Siebenhaut
Siebenhaut is a fairy tale . It is in Ludwig Bechstein's New German Book of Fairy Tales and is based on The Snake in Ignaz and Josef Zingerle 's Children's and Household Tales from Southern Germany (1854).
content
A count treats his wife badly, calls her "smooth snake" because they have no child. When she does get pregnant, but gives birth to a snake, he banishes her to her rooms, where she raises the animal and dreams that her son took on this form because of the abuse. After 20 years he begins to speak and demands a wife. Her marriage proposals fail because the chicken maid, who at first also refuses, persuades her. According to the advice of an angel who appears to her in a dream, on the bridal night she replies to his requests to undress, no, he should undress. The brown snake sheds its skin seven times, appears green, sky blue, rose red, silver, golden, like a rainbow and finally as a young man.
Explanations
Bechstein lets the woman from no. 46, Schlange, tell a family friend . A dream of the mother initiates the transformation and one of the bride initiates the redemption. The mocking refusals, a golden snake ring, etc. are fitting, but one around the whole body is “not to be worn”, and the down-to-earth objection of the “whore”: “What can a slim figure serve me? Such a person only eats and does not work! I will probably still find a suitor who has hands and feet! "
Bechstein states that he shortened Zingerle's original a little and compares No. 34 Das Blaue Flammchen . Cf. King Lindwurm , with Basile Die Schlange , with Grimm the singing, jumping little lion , Hans my hedgehog , with Straparola Galeotto and Biancabella .
literature
- 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. 270-275, 296-297.