Abstract
A comparison of the Grimms’ fairy tale Der treue Johannes (KHM 6), its tale type (ATU 516, »Faithful John«), and two further variants (Basile’s Il cuorvo and the Grimms’ alternative version in their 1822 Anmerkungen) allows particular features of the first to emerge that stand in close connection to contemporary philosophy and literature. Sovereignty and paternity are separated with the death of the king at the beginning of the text and then reunited at the end in his son as the result of his servant’s self-sacrifice. This self-sacrifice is the climax of a series of apparent sacrifices, in which figures »die« and are then »resurrected,» until the son disrupts the cycle. The original order is restored, but at the expense of a new subjectivity, which can only be legitimized through fidelity.
Zusammenfassung
Ein Vergleich zwischen Grimms Märchen Der treue Johannes (KHM 6) und dessen Märchentyp (ATU 516, »Treuer Johannes«), als auch zwei Varianten (Basiles Il cuorvo und die alternative Fassung von den 1822 Anmerkungen), lässt bestimmte Merkmale des Textes hervortreten, die im nahen Zusammenhang zur zeitgenössischen Philosophie und Literatur stehen. Mit dem Tod des Königs am Anfang des Textes fallen Souveränität und Vaterschaft auseinander, die dann am Ende in dem Sohn durch die Selbstaufopferung seines Dieners wiedervereinigt werden. Diese Selbstaufopferung ist die letzte Instanz einer Reihe von Scheinopferungen, die Figuren sterbend und auferstehend erscheinen lassen, bis der Sohn den Zyklus unterbricht. Die ursprüngliche Ordnung wird zwar wiederhergestellt, aber auf Kosten einer neuen Subjektivität, die nur durch die Treue legitimiert werden kann.
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Notes
Maria Tatar, The Hard Facts of the Grimms’ Fairy Tales, Princeton 2003, 43. The French cultural historian Robert Darnton issues a similar warning in Robert Darnton, »Peasants Tell Tales: The Meaning of Mother Goose«, in: The Great Cat Massacre and Other Episodes in French Cultural History, New York 1984, 9‑72, here 18.
Gerhard Haas, »Die ›Logik‹ der Märchen. Überlegungen zur zeitgenössischen Märcheninterpretation und Märchendidaktik«, in: Ottilie Dinges, Monika Born, Jürgen Janning (Ed.), Märchen in Erziehung und Unterricht, Kassel 1986, 10-30, here 15-16.
Vladimir Propp suggests the importance of Apuleius’ treatment of Amor and Psyche in folktales in all European traditions in Chapter 3 of: Vladimir Yakovlevich Propp, The Russian Folktale, Ed. and Trans. Sibelan Forrester, Detroit 2012.
Vladimir Propp argues in his later work that myths decay into folktales as society passes from the stage in which the myths are believed to the next stage in which their truth content is emptied out and the mythical stories become mere entertainment. This certainly seems like a plausible ground for the development of folktales, but does not take into account the possibility of later additions and contaminations. Likewise, André Jolles’ idea that the novella and the fairy tale are twins, the first a higher intentionally literary form, the latter a simple form, is indeed interesting, and points to the possible generic interferences that Propp’s theory leaves out. A full theory of the fairytale, which is far beyond the scope of this paper, would need to reconcile Propp’s earlier timeline (which seems to begin in classical antiquity and continue on into modernity with the disenchantment of hagiographies) with Jolles’ later timeline (which seems to focus on the period from Boccaccio to the Grimms). In addition to the Propp cited above, see Vladimir Propp, Theory and History of Folklore, Ed. Anatoly Liberman, Minneapolis 1984, especially Chapters 7 and 8. André Jolles, Einfache Formen, Tübingen 1930, »Märchen.«.
Heinz Rölleke, »New Results of Research on Grimms’ Fairy Tales«, in: James M. McGlathery, Larry W. Danielson, Ruth E. Lorbe, Selma K. Richardson (Eds.), The Brothers Grimm and Folktale, Urbana, IL 1988, 101-111, here 101-102.
Donald Haase, »Response and Responsibility in Reading Grimms’ Fairy Tales«, in: Donald Haase (Ed.), The Reception of Grimms’ Fairy Tales: Responses, Reactions, Revisions, Detroit 1993, 230-249, here 233.
To get a sense of Zipes’ theoretical approach, see Jack Zipes, Breaking the Magic Spell: Radical Theories of Folk and Fairy Tales, Lexington, KY 2002; Jack Zipes, Fairy Tales and the Art of Subversion, New York 2006. In the past ten years, Zipes has turned his attention to evolutionary psychology, memetics, and cognitive science to think about the cultural work done by fairy tale transmission. This fascinating approach is beyond the scope of the present paper.
For Tatar’s major theoretical statements, see: Tatar (note 1) and Maria Tatar, Off with Their Heads! Fairy Tales and the Culture of Childhood, Princeton 1992.
See Jack Zipes, The Trials and Tribulations of Little Red Riding Hood: Versions of the Tale in Sociocultural Context, New York 1993, and Maria Tatar, Secrets Beyond the Door: The Story of Bluebeard and His Wives, Princeton 2004.
Max Lüthi, »Von der Freiheit der Erzähler: Anmerkungen zu einigen Versionen des ›Treuen Johannes‹«, in: W. van Nespen (Ed.), Miscellanea, Prof. em Dr. K.C. Peeters: door vrienden en collega’s hem aangeboden ter gelegenheid van zijn emeritaat, Antwerp 1975, 458-472, here 458.
I do not have space to address this argument in detail, but I would point to the master-slave dialectic in Hegel’s Phänomenologie des Geistes, the role of human sacrifice in Goethe’s Iphigenie auf Tauris, and Wilhelm’s remarks on loyalty and the self in Book 4, Chapter 2 of Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre as initial markers for the presence of this motif in German literature and philosophy circa 1800.
Steven Swann Jones, The Fairy Tale: The Magic Mirror of Imagination, New York 1995, 54.
Christine Shojaei Kawan, »Johannes: Der treue Johannes«, in: Rolf Wilhelm Brednich, Hermann Bausinger, Wolfgang Brückner, Lutz Röhrich, Rudolf Schenda (Ed.), Enzyklopädie des Märchens, Band 7.2/3, Berlin 1992, 601-610, here 603.
Erich Rösch, »Der getreue Johannes.« Eine vergleichende Märchenstudie, Helsinki 1928, 5.
Kawan notes that more recent scholars doubt the details of Rösch’s claim about the origin of the story, just as they are skeptical of Kaarle Krohn’s attempt to correct Rösch a few years later, in which he argues that the story first came from India. See Kaarle Krohn, Übersicht über einige Resultate der Märchenforschung, Helsinki 1931, 82-89. As one reads her (or Rölleke’s or Uther’s) attempts to trace individual motifs, though, the story can start to lose all contour, as the abduction by ship can be traced back to Herodotus, among others, the dangerous wedding night to the Book of Tobit, petrification to Lot’s wife and/or Niobe, the saving of a prince by a merchant’s son to eleventh-century Indian sources, and so on. Basile’s tale is the first full version we possess, in any case.
There are, however, exceptions in both more and less violent directions: »Häufig aber entfällt das tatsächliche oder symbolische Kindesopfer gänzlich und ist durch Heilmittel wie Lebenswasser, Tränen, Tierblut, eine Salbe oder eine ähnliche Rezeptur ersetzt. Allerdings gibt es auch volkstümliche Fassungen, in denen die Grausamkeit des Kindesopfers noch verstärkt ist bzw. nicht empfunden wird: Die Kinder werden nicht wiederbelebt.« Kawan (note 13), 606.
One must keep in mind that this is one of the relatively few fairytale plots in which an alternative perspective on the events could be entertained: »After appearing and tricking his prey, the antagonist causes some kind of harm. The forms of this misfortune or harm are extraordinarily varied; most often we encounter the form of abduction.« Propp (note 3), 155. In short, from the woman’s (and/or her family’s) perspective, the hero could very well seem like the abductor that kicks off the plot in a different tale, which is precisely what happens in Basile’s version. If the woman must be rescued, then no such problem presents itself.
Jacob und Wilhelm Grimm, Kinder und Hausmärchen gesammelt durch die Brüder Grimm. Vollständige Ausgabe auf der Grundlage der dritten Auflage (1837), ed. Heinz Rölleke, Frankfurt am Main 1985, 45-53. It is the sixth tale in the Grimms’ large collections from the second edition (1819) to the seventh and final edition (1857) and is commonly referred to as KHM 6 within the context of Grimms’ scholarship. In folkloric scholarship, it qualifies as an instantiation of the Aarne-Thompson-Uther tale-type 516, »Faithful John,« for which the shorthand ATU 516 is used. The Grimms transcribed it from Dorothea Viehmann, a fisherman’s widow of Huguenot extraction and one of their most prolific sources. Unlike many other tales, it did not undergo any revision from the second to the seventh edition.
Grimm (note 18), 46.
Grimm (note 18), 46.
Grimm (note 18), 46.
Grimm (note 18), 46.
Grimm (note 18), 47.
Grimm (note 18), 48.
Grimm (note 18), 48-49.
Grimm (note 18), 50.
Grimm (note 18), 51.
Grimm (note 18), 51.
Grimm (note 18), 51.
Grimm (note 18), 52.
Grimm (note 18), 52.
Grimm (note 18), 52-53.
One other abnormality of this tale is that all three major characters – Johannes, the young king, and the queen – display reluctance at least once: Johannes twice, before giving in to the king’s request to open the door, and again when he considers what to do about the ravens’ conversation. The king and the queen both hesitate when it comes to sacrificing their children. »However, cases in which the hero acts first negatively and then positively are still quite rare; we must search for them. Psychologization and repentance are not in the style of the folktale. These external violations, however, represent an undoubted artistic achievement. They break up the schematicism; they lend the hero’s character a lifelike verisimilitude.« Propp (note 3), 160.
Rösch (note 14), 5.
Christine Kawan, following Lutz Röhrich, notes that a helper figure from the older generation also tends to cover up the potential love-triangle that is more obvious with a helper from the same generation: »L. Röhrich hat darauf aufmerksam gemacht, daß in AaTh 516 verschleierte Erotik eine wesentliche Rolle spielt, sowohl in den literarisierten Fassungen als auch in den Var.n mündl. Provenienz – wie schon einige seltsame Handlungen des Helfers (saugt der Prinzessin z. B. Blut oder Gift aus Brust oder Schulter) andeuten; dies erklärt auch die manchmal recht unmotiviert erscheinende jähe Ungerechtigkeit und Überreaktion des Königssohns dem Helfer gegenüber (bes. auffällig z. B. in KHM 6). Dementsprechend erscheint der Helfer gewöhnlich nicht in Gestalt eines alten Dieners, wie er in KHM 6 präsentiert wird, sondern als gleichaltriger Gefährte; nur in einigen Var.n wird aber deutlich, um welch heikles Dreiecksverhältnis es sich handelt.« Kawan (note 13), 606-607.
Lüthi notes the presence of the Antigone argument in some variants, but laments that no one has systematically tracked its presence and absence. Lüthi (note 10), 460.
Sigmund Freud, »Das Motiv der Kästchenwahl«, in: Gesammelte Werke. Zehnter Band. Werke aus den Jahren 1913-1917, ed. Anna Freud, Edward Bibring, Ernst Kris, London 1940, 24-37, here 30. The first part of the sentence quoted reads: »Wir würden sicherlich aus den Märchen noch andere Beweise erbringen können,« which is certainly true – Der König vom goldenen Berg is another instance of a character’s ordeal of silence to save someone, although, in contrast to Freud’s examples, it is a boy who suffers for a girl.
Johann Christoph Adelung, Grammatisch-kritisches Wörterbuch der hochdeutschen Mundart. Zweyter Teil, von F‑L, Wien 1811, 2095.
Adelung (note 38). One could also point to the Duke of Burgundy’s speech to Eckart, who has not only just fought for him but lost his son Heinz in the process: »Und sollst in ganz Burgunde/So gelten wie der Herr,/Wenn ich mehr lohnen kunnte,/Ich gäbe gern noch mehr.« Ludwig Tieck, »Der getreue Eckart und der Tannenhäuser«, in: Ludwig Tieck, Phantasus, Manfred Frank (Ed.), Frankfurt am Main 1985, 151.
Even though it does not reference the word »treu,« the significance of this passage from the Gospel of Luke cannot be overlooked in this context: »Ich aber bin unter euch/wie ein Diener. Ir aber seids/die ir beharret habt bey mir/in meinen anfechtungen. Und ich wil euch das Reich bescheiden/wie mir mein Vater bescheiden hat.« Lukas 22:27-29, cited from: Martin Luther, Die gantze Heilige Schrift Deudsch 1545/ Auffs new zugericht, Hans Volz, Heinz Blanko (Ed.), München 1972. We will see shortly how important this notion of Christ as servant is to the tale’s logic.
Winfried Kudszus suggests that the young king’s speechlessness in the immediate aftermath of seeing the princess’ picture has to do with regression to a pre-linguistic phase of union with the mother. One can find several instances of such a theme in Romantic texts, but perhaps the locus classicus is Godwi’s near-death occasioned by falling into a pond next to the statue of his mother in Clemens Brentano’s Godwi. See W. G. Kudszus, Terrors of Childhood in Grimms’ Fairy Tales, New York 2005, especially 89. Max Lüthi references this episode as an example of »Schönheitsschock« in the fairy tale. See Max Lüthi, Das Volksmärchen als Dichtung. Ästhetik und Anthropologie, Göttingen 1990, Chapter 1.
Krohn notes: »Der christliche taufname ist nur in wenigen volkstümlichen varianten – die meisten sind literarischen einflusses verdächtig – vertreten.« Krohn (note 15), 82.
Epistel an die Philipper, 2:5-11, cited from: Luther (note 40).
Jean-Joseph Goux, Symbolic Economies: After Marx and Freud, Ithaca 1990, 17-18. Internal quotes are from Lacan, Écrits, 98, 117 in the French edition, and italics are Goux’.
Propp (note 3), 160. See footnote 34 for the fuller quote.
Grimm (note 18), 879.
Jack Zipes pairs Basile’s tale with the Grimms’ tale in: Jack Zipes, The Great Fairy Tale Tradition from Straparola and Basile to the Brothers Grimm, New York 2001, 654-662. I have also consulted Nancy Canepa’s more recent translation of Basile for the summary that follows: Giambattista Basile, Giambattista Basile’s The Tale of Tales, or Entertainment for Little Ones, Detroit 2007, 361-70. I have quoted from Canepa’s translation except for one instance where Zipes’ translation is less confusing. In his introduction to these two stories, Zipes also mentions Carlo Gozzi’s Il corvo (1761) as a source the Grimms certainly would have known, and Lorenzo Lippi’s »Il mamantile racquistato« as another important Italian version.
Basile/Canepa (note 47), 362. In Gozzi’s theatrical version, »Millo« (instead of Milluccio) kills the raven, which falls on a marble gravestone, and the ogre who owned the raven curses him to be unhappy until he finds a woman with these attributes. Carlo Gozzi, Five Tales for the Theatre, Albert Bermel and Ted Emery (Eds.), Chicago 1989, 30. (Act I, Scene 4, where »Jennaro« explains to »Armilia« why he has kidnapped her.)
Basile/Zipes (note 47), 662.
Basile/Canepa (note 47), 370.
For another comparison of Basile’s version and the Grimms’, see James M. McGlathery, Fairy Tale Romance: The Grimms, Basile, and Perrault, Urbana, IL 1991, 164-168. McGlathery argues that the bachelor helpers – Jennariello and Johannes – feel panic as the heroes wed. While I am not entirely convinced by his case, his suggestion that the tales are trying to resolve a tension between homosocial friendship and heterosexual love is illuminating. »Bachelor panic« cannot belong to the tale type in general, though, as Rösch notes that a subset of the tale’s variants involve the helper marrying one of the fates, who turn out to be enchanted creatures released from bondage at the end of the tale. Lüthi (note 10) discusses one such variant in detail.
To be clear, the stone has no anthropomorphic qualities.
Following Tatar’s (note 1) (among many others’) suggestion that fairy tales often literalize figurative language. For example, another of the Grimms’ loyal servant figures, der eiserne Heinrich, has three iron bands placed around his heart to hold it together after his prince is turned into a frog in Der Froschkönig (KHM 1).
Grimm (note 18), 879.
Adelung, Grammatisch-kritisches Wörterbuch der hochdeutschen Mundart. Vierter Theil, von Seb-Z, Wien 1811, 672-673. All definitions of »treu« referenced come from these two pages.
My interpretation of the three dangers is at odds with Swann Jones’ (note 12), who views the dangers simply as instantiations of the king’s excessive passion.
Grimm (note 18), 50.
Such an interpretation is only cogent with Basile’s tale in the background, as Milluccio gives up hunting when he falls prey to love.
Grimm (note 18), 879.
Rösch (note 14), 9.
Grimm (note 18), 51.
Jones (note 12), 58.
Tatar (note 1) identifies various examples of the Grimms removing sexual references, or at least softening explicit material to implicit, in Chapter 1 of The Hard Facts of the Grimms’ Fairy Tales. She notes that they did not analogously tone down violence, so the replacement of a fight with a dragon with sucking blood from a breast must be understood as a net decrease in sexual content, counter-intuitive though it may seem.
Grimm (note 18), 876-879. Hermann Hamann attributes this variant to the Haxthausen family, though Rölleke hesitates to name an exact source in his edition. See Hermann Hamann, Die literarischen Vorlagen der Kinder- und Hausmärchen und ihre Bearbeitung durch die Brüder Grimm, Berlin 1906, 12-13. In the Grimms’ Anmerkungen, »Aus dem Paderbörnischen« usually indicates someone from the Haxthausen family or their circle.
Grimm (note 18), 876.
Grimm (note 18), 878.
Grimm (note 18), 878-879.
One way of reading this variant is that the king is trying to undermine his biological son (perhaps he doubts his wife’s fidelity?) and raise up a pretender who would owe everything to him. In this case, Roland’s calling of a council is an attempt to address this scandal that threatens his own legitimacy. Note that the councillors call Joseph Roland’s »Freund,« while Joseph calls Roland »Bruder.« It is no accident that Joseph is the name of the character whose father abandons him (for a martial hero of the Crusades, Roland), and that Joseph spends a year trying to revive a child that is not his own.
Grimm (note 18), 878.
Grimm (note 18), 879.
Giorgio Agamben, Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life, Stanford 1998, 87.
Jolles (note 4), 241.
René Girard, Violence and the Sacred, Baltimore 1977, 39.
Grimm (note 18), 46. Steven Swann Jones over-reads this passage: »The emphasis is on the ethical and moral instruction that Faithful John is to impart, which implies the corresponding lack of a strong moral code in the prince.« Jones (note 12), 55. Jones’ overall (Jungian-influenced) interpretation of the story focuses on »the thematic core [of] the protagonist’s maturation,« which causes him to treat the young king as the sole psychologically complex character and Johannes merely as his externalized conscience.
Grimm (note 18), 47.
Hans-Jörg Uther, Handbuch zu den »Kinder- und Hausmärchen« der Brüder Grimm, Berlin 2008, 15.
Although Christine Kawan notes that the violence of the story has usually been downplayed: »Von Erzählforschern wird AaTh 516 als ein schönes Märchen bzw. ›eins der schönsten der Grimmschen Märchen‹ empfunden, trotz einer Anhäufung von Brutalitäten, die nicht ein Gegenspieler, sondern der Protagonist, z. T. in Gemeinschaft mit dem Helfer und der Ehefrau, begeht und die in KHM 6 bes. massiv auftreten: Frauenraub, unmenschliche Behandlung des Helfers, Abschlachtung des eigenen Kindes. Die beiden ersten Tatbestände fanden nur geringe Beachtung. Dagegen wurde das – schon in der Legenda aurea als unmenschlich bezeichnete – Kindesopfer übereinstimmend als edelmütige und hochherzige Tat gewertet, in der sich Treue bewährt und ›höchst ethische Prinzipien‹ verwirklichen. Die zugrundeliegende Blut- und Opfermentalität, die einer ritterlichen, d. h. kriegerischen Gesellschaft entspricht und kriegführenden Nationalstaaten bis hinein in die neueste Geschichte (Stichworte: Blut und Treue) ins Konzept passen konnte, wurde nicht problematisiert. Darüber hinaus wird die Aufopferung der Kinder kurzerhand mit einer Selbsthingabe gleichgesetzt (wie sie als Selbstopfer der Königin bei Gozzi erscheint).« Kawan (note 13), 605-606.
Acknowledgments
I would like to acknowledge the masters to whom I have contracted debts beyond repayment: Fritz Breithaupt, Jacob Emery, and Anita Lukic read and commented on several earlier drafts of this manuscript with unfailing good grace and scholarly acumen; the participants in the seminar »Variations on the Fairytale« at the 2016 annual meeting of the ACLA in Cambridge, MA made many invaluable suggestions in response to a presentation of this material; the editors of DVjs proposed several improvements. To all of them I am grateful for their help, and I alone am responsible for any deficiencies that remain.
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Chiasson, C. The Economy of Sacrifice in the Grimms’ Der treue Johannes . Dtsch Vierteljahrsschr Literaturwiss Geistesgesch 91, 126–151 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41245-017-0035-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s41245-017-0035-1