From Johannes water jump and Caspar water jump
There is a fairy tale about the Johannes water jump and Caspar water jump ( ATU 303). In the children's and house tales of the Brothers Grimm it was only in the first edition of 1812 in place 74 (KHM 74a).
content
A king lets his daughter live alone in the forest, only with virgins. There she drinks from a spring and then gives birth to the Johannes water jump and Caspar water jump, which are completely identical. The king lets the two boys become hunters. They each receive a silver star, a horse and a dog and meet two rabbits and two bears who follow them as a reward for their protection. When the brothers split up, they stab two knives into a tree. Johannes-Wasserkprung defeats a dragon with the help of the animals, but a coachman stabs him to death when he is resting from the fight, takes the dragon's head as a symbol and is supposed to get the princess for it. The animals see ants brush their dead bodies with oak juice, and in the same way bring their master back to life. The princess gives the animals roast and wine and lets them lead her servants to him so that he is invited to the wedding. There he proves his rights with the help of the dragon tongues that have been cut out and becomes her husband. On the hunt, he pursues a deer with silver antlers to an old woman who petrifies him. Caspar Water Jump sees it in the knife, comes to the city where he is mistaken for his brother, finds him and redeems him. The bride keeps Johannes water jump because she falls around his neck first.
Origin and comparisons
The fairy tale comes from Friederike Mannel from Allendorf (1808). The surviving transcript of the Brothers Grimm from a strange hand is more concise than the printed version, but identical in content. It is only mentioned later in the note on the very similar but more detailed KHM 60 The Two Brothers as the fourth Hessian story . Compare also KHM 85 The Gold Children , KHM 111 The Learned Hunter , KHM 104a The Faithful Animals . The motif of the sacrifice of the salvation of a virgin before a dragon can be found in the ancient Perseus myth or in the legend of Saint George in the version of the Legenda aurea, other motifs are pre-formed in the Tristan saga.
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. S. 469. Revised and bibliographically supplemented edition, Stuttgart 1994. (Reclam-Verlag; ISBN 3-15-003193-1 )
- Rölleke, Heinz (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. Pp. 290-295, 386-387, 393. Cologny-Geneve 1975. (Fondation Martin Bodmer; Printed in Switzerland)
