From the clever little tailor
There is a swank from the clever little tailor ( ATU 850, 1061, 1159). It is in the children's and house tales of the Brothers Grimm at number 114 (KHM 114).
content
A proud princess puzzles her suitors . Three tailors , of whom the two older consider themselves to be very clever, but the third to be stupid, are asked to guess the color of the two hairs on their heads. The first advises black and white, the second brown and red, but the third then correct silver and gold. But she doesn't want him and asks him to spend another night with a bear in the stable. The tailor offers him nuts and cracks them with his teeth, but gives him stones that the bear cannot bring up. Then he pretends that he has to dance. Under the pretext of teaching him to play the violin, he clamps his paws in a vice to cut his claws and then sleeps in peace. Now the princess has to go to church with him, but the two jealous companions free the bear that follows. The tailor stretches his naturally skinny legs out of the carriage window and calls out to him that this is the vice. The bear lets go. The tailor gets the princess.
style
The final sentence of the narrator Who does not believe, pays a thaler fits the dexterous liar represented by the tailor.
origin
Grimm's fairy tales contain the Schwank from the second part of the first edition of 1815 (there No. 28) in place 114. Your note notes from the Schwalm area in Hesse and compares KHM 20 The brave little tailor . The guessing of gold and silver hair also occurs otherwise. You also mention Prohle's fairy tale for the youth (No. 28) and the gypsy and the bear in Wolf's magazine for German mythology 1, 360.
Compare also: KHM 22 The Riddle , KHM 134 The Six Servants , KHM 191 The Sea Bunny . Cf. The Pearl Queen in Ludwig Bechstein's German book of fairy tales from 1845.
interpretation
The fairy tale combines two motifs that show that it carries cultural features that are foreign to Central Europe. These are (1) the matrilocality of marriage, that is, sons-in-law move to the bride's parents (and not the daughters-in-law to the bridegroom's parents), and (2) - somewhat hidden - the ultimogeniture , that is, the youngest sons inherit and not the firstborn . Since these customs were unusual in Germany, they had to be made plausible through the design of the personalities. The first characteristic is explained by the special cunning of the slightest suitor (it does not always have to be a despised wanderer tailor, comparable fairy tales use a swineherd or a prince wandering through the world - see Sleeping Beauty ); the fact that not every suitor is welcome is often justified with the cruelty of the princess ( Turandot motif) or with the harshness of the bride's father (cf. the devil with the three golden hairs ). The second trait needs to emphasize unfraternal envy .
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. Pp. 207, 490. Revised and bibliographically supplemented edition, Reclam, Stuttgart 1994, ISBN 3-15-003193-1
- Hedwig von Beit: Contrast and Renewal in Fairy Tales. Second volume of «Symbolism of Fairy Tales». 2nd Edition. A. Francke, Bern 1956, pp. 499-500.
