From the death of the chicken

There is a fairy tale about the death of the chicken ( ATU 2021). It is in the children's and house tales by the Brothers Grimm at position 80 (KHM 80). Until the 2nd edition the title was From the death of the chicken . The fairy tale is based on the text Terrible story of the chicken and the chicken , which Clemens Brentano published in Des Knaben Wunderhorn in 1808 after Charles Crodel . Ludwig Bechstein took it over in his German fairy tale book as Vom Hühnchen und Hähnchen (1845 No. 31, 1853 No. 27).

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Illustration by Otto Ubbelohde , 1909

A chicken and a chicken are looking for nuts. Actually, they had agreed that if one found one, he would call the other to eat the nut together. The chicken finds a large nut kernel, eats it alone and threatens to choke on it.

It asks the chicken to bring it water. This worries the water with some problems, but in the meantime the chicken has already suffocated. The chicken screams in grief that all the animals of the forest are coming together. The chicken is to be carried to its grave on a cart. The animals of the forest join the funeral procession.

When they come to a stream, the animals want to cross it with the help of a straw. It fails and the mice that have pulled the carriage up until then drown. Next, a coal wants to help with the crossing, but goes out in the water.

After all, a stone helps out as a bridge. The chicken crosses the water with the corpse of the chicken. In the meantime, however, the car had become so heavy from the other animals in the forest that it fell back into the stream and all the animals in the forest drowned.

In the end, only the chicken with the dead chicken made it to the other side of the stream. There the chicken buries the chicken and mourns the deceased until it dies itself.

origin

Illustration by Otto Ubbelohde , 1909

Grimm's note notes “From Hessen” and refers to the terrible story of the Hünchen and the Hänchen after Charles Crodel in Des Knaben Wunderhorn (Grimm's text also uses the end of a story by Wilhelm Engelhardt ). In “a Bavarian story” (by Ferdinand Grimm ), a chicken needs water from the well, a leaf from the linden tree, a ribbon from the bride, a bristle from the pig, bran from the miller, a toilet from the farmer, then it's too late. In another, all the animals get on chicken's funeral wagon. When the flea arrives, the car sinks into the swamp. The Grimms still call Meier's stories from Swabia “No. 71 and 80 "; at Müllenhoff "aus Holstein" No. 30; at Haltrich "from Transylvania" No. 44; at Asbjörnsen "from Norway" "S. 98 "; to "Hahnenberg and Hahnensumpf" a Danish legend in antiquarian book Annaler 1, 331.

"How a stone saw it, he wanted ... to help" became the 3rd edition "How a stone saw it, he had mercy" (cf. KHM 1 , 110 ), Heinz Rölleke already finds the phrase in Sebastian Brant's ship of fools : "It would like to do eim hertten stone ”.

Cf. KHM 18 Straw, Coal and Beans , KHM 23 Von dem Mäuschen, Vogelchen und der Bratwurst , KHM 169 The Forest House , KHM 72a The Birnli does not want to fall .

Receptions

Ludwig Bechstein took over the fable modified as Vom Hühnchen und Hähnchen in his German fairy tale book : The fox does not go along, but eats the animals with their wagons and dies from them. The conclusion comes from Wilhelmine Mylius .

In Janosch's parody, the chicken calls all the animals to help, but they only pounce on the nuts and also suffocate.

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. 140–141, 477. Revised and bibliographically supplemented edition, Reclam-Verlag, Stuttgart 1994, ISBN 3-15-003193-1 .
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. 184-185.
Clemens Brentano: Terrible story of the chicken and the chicken . In: Ludwig Achim von Arnim (ed.): Des Knaben Wunderhorn . tape 3 . Stuttgart u. a. 1979, p. 260-262 . ( zeno.org [accessed July 27, 2016]).

Web links

Wikisource: From the Death of the Chicken - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

↑ Kathrin Pöge-Alder: fairy tale research. Theories, methods, interpretations. Gunter Narr Verlag, Tübingen 2007, ISBN 978-3-8233-6252-4 , p. 125.
↑ 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 , pp. 97-98.
^ Hans-Jörg Uther (Ed.): Ludwig Bechstein. Storybook. After the edition of 1857, text-critically revised and indexed. Diederichs, Munich 1997, ISBN 3-424-01372-2 , pp. 148-150, 386.
↑ Janosch: From the death of the chicken. 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. 83-84.

[1] Kathrin Pöge-Alder: fairy tale research. Theories, methods, interpretations. Gunter Narr Verlag, Tübingen 2007, ISBN 978-3-8233-6252-4 , p. 125.

[2] 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 , pp. 97-98.

[3] Hans-Jörg Uther (Ed.): Ludwig Bechstein. Storybook. After the edition of 1857, text-critically revised and indexed. Diederichs, Munich 1997, ISBN 3-424-01372-2 , pp. 148-150, 386.

[4] Janosch: From the death of the chicken. 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. 83-84.