 )
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. 360–361.

Web links

Wikisource: Bittern and Hoopoe - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

↑ 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. 360–361.
^ Hans-Jörg Uther (Ed.): Ludwig Bechstein. New German fairy tale book. After the edition of 1856, text-critically revised and indexed. Diederichs, Munich 1997, ISBN 3-424-01372-2 , pp. 150-152, 291.

[1] 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. 360–361.

[2] Hans-Jörg Uther (Ed.): Ludwig Bechstein. New German fairy tale book. After the edition of 1856, text-critically revised and indexed. Diederichs, Munich 1997, ISBN 3-424-01372-2 , pp. 150-152, 291.