Grimm Language: Grammar, Gender and Genuineness in the Fairy Tales (Linguistic Approaches to Literature (Lal))

Grimm Language

Linguistic Approaches to Literature (LAL) Linguistic Approaches to Literature (LAL) provides an international forum for researchers who believe that the application of linguistic methods leads to a deeper and more far-reaching understanding of many aspects of literature. The emphasis will be on pragmatic approaches intersecting with areas such as discourse analysis, sociolinguistics, ethnolinguistics, rhetoric, philosophy, cognitive linguistics, psycholinguistics and stylistics.

Editors Willie van Peer

Sonia Zyngier

University of Munich

Federal University of Rio de Janeiro

Advisory Editorial Board Douglas Biber

Arthur C. Graesser

University of Memphis

Keith Oatley University of Toronto

Marisa Bortolussi

Frank Hakemulder

Yeshayahu Shen

Donald C. Freeman

Geoff M. Hall

Mick Short

David L. Hoover

Michael Toolan

Don Kuiken

Reuven Tsur

Geoffrey N. Leech

Peter Verdonk

Northern Arizona University University of Alberta University of Southern California

Harald Fricke

University of Fribourg

Richard Gerrig

Stony Brook University

Raymond W. Jr. Gibbs

University of California, Santa Cruz

Rachel Giora

Tel Aviv University

Utrecht University

University of Wales, Swansea New York University University of Alberta Lancaster University

Tel Aviv University Lancaster University University of Birmingham Tel Aviv University University of Amsterdam

Paisley Livingston

University of Copenhagen

Max Louwerse

University of Memphis

Volume 10 Grimm Language. Grammar, Gender and Genuineness in the Fairy Tales by Orrin W. Robinson

Grimm Language Grammar, Gender and Genuineness in the Fairy Tales Orrin W. Robinson Stanford University

John Benjamins Publishing Company Amsterdamâ•›/â•›Philadelphia

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TM

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences – Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ansi z39.48-1984.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Robinson, Orrin W., 1947Grimm language : grammar, gender and genuineness in the fairy tales / Orrin W. Robinson. p. cm. (Linguistic Approaches to Literature, issn 1569-3112 ; v. 10) Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Kinder- und Hausmärchen. 2. Grimm, Jacob, 1785-1863--Language. 3. Grimm, Wilhelm, 1786-1859--Language. 4. German language--History--19th century. I. Title. GR166.R55â•…â•… 2010 398.20943--dc22 isbn 978 90 272 3344 8 (Hb ; alk. paper) isbn 978 90 272 8822 6 (Eb)

2010005233

© 2010 – John Benjamins B.V. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, or any other means, without written permission from the publisher. John Benjamins Publishing Co. · P.O. Box 36224 · 1020 me Amsterdam · The Netherlands John Benjamins North America · P.O. Box 27519 · Philadelphia pa 19118-0519 · usa

   

This book is dedicated to the memory of my father, Orrin W. Robinson Jr. (I being the third of that name). I miss you, Dad.

Table of contents Acknowledgements

xi

chapter 1 A linguistic look at the Children’s and€Household Tales

1

chapter 2 The Six Swans

7

chapter 3 German from where? 3.1 Linguistic authenticity in the KHMâ•… 23 3.2 Tales told in dialectâ•… 24 3.3 Dialect insertions in the talesâ•… 27 3.3.1 Dialect namesâ•… 27 3.3.2 Dialect verseâ•… 27 3.4 The challenges of verse â•… 30 3.5 “Hänsel and Gretel”: An inside joke?â•… 32 3.6 The Grimms’ use of regional Germanâ•… 36 chapter 4 Possession 4.1 Archaisms, colloquial speech and grammaticality judgments in the KHMâ•… 37 4.2 Possessive noun phrasesâ•… 39 4.2.1 Dem Genitiv sein Todâ•… 39 4.2.2 von possessivesâ•… 42 4.2.3 Genitive possessivesâ•… 45 4.2.3.1 Preposed and postposed genitivesâ•… 45 4.2.3.2 Possessors rankedâ•… 47 4.2.4 Belonging in the KHMâ•… 49

23

37

viii Grimm Language

chapter 5 Forms of address 5.1 Historical outlineâ•… 51 5.2 Usage in the KHMâ•… 54 5.2.1 sie pluralâ•… 55 5.2.2 er and sie singularâ•… 56 5.2.3 The du/ihr systemâ•… 61 5.3 Idiosyncratic or general?â•… 66 5.4 Concluding remarks on addressâ•… 71 chapter 6 Reports and omissions 6.1 Indirect discourseâ•… 73 6.2 Auxiliary deletionâ•… 80 6.3 Verbs and colloquialityâ•… 82 chapter 7 Nouns (and their adjectives) 7.1 Nouns for girlsâ•… 85 7.2 Nouns for boysâ•… 90 7.3 Noun-use summaryâ•… 91 7.4 Adjectival properties of the nounsâ•… 92 7.4.1 Mädchen/Junge/Knabe/Bubeâ•… 93 7.4.2 Königstochter/Königssohnâ•… 94 7.4.3 Jungfrau/Jünglingâ•… 95 7.4.4 Magd/Knecht/Burscheâ•… 97 7.4.5 Prinzessin/Prinz, Freierâ•… 98 7.4.6 Relationship termsâ•… 98 7.4.7 Common common nouns and their traits in the KHMâ•… 102 7.4.8 Kindâ•… 105 7.5 Grimm stereotyping – a first takeâ•… 105 chapter 8 Appearance 8.1 Beautyâ•… 107 8.1.1 schön (‘beautiful’)â•… 107 8.1.2 häßlich (‘ugly’)â•… 109 8.2 Color termsâ•… 112 8.2.1 weiß (‘white’)â•… 112 8.2.2 schwarz (‘black’)â•… 116 8.2.3 rot (‘red’)â•… 119 8.3 Books and covers in the KHMâ•… 128

51

73

85

107



Table of contents

chapter 9 Moral states and mental dispositions 9.1 fromm (‘pious’) and gottlos (‘godless’)â•… 130 9.2 rein (‘pure/clean’)â•… 130 9.3 gut (‘good’)â•… 133 9.4 böse (‘bad/wicked/evil’)â•… 137 9.5 stolz (‘proud’)â•… 138 9.6 Concluding remarks on inner qualities and dispositionsâ•… 140 chapter 10 Industry and intelligence 10.1 fleißig (‘industrious’)â•… 141 10.2 arbeitsam (‘hard-working’)â•… 143 10.3 faul (‘lazy’)â•… 143 10.4 klug (‘clever’)â•… 145 10.5 gescheit (‘bright’)â•… 147 10.6 listig (‘cunning’)â•… 148 10.7 weise (‘wise’)â•… 148 10.8 dumm (‘dumb’)â•… 148 10.9 Attributes of the Grimm heroine and hero â•… 149 chapter 11 Gender and the use of pronouns 11.1 Pronoun/noun correspondencesâ•… 151 11.2 Exceptions to gender concordâ•… 153 11.3 Age, sex, goodnessâ•… 154 11.4 Setting prioritiesâ•… 160 11.5 Choice and style in the Grimms’ pronominal usageâ•… 163 11.6 The Grimms and other tale tellersâ•… 165 11.7 Final comments on pronoun use â•… 170

129

141

151

chapter 12 Concluding remarks

171

References

175

appendix Titles, translations, and numbers

177

Index

183

ix

Acknowledgements A lot of people deserve thanks for contributing to the writing of this book. The many students who have taken my Grimms’ fairy tale class come to mind, as do the colleagues in the Society for Germanic Linguistics who have attended my lectures on the Grimms at various GLACs. My friends the Prioleaus (Betsy, Philip and Phoebe) did me the inestimable favor of giving me a place to do the body of my research for the book. My wife, Brigid Barton, both put up with and encouraged my enthusiasm for the topic. Sue Bottigheimer, a fairy-tale specialist extraordinaire, encouraged this poor linguist to actually publish in the field. My editors at Benjamins, Willie van Peer and Sonia Zyngier, were incredibly encouraging, and the latter gave me the most detailed notes I have ever gotten on a book. It’s surely a better book now, though I hasten to add that nobody but me bears any responsibility for remaining flaws.

chapter 1

A linguistic look at the Children’s and€Household Tales

In this introduction to the book, I want to give a brief overview of its orientation, its objectives, and its limitations. As an obvious first observation, one should note that the Grimms’ fairy tales, as set down in their monumental Kinder- und Hausmärchen (Children’s and Household Tales), henceforth KHM, are not only important representatives of German literature on the world scene, they are recognized as being among the most influential works in all of world literature. That being the case, they also, separately or together, number among the most studied and written-about works of literature in the scholarly world, not to mention their echoes in every corner of popular culture, from printed retellings to Disney films to YouTube. I could, in this chapter, summarize in some detail all the ways in which the Grimm tales have been studied. This would not only make the book too long, it would also be redundant. Many fine overall discussions of the scholarly literature have been written; in English I can mention especially McGlathery (1993), who explicitly makes it his task to summarize and classify the research done to that date, but also Tatar (2003) and Zipes (2002), who, while arguing their own points of view, survey many of the other approaches to the tales (also adding additional bibliography). Usefully, in his study McGlathery discusses separately approaches taken to fairy tales in general and the Grimm tales in particular. The distinction is clearly not absolute. Many of the theories propounded concerning fairy tales in general have strong roots in the Grimm collection, and many of the questions one might pose about the nature of fairy tales in general must necessarily also be asked of the KHM. Thus one may note that any attempt to approach fairy tales from, say, a psychoanalytic perspective (e.g. famously Bettelheim 1976) is likely to have as prime objects of investigation tales like “Hänsel und Gretel” or “Snow White.” And any literary attempts to pin down the fairy tale as a genre inevitably must deal with the myriad types of tales to be found in the Grimm collection (or not). Questions as to the oral or literary origin of fairy tales in general, or concerning their historicity or ahistoricity, must also deal with the Grimm tales in particular.

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Grimm Language

But the reason that McGlathery’s general/Grimm split proves useful is that so many of the questions that one might have of fairy tales in general have their own special twist when it comes to the Grimms. For example, the question of the oral versus literary provenience of fairy tales seems especially relevant for the Grimm stories, given the oral sources the Grimms claim or imply for many of them. And while in general scholars may have debated the monogenesis or polygenesis of various tale-types in different cultures of Europe or the world, the question of origins becomes especially crucial for a collection whose Germanness is such a central point. McGlathery’s chapter dealing with analyses of the Grimm tales in particular (pp. 29–58) indeed makes it clear that a lot of that research revolves around the Grimms’ own ideas and claims concerning their tales. Thus the following questions can be and have been asked concerning the KHM: How German are they? How old are they? How faithful to the original sources? How literary (versus oral) are they? How simple are they, really? Who was their intended audience, and did it change? How significantly did the Grimms alter the tales? In order to answer many of these kinds of questions, reliable sources of data have of course had to be made available. One name stands out as the prime enabler here, namely that of Heinz Rölleke. In addition to editing and/or reissuing many of the editions of the KHM, he has also published the full text of the 1810 manuscript version of some 49 of the tales, captured by the Grimms for their friend Clemens Brentano and presumably representing their earliest (Grimm) version (Rölleke 1975). These are usefully juxtaposed for closer comparison with the form of the same tales to be found in the 1st edition of the KHM. Rölleke has also published a book introducing the original literary sources for those Grimm tales demonstrably derived from such (Rölleke 1998), and in addition has published a wealth of studies, based on these and other data, attempting to answer many of the questions posed above (cf. Rölleke 1985, Bluhm und Rölleke 1997, and more). For the purposes of this book, I am taking many of the questions posed above as being already somewhat answered. At least many of the most famous fairy tales in this collection are not really ancient German tales, but are suspiciously similar to earlier French ones; a lot of them have demonstrably literary sources; the original audience may have been adults, but increasingly it was children; the original stories may or may not be old, but they have been ruthlessly changed and edited by (especially) Wilhelm Grimm over the course of almost 50 years, leading to what many consider to be a distinctive “Grimm genre.” As McGlathery notes (p. 50), if these are the right answers to these questions, then the KHM must be seen primarily as a literary work rather than some kind . In German “Gattung Grimm,” see e.g. Bluhm 1995:â•›27.



Chapter 1.╇ A linguistic look at the Children’s and€Household Tales

of anthropological collection. This in turn lessens the likelihood of some kinds of interpretations that would see the tales as reflections of a collective human or national subconscious, and increases the focus on them as products of specific individuals under specific social circumstances. Here, then, all kinds of perspectives can be brought on the Brothers Grimm themselves, and on the issues and mores of their times. For more recent studies in English, McGlathery emphasizes Tatar’s primarily psychological (though not narrowly psychoanalytic) approach to sex, violence, victimization and retaliation in the KHM (in the References section represented recently by Tatar 2003), Zipes’ psycho-social studies on the origins, reception and appropriation of the tales (Zipes 2002), and Bottigheimer’s more narrowly-focused and textually-driven work on the values, stereotypes and aims reflected by the Grimms’ (especially Wilhelm’s) ceaseless editorial activity (BottigheimerÂ� 1987). So what does this new study have to contribute to what is now a really long tradition? As it turns out, I think, quite a bit. One of the funny things about becoming relatively quickly a landmark of world literature is that a work such as the Kinder- und Hausmärchen is rapidly translated, retold or bowdlerized, and ensuing scholarly treatments often end up dealing, not with the language of the original work (in this case some form of German), but more with the plots, themes, and ideas of the work in some kind of a-linguistic environment. Even scholars speaking and writing in the original language of the work may sometimes overlook significant aspects of the linguistic form of the work, if grammar is not their forte. I believe that it is in this area that my contribution to the research on the Grimms’ Kinder- und Hausmärchen lies. I don’t normally do literary analysis, I’m a linguist who cares about things like the history of the Germanic languages, word-order in Old High German, and the proper analysis of the Standard German sound system. Yet as a linguistics Professor who assigned himself the task of teaching a class which might actually get some students, I couldn’t help but notice that the Grimm brothers (and one should know that Jacob counts among the founders of the field of Germanic linguistics) employed, whether consciously or unconsciously, an amazingly sophisticated linguistic strategy to convey their attitude toward the action of the tales, the nature of the characters in them, and the appropriateness of certain gender stereotypes. Such an observation was only supported by the fact that the tales have a (long!) longitudinal aspect to them – first published in 1812 (though, as noted above, drafts exist earlier than that), the . An interesting variant on this is Levorato (2003), whose explicitly linguistic comparisons of twelve versions of “Little Red Riding Hood” are to my mind more than a little limited by the fact that she is working only in English, thus with translations of the non-English tales. Many of the issues I deal with in this book simply could not come up for her.

˘

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Grimm Language

last edition came out in 1857. In between, the number and the selection of tales shifted, but at least as importantly, even the tales that survived experienced great changes: They got longer, and a number of grammatical (or lexical) decisions got made that had clearly been up in the air at first blush. This is the kind of thing studied in this work. But even with this basic orientation, there are a lot of different perspectives from which one could approach the KHM. One especially interesting one involves exploring linguistic reflections of gender stereotypes that the Grimms may have supported or pushed in their tales. Their employment of gender stereotypes by itself comes as no surprise – one can cite the observations made in Bottigheimer (1987), Haase (2004), Tatar (2003), Â�Levorato (2003), Warner (1994) and Zipes (2002), among others – but I think that my own more relentlessly German-language-oriented approach in the latter part of the book (Chapters 7 through 11 on the favored nouns, adjectives and 3rd person pronouns used when referring to Grimm heroines and heroes) can cast a new light on this topic. But one may also profitably ask what it was that the Grimms did and favored linguistically that made their tales (1) appear to be genuinely German, even if in some cases the evidence for this provenience was weak (here, too, I have some resonance with the earlier work by Bluhm and Röllecke 1997 on the insertions of German folk sayings into the KHM); and (2) serve as exemplars of proper Standard German, a criterion frequently at odds with the first. These are roughly the topics of my Chapters 3 through 6. It should be noted that I do not treat every possible linguistic phenomenon to be remarked on in the Grimm fairy tales. I concentrate on those which struck me most forcefully on reading the tales, and which are easiest to document. This brings me to the data-sources for all of my arguments in the rest of this book. In the first place, this is the searchable version of all 211 tales and legends found in the 1857 (final) edition of the Kinder- und Hausmärchen, issued by Â�DIRECTMEDIA Publishing GmbH in the Digitale Bibliothek. The search engine is not perfect, but the numbers I have given in my discussions on individual phenomena are at least relatively correct. Of course, those relative numbers refer only to that 1857 edition. In order to document actual changes the Grimms made to their tales, or to those originally published by others, I have had to refer to print editions of those earlier versions. These are unfortunately not normally in searchable electronic form (bless the Digitale Bibliothek, Bechstein’s tales are!), so my statements regarding changes may not always be as precise as I would like. Nonetheless, in most of my discussions of individual phenomena to be found in later . A digital searchable version of each of the 1st edition tales separately can be found at Zeno.org, with the URL http://www.zeno.org/Literatur/M/Grimm,+Jacob+und+Wilhelm/ M%C3%A4rchen/Kinder-+und+Hausm%C3%A4rchen+%281812-15%29.



Chapter 1.╇ A linguistic look at the Children’s and€Household Tales

chapters I have striven to consult not just the final edition of the KHM, nor, except in Chapter 2 (where I am simply demonstrating the kinds of changes the tales underwent), the 1st and the final edition. Evidence is also drawn from the preceding manuscript versions of the tales, the editions published between the 1st and the 7th, and the outside literary sources for many of the tales. I also frequently look at fairy tales (whether treating the same stories or not) written by contemporaries of the Grimms, to determine whether certain phenomena can be considered as uniquely Grimm. Besides Chapters 3 through 11, there are three more chapters, including this one. The conclusion is a short summing up of the linguistic characteristics I believe I have documented for the Grimms’ fairy tales, and their implications. Chapter 2, on the other hand, as I indicated in the last paragraph, and in line with its early position, is a comparison of two versions of a single tale, “Die sechs Schwäne,” from the first and last editions of the Kinder- und Hausmärchen. In this chapter I illustrate at some length the types of phenomena that will be discussed in detail in later chapters, as well as a few that will not.

˘

chapter 2

The Six Swans I would like to begin my linguistic observations in this book with a detailed comparison of two versions, the first and the last, of Tale #49 “The Six Swans” (“Die sechs Schwäne”). This tale was apparently recited to the brothers on Jan. 1, 1812 by their friend Dortchen Wild “aus Hessen” (‘from Hessia’ – Grimm 1857, v. 3:â•›463). My twofold printing of the story is meant to accomplish several things. In the first place, it documents the fact that the Grimms did not simply “collect” a story and leave it as is. If this tale was truly originally collected orally, even the first version, from the first (1812, v. 1:â•›220–25) edition of the Kinder- und Hausmärchen, shows us linguistic features extremely unlikely to have appeared in that oral rendition. The second version, from the 1857 final (7th) edition of the KHM (Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›251–256), shows us even more clearly how the Grimms expanded and modified older versions of a story to achieve their storytelling ends. Perhaps a more important function of juxtaposing these two versions of the same story is to lay a foundation for the rest of this book, in which I discuss precisely what kinds of editorial changes the Grimms carried out on their tales to achieve the relatively uniform generic shape we now know as a “Grimm fairy tale.” The changes were of many types, and served a number of different functions, as I see it. Surely it was important for the Grimms to make their tales as entertaining as possible; it was also, given their original objectives for collecting the tales, important to bring out their intrinsic Germanness, even if they had to add material to achieve that. Furthermore, it seems clear that the Grimms wanted to have reflected in their tales values which they, and often the bourgeois society of their time generally, felt to be important (including, importantly for my book, proper sex roles). Finally, as linguists/philologists the Grimms, especially Jacob, were necessarily participants in the evolving nature of the standard language in the 19th century, and their own perceptions about what was, or should be, “proper” German inevitably were reflected in the linguistic form of the tales (sometimes leading to a conflict with other motivations such as entertainment value and Germanic authenticity).

. The Grimm tales all have a fixed number. I will not normally list these in the body of the book, nor will I give the German version of the titles. These will all be found in an appendix.

˘

Grimm Language

In the following pages, then, while I do present the entirety of the two versions of the tales, I sequentially juxtapose fairly brief sections from them, commenting on what linguistic changes appear to be salient. In some cases, especially when dealing with phenomena not handled in detail in the book, I can but speculate on what might have motivated them, but just as often I refer the reader to that section of the book in which these phenomena are discussed. Of course, once one realizes that there are a total of 211 tales and legends in the final version of the KHM, each with its own editing history, it becomes obvious there is a very large number of linguistic features I could be talking about. Needless to say, I cannot pretend to any sort of comprehensiveness either in this chapter or in the book. Instead, I have concentrated on those linguistic phenomena which I feel can lead to interesting insights on the tales. 1st ed.

7th ed.

Ein König jagte in einem großen Wald, verirrte sich und konnte keinen Ausgang finden,

Es jagte einmal ein König in einem großen Wald und jagte einem Wild so eifrig nach, daß ihm niemand von seinen Leuten folgen konnte. Als der Abend herankam, hielt er still und blickte um sich, da sah er, daß er sich verirrt hatte. Er suchte einen Ausgang, konnte aber keinen finden.

In this beginning section of the tale, we see that the 7th edition is longer and more circumstantial. The king (König) is not just hunting and getting lost, he’s hunting a game animal, he’s too fast for his retinue, evening is falling, and so on. We will see this type of elaboration in virtually every one of the following sections of this tale, and indeed in most of the tales that survived from earlier editions to the final edition of the KHM. The 7th edition begins with the empty pronoun es (‘it’), allowing the subject ein König to slip into postverbal position, where it has more “new information” value. A majority of the Grimms’ tales now begin with such an empty element (by my count 121 of the 211), and in most of the rest, subjects are at least avoided.

. While I will in the body of the text or in the footnotes translate relevant linguistic material into English to aid the non-German speaker, I refrain from translating the whole of both versions of the tale. I will try to give a feeling for the plot developments in the comments on language following the individual sections. . Mostly es, but also including elements like da ‘there,’ and dialect equivalents of both. Although I will not go into it in this book, it is interesting to note that there is an imbalance in the distribution of these empty elements in the various texts in the collection. Thus we find 62



Chapter 2.╇ The Six Swans

One might give as an example of the latter the introductory sentence in the very first tale in the collection, “The Frog King:” “In den alten Zeiten, wo das Wünschen noch geholfen hat, lebte ein König …” As with the English beginnings “once upon a time” or “there was once …,” we may detect in this strategy a recognizable formula for beginning fairy tales. In the 7th edition we find a daß (‘(so) that’)-clause, a subordinate clause with explicit resultative force (‘he rode so strenuously that …’). The connections between actions are made linguistically clearer in this kind of construction than in one with the simple coordinating conjunction und (‘and’). Similarly, the use of the adverb da in da sah er (‘then he saw’) emphasizes the sequentiality of actions more clearly than a simple und would. da kam er endlich zu einer Hexe, die bat er, sie mögte ihn wieder heraus leiten.

Da sah er eine alte Frau mit wackelndem Kopfe, die auf ihn zukam; das war aber eine Hexe. »Liebe Frau,« sprach er zu ihr, »könnt Ihr mir nicht den Weg durch den Wald zeigen?«

In this encounter with a witch that the king hopes will show him a way out of the forest we find the sequential da as outlined above in both texts. An important difference between the 7th edition and the 1st, however, can be found in the former’s use of direct rather than indirect speech (thus “he asked that she might lead him” becomes “‘Dear lady,’ he said, ‘…’”). As with the elaboration on story elements commented on above, this is characteristic of Grimm editorial practice in later editions of the tales. In this direct speech, the king addresses the witch with Ihr (‘you (pl.)’), and she reciprocates with Ihr in the 7th edition passage below. I will argue in Chapter€5 that this form of address, already archaic in the Grimms’ times, was part of a strategy to situate the tales in a past long distant from the present.

such introductions in the first 100 tales, 31 in tales 101–150, only 19 in 151–200, and a full 9 in the 10 legends). . In olden times, when wishing still helped, there lived a king …

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10

Grimm Language

Die Hexe aber antwortete, das geschähe nimmermehr, er müsse darin bleiben und sein Leben verlieren, und nur das eine könne ihn erretten, dass er ihre Tochter heirate.

»O ja, Herr König,« antwortete sie, »das kann ich wohl, aber es ist eine Bedingung dabei, wenn Ihr die nicht erfüllt, so kommt Ihr nimmermehr aus dem Wald und müßt darin Hungers sterben.« »Was ist das für eine Bedingung?« fragte der König. »Ich habe eine Tochter,« sagte die Alte, »die so schön ist, wie Ihr eine auf der Welt finden könnt, und wohl verdient, Eure Gemahlin zu werden, wollt Ihr die zur Frau Königin machen, so zeige ich Euch den Weg aus dem Walde.«

Here again, in the 1st edition we find the witch’s offer of help in exchange for marriage to her daughter expressed in indirect speech, mostly using the present subjunctive. This is replaced by direct speech in the 7th edition. I will not repeat this specific observation again below, since this happens throughout the tale, but in Chapter 6 I will go into some detail on the use of subjunctive forms to indicate indirect speech (including the use of present versus preterite subjunctive), as well as the increasing use of direct speech in the tales. Dem König war sein Leben lieb, und in der Angst sagte er ja; die Hexe brachte ihm das Mädchen, es war jung und schön, er konnte es aber nicht ohne Grausen und ohne eine heimliche Furcht ansehen; doch wollte er, was er versprochen hatte, halten.

Der König in der Angst seines Herzens willigte ein, und die Alte führte ihn zu ihrem Häuschen, wo ihre Tochter beim Feuer saß. Sie empfing den König, als wenn sie ihn erwartet hätte, und er sah wohl, daß sie sehr schön war, aber sie gefiel ihm doch nicht, und er konnte sie ohne heimliches Grausen nicht ansehen.

In the 1st edition, the witch’s daughter, whom the king only reluctantly agrees to marry, is referred to as a Mädchen (‘girl’), a neuter noun, and has the referential neuter pronoun es (‘it’). In the 7th she’s a (feminine) Tochter (‘daughter’) and (feminine) sie (‘she’). I will argue in Chapters 7 and 11, respectively, that the Grimms ultimately used the word Mädchen by preference for good girls (which this one certainly isn’t), and had a related strategy for the pronoun es. It should also be noted that the girl is jung (‘young’) und schön (‘beautiful’) in the 1st edition, just schön in the 7th. In Chapters 8 through 10 I discuss the Grimms’ adjectival strategies for their heros/heroines and their malefactors. Schön is one of those basically good adjectives which may be used for bad characters, but there is always an aber (‘but’) lurking somewhere near (as there is here).



Chapter 2.╇ The Six Swans

In the 1st edition we find a frame construction where the central verb phrase (wollte er … halten (‘he wanted to keep’)) is separated by a clausal object (was er versprochen hatte (‘what he had promised’)). Though this is certainly possible even in Modern Standard German, for ease of parsing phrases like this clausal object are often “extraposed” (sent to the end). Here as elsewhere, the Grimms have eliminated the more opaque construction. Die Alte führte dann beide auf den rechten Weg, und daheim ward die Hexentochter seine Gemahlin. Der König aber hatte noch sieben Kinder von seiner ersten Frau, sechs Buben und ein Mädchen, und weil er fürchtete, es könne ihnen von der Stiefmutter ein Leids angetan werden, brachte er sie in ein Schloss, das er mitten in einem Walde stehen hatte.

Nachdem er das Mädchen zu sich aufs Pferd gehoben hatte, zeigte ihm die Alte den Weg, und der König gelangte wieder in sein königliches Schloß, wo die Hochzeit gefeiert wurde. Der König war schon einmal verheiratet gewesen, und hatte von seiner ersten Gemahlin sieben Kinder, sechs Knaben und ein Mädchen, die er über alles auf der Welt liebte. Weil er nun fürchtete, die Stiefmutter möchte sie nicht gut behandeln und ihnen gar ein Leid antun, so brachte er sie in ein einsames Schloß, das mitten in einem Walde stand.

In Chapter 7, as noted, I discuss the nouns used by the Grimms for their characters. The word Bube (‘boy’) here, for six of the seven children threatened by their new stepmother, is eliminated in the 7th edition in favor of Knabe (also ‘boy’ or ‘lad’), possibly because the latter word characterizes older individuals. Of significant grammatical changes, I would mention here the elimination of the present subjunctive könne (‘could’) in favor of the preterite subjunctive möchte (‘might’). In Chapter 6 I point out that this change of present to preterite subjunctive is quite systermatic in cases where direct speech is not feasible or desirable in the tales. I argue there that the present subjunctive, even in the Grimms’ times, would have been perceived as too “bookish” for a supposedly colloquial story. Finally, one should note here that a relative clause of the 1st edition containing an accusative relative pronoun yields to one with a nominative pronoun (‘a castle he had standing’ > ‘a castle that stood’), possibly because das itself is ambiguous between the two cases, and a nominative usage is easier to parse.

11

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Grimm Language

Es stand so verborgen, dass niemand den Weg dahin wusste, und er selber hätte ihn nicht gefunden, wenn ihm nicht eine weise Frau einen Knauel von Garn gegeben, wenn er den vor sich warf, wickelte er sich auf und zeigte ihm den Weg.

Es lag so verborgen, und der Weg war so schwer zu finden, daß er ihn selbst nicht gefunden hätte, wenn ihm nicht eine weise Frau ein Knäuel Garn von wunderbarer Eigenschaft geschenkt hätte; wenn er das vor sich hinwarf, so wickelte es sich von selbst los und zeigte ihm den Weg.

Here we find a case in the 1st edition where the past participle gegeben (‘given’) appears without an otherwise expected auxiliary hätte (‘had’ in ‘had given’), which is, however, “restored” in the 7th edition. As I argue in Chapter 6, this is another systematic procedure carried out by the Grimms to eliminate “bookish” constructions from their tales, and also in some cases to resolve possible ambiguity. There is a change in the gender of the noun Knauel/Knäuel (‘ball of yarn’), from masculine to neuter. The significance of this change escapes me, though it is consistent throughout the tale. Weil aber der König seine Kinder gar lieb hatte, ging er oft hinaus, da ward die Königin neugierig, und wollte wissen, was der König so viel allein in dem Wald zu tun habe; sie forschte die Diener aus, und diese verrieten ihr das ganze Geheimnis.

Der König ging aber so oft hinaus zu seinen lieben Kindern, daß der Königin seine Abwesenheit auffiel; sie ward neugierig und wollte wissen, was er draußen ganz allein in dem Walde zu schaffen habe. Sie gab seinen Dienern viel Geld, und die verrieten ihr das Geheimnis und sagten ihr auch von dem Knäuel, das allein den Weg zeigen könnte.

In the 1st edition, the present subjunctive verbal form habe (‘had’) is found as a marker of the indirect sentential object of the queen’s wondering (“what the king had going on in the woods”). Although such a construction is closely related to indirect speech, unlike the latter it is not easily replaceable by a direct-speech equivalent, and is not so replaced in the 7th edition, which also has habe. Das erste war nun, dass sie sich mit List den Knauel verschaffte, dann nahm sie sieben kleine Hemdchen und ging hinaus in den Wald.

Nun hatte sie keine Ruhe, bis sie herausgebracht hatte, wo der König das Knäuel aufbewahrte, und dann machte sie kleine weißseidene Hemdchen, und da sie von ihrer Mutter die Hexenkünste gelernt hatte, so nähete sie einen Zauber hinein.



Chapter 2.╇ The Six Swans

The little shirts used by the evil queen to turn the boys into swans are found as Hemdchen, with the diminutive suffix -chen, in both editions. In the 7th -chen will persevere as the diminutive marker, in the 1st we will also find -lein. If nothing else, this would seem to show a desire for greater consistency in the later edition. Der Knauel zeigte ihr den Weg, und als die sechs kleinen Prinzen sie von weitem kommen sahen, freuten sie sich, meinten ihr Vater käm und liefen heraus auf sie zu.

Und als der König einmal auf die Jagd geritten war, nahm sie die Hemdchen und ging in den Wald, und das Knäuel zeigte ihr den Weg. Die Kinder, die aus der Ferne jemand kommen sahen, meinten, ihr lieber Vater käme zu ihnen, und sprangen ihm voll Freude entgegen.

The six boys about to be enchanted here are referred to as Prinzen (‘princes’) in the 1st edition, but as Kinder (‘children’) in the 7th. I show in Chapter 7 that the Grimms systematically eliminated words of recognizably Romance origin in later editions of the KHM. Da warf sie über jeden ein Hemdchen, und kaum hatte es ihren Leib berührt, da waren sie in Schwäne verwandelt, hoben sich auf in die Luft und flogen davon. Sie meinte nun sie hätte alle Stiefkinder weggechafft, und ging wieder heim, und so war das Mädchen, das in seiner Kammer geblieben war, errettet. Am andern Tag kam der König in das Waldschloss, da erzählte es ihm, was geschehen war, und zeigte ihm noch die Schwanenfedern, die von ihren sechs Brüdern auf den Hof gefallen waren.

Da warf sie über ein jedes eins von den Hemdchen, und wie das ihren Leib berührt hatte, verwandelten sie sich in Schwäne und flogen über den Wald hinweg. Die Königin ging ganz vergnügt nach Haus und glaubte ihre Stiefkinder los zu sein, aber das Mädchen war ihr mit den Brüdern nicht entgegen gelaufen, und sie wußte nichts von ihm. Andern Tags kam der König und wollte seine Kinder besuchen, er fand aber niemand als das Mädchen. »Wo sind deine Brüder?« fragte der König. »Ach, lieber Vater,« antwortete es, »die sind fort und haben mich allein zurückgelassen,« und erzählte ihm, daß es aus seinem Fensterlein mit angesehen habe, wie seine Brüder als Schwäne über den Wald weggeflogen wären, und zeigte ihm die Federn, die sie in dem Hof hatten fallen lassen, und die es aufgelesen hatte.

13

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Grimm Language

In the 1st edition, the spared girl-child talks to her father about ihre Brüder (‘her brothers’), which is at odds with the subject pronoun es (‘it’). In the 7th edition this is changed to the consistent seine Brüder (‘its brothers’). As noted earlier, in Chapter 11 I discuss the importance of gender in the referential pronouns for girls. In this section we also have some pretty good examples of stylistic changes that are not clear in intent. Some things, however, will follow grammatically from choices made earlier. Thus if the boys being turned into swans are Kinder (neuter) rather than Prinzen (masculine), one can’t use über jeden (‘over each one (masculine)’), but rather über ein jedes (‘over each one (neuter)’). Der König erschrak, gedachte aber nimmermehr, dass die Königin die böse Tat vollbracht, und weil er besorgte, die Prinzessin möge ihm auch geraubt werden, wollte er sie mit sich nach Haus nehmen. Sie fürchtete sich aber vor ihrer Stiefmutter und bat ihn, er mögte sie nur noch die Nacht in dem Schloss lassen; in der Nacht aber entfloh sie, und gerade zu in den Wald hinein.

Der König trauerte, aber er dachte nicht, daß die Königin die böse Tat vollbracht hätte, und weil er fürchtete, das Mädchen würde ihm auch geraubt, so wollte er es mit fortnehmen. Aber es hatte Angst vor der Stiefmutter, und bat den König, daß es nur noch diese Nacht im Waldschloß bleiben dürfte. Das arme Mädchen dachte »meines Bleibens ist nicht länger hier, ich will gehen und meine Brüder suchen.« Und als die Nacht kam, entfloh es, und ging gerade in den Wald hinein.

In this section where the girl flees before her father can take her back home to the evil stepmother, there are a number of now perhaps recognizable changes going on between the two editions. The Romance-seeming Prinzessin (‘princess’) has become a nice Germanic Mädchen (‘girl’), see Chapter 7, a past participle vollbracht (‘carried out’) without auxiliary hätte (‘had’) in the 1st edition gains it in the 7th, see Chapter 6. The present subjunctive complex möge geraubt werden (‘might be stolen’) is eliminated in favor of the preterite subjunctive würde geraubt (‘would be stolen’), see Chapter 6. The girl is now referred to with the feminine personal pronoun sie (‘she’) in the 1st edition, but with neuter es (‘it’) in the 7th. Although one might in principle see this as being due to their direct antecedents Prinzessin (feminine) and Mädchen (neuter), I argue in Chapter 11 that the Grimms used the personal pronouns largely independently of any accompanying nouns. And just as they didn’t want the evil witch’s daughter to be an es (or a Mädchen) at the beginning of this story, they didn’t want our good heroine to be a sie.



Als sie auch den ganzen Tag bis zum Abend fortgegangen war, kam sie zu einer Wildhütte. Sie stieg hinauf und fand eine Stube mit sechs kleinen Betten; weil sie nun müde war, legte sie sich unter eins und wollte da die Nacht zubringen. Bei Sonnenuntergang aber kamen sechs Schwäne durch das Fenster hereingeflogen, setzten sich auf das Boden und bliesen einander an, und bliesen sich alle Federn ab, wie ein Tuch sich abstreift, und da waren es ihre sechs Brüder. Sie kroch unter dem Bett hervor, und die Brüder waren beides erfreut und betrübt, sie zu sehen: »du kannst hier nicht bleiben,« sagten sie, »das ist eine Räuberherberg, wenn die Räuber von ihrem Zuge heimkommen, dann wohnen sie hier.

Chapter 2.╇ The Six Swans

Es ging die ganze Nacht durch und auch den andern Tag in einem fort, bis es vor Müdigkeit nicht weiter konnte. Da sah es eine Wildhütte, stieg hinauf und fand eine Stube mit sechs kleinen Betten, aber es getraute nicht sich in eins zu legen, sondern kroch unter eins, legte sich auf den harten Boden und wollte die Nacht da zubringen. Als aber die Sonne bald untergehen wollte, hörte es ein Rauschen und sah, daß sechs Schwäne zum Fenster hereingeflogen kamen. Sie setzten sich auf den Boden, und bliesen einander an und bliesen sich alle Federn ab, und ihre Schwanenhaut streifte sich ab wie ein Hemd. Da sah sie das Mädchen an und erkannte ihre Brüder, freute sich und kroch unter dem Bett hervor. Die Brüder waren nicht weniger erfreut, als sie ihr Schwesterchen erblickten, aber ihre Freude war von kurzer Dauer. »Hier kann deines Bleibens nicht sein,« sprachen sie zu ihm, »das ist eine Herberge für Räuber, wenn die heim kommen und finden dich, so ermorden sie dich.«

In this reunion with her six brothers, the girl continues to be referred to as sie in the 1st edition and es (or its dative ihm in sprachen sie zu ihm (‘they said to it’)) in the 7th. However, even in the 7th there is a failure to eliminate the feminine possessive pronoun ihr (‘her’) in the phrase ihre Brüder (‘her brothers’). In Chapter 11, in a longitudinal discussion of this very tale, I speculate that possessive pronouns are the most resistant to this kind of gender editing, as apparent perhaps already above in my discussion of the same phrase found in an es environment in the 1st edition (there the Grimms did catch it by the 7th edition!).

15

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Grimm Language

Alle Abend können wir uns aber eine Viertelstunde lang die Schwanenhaut gänzlich abblasen, und auf solange unsere menschliche Gestalt haben, hernach aber ist es wieder vorbei. Wenn du uns erlösen willst, musst du in sechs Jahren sechs Hemdlein aus Sternblumen zusammennähen, während der Zeit aber darfst du nicht sprechen und nicht lachen, sonst ist alle Arbeit verloren.« Und als die Brüder das gesprochen hatten, war die Viertelstunde herum, und sie waren wieder in Schwäne verwandelt.

»Könnt ihr mich denn nicht beschützen?« fragte das Schwesterchen. »Nein« antworteten sie, »denn wir können nur eine Viertelstunde lang jeden Abend unsere Schwanenhaut ablegen, und haben in dieser Zeit unsere menschliche Gestalt, aber dann werden wir wieder in Schwäne verwandelt.« Das Schwesterchen weinte und sagte »könnt ihr denn nicht erlöst werden?« »Ach nein,« antworteten sie, »die Bedingungen sind zu schwer. Du darfst sechs Jahre lang nicht sprechen und nicht lachen, und mußt in der Zeit sechs Hemdchen für uns aus Sternblumen zusammennähen. Kommt ein einziges Wort aus deinem Munde, so ist alle Arbeit verloren.« Und als die Brüder das gesprochen hatten, war die Viertelstunde herum, und sie flogen als Schwäne wieder zum Fenster hinaus.

In this section, where her brothers lay on her the impossible tasks the girl must fulfill in order to release them, again a number of relatively minor changes attract the attention. The Grimms replace the perhaps too archaic alle Abend with jeden Abend for ‘every evening,’ and while an earlier diminutive Hemdchen alternates with Hemdlein for ‘little shirt’ in the 1st edition, it is consistently Hemdchen in the 7th. Am anderen Morgen aber sammelte sich das Mädchen Sternblumen, setzte sich dann auf einen hohen Baum und fing an zu nähen. Es redete auch kein Wort und lachte nicht, sondern sahe nur auf seine Arbeit. Auf eine Zeit jagte der König, dem das Land gehörte, in dem Wald, und seine Jäger kamen zu dem Baum, auf welchem es sass. Sie riefen ihm zu, es sollte herabsteigen, weil es ihnen nun nicht antworten durfte, wollte es sie mit Geschenken befriedigen, und warf ihnen seine goldene Halskette herab.

Das Mädchen aber faßte den festen Entschluß, seine Brüder zu erlösen, und wenn es auch sein Leben kostete. Es verließ die Wildhütte, ging mitten in den Wald und setzte sich auf einen Baum und brachte da die Nacht zu. Am andern Morgen ging es aus, sammelte Sternblumen und fing an zu nähen. Reden konnte es mit niemand, und zum Lachen hatte es keine Lust: es saß da und sah nur auf seine Arbeit. Als es schon lange Zeit da zugebracht hatte, geschah es, daß der König des Landes in dem Wald jagte und seine Jäger zu dem Baum kamen, auf welchem das Mädchen saß. Sie riefen es an und sagten »wer bist du?« Es gab aber keine Antwort. »Komm herab zu uns,« sagten sie, »wir wollen dir nichts zuleid tun.« Es schüttelte bloß mit dem Kopf. Als sie es weiter mit Fragen bedrängten, so warf es ihnen seine goldene Halskette herab und dachte sie damit zufrieden zu stellen.



Chapter 2.╇ The Six Swans

Now, when she begins to carry out her impossible tasks, and is discovered by a new king’s men, all of a sudden the girl in the 1st edition has changed to an es again, admittedly in line with use of the word Mädchen. The 7th edition simply continues with es, in line with my argument in Chapter 11 that the use of es versus sie ends up corresponding for the Grimms with a maturational or indeed moral state, rather than being simply a matter of grammar. There are no other really significant differences between these passages, from my perspective. The Grimms certainly cleaned up a sentence that inserted the relative clause dem das Land gehörte (‘to whom the land belonged’) in the middle of another clause (‘the king hunted in the forest’), which made it harder to parse. Sie riefen aber noch immer, da warf es seinen Gürtel, als auch dies nicht half, seine Strumpfbänder, endlich alles, was es entbehren konnte, herunter, so dass es nichts mehr als sein Hemdlein anbehielt. Den Jägern war aber das alles nicht genug, sie stiegen auf den Baum, hoben es herab und brachten es mit Gewalt zum König. Der König war verwundert über seine Schönheit, wickelte es in seinen Mantel, setzte es vor sich aufs Pferd und führte es nach Haus und ob es gleich stumm war, liebte er es doch von Herzen, und es ward seine Gemahlin.

Sie ließen aber nicht ab, da warf es ihnen seinen Gürtel herab, und als auch das nichts half, seine Strumpfbänder, und nach und nach alles, was es anhatte und entbehren konnte, so daß es nichts mehr als sein Hemdlein behielt. Die Jäger ließen sich aber damit nicht abweisen, stiegen auf den Baum, hoben das Mädchen herab und führten es vor den König. Der König fragte »wer bist du? was machst du auf dem Baum?« Aber es antwortete nicht. Er fragte es in allen Sprachen, die er wußte, aber es blieb stumm wie ein Fisch. Weil es aber so schön war, so ward des Königs Herz gerührt, und er faßte eine große Liebe zu ihm. Er tat ihm seinen Mantel um, nahm es vor sich aufs Pferd und brachte es in sein Schloß. Da ließ er ihm reiche Kleider antun, und es strahlte in seiner Schönheit wie der helle Tag, aber es war kein Wort aus ihm herauszubringen. Er setzte es bei Tisch an seine Seite, und seine bescheidenen Mienen und seine Sittsamkeit gefielen ihm so sehr, daß er sprach »Diese begehre ich zu heiraten und keine andere auf der Welt,« und nach einigen Tagen vermählte er sich mit ihr.

From my perspective, the most significant thing that happens in this passage (in the 7th edition) is that the girl, who has been a consistent es in that edition, becomes a feminine sie (or actually the dative ihr) after she becomes the wife of the king. As it happens, she’s also an es at this point in the 1st edition, but as we’ve seen, that’s more of a grammatical issue.

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Grimm Language

Besides this, an only-in-German, and hard to parse, single sentence frame of the 1st edition (namely warf … herunter (‘threw down’), with its several objects, that are meant to appease the king’s servants when they find her in a tree, between the two sides of the frame) is replaced by a sequence of simpler clauses in the 7th. One might also note that the phrase jemandem genug sein (‘to suffice one’) could be a little too learned for a fairy tale. In any case, the Grimms drop it in the 7th edition. Des Königs Mutter aber war böse darüber, sprach schlecht von ihr: niemand wisse, woher die Dirne gekommen, und sie sei des Königs unwert. Als sie nun den ersten Prinzen zur Welt brachte, nahm die Schwiegermutter ihn weg, bestrich ihr den Mund mit Blut und gab dann bei dem König vor, die Königin habe ihr eigen Kind gefressen, und sei eine Zauberin. Der König aber, aus grosser Liebe, wollte es nicht glauben;

Der König aber hatte eine böse Mutter, die war unzufrieden mit dieser Heirat und sprach schlecht von der jungen Königin. »Wer weiß, wo die Dirne her ist,« sagte sie, »die nicht reden kann: sie ist eines Königs nicht würdig.« Über ein Jahr, als die Königin das erste Kind zur Welt brachte, nahm es ihr die Alte weg und bestrich ihr im Schlafe den Mund mit Blut. Da ging sie zum König und klagte sie an, sie wäre eine Menschenfresserin. Der König wollte es nicht glauben und litt nicht, daß man ihr ein Leid antat. Sie saß aber beständig und nähete an den Hemdchen, und achtete auf nichts anderes.

There are a lot of significant phenomena in this section where the wicked motherin-law badmouths our heroine, steals her first-born, and accuses her of being a cannibal. To begin with, note the preposed genitive des Königs Mutter (‘the king’s mother’) in the 1st edition. This is not found in this particular phrase in the 7th edition, but it is definitely a possible structure there. In Chapter 4 I discuss the various ways available in the German of the Grimms’ time to express possession, which they chose and didn’t choose, and why. From here on, only indirect speech in the present subjunctive is found in the 1st edition. We find the evil mother-in-law’s first accusation against the young queen changed into direct speech in the 7th edition, but the later accusation of cannibalism, while still in indirect speech in the 7th edition, uses the preterite subjunctive wäre rather than the present subjunctive sei for the verb ‘be.’ As noted earlier, I discuss these things in Chapter 6. There are two more, now familiar, changes from the 1st to the 7th edition. The past participle gekommen (‘come’) appears in the 1st edition without an auxiliary, while a different structure in direct speech is found in the 7th edition. Secondly, the word Prinz (‘prince’) of the 1st edition is replaced by Kind (‘child’) and Knabe (‘boy’) in the 7th.



darnach als sie den zweiten Prinzen gebar, übte die gottlose Schwiegermutter denselben Betrug und klagte sie wieder beim König an, und weil sie nicht reden durfte, sondern immer stumm sass und an den sechs Hemdern arbeitete, so konnte sie nichts mehr erretten, und sie ward zum Feuer verdammt.

Chapter 2.╇ The Six Swans

Das nächstemal, als sie wieder einen schönen Knaben gebar, übte die falsche Schwiegermutter denselben Betrug aus, aber der König konnte sich nicht entschließen, ihren Reden Glauben beizumessen. Er sprach »sie ist zu fromm und gut, als daß sie so etwas tun könnte, wäre sie nicht stumm und könnte sie sich verteidigen, so würde ihre Unschuld an den Tag kommen.« Als aber das drittemal die Alte das neugeborne Kind raubte und die Königin anklagte, die kein Wort zu ihrer Verteidigung vorbrachte, so konnte der König nicht anders, er mußte sie dem Gericht übergeben, und das verurteilte sie, den Tod durchs Feuer zu erleiden.

The 7th edition is as usual longer and more circumstantial than the 1st. One of the things adding to the length is the fact that the queen bears not only a second, but even a third child in the later version (whom she is also accused of eating, which finally leads to her sentence to be burned at the stake). Although I don’t talk about it in this book, this threeness is also part of the Grimm standardization of fairy tales. On a completely different note, but continuing the ‘shirt’ comparisons made earlier, we now have Hemder (‘shirts’), no diminutive, in the 1st edition, still Hemdchen (in the preceding section) in the 7th. Der Tag kam heran, wo das Urteil sollte vollzogen werden, es war gerade der letzte Tag von den sechs Jahren, und sie war mit den sechs Hemdern fertig geworden, nur an einem fehlte der linke Ermel. Wie sie nun zum Scheiterhaufen geführt wurde, nahm sie die sechs Hemder mit sich, und wie sie oben stand und eben das Feuer sollte angesteckt werden, sah sie sechs Schwäne durch die Luft daher ziehen und über ihr sich herabsenken.

Als der Tag herankam, wo das Urteil sollte vollzogen werden, da war zugleich der letzte Tag von den sechs Jahren herum, in welchem sie nicht sprechen und nicht lachen durfte, und sie hatte ihre lieben Brüder aus der Macht des Zaubers befreit. Die sechs Hemden waren fertig geworden, nur daß an dem letzten der linke Ärmel noch fehlte. Als sie nun zum Scheiterhaufen geführt wurde, legte sie die Hemden auf ihren Arm, und als sie oben stand und das Feuer eben sollte angezündet werden, so schaute sie sich um, da kamen sechs Schwäne durch die Luft dahergezogen. Da sah sie, daß ihre Erlösung nahte, und ihr Herz regte sich in Freude.

19

20 Grimm Language

The six swans about to be transformed back into young men receive Hemder in the 1st edition, Hemden (a different plural, but also no diminutive) in the 7th. Both editions seem to recognize that the boys have grown up. Wie as a time adverb (‘when’) in wie sie oben stand (‘when she stood above (on the pyre)’) is replaced by als in line with a more modern (in fact contemporary) usage, perhaps to rule out any possible understanding of it as a comparison adverb (‘the way that’ – also contemporary usage). Da warf sie die Hemdlein hinauf, die fielen über die Schwäne hin, und kaum waren sie davon berührt, so fiel ihre Schwanenhaut ab, und die sechs Brüder standen leibhaftig vor ihr, nur dem sechsten fehlte der linke Arm, und er hatte dafür einen Schwanenflügel auf dem Rücken. Da war ihr auch die Sprache wiedergegeben, und sie erzählte, wie die Schwiegermutter sie so boshaft verleumdet, dafür ward diese auf den Scheiterhaufen gebracht und verbrannt, sie aber lebte lange mit dem König und ihren sechs Brüdern in Freuden.

Die Schwäne rauschten zu ihr her und senkten sich herab, so daß sie ihnen die Hemden überwerfen konnte: und wie sie davon berührt wurden, fielen die Schwanenhäute ab, und ihre Brüder standen leibhaftig vor ihr und waren frisch und schön; nur dem jüngsten fehlte der linke Arm, und er hatte dafür einen Schwanenflügel am Rücken. Sie herzten und küßten sich, und die Königin ging zu dem Könige, der ganz bestürzt war, und fing an zu reden und sagte »liebster Gemahl, nun darf ich sprechen und dir offenbaren, daß ich unschuldig bin und fälschlich angeklagt,« und erzählte ihm von dem Betrug der Alten, die ihre drei Kinder weggenommen und verborgen hätte. Da wurden sie zu großer Freude des Königs herbeigeholt, und die böse Schwiegermutter wurde zur Strafe auf den Scheiterhaufen gebunden und zu Asche verbrannt. Der König aber und die Königin mit ihren sechs Brüdern lebten lange Jahre in Glück und Frieden.

In this final section, where the queen is released from her vow of silence, and she informs the king of his mother’s evil deeds (leading to the latter’s incineration), we find that verleumdet (‘maligned’) in the 1st edition appears without an auxiliary. Although this verb is not paralleled in the 7th edition, the immediately following phrase weggenommen und verborgen hätte (‘had taken away and hidden’) in that edition would again appear to show that a visible auxiliary is preferred. To complete the ‘shirt’ story, finally, we now find Hemdlein in the 1st edition (diminutive again? and why this diminutive?), and a continuation of Hemden in the 7th.



Chapter 2.╇ The Six Swans

As suggested in my comments on individual changes found in this tale, much of the rest of this book is devoted to exploring the systematic pressures that led to them. Yet not all of the changes I note above are explored in the rest of the book, and, very importantly, not all of the systematic phenomena I want to look at are documented in “The Six Swans.” And although looking at changes from the first to the last edition of an individual tale can be an important tool of investigation, not all of the tales to be found in the 7th and last edition of the KHM are there in the 1st, nor do all of the tales from the 1st edition survive to the end. Other tools must include in many cases a look at intermediate forms of a tale in editions between the first and the last, a comparison with written sources from which the Grimms are known to have taken their tales, and comparison with other (competing) fairy-tale writers who tell the same tales. Where it is possible for the phenomenon in question, a consultation of Jacob Grimm’s Deutsche Grammatik may also prove useful. As I indicated briefly in Chapter 1, the following chapters are organized as follows: In Chapter 3, I look generally at the kind of German it was that the Grimms wanted to use in their tales. How many tales are written in dialect, and what dialects, and why those dialects? And if the entire tale is not in dialect, but part is, what part, and why? Chapters 4 through 6 also look at the kind of German the Grimms wanted to use, but there the questions have more to do with the diachronic axis (how archaic a German did they aim at?), but also with the issue of what is proper grammatically (at least for a fairy tale) and what not. In Chapters 7 through 11, then, I treat the Grimms’ exploitation of different grammatical categories to further tale-telling aims more character-oriented than those discussed in Chapters 3 through 6. In Chapter 7 I discuss principally the nouns that they use, or don’t use, or get rid of, for their young male and female characters (who form a significant majority of their protagonists). Although in Chapter 7 I treat already the kinds of adjectives typically applied to these nouns, in Chapters 8 through 10 the adjectives are central, and the questions have to do with their significant properties, such as which adjectives are compatible with, or even predict, which other adjectives; what types of people or objects they are applied to; and whether the gender of a person so characterized actually affects the meaning of the adjective. Chapters 5 and 11 both deal with pronouns, but whereas Chapter 5 deals with those pronouns used when one character is addressing another in direct speech, Chapter 11 concentrates on third person, referential pronouns, and specifically on those used to refer to girls. Here, as with Chapters 7 through 10, I hope to document grammatically certain gender stereotypes which many researchers have already asserted exist in the Grimm tales, but almost exclusively on nongrammatical grounds.

21

chapter 3

German from where? 3.1

Linguistic authenticity in the KHM

As I noted in Chapter 1, it has long been recognized that the Brothers Grimm did not arrive at their world-famous fairy-tale collection by slogging through the fields, woods and villages of German-speaking Europe, eliciting age-old folktales from peasant farmers and old spinning ladies. A large number of their sources are demonstrably literary, their informants were frequently acquaintances, and many of the tales are not even exclusively German. Furthermore, as I noted in the last chapter, the Kinder- und Hausmärchen went through seven editions while the Grimms were still alive, and the differences between, indeed developments in, the collection are wide-ranging and striking. Nevertheless, the argument has been made, and I will reinforce it here, that the Grimms tried to give to their tales a distinctively German, and in fact, frequently, a regional German character. Indeed, to strengthen their claim for the Germanness of these tales, the Grimms obviously relied on their talents as folklorists and linguists not to actually forge, but rather to edit and add to the tales, and to emphasize aspects of them that would buttress their “authenticity.”

3.2 Tales told in dialect One way to make a fairy tale seem authentic was to render it in some form of German dialect. How could a story narrated in a German dialect not be German? This strategy can in fact be found in the KHM, but relatively rarely. Ultimately, the Grimms apparently decided that it put too great a strain on the reception and understanding of their collection to do a lot in dialect, authentic as it might be.

. Portions of this chapter have appeared previously in Robinson (2004). My thanks to The German Quarterly and Blackwell Publishers. . See most polemically Ellis (1983) (toned down or rebutted in reviews by Rölleke 1984 and Zipes 1985), but also more recently (and temperately) Zipes 2002, Tatar 2003). . See especially Bluhm and Rölleke (1997).

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Grimm Language

Indeed, in only 21 of the total of 211 tales and legends do we find the main text (as opposed to inserted poems or quotes, see below) in any kind of dialect. This is, of course, almost exactly 10%, enough, perhaps, especially when scattered about the collection, to lend dialect weight to the Germanicity of the collection without too much dialect confusion. It is also clear that the method of selection for what kind of dialect tales to include was in no way systematic, except perhaps by exclusion. Given their frequent ascriptions of fairy tales to Hessia, it seems rather remarkable that they have no tales in Hessian dialect. In fact, it would seem that they have no tales at all in any of the Central German dialects historically most associated with the German Standard language (though in many cases they would look quite different from the Standard). One can only speculate at the reasons for this exclusion. One possibility, it seems to me, is that the Grimms (especially Jacob) were also involved in the ongoing debate about the nature of the Standard, and did not want to be seen as presenting tales in a German which others, and they, simply considered “bad.” Only dialects sufficiently different from the Standard to be seen as separate entities stood a chance as Grimm tales. That said, even so the distribution of the dialect tales is lopsided and apparently arbitrary. Of the 21 tales and legends, fully 11 are in some form of Westphalian dialect, conveniently close to where the Grimms carried out much of their activities, and to their good friends the von Haxthausens, who sent them tales from Paderborn and Münsterland. I give below an illustrative quote (with translation in the footnote) from the Paderborn area: De drei Döchter gungen alle Dage unner den Baum un seihen to, ov nig de Wind ’n Appel herunner schlagen hädde, awerst se fannen ir Levedage kienen, un de Baum, de satt so vull, dat he breken wull, un de Telgen (Zweige) hungen bis up de Eere.  (“The Little Gnome” – Grimm 1857, v. 2:â•›39) . Wilhelm inserted tale #151* in the 7th edition (where there was also a #151) after the number 200 was apparently fixed for the tales. . cf. Haas (1990:â•›3–5), who also notices this, and quotes Wilhelm in the introduction to the 2nd edition as finding the dialect of Kassel to be too much a mixture of High and Low German to be directly used in their KHM. This of course cannot explain the leaving out of all Central German dialects, and as a reason seems inconsistent with the inclusion of “The Hare’s Bride,” discussed further below. . Numbers 68, 91, 96, 113, 126, 137, 138, 139, 140, 143, KL 3. . The three daughters went under the tree every day and observed whether the wind had knocked an apple down, but they never found any, and the tree stayed so full that it threatened to break, and the branches hung down to the ground.



Chapter 3.╇ German from where?

As a dialectologist, I can easily discern the linguistic features of these tales that as a whole characterize them as Westphalian. For this passage I briefly note: 1. It has full preterite forms, e.g. gungen (‘went’), fannen (‘found’), which are only found in Low German dialects (High German dialects use periphrastic forms like ist gegangen, hat gefunden). 2. It of course shows no traces of the High German Consonant Shift, witness Appel (‘apple’ – Standard Apfel), satt (‘sat’ – Standard saß) and breken (‘break’€– Standard brechen). 3. It illustrates the complete loss of the participial prefix ge-, see schlagen (‘hit’€– Standard geschlagen). 4. It illustrates the assimilation of -nd- to -nn- in unner (‘under’), fannen (‘found’) (Standard unter, fanden). It shows a typical kind of Westphalian vowel development in kienen (‘none’€– 5. Standard keinen). Of other Low German dialects, there are only two tales in Low Saxon, #187 and #196, both from correspondents. There are also two from no-longer-German Pomerania, taken from the painter Runge (#19 and #47). To these might be added another tale (#66 “The Hare’s Bride”), which the Grimms identify as coming from Buckow in Mecklenburg. But Mecklenburg dialect shows a rather curious mix of Low and High German characteristics, as the following quote demonstrates: Seits Mäken zum Häsichen »schu! schu! du Häsichen, frißt noch allen Koal.« Seits Häsichen »kumm, Mäken, und sett dich uf min Haosenschwänzeken und (Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›357) kumm mit in min Haosenhüttchen.« 

We may note that Mäken (‘girl’) and Haosenschwänzeken (‘little hare tail’) have an unshifted k in the diminutive suffix compared with the Standard -chen (a Low German characteristic), while Häsichen (‘little hare’) and Haosenhüttchen (‘little hare hut’) present shifted forms (High). And while the (reflexive) verb sett (‘set’) shows unshifted tt (cf. Standard setze), the immediately following pronoun dich (‘yourself ’) has shifted ch. But then again, uf (‘on’ – Standard auf) and min (‘my’€– Standard mein) display a Low German lack of the New High German Diphthongization to au and ai. These no doubt reflect the dialect itself. The same cannot be said for a later list of wedding guests that the Grimms characterize as coming from a different rendering of the tale, and which is entirely in Standard German! . The girl said to the little hare “shoo! shoo! you little hare, you’re eating all the cabbages.” The little hare said “come, girl, and seat yourself on my little hare tail and come with me to my little hare hut.”

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26 Grimm Language

As for southerly High German dialect tales, there are two Bavarian ones from Austria (#82 and #95), and three High Alemannic ones from Aargau canton in Switzerland (#165, #167 and #190), all from correspondents or journal publications. Just to illustrate again how different these are from the Standard, I quote from “The Little Farmer in Heaven:” S isch emol es arms fromms Bürle gstorbe, und chunt do vor d’ Himmelspforte. Zur gliche Zit isch au e riche, riche Herr do gsi und het au i Himmel welle. Do chunt der heilige Petrus mitem Schlüssel und macht uf und lot der Herr ine; das Bürle het er aber, wies schint, nid gseh und macht d’ Pforte ämel wieder zue.  (Grimm 1857, v. 2:â•›311)

Of course this quote shows features shared by most High German dialects (including the Standard), such as the consonant shift of p, t and k to p/pf, s/tz, and ch in Pforte (‘gate’), Schlüssel (‘key’), riche (‘rich’), but it has a number of other features which as a group characterize it as High Alemannic. Note here among others: 1. The complete lack of preterite forms, necessitating the perfect: isch … gstorbe (‘died‘), isch … gsi (‘was’), het … gseh (‘saw’), in the Standard all possibly or probably starb, war and sah). 2. The realization of ist (‘is’) as isch, common to a number of southwestern dialects, not just Swiss. 3. The loss of the vowel in the past participial prefix ge-, with pronunciation of the consonant where possible: gstorbe (‘died’ – Standard gestorben), gsi (‘been’€– Standard gewesen), gseh (‘seen’ – Standard gesehen). This is also more widespread. 4. The failure of the so-called “New High German Diphthongization,” e.g. Zit (‘time’ – Standard Zeit), uf (‘on’ – Standard auf), schint (‘appears’ – Standard scheint). 5. The failure of the so-called “New High German Monophthongization,” e.g. zue (‘to’ – Standard zu). Other southern dialects show this as well.

. Once upon a time a poor pious little farmer died, and then comes before the gates of Â�Heaven. At the same time, a rich, rich gentleman was also there, and also wanted into Heaven. Then Saint Peter comes with the key and opens up and lets the gentleman in; but it would appear that he didn’t see the little farmer, and he closes the gate back up again.



3.3

Chapter 3.╇ German from where?

Dialect insertions in the tales

All in all, this small list does not represent an impressive vote of confidence in dialect as the main way to tell a Grimm tale, which is, however, not to say that the Grimms rejected dialect entirely in the other 90% of the tales. Rather, they used it more sparingly, not in the main body of the narrative, but rather as adjuncts to the narrative. These adjuncts come in several forms.

3.3.1 Dialect names One of the first which may strike the eye is the names of characters in the tales. We saw above in the tale “The Little Farmer in Heaven” that Bürle itself is a south German dialect form meaning “little farmer” (in the Standard, if the diminutive were used at all, it would be Bäuerchen). Yet a tale called “Das Bürle,” (“The Little Farmer”) except for the name of the main character, is entirely in standard German. So is “Sneewittchen” (“Snow White”) where the heroine bears a Low German name (Standard would be Schneeweißchen). Most of the characters in “The Seven Swabians,” perhaps not surprisingly, have distinctively (Swabian) dialectal names. One may even argue that the eponymous hero and heroine of “Hänsel and Gretel” bear names strongly associated with southeasterly German dialects.

3.3.2 Dialect verse A more interesting kind of adjunct, I think, is the insertion of longer chunks of dialect material into the body of the (Standard German) narrative, usually in the form of short poems. We may find an example of this in “Maid Maleen” below (which the Grimms adapted from a written source, cf Rölleke 1998:â•›524–537), where a Low German poem is inserted (in boldface). This is in fact one of many such insertions in this tale: Der Bräutigam erstaunte und dachte »sie gleicht meiner Jungfrau Maleen, und ich würde glauben, sie wäre es selbst, aber die sitzt schon lange im Turn gefangen oder ist tot.« Er nahm sie an der Hand und führte sie zur Kirche. An dem Wege stand ein Brennesselbusch, da sprach sie »Brennettelbusch, Brennettelbusch so klene, wat steist du hier allene? ik hef de Tyt geweten,

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Grimm Language

da hef ik dy ungesaden, ungebraden eten.«10

(Grimm 1857, v. 2:â•›421)

Another Low German example, from the Grimms’ friends the Haxthausens, may be found in “The Little Lamb and the Little Fish” (Grimm 1857, v. 2:â•›246–7): Es trug sich zu, daß die zwei mit andern Kindern auf einer Wiese vor dem Haus spielten, und an der Wiese war ein Teich, der ging bis an die eine Seite vom Haus. Die Kinder liefen da herum, kriegten sich und spielten Abzählens: »Eneke, Beneke, lat mi liewen, will di ock min Vügelken giewen. Vügelken sall mie Strau söken, Strau will ick den Köseken giewen, Köseken sall mie Melk giewen, Melk will ick den Bäcker giewen, Bäcker sall mie ’n Kocken backen, Kocken will ick den Kätken giewen, Kätken sall mie Müse fangen, Müse will ick in ’n Rauck hangen un will se anschnien.« Dabei standen sie in einem Kreis, und auf welchen nun das Wort »anschnien« fiel, der mußte fortlaufen, und die anderen liefen ihm nach und fingen ihn.11 10. The bridegroom was astonished and thought “she looks like my Maiden Maleen, and I would believe it was she herself, but she has been sitting imprisoned for a long time in the tower, or she’s dead.” He took her by the hand and led her to the church. On the way stood a nettleplant, and she said Nettle-plant, nettle-plant so small, why do you stand here alone? I have known the time when I ate you unboiled, when I ate you unroasted. 11. It happened that the two were playing with other children on a meadow in front of the house, and on the meadow was a pond that went up to one side of the house. The children ran around it, tagged each other and played count-off:

Eenie, meenie, let me live, And I will give you my bird. The little bird will seek out straw for me, I’ll give the straw to the cow. The cow will give me milk, I’ll give the milk to the baker. The baker will bake me a cake.



Chapter 3.╇ German from where?

The use of dialect still makes the poems (or poem-like object, in the last case) hard to follow, even if the story, in Standard German, is comprehensible. One solution to this kind of problem is to modify the inserted material in the direction of the Standard, while still retaining dialect characteristics. A prime example can be found in “The Seven Swabians” below, where the poem to be found in the Grimms‘ source is first and the Grimms‘ modifications are indented (cf. Rölleke 1998:â•›124–27): Stoahst Zueah in allar Schwoaba Nahma, Sonscht weünsch i, dass ihr mächt erlahma. …………… Bey Elament, du hauscht gueat schwätza. Du bischt dear leatzt beym Dracha hetza. Stoß zu in aller Schwabe Name, sonst wünsch i, daß ihr möcht erlahme. ……………… Beim Element, du hast gut schwätze, bischt stets der letzscht beim Drachehetze12

As with the Low German case considered earlier, the poems above employ a German that is far from Standard. Nevertheless, they also contain changes toward a more Standard German. The Swabian diphthongs oa corresponding to Standard long o (and here also long a) and uea for Standard long u are rejected, as are the vowels in weünsch ‘(I) wish’, mächt ‘might’ and hauscht ‘(you) have’. What the Grimms kept are elements which they clearly saw as stereotypically Swabian, without harming the comprehensibility of the couplets: Loss of final -n in endings, i for ich ‘I’, internal scht for st. Notable about the latter, however, is that they do not keep the scht in hast ‘(you) have’, perhaps because it would hinder Â�comprehension, and add a sch compared to the original in letzscht ‘last.’ Overall, it seems clear that the Grimms try to capture the dialect flavor of the dialogue without worrying much about detailed linguistic accuracy.

I’ll give the cake to the cat. The cat will catch me some mice, The mice I’ll hang up in the smoke, And I’ll cut them up.

In this game they stood in a circle, and on whomever the word “cut” landed, he had to run away, and the others ran after him and caught him. 12. Strike out in the name of all Swabians, – Otherwise I would wish that you might be lame. … Really, you talk a good game, – You’re always the last in a dragon hunt.

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Importantly, words that rhyme in the original text also do so in the Grimms’ rendition. This is true even if the spelling of the rhyming words is different, as in schwätze (‘talk’) and -hetze (‘hunt’) above (these would rhyme in Standard German too), or Streit (‘battle’) and Leut (‘people’) below (these wouldn’t): So Ziecht dann hertzhafft an de streit, Hieran erkennt man tapfre Leüth. So zieht dann herzhaft in den Streit, hieran erkennt man tapfre Leut. 

(Rölleke 1998:â•›126–27)13

It is important to note that the latter rhyme exists in Swabia, and indeed much of Germany, because formerly front rounded vowels (short and long ü and ö, also eu from earlier öü) have lost their rounding in these language variants (and are now pronounced as short and long i and e, or ai, respectively), even though a conservative writing system, supported by the Standard, keeps up a distinction.

3.4 The challenges of verse It may be useful to document how important a good rhyme was to the Grimms with what approaches a totally Standard-language text. Note the source poem for “The True Bride,” and its ultimate form in the seventh edition (Rölleke 1998:â•›448–49): kälbchen, knie nieder und vergiss deiner ehre nicht, wie der prinz Lassmann die arme Helene vergass, als sie unter der grünen linde sass Kälbchen, Kälbchen, knie nieder, vergiß nicht deine Hirtin wieder, wie der Königssohn die Braut vergaß, die unter der grünen Linde saß.14

Here, in addition to evening out the scansion, the Grimms have eliminated an obnoxious rhyme dependent on ending a poetic line at an absent syntactic boundary, between der (‘the’) and prinz (‘prince’).

13. So march then boldly into battle, – this is how one recognizes brave people. 14. Translation of the Grimm revision: Little calf, little calf, kneel down, – do not forget your shepherdess, as the prince forgot the bride – who sat under the green linden tree.



Chapter 3.╇ German from where?

The examples given above, however, raise an obvious issue concerning the Grimms’ strategy: If they preserved general comprehensibility by using more or less Standard prose for the main storyline, and relegated somewhat altered regional dialects to interpolated poems, but also wanted the poems to be understood and to rhyme, they were often faced with a dilemma. They in fact frequently had to choose between three competing alternatives, namely between dialect-flavoring, comprehensibility and poetic purity. And it is quite obvious that the Grimms did not always come up with an ideal, or even regularly predictable, solution. One possible solution, documented in “The Frog King or Iron Henry,” could be termed the “footnote” solution. In the original manuscript version of this tale sent to Brentano, but never actually published by him, we find the following poem at the end of the tale: Heinerich der Wagen bricht! Nein Herr der Wagen nicht, Es ist ein Band von meinem Herzen das da lag in großen Schmerzen als ihr an dem Brunnen saßt als ihr eine Fretsche wart.15

Frosch 

(Rölleke 1975:â•›146)

The word Frosch (Standard for ‘frog’) floating out on the right of the manuscript was meant to tell somebody, presumably Brentano, that Fretsche means ‘Frosch.’ The use of Fretsche in the actual poem does not improve the rhyme, but it does improve the scansion. Having once employed the footnote strategy, the Grimms were clearly committed to it in this poem. In later versions of this tale, in fact from the first edition on, the poem reads as follows: Heinrich, der Wagen bricht! Nein Herr der Wagen nicht, Es ist ein Band von meinem Herzen das da lag in großen Schmerzen als ihr in16 dem Brunnen saßt als ihr eine Fretsche (Frosch) was’t. (wart) 

(Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›32)

15. Heinrich, the wagon is breaking! – No, lord, not the wagon, – It is a band from my heart€– which lay there in great pain – when you sat at the well – when you were a frog. 16. ‘In’ rather than ‘at.’

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Here wart has been restored to a presumably dialectal was’t,17 rhyme and scansion have been preserved, and the footnotes, in the form of parentheses, ensure comprehensibility. This strategy, it should be pointed out, was not just used in the poems. Indeed, in the previously mentioned tale “The Little Farmer,” the hero is introduced as follows: Es war ein Dorf, darin saßen lauter reiche Bauern und nur ein armer, den nann(Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›335) ten sie das Bürle (Bäuerlein).18 

To summarize to this point, the Grimms wanted their fairy tales to appear authentic. With a few exceptions, they rejected tales in pure dialect, because the audience for this would have been small. As a compromise, the body of the tale itself normally appears in more or less Standard, if antiquated, German prose, while occasional bits of verse provide the stamp of regional authenticity. The problem with such verses is twofold. Most prominently, the verses have to be at least somewhat comprehensible. This is documented clearly in “The Seven Swabians,” where adjustments toward Standard German are evident. Secondly, as verse these inserts have to meet certain poetic standards, such as proper rhyme and scansion. A number of the tales cited above illustrate this.

3.5

“Hänsel and Gretel”: An inside joke?

One of the most famous of all of the Grimms’ fairy tales, “Hänsel and Gretel,” illustrates how complicated the combination of all of these desiderata can be. According to the Grimms’ notes, this tale is drawn from “verschiedene Erzählungen aus Hessen,”19 most likely from their acquaintances, the Wild sisters.

17. I say “presumably” here because I cannot find a dialect source for the s in question, assuming this is a preterite form of the verb ‘to be’ (cf. Zhirmunskii, 571–74). In much of the High German area, no simple preterite exists for this verb (especially as a copula), and those dialects that have one normally show an r in the plural, as the pronoun ihr formally is. In many dialects (northern or southern) that have a preterite, as in the standard, the r original to the plural has conquered the singular, not the reverse (though this is not theoretically impossible). Did the Grimms just make up this form for the rhyme? 18. There was a village, in it there were nothing but rich farmers, and just one poor one, they called him the Bürle (little farmer). 19. Various stories from Hessia – Grimm 1857, v. 3:â•›448.



Chapter 3.╇ German from where?

There are precisely three instances in this tale where verse is used. One of them, apparently added to the story by Dortchen Wild in 1813,20 is the most transparent in terms of rhyme: Der Wind, der Wind, das himmlische Kind.21 

(Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›144)

This verse seems a somewhat unsatisfactory reaction to a question by the wicked witch who hears nibbling on the eaves. The question itself, in precisely the following form, survived every revision of the tale from the very beginning as a handwritten story on Brentano’s desk: Knuper, knuper, kneischen wer knupert an meinem Häuschen?22 

(Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›104)

Interestingly enough, most Germans whom I have reminded of this couplet have insisted on pronouncing kneischen as if it were written kneuschen. Understandably so, since they want the verse to rhyme as much as the Grimms did. The latter, however, were aware that many of the dialect variations they were dealing with, especially in the orally-transmitted tales, normally pronounced front rounded vowels as unrounded ones. Thus, minimally, Häuschen would have been pronounced more like Heischen. But in fact, it would take more than unrounding to achieve a good rhyme here. In kneischen the letter group sch stands, in the Standard, for the sound [š]. In Häuschen, on the other hand, it stands for the sound sequence [sç]. Is there no solution for this? Indeed there is, and it makes a good case for the Hessian provenience of at least this snippet of poetry. For there is a widespread sound change in much of the Central German area whereby the ich-Laut [ç] has indeed fallen together with [š] in a sound almost identical to the latter. Thus, these dialects pronounce mich (‘me’) like misch (‘mix’), and Männchen (‘little man’) is pronounced like Menschen (‘people’).23 This latter non-distinction is clearly of relevance to the kneischen/Häuschen rhyme. Using phonetic symbols, and assuming the natural assimilation of an [s] to the following [š], these two words would be [knaišәn]/[haišәn], a very good rhyme indeed. But in fact, in most of these same dialects, and indeed others, as I documented earlier for Swabian, the final n of -en endings is typically dropped, leaving such 20. Rölleke in Grimm, v. 3:â•›448. 21. The wind, the wind, the heavenly child. 22. Nibble, nibble, gnaw – who is nibbling on my little house? 23. See Herrgen (1986) for a detailed discussion of this phenomenon.

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words with a bare schwa vowel. Thus the chances are good that the rhyme here is actually [knaišә]/[haišә]. The likelihood of this increases when we consider the final two lines of the last poetic interpolation in “Hänsel and Gretel,” at the point when the children entreat a duck to ferry them across a stream: Entchen, Entchen, da steht Gretel und Hänsel. Kein Steg und keine Brücke, nimm uns auf deinen weißen Rücken.24 

(Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›107)

Heinz Rölleke (1985:â•›75–87) has made a compelling case that these lines, and indeed many non-poetic lines from “Hänsel und Gretel” as well, were inserted into the KHM between the fourth and fifth editions by Wilhelm Grimm, following an 1842 collection of Alsatian folksongs and folk tales published by August Stöber. In evidence, Rölleke notes that in the encounter with the duck in the fourth edition, published in 1840, the Grimms have Gretel saying “ach, liebes Entchen, nimm uns auf deinen Rücken.”25 It seems beyond doubt that between then and the 1843 publication of the fifth edition, they had read Stöber’s lines:26 Endele. Bändele. Kenn Stai unn kenn Brucke Nimm eß uff dynne wysse Rucke!27 

(Rölleke 1985:â•›85–86)

In the dialect verse, Brucke and Rucke rhyme, mainly because Alsatian is one of the n-dropping dialects, making the dative singular of the word for “back” available for a rhyme with the nominative singular of “bridge.” The Grimms are clearly counting on this southwestern dialect phenomenon for the rhyming of their own third and fourth lines above. Whether the umlauted <ü> is meant to read as rounded or unrounded is irrelevant for this rhyme. But what to make of the first two lines of the poem from the duck-encounter, repeated below? Entchen, Entchen, da steht Gretel und Hänsel. 

(Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›107)

24. Little duck, little duck, – here stand Gretel and Hänsel. – No footbridge and no bridge,€– take us on your white back. 25. Ah, dear duck, take us on your back. 26. They do give Stöber credit for a lot, though not the massive revisions between the fourth and fifth editions. 27. Same as the Grimm verse in the last two lines. The first two, clearly there for euphonic reasons, might be “Ducklet, – little connector.”



Chapter 3.╇ German from where?

I argue here that on some level these lines also rhyme, and that the Grimms knew this. In order to perceive these two lines as rhyming, one must understand Hänsel as a stand-in for a disguised diminutive form Hänsche(n). This is in line with its original manuscript title “Das Brüderchen und das Schwesterchen.”28 Additionally, for a good rhyme one needs the Hessian change of [ç] to [š], with attendant assimilation of [s] to the following [š]. This interpretation raises at least two questions. The first is: Why would the Grimms have picked the names Hänsel and Gretel at all for an ostensibly Hessian fairy tale, given the clearly southern dialect-provenience of the -el diminutive? In answer, I reiterate a point I made when discussing the tale “Die Sieben Schwaben”: The Grimms were less interested in real authenticity than in the appearance of authenticity. The names Hänsel and Gretel, in the early 1800s as well as today, bear the same kind of relationship to Hänschen and Gretchen as the diminutive suffix lein does to the suffix -chen. In each case, the latter is more prosaic, more Standard than the former, with its overtones of the archaic and dialectal. Thus the Grimms originally picked the names Hänsel and Gretel because they came across as more authentic to a true folktale. Having then decided to add between the fourth and fifth editions a little verse to make the tale even more authentic, why didn’t they change the names back, so that the verse openly rhymed? The answer is that they could not. The whole reason that the Grimms had to publish a new edition of the KHM between 1840 and 1843 is that they were wildly popular, and “Hänsel und Gretel” was one of the most popular. They could not change the names of the main characters in mid-career, as it were. The text contains some independent evidence for my somewhat quirky interpretation of this verse, namely the order of the two names Hänsel and Gretel. These two first names actually appear eight times linked by the conjunction und ‘and,’ including in the title. Of these eight conjoinings, only the one verse above shows Gretel before Hänsel. Why, if not to achieve a kind of disguised quasi-rhyme? If closeness of rhyme were not an issue, surely Gretel rhymes as well as Hänsel with the word Entchen? With regard to this particular verse, there is no explicit acknowledgment on the part of the Grimms that would support my claim. Such an acknowledgment, or indeed even an explicit statement concerning the use of dialect features and linguistic archaisms in any of their fairy-tale verses, is mostly lacking from their notes.29 28. “Little Brother and Little Sister.” Curiously enough, a manuscript notation by Jacob gives the words “alias: Hänsel und Gretchen.” Cf. Rölleke (1975:â•›70). 29. In his introduction to the 6th edition of 1850, Wilhelm does admit to inserting “sayings and singular forms of speech of the people” into the tales (Bluhm and Rölleke 1997:â•›21), which I suppose comes close.

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Yet I hope to have made the case here that such features played an �important role in lending the fairy tales an air of Germanic authenticity. As I also hope to have shown, authenticity was frequently at odds with the equally important desiderata of comprehensibility and poetic purity. The resolution of such conflicts, as in the last verse above, was not always transparent.

3.6 The Grimms’ use of regional German One way the Grimms could lend more Germanic authenticity to their fairy tales was to include material from German dialects (just as they made them more colloquial by the insertion of common German proverbs and sayings, cf. Bluhme and Rölleke 1997). There was a risk to this, however. German dialects are frequently less than comprehensible to Germans speaking the standard language, or other dialects for that matter. Accordingly, the number of Grimm fairy tales actually told completely in dialect is rather small (almost exactly 10%). Instead, the Grimms used a more nuanced blending of dialect material into tales otherwise entirely in a (somewhat archaic) version of the standard language. This sometimes took the form of dialect names for the protagonists, such as Sneewittchen or das Bürle, but also frequently involved the insertion of verses or verse-like stretches of speech, in dialect, into the predominantly Standard text. This latter strategy, too, has its problems. In the first place, even if the overall story is comprehensible, the dialect verses might still be hard to understand. One solution the Grimms employed to combat this problem was to modify the original dialect material in the direction of the standard language (sometimes just in the spelling), while retaining stereotypical features that mark it as dialect. The results of these modifications might or might not rhyme, however. In a number of cases, the reader is clearly still expected to know something about the dialect to get it to work (for example when the Grimms rhyme Streit ‘battle’ with Leut ‘people’, or Brücke ‘bridge’ and Rücken ‘back’). In some cases, the Grimms take what I have called the ‘footnote’ approach, where they retain (or invent, I suspect in one case) a dialect word, and gloss it immediately following. For at least one famous verse in “Hänsel and Gretel,” I argue that the perfectly good rhyme which would be found in a dialect rendering of it has been totally obscured by other considerations, namely the need to retain the original names of two of the Grimms’ most famous characters.

chapter 4

Possession 4.1 Archaisms, colloquial speech and grammaticality judgments in the KHM In the previous chapter, I dealt with the manner in which the Grimms attempted to incorporate regional German dialect phenomena into their tales in order to lend to them the stamp of Germanness they clearly desired. In this and successive chapters, I will again be talking about what varieties of German the Grimms included in their tales, but here the focus is on grammatical rather than dialectal variants. Some of the grammatical choices made by the Grimms can be seen as historical ones, in that the Grimms, in order to achieve a once-upon-a-time, fairy-tale atmosphere, favor certain arguably archaic forms over those current in their own day. Thus in Chapter 5, I argue that the forms of address to be found in the tales result from just such a choice (or actually several). Other choices are more stylistic than diachronic, in the sense that one grammatical option to be found in their day is deemed, for one reason or another, to be preferable to another. Two of these reasons include the simplicity of parsing (a factor I have already brought up in Chapter 2 when pointing out the Grimms’ transformation of complex embedded syntactic constructions into simpler ones) and the avoidance of bookishness. Both of these factors surely play a significant role in the Grimms’ ultimate rejection of a verbal construction in which the auxiliary of certain compound verbs is optionally deleted (Chapter 6.2). The avoidance of bookishness, or to put it another way, the attempt to choose a more colloquial over a less colloquial construction, also helps drive the substitution of the preterite subjunctive for the present subjunctive in indirect speech (to the extent that speech remains indirect at all). This is the topic discussed in Chapter 6.1. In some cases, the Grimms appear to have decided that certain colloquial constructions were simply not good German. These they avoid and edit out of their tales, unless they can be used to indicate bad breeding or education – see especially Section 4.2.1 further below, where I discuss a distinctive dative-possessive construction to be found, now as in the Grimms’ time, in colloquial varieties of German.

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Of course, as with the conflicting motivations adduced for use, nonuse and modified use of dialect material in the last chapter, a certain degree of overlap, but also contradiction, may be discerned in the Grimms’ grammatical choices. For them, older may indeed often be seen as stylistically better than newer (especially if the latter strikes them as actually bad grammar), but there is then always the risk of appearing too “bookish” as a result. I hope to address these complications in the following chapters. The nature of the argumentation in this chapter, as indeed elsewhere, involves consulting not just the 7th edition tales themselves, which represent the endpoint of the Grimms’ revision process, but clearly also earlier editions put out by the Grimms, and non-Grimm source-documents, where available. Additionally, where appropriate I cite historical linguistic, dialect-geographical or prescriptivist comments by the Grimms themselves, or by others. As to the ordering of the next three chapters, which, as noted in Chapter 1, are those dealing with phenomena not obviously linked to gender, I follow that sequence of grammatical categories to be found in traditional grammars, but with no deeper motivation. Thus I simply discuss them in the following order: Chapter€4 – noun phrases, here possessive noun phrases; Chapter 5 – pronouns, here particularly pronouns of address; Chapter 6 – verb phrases, here two things: 6.1€– the decline of the present subjunctive, 6.2 – the increasing inadmissibility of participles without auxiliaries. Chapters 7 through 11, on gender-linked phenomena, also follow the traditional sequencing of categories, in which adjectives are looked at after nouns and before pronouns.

4.2 Possessive noun phrases In the body of this chapter, as noted above, I give an overview of the constructions available in the Grimms’ times to indicate possession of a being, an object, or an abstract entity by another entity. Both the realm of possible possessors as well as the concept of possession sometimes need to be taken fairly loosely, as when, in the title of the next section, the genitive case “possesses” death (or, restated, death . Bottigheimer (1987:â•›53–56, see also 1990) has found one verbal phenomenon that may be linked with gender distinctions, to wit the verbs used to introduce speech in the tales. She discusses especially fragte ‘asked,’ antwortete ‘answered,’ rief ‘cried,’ sagte ‘said,’ and sprach ‘spoke.’ She finds fragte and sprach to be more characteristic of male authority figures and bad women than good girls, and antwortete and rief to to be associated more with female figures, while only sagte seems neutral in all respects. A review of all the instances of these verbs in the tales gives at least some support to her claims, but only as tendencies, which she freely admits for her own more restricted data.



Chapter 4.╇ Possession

“belongs to” the genitive case). As a rule, we will be dealing more with cases like “the king’s castle” (though “the king’s death” can be important), “the girl’s father,” “the bird’s liver” or “the pastor’s hat.” As we will see, the Grimms emphatically reject some of these constructions, and wholeheartedly embrace only one of them, in which the possessor appears either as a preposed or a postposed noun in the genitive case. Their reasons for doing this will be discussed at appropriate points in the chapter.

4.2.1 Dem Genitiv sein Tod There is a phenomenon to be found in many German dialects, and indeed in the Dutch standard language, whereby possession is indicated with a noun presently or formerly in the Dative, followed by a possessive pronoun in turn followed by the possessed noun. This is the syntactic pattern parodied in the book Der Dativ ist dem Genitiv sein Tod by Bastian Sick (2004), a humorous book whose very title assumes its currency in colloquial, and not just dialectal, German. Be that as it may, the Grimms did not adopt this particular pattern as one that they wanted to follow in their tales. Indeed, I can find only six tokens of its usage in all of the tales, and really only two of them are undoubted examples of the phenomenon (the noun phrase in question is in bold, as will be the case for all the NP constructions discussed in this section). One of them comes from “Little Red Riding Hood:” da sprang das Mädchen heraus und rief »ach wie war ich erschrocken, wie wars (Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›159) so dunkel in dem Wolf seinem Leib!« 

The other comes from “The Devil’s Sooty Brother:”

. For those who are not familiar with German, this is probably the easiest language to exemplify with; thus Dutch “de man zijn hoed” can be translated word-for-word as “the man his hat,” better translated as “the man’s hat.” In German, “the man” is in the Dative case, a case frequently used for indirect objects (“to the man”) or for involved persons (“with respect to the man”). . The Dative is the Death of the Genitive (or to be literal “The Dative is to the Genitive His Death”). . Resulting from a search looking for instances of -em followed within four words by forms of sein-, or -er followed by ihr-. . Then the girl sprang out and cried “Oh, how shocked I was, how dark it was in the wolf his body.”

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»Wer bist du?« »Dem Teufel sein rußiger Bruder, und mein König auch.«  (Grimm 1857, v. 2:â•›85)

The other four examples are all at least ambiguous between this structure and one in which a “pertinence” dative marks a person affected by an action which happens to involve his/her possessions or body parts: so hörte er zwei Männer vorübergehen, davon sprach der eine »wie wirs nur anfangen, um dem reichen Pfarrer sein Geld und sein Silber zu holen?«  (“Thumbthick” – Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›208) übermorgen hol ich der Königin ihr Kind  (“Rumpelstilzchen” – Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›287) Und da kam ein so starker Wind, daß er dem Kürdchen sein Hütchen wegwehte über alle Land  (“Die Gänsemagd” – Grimm 1857, v. 2:â•›27) Da fielen dem Dreiäuglein seine zwei Augen zu und schliefen …10  (“One-Eye, Two-Eyes and Three-Eyes” – Grimm 1857, v. 2:â•›210)

It is indeed likely that it is from such “pertinence” dative constructions that the dialectal dative-possessive construction arose (Ebert 1986:â•›48, Behaghel 1923:â•›636–37). Returning to the example from “The Devil’s Sooty Brother,” opposite this one dative structure we have in the same tale three examples, including the title, where the possessor is expressed with a preposed genitive. Clearly this was the preferred pattern for the Grimms, as will be amply documented in this chapter. One might then ask why the Grimms allowed this one dative construction to

. “Who are you?” “The Devil his sooty brother, and also my king.” . Then he heard two men passing by, of which one said “How are we going to go about taking the rich parson his money and his silver?” OR “his money and his silver from the rich parson.” . The day after tomorrow I’m taking away the queen her child OR the child from the queen. . And then came such a strong wind, that it blew away little Kurd his hat across all the land OR the hat from little Kurd. 10. Then Three-eyes her two eyes fell shut and went to sleep … OR Then two of her eyes fell asleep on Three-eyes. This example is especially doubtful as a possessive, since, as her name indicates, the character has a third eye, which does not sleep. The strangeness of “Die zwei Augen von Dreiäuglein” or “Dreiäugleins zwei Augen” (other possible possessive constructions, both roughly “Three-eye’s two eyes”) would indicate that all of these competing constructions (as opposed to “zwei von D’s Augen” or “zwei der Augen D’s”, both meaning “two of Three-eye’s eyes”) require the complete set.



Chapter 4.╇ Possession

survive, since, as I shall shortly demonstrate, they normally altered those they came across in texts from other printed sources. I think the answer has to do with the relationship the soldier-protagonist of this tale has with the Devil. When the Devil takes him on for seven years in exchange for an ultimate reward, the soldier more or less does what the Devil asks of him (no personal hygiene, tending the fires under Hell’s kettles, etc.), but he cannot keep from violating one injunction, not to look in the kettles. In the same way, I think, the statement he makes in the quotation above, with its clearly plebian grammar, actually violates the Devil’s instructions as well: wenn du gefragt wirst, wer du wärst, sollst du sagen »des Teufels rußiger Bruder (Grimm 1857, v. 2:â•›85) und mein König auch.«11 

Interestingly enough, the one dative construction we are talking about here from “The Devil’s Sooty Brother” actually represents a change from the soldier’s statement in the first edition version of the story. There we find him, again at odds with the genitive constructions in the rest of the story, saying “des Teufels sein rußiger Bruder.”12 Behaghel (1923:â•›640) characterizes this as a mixed form combining the preposed genitive construction with the dative construction, and I would hazard the guess that it was originally a hypercorrect form used by people who natively used the dative form, but valiantly and unsuccessfully tried for the more prestigious genitive. Be that as it may, the Grimms edited it out in this tale. And indeed, such a construction is not to be found in the last edition of the tales except for two repetitions of a rhyme to be found in “Mr. Korbes:” »als hinaus nach des Herrn Korbes seinem Haus.«13 

(Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›223)

To sum up to this point, although it was (and is) widespread in the German dialects, the possessive dative construction, not to mention the mixed construction last mentioned, was one that the Grimms avoided. Indeed, when they found it in written sources for their tales, they eliminated it. The tale “The Goosegirl at the Well” gives us several fine examples of such changes. Thus der Alten ihr Häusel (‘the old lady her little house’) becomes (das) Haus der Alten (‘the house of the old lady’) (Rölleke 1998:â•›362–363), des Königs sein Schloß (‘of the king his castle’)

11. when you’re asked who you are, you should say “the Devil’s sooty brother, and also my king.” 12. of the Devil his sooty brother 13. On our way to Mr. Korbes his house.

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becomes das königliche Schloß (‘the royal castle’) (Rölleke 1998:â•›368–9), der Hexe ihr Töchterlein (‘the witch her daughter’) becomes simply das Mädchen (‘the girl’) (Rölleke 1998:â•›378).

4.2.2 von possessives In modern spoken German, surely the most common way of expressing possession is with the preposition von followed by the possessor noun in the dative. This construction was commonplace already in the Grimms’ age, certainly in the dialects, which had lost the genitive, but also in spoken colloquial German, perhaps under the influence of the similar French de construction (Ebert 1986:â•›91). An exhaustive survey of all instances of von in the tales (or van, for the Low German tales) reveals precious few examples of this kind of possessive construction. Of cases in which the possessor is a human being (or to stretch matters for fairy tales, an animal), I find precisely thirteen:

der Diener von einem reichen Kaufmann (“True John”) der Rock vom Juden (“The Good Bargain”) ein Ringlein von seinen Eltern (“The Seven Ravens”) Herz und Leber von dem Goldvogel (“The Two Brothers”) die Bienenkönigin von den Bienen, die der Dummling vor dem Feuer geschützt hatte (“The Queen Bee”) die Mutter vom Lämmlein (“The Wolf and the Fox”) Herz und Zunge von dem Knaben (“The Carnation”) das Herz vom Lamm (3 times) (“Brother Jolly) das Herz von dem Lamm (“Brother Jolly”) dat Dohr van den Künigssuhn (“The Two Kings’ Children”) die Amme von dem Schwesterchen (“The Little Lamb and the Little Fish”)14

14. In order, the servant of a rich merchant the coat of the Jew a little ring of his parents heart and liver of the golden bird the queen bee of the bees that Dummling had protected from the fire the mother of Little Lamb heart and tongue of the boy the heart of the lamb the heart of the lamb the door of the prince the nurse of the little sister



Chapter 4.╇ Possession

Six of these are surely not cases of true possession, namely those describing body parts that are being eaten by tale characters. Indeed, something of the ablative (‘from’) connotation of von can still be discerned in these phrases. Certainly the “possessor” (in any case normally dead) is no longer in possession of these body parts when they are eaten by someone else. This impression is only reinforced when one finds in two of these tales the otherwise extremely anomalous phrase von ihm instead of a presumably expected possessive pronoun (sein- ‘his’):

Herz und Leber von ihm (“The Two Brothers”) Herz und Zunge von ihm (“The Carnation”)15

Note also in “Brother Jolly” the parallel davon: »du kannst das ganze Lamm allein essen, ich will nur das Herz davon, das gib (Grimm 1897, v. 1:â•›395) mir.«16

A perusal of all those examples of Lunge, Leber and Herz in the tales whose possessors are named, and which are perceived as edible, or at least separable from those possessors, yields four genitive constructions. Two of them, from “Snow White,” are repetitions of Sneewittchens Lunge und Leber (‘Snow White’s lungs and liver’), showing the so-called “Saxon genitive” for personal names which survives even today in the colloquial. The other two have different reasons for avoiding von. From “The Three Field Surgeons” we find the following: die Hand, das Herz und die Augen der drei Feldscherer17 (Grimm 1857, v. 2:â•›157)

The problem here is that the hand, heart and eyes come from three different individuals. The von construction would, I think, have each individual missing all three. The final genitive construction is much more similar in meaning to the von phrases listed above: … wie er den Trank geschluckt hatte, brach er das Herz des Vogels aus dem Leibe.18  (“The Cabbage Donkey” – Grimm 1857, v. 2:â•›174 )

There are two reasons the von construction might have been avoided here, I think. One would be the most inelegant sequence von dem Vogel aus dem Leibe (‘from 15. heart and liver of him heart and tongue of him 16. “you can eat the whole lamb by yourself, I only want the heart of it, give me that.” 17. the hand, the heart and the eyes of the three army surgeons 18. After he had drunk the potion, he vomited the heart of the bird from his body.

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the bird out of the body’), which, even knowing the context, would be confusing. Secondly, this bird’s heart has already been long eaten at this point in the story, so there can be no possible ‘from’ visualization of this heart, except as part of the hero’s vomiting. Be that as it may, if we exclude the apparently systematic edible-body-part von constructions listed above, we are left with seven examples of possessive von in the tales. These can certainly be whittled down further. In “The Queen Bee,” the relative clause following Bienen precludes a preposed genitive, and makes a postposed one extremely difficult. Note the awkwardness or incomprehensibility of the following:

der Bienen Bienenkönigin, die der Dummling vor dem Feuer geschützt hatte19 (leads to wrong interpretation) die Bienenkönigin der Bienen, die der Dummling vor dem Feuer geschützt hatte20 (possible, but rather opaque)

This of course leaves six undisputed examples of a von-possessive in all of the fairy tales (already translated above):

der Diener von einem reichen Kaufmann der Rock vom Juden ein Ringlein von seinen Eltern die Mutter vom Lämmlein dat Dohr van den Künigssuhn die Amme von dem Schwesterchen

For what was already a widespread construction in the Grimms’ day, this is an extremely small number. And for three of these examples, I can find very close parallels with a genitive of the same noun:

eines Kaufmanns Garten (“The Sparrow and His Four Children”) das Verbot seiner Eltern (“Frau Trude”) des Künigssuhns Stobe (“The Two Kings’ Children”)21

As with the dative construction discussed in 4.2.1, here the Grimms have rejected a means of signifying possession quite common in their day. But whereas the 19. Of the bees the queen bee that Dummling had protected from the fire 20. The queen bee of the bees, that Dummling had protected from the fire 21. a merchant’s garden the prohibition of his parents the prince’s room



Chapter 4.╇ Possession

dative construction was seen simply as bad German, and to be avoided for that reason, the von construction seems to have been rejected mainly because an older, and arguably more distinctively Germanic, construction was available which better suited the supposed venerable age (and German nature) of the tales.

4.2.3 Genitive possessives 4.2.3.1 Preposed and postposed genitives This brings us, then, to that construction the Grimms obviously preferred for possessed objects in the fairy tales,22 to wit a noun accompanied by a possessor in the genitive. I use the word “accompanied” advisedly, since the possessors in question may either precede or follow the possessed noun. A historical note here: The trend in German has been to move from a situation in which most genitives of common nouns were preposed to one in which most such genitives (to the extent to which they still exist!) are postposed (cf. Behagel 1928, Carr 1933, Ebert 1986, Ebert 1988). This situation was already quite advanced in the Grimms’ time, and their use of preposed genitives may certainly be seen as an archaism. I will illustrate both preposed and postposed genitives below using what I believe is the person-noun in the tales which has far and away the most tokens (over 800), namely König.23 There are a total of 70 tokens where the genitive Königs accompanies another noun, and the choice of preceding or following position is virtually a tie. 37 examples of Königs precede their noun, while 33 follow. I give first three examples of preceding genitives: seht, nun verbrennt er gar des Königs Brauthemd.24  (“True John” – Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›61) wir gehen zur Hochzeit auf des Königs Schloß.25  (“Cinderella” – Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›138) die hatten vor, des Königs Schatz zu bestehlen.26  (“Thumbling’s Travels” – Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›232 )

22. This is meant in a general sense, since people can “possess” things like rage or daughters. 23. By contrast, Mann has a little over 510, Frau about 450, Kind around 400, Vater about 390, Mädchen about 320, Mutter about 260, Königstochter less than 200, Königin about 160, Königssohn about 150. See Chapter 7 for a discussion of most of these. 24. Look, now he’s even burning the king’s wedding shirt. 25. We’re going to a festival at the king’s castle. 26. They intended to steal the king’s treasure.

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Now of following genitives: Als sie ein paar Jahre miteinander vergnügt gelebt hatten, fing die Mutter des Königs, die eine böse Frau war, an, die junge Königin zu verleumden …27  (“The Twelve Brothers” – Grimm 1857, v.1:â•›76) Bald hernach verfiel die Tochter des Königs in eine schwere Krankheit.28  (“Godfather Death” – Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›229) Nachricht kam, die Braut des Königs wäre im Anzug.29  (“The Twelve Hunters” – Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›361)

At first blush, it may seem that the two different positions correlate with two different kinds of “possessed” items. The three preposed genitives precede physical objects, i.e. a shirt, a castle and a treasure, while the three postposed genitives follow nouns designating persons bearing some kind of relationship to the “possessor.” Pursuing this idea, I took two physical objects often belonging to a king in the tales (a Schloss ‘castle’ and a Hof ‘court’), and two persons normally bearing a relationship to a king (a Tochter ‘daughter’ and a Sohn ‘son’), and searched out all collocations of the two. The numbers are not impressive, but I did find that three of four Schlösser belonging to kings follow des Königs, as do three of four Höfe; eight of eleven daughters precede des Königs, and four of six sons do. An exception to each tendency can be found below: Nahe bei dem Schlosse des Königs lag ein großer dunkler Wald …30  (“The Frog King” – Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›29) Fragte er, ob sie des Königs Tochter wäre.31  (“The Trained Hunter” – Grimm 1857, v. 2:â•›134)

One tale, “The Two Brothers,” by far outstrips all of the others in the collection with a full eight preposed genitives. The next closest is “The Trained Hunter” with four. Neither of them have postposed genitives at all, and between the two of them they have all three exceptional instances of Tochter with preceding Königs. Notable about “Die zwei Brüder” is the range of physical objects possessed by the (preposed) king: a table, a roast, wine, a court. I would like to have an explanation

27. After they had lived with one another contentedly for a couple of years, the mother of the king, who was a wicked woman, began to slander the young queen. 28. Soon after this the daughter of the king fell into a heavy sickness. 29. The news came that the bride of the king was approaching. 30. Near to the castle of the king lay a great dark forest… 31. He asked if she were the king’s daughter.



Chapter 4.╇ Possession

for the exceptionality of these two tales, even if the numbers are small. Unfortunately, I have none. Neither their provenience nor their content single them out from other tales in the collection. Beyond what I have just presented, it is difficult to make more generalizations. I list below examples containing more abstract “objects” which may either follow or precede Königs: ich bin bereit, in des Königs Dienste zu treten32  (“The Brave Little Tailor” – Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›132) Weil es aber so schön war, so ward des Königs Herz gerührt33  (“The Six Swans” – Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›255) Nach Verlauf der drei Tage ging der Bauer, dem Befehl des Königs gemäß, vor (“The Good Bargain” – Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›66) den König.34  wenn der Zorn des Königs verraucht wäre, so käme er um seine Belohnung …35  (“The Good Bargain” – Grimm 157, v. 1:â•›67)

4.2.3.2 Possessors ranked I thought it might be useful to take the other words of some frequency listed in Note 23 and see to what extent they were found as genitive modifiers at all, and whether they had distributions of genitive modifiers similar to des Königs. What I found was the following: des Mannes ‘of the man’ – There are precisely four examples of des Mannes preceding a noun in all of the tales. All four instances precede the word Tochter ‘daughter,’ and all occur in one tale, “The Three Little Men in the Woods.” We find five examples of des Mannes following a noun, including one following Tochter in “The Three Little Men in the Woods.” der Frau ‘of the woman’ – Again there are four examples of Frau preceding the noun. Interestingly, three of them come before the word Tochter in the selfsame tale “The Three Little Men in the Woods,” and all in one paragraph where they closely parallel instances of des Mannes Tochter. The other example of preposed Frau, from “Frau Holle,“ namely der Frau Holle Haus ‘Frau Holle’s house,’ does not really count here, since Frau Holle is a name. Otherwise I find two examples of postposed Frau. des Kindes ‘of the child’ – 1 example, postposed. 32. I am ready to enter the king’s service. 33. But because she was so beautiful, the King’s heart was moved. 34. After the three days had passed, the peasant, following the command of the king, went before the king. 35. If the fury of the king had subsided, he would lose his reward …

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des Vaters ‘of the father’ – Here we find a lot of genitives, in fact 33 in all. 24 are preposed, 9 postposed. des Mädchens ‘of the girl’ – Only seven examples, all postposed. der Mutter ‘of the mother’ – 9 examples, 6 preposed. der Köningstochter ‘of the princess’ – Two preposed, again in the tale “The Two Brothers” (which it may be remembered has by far the largest number of preposed des Königs, with no postposed ones). Otherwise 12 postposed examples of der Königstochter throughout the tales (not in “The Two Brothers!”). der Königin ‘of the queen’ – Three preposed, four postposed. des Königssohns ‘of the prince’ – Five examples, all postposed. It should be noted that the number of genitive modifiers found for each word is not really commensurate with the number of tokens of that word in the overall tales. The biggest contrast is surely between Vater and Kind; 9.2% of all Vater tokens are genitive “possessors,” close to 0% of all Kind tokens are. The closest word to Vater is König, with 8.75%. Königstochter does not appear nearly as often as any of the three preceding nouns, but when it does, with 7% “possessors” it patterns more like Vater and König than like Kind. Königin and Königssohn, with fewer overall tokens than Königstochter, also display a dropoff in “possessors,” with 4.5% and 3.5% respectively. Mutter can also be placed at this middle level with 3.5% “possessors.” Mann, Frau, and Mädchen, finally, while of relatively high frequency, with their 2%, 1.5% and 2% respectively of “possessors” are more like Kind. There are several things one can say about these data. In the first place, it shouldn’t be surprising that Vater and König pattern similarly in the tales. Most of the fathers referred to here are in fact kings, and to tell the truth, most of the kings are fathers. The reason that they have so many genitive tokens is that they form the environment in which all the other characters play out their roles. They are the parents of the sons and daughters who tend to be the main characters (19 out of 70 king “possessors”), though a few are main characters themselves. They own the locales for the action of the tales, or at least those locales where the tales begin or end (11 out of 70 king “possessors” and 16 out of 33 father “possessors” have houses, kingdoms, castles, courts, forests etc.). They die the deaths that bring about changes in the fortunes of (especially) heroes (3 kings, 3 fathers). They have servants, advisors, hunters and the like who mostly, though not always, serve as extras (16 kings). Objects or attitudes associated with kings and fathers (e.g. a bridal shirt in “True John,” anger in several tales) help drive the action. Percentage-wise (though by no means in absolute numbers), Königstöchter may have almost as many genitives as Könige or Väter, attesting to the centrality of princesses in many of the tales, but the nature of the things “possessed” differs remarkably. Three of the 14 princess “possessors” have bedrooms, two are



Chapter 4.╇ Possession

associated with a picture of themselves and/or physical beauty, four have physical objects (a ball, a chair, pearls, an apple), two have living beings (a father, a horse), and one has a name. The other two genitives are more abstract and don’t really indicate possession (‘the side of the princess’ and ‘in the face of the princess’). Königinnen and Königssöhne, in any case showing fewer genitives both absolutely and relatively, are similary lacking in stage-setting possessions or conditions. The queens have looks (twice), a window, a ring, body-parts and worry. The princes have a marriage, arms (twice), a hat and a room. Relative to Vater, Mutter is obviously a little lacking in “possessors.” But differently from Königin and Königssohn, the possessed items do play an important role in their stories, either situating them or driving the plot. A full four of them refer to the mother’s grave that plays so important a role in Cinderella’s redemption. Three refer to the mother’s house as an important reference point for the protagonist, one to the mother’s village, and one to her bed. It should probably come as no surprise that Mann, Frau and Mädchen, along with Kind, form the fewest genitive modifiers in this group of person-nouns. One uses such modifiers to pinpoint for the reader or listener the nature and significance of the thing that it modifies. But as I have noted above, in a fairy tale, the persons around whom all the other things and people (including especially protagonists) frequently rotate, and to which they need to be related, are kings and fathers, and to a lesser extent princesses and mothers, who are normally identified near the beginning, and are usually uniquely identified with that word for any given tale. These words are thus much likelier to be used for the explicit identification of an object, or another person, than more generic words for children and adults.

4.2.4 Belonging in the KHM In the ways that they indicate possession grammatically in the KHM, the Grimms clearly had a number of desiderata in mind. In 4.2.1 I suggest that they rejected a colloquial dative construction already widespread in their day (and threatening even now) because it was (then as now) seen as bad German. In this way the Grimms showed themselves to be at least literary participants in the ongoing standardization of the German language. In 4.2.2 I show that they also avoided a perfectly good, and widespread, periphrastic von-construction, except perhaps in the characterization of edible body parts, in favor of an older more Germanic construction with the possessor in the genitive case (4.2.3). Though they had no very clear system for the use of postposed versus preposed genitives in such constructions, at least in the case of Vater and König the more archaic preposed genitive predominates (24 vs. 9 postposed for Vater, 37 vs. 33 postposed for König). These

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are those nouns found in the last section to have the most genitive “possessors” overall and as a percentage of their respective noun tokens, which in turn follows from their centrality to the setting of the tales and the status of the protagonists. The ranking of nouns in the last section based on their percentage of genitive “possessors” may raise questions touching less on style than on class and gender. Kings are characterized as “possessing” a lot more than queens, and fathers a lot more than mothers. Plain old girls, men, women and children “possess” less than royalty. Yet one can hardly take this as evidence for a hidden classism or sexism on the Grimms’ part (which isn’t to say that these didn’t exist – see Chapters 7 through 11). Such differences in relative power and wealth existed in the Grimms’ day, and they had no reason to portray “once upon a time” as being different in those respects.

chapter 5

Forms of address In this chapter, I begin exploring the Grimms’ use of pronouns to achieve their storytelling aims. Here I discuss the forms of address to be found in the tales, that is, the German pronouns that they use as equivalent to English ‘you,’ and what effects the Grimms achieve with them. The central questions at issue here are: To what extent is the Grimms’ writing practice in the fairy tales informed by their understanding of the history of forms of address in German? Is there in fact a historical period to which the Grimms would like to have the tales ascribed, and does the pronominal system reflect it? What are the motivations behind their choices and their rejections?

5.1 Historical outline In his Deutsche Grammatik, written between 1819 and 1837, and thus in the middle of the Grimm brothers’ fairy-tale activity, Jacob Grimm gives an overview of the curious history of pronouns of address to single individuals in the development of the German language. At issue here are the nominative forms du (‘thou’), ihr (‘you’ plural), er (‘he’), sie (‘she’) and sie (‘they’), plus the other case forms associated with them. As Grimm tells the story, developments in pre-German and German pronouns of address basically went through four stages up to his day (ignoring possible capitalizations). At each point in time, all of the forms listed for that stage were in use: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

du alone du and ihr du, ihr, er (‘he’), sie (‘she’) du, ihr, er (‘he’), sie (‘she’), sie (‘they’) If one were to refer to the Standard German of today, we would have a fifth step: du, sie (‘they’)

. Here I am summarizing and quoting from the “neuer vermehrter Abdruck” of volume 4 (Syntax) edited by Gustav Roethe and Edward Schroeder in 1898. . I will translate this pronoun into English as ‘you,’ in accord with the historical derivation of the latter from a 2nd person plural as well.

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Of the first system, Grimm notes that it was the only one known to a Germanic as yet uninfluenced by Roman or Byzantine scriptorial style, and is even the form found in Old High German translations of the scriptures. The second stage was preceded by a tendency for royal rulers, already in Roman times, but later with German kings and emperors, to refer to themselves with the first person plural ‘we,’ a tendency then found in the writings of lesser princes of both the church and the state. This was followed in certain social groups (Grimm says “Höflinge und gelehrt Gebildete”), as early as the 9th century, by the use of a second person plural when speaking to people of superior or equally high status. Reinforced by the influence of Romance models, such usage then became absolutely standard for the secular and knightly world to be found in the poetry of the High Middle Ages of the late 12th and early 13th century. Grimm gives the following main rules for the distribution of ihr and du as documented in Middle High German: 1. Mutual du is used by close relatives such as siblings, cousins, nephews and uncles, etc. Kings may be an exception to this, and take ihr even from close relatives. 2. Parents say du to the children, the children say ihr to the father, the son says ihr to the mother, and the daughter usually says du to the mother (apparently a closer relationship). 3. Married couples usually say ihr to each other. 4. Lovers or potential lovers say ihr, but this can easily slip into du. 5. People of lesser social standing address betters as ihr, and receive du. 6. Friends and comrades use du with each other. 7. Women, clerics and strangers are addressed with ihr. Women and clerics are more likely than men and secular types to respond to their lessers with reciprocal polite ihr. 8. Personified abstracts, such as Love, are addressed as ihr by poets. They respond with du. 9. Common folk do not use any ihr among themselves, just du. 10. Passionate speech can break the rules in either direction, indicating either loss of intimacy or loss of respect. This two-pronoun system continued until the beginning of the 17th century, according to Grimm. The rules for their use clearly changed, however. Ihr increasingly became a matter of sheer politeness (unless it represented a break from a previously-established du), and its usage dropped into the middle and even

. courtiers and learned scholars.



Chapter 5.╇ Forms of address

Â� peasant classes. This weakening of the status of ihr was accompanied by the increasing practice, in the 15th and 16th century, of referring to very high worthies with third person nouns such as eure majestät (‘your majesty’) and eure strenge (‘your sternness’), which initially may take third person verb agreement, but then be followed up by ihr plus second plural agreement. Grimm notes that rhetoricians of the 16th century give even more detailed instructions for how to use ihr and du. One such has the emperor using du with all clerics including the Pope, while clerics use ihr with each other in their writings, and princes and counts of equal standing use mutual ihr as well. Lower princes use ihr with knights, while higher princes use du with them. The (lesser) nobility use du with each other, but ihr with those of lower birth. No lowborn man may use du with members of the nobility. Children use ihr with their parents, except for children of the nobility, who use du. Parents use du with their children, unless they achieve a higher rank. It was at the beginning of the 17th century that a new system began to make itself felt. The words herr (‘lord’) and frau (‘lady’) had, following a French model, begun to lose their implication of true superiority in the addressee, and had become simple indices of politeness. Additionally, as with the higher titles discussed above, these words began to be used with 3rd person agreement in forms of 2nd person address. Going further, the nouns themselves were frequently dropped, leaving the bare pronouns er and sie, with third person singular agreement. Although ihr remained as a possible form of address, it slipped to an intermediate level of intimacy (or disregard) between the new forms and du. Towards the end of the 17th century, a new intensification of the politeness wars took place with the appearance of sie plural, a pronoun which, as Grimm points out with some asperity, never had a noun for which it stood: es scheint vielmehr baare versündigung wider sinn und geschmack, bei der man höchstens gewann, daß nun beide, im er und sie getrennten, geschlechter wieder (Grimm 1898:â•›368) auf gleichen fuß [wie im sg. du] kamen.

For about a century (Grimm mentions 1780 as an approximate end-point), er and sie singular, as well as ihr, and of course du, all also remained possible. By the time of Grimm’s grammar, however, about 50 years later, the handwriting was on the wall: er/sie singular had again dropped below ihr on the politeness scale (370), but both of them were peripheral to the emerging system. Grimm characterizes that overall system as follows: . It seems rather an unvarnished sin against sense and taste, with which at most one succeeded in bringing the two sexes, which had been divided into er and sie, back together as in the singular du.

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1. Du is used by parents to children, by married couples, siblings, friends and comrades, by masters with trusted servants. Children also mainly use du with their parents, though sie plural is also found (Grimm characterizes this as older usage). 2. In all other cases sie plural is the most common form of address, even with lessers. 3. Only the lowest receive er/sie singular. Ihr appears only exceptionally, among equals. 4. As in the earlier system, passion can lead to deviation from the normal rules. 5. In some areas (Grimm mentions Tirol), only du is found, in Austria and Bavaria old dual forms are used in politeness. 6. In serious poetry, sie plural is not allowed, but ihr and even er/sie singular are. Notably, Grimm does not appear to like this. He writes: ich leugne nicht, daß aus ihrer wechselnden färbung die rede, der comische ausdruck nebenvortheile ziehen kann; aber die unnatur des ganzen und der schade, den unsere grammatische construction überhaupt darunter leidet, sind mit (Grimm 1898:â•›370–1) nichts zu beschönigen. 

As one can see from this section, Jacob Grimm had not only a clear understanding of historical developments in the German language in the area of pronominal address, he also had rather strong ideas about their naturalness, aesthetic quality and desirability. In the next section we will see how this knowledge and these sensitivities are reflected in the fairy tales he and his brother Wilhelm assembled and edited.

5.2

Usage in the KHM

It is already perhaps a telling fact that the following sections concerning the Grimms’ practice in their fairy tales essentially reverse the order of pronominal developments outlined above for the history of German. That is, the pronoun I discuss first, sie plural, is the latest accretion to the stock of formal pronouns of address, while er and sie singular, which I discuss next, were added at a preceding stage. It should be emphasized that this is not an arbitrary decision on my part to simply reverse the historical order. As will become apparent below, the frequency of forms of address to be found in the tales reflects their relative age in the language, with older forms, and the systems to which they belong, being preferred over newer ones. . I will not deny that from their changing coloration speech and comic expression can draw some side advantages; but the unnaturalness of the whole thing, and the damage that our grammatical construction suffers from (these usages) cannot be glossed over at all.



Chapter 5.╇ Forms of address

5.2.1 sie plural In the first place, as the earlier quotation on the development of sie plural might imply, the Grimms are against it, despite its currency in their day, and they eschew it in their tales. Only three examples can be found in all of the KHM. Two of them are in the Low German tale “Ferenand Faithful and Ferenand Unfaithful,” at the point where Ferenand Unfaithful speaks to the king in Standard German (here and later below, I translate these examples into a rather awkward English they): »Sie haben ja den Vorreiter, den schicken Sie hin, der muß sie herbeischaffen, und wenn er es nicht tut, so muß ihm der Kopf vor die Füße gelegt werden.«  (Grimm 1857, v. 2:â•›190)

This tale has other rare characteristics, including the fact that it contains two of the four examples in the tales of gi (the Low German plural of du), also used as a politeness form. The Grimms ascribe the curious mixture of Low and Standard German in this tale to Paderbornian storytelling practice. In any case, it can hardly be said to offer forms of address typical of the tales. The only other example of polite sie plural I could find in the tales was in a verse in the animal tale “Mrs. Fox’s Wedding:” »Frau Füchsin, sind Sie da?« »Ach ja, mein Kätzchen, ja.« »Es ist ein Freier draus.« »Mein Kind, wie sieht er aus?… « 

(Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›213)

Curiously enough, even though this is one of only three sie plural examples I could find in the tales, it would appear to be ranked above ihr, to judge from the lady fox’s later command to her servant cat: »nun macht mir Tor und Türe auf, und kehrt den alten Herrn Fuchs hinaus.«10 

(Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›213)

. They have the outrider, after all, they should send him, he has to get her, and if he doesn’t, his head should be laid at his feet. . To judge from the very few examples here, Sie (and the use of Standard German) addressed to a king is higher than gi addressed to a stranger in Low German. . The cat is the maidservant of the lady fox. . Lady vixen, are they there? – Oh, yes, my kitty, yes. – There’s a suitor outside. – My child, what does he look like? 10. Now open (you) the gate and doors, – and turn (you) out old Mr. Fox.

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5.2.2 er and sie singular Aside from the paltry examples above, we must basically judge sie plural to be absent from the tales. The same cannot be said for er and sie singular, however. To begin with, in a second version of the last-mentioned tale, the cat addresses the lady fox as follows: »Frau Füchsin, ist sie drinnen? Will sie haben einen andern Mann, so soll sie nur herunter gan.«11 

(Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›214)

Not only this, in both versions of the tale the suitor and the cat address each other with er and sie as well. Other places where we can find er and sie singular used in address include “The Brave Little Tailor,” when the hero addresses a jam seller at the beginning of his tale: »hier herauf, liebe Frau, hier wird sie ihre Ware los.«12 

(Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›127)

and “The Young Giant:” »sieht er wohl, Vater, was sein Sohn für ein Mann geworden ist.«13  (Grimm 1857, v. 2:â•›32)

or “Rapunzel,” when the eponymous heroine accidentally reveals her secret lover to the sorceress: »sag sie mir doch, Frau Gotel, wie kommt es nur, sie wird mir viel schwerer heraufzuziehen als der junge Königssohn, der ist in einem Augenblick bei mir.«14  (Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›90)

Several of these tales give an indication of where these pronouns fall on the politeness scale with respect to ihr and du. The brave little tailor who addresses a saleslady with the polite sie singular is later addressed by his awed knights as ihr: »Seid Ihr denn nicht verwundet?« fragten die Reiter.15 

(Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›134)

11. Lady vixen, is she in there? – If she wants to have another husband, – she should come down here. 12. Up here, dear lady, here she can sell her wares. 13. See (he), father, what kind of man his son has become. 14. Tell she me, Frau Gothel, how it is that she is becoming much harder to pull up than the young prince? He is with me instantly. 15. “Are you not wounded?” asked the knights.



Chapter 5.╇ Forms of address

but he remains a du to a scheming and arrogant king: »Ehe du meine Tochter und das halbe Reich erhältst,« sprach er zu ihm, »mußt du (Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›134) noch eine Heldentat vollbringen…«16 

And while Rapunzel’s form of address to the enchantress is more that of a daughter to her mother, Rapunzel’s father is clearly in awe of the same enchantress: »… meine Frau hat Eure Rapunzeln aus dem Fenster erblickt, und empfindet ein so großes Gelüsten, daß sie sterben würde, wenn sie nicht davon zu essen bekäme.«17  (Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›88)

To really give a picture of who addresses whom with what pronoun in this threechoice system, I use as a point of departure the tale “The Two Brothers.” This is not an arbitrary decision. Most importantly, with 33 pages it is the longest of the tales. Additionally, it has direct speech involving all kinds of people and animals, and thus potentially a plethora of pronouns of address. Finally, it is one of the best sources for 3rd person singular address in all of the tales. By my count, there are in this tale 112 pronouns used to address single individuals (I thus exclude ihr addressed to more than one individual), or verb-forms indicating such pronouns. By far the majority of them, 90, are forms of du. Nine are forms of ihr, and 13 of er singular. These can be classified according to addressor and addressee as follows: 1. When humans speak to animals (21), animals to humans (14), or animals to animals (8), the form used is invariably du: der Jäger sprach zu dem Löwen »du sollst wachen, damit uns niemand im Schlaf (hunter to lion – Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›320) überfällt«18  »lieber Jäger, laß mich leben, ich will dir auch zwei Junge geben.«19  (animals to hunter – Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›315, 316) »lege dich neben mich, ich muß ein wenig schlafen, und wenn was kommt, so (animals to each other – Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›320) wecke mich auf.«20

16. “Before thou receivest my daughter and half the kingdom,” he said to him, “thou must perform another heroic deed …” 17. my wife saw your rampions out of the window, and feels such a great craving that she would die, if she couldn’t eat some. 18. The hunter said to the lion “thou shalt stay awake, so that nobody attacks us in our sleep” 19. dear hunter, let (thou) me live, and I will give thee two young ones. 20. Lie (thou) down next to me, I have to sleep a bit, and if something happens, wake (thou) me up.

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It would appear that, when animals are involved, there is no obvious statusdifferential that would call up pronouns of politeness, except when, as in “Mrs. Fox’s Wedding,” the animals are really thinly-veiled humans.

2. When heroes speak to the witch (14), or the witch to heroes (16), du is used: S prach er »steig herab und wärme dich, wenn dich friert.« Sie aber sagte »nein, deine Tiere beißen mich.«21  (hero and witch to each other – Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›331)



At least when witches are bad, the heroes do not show them any respect, and witches themselves normally have no respect for anybody. A counterexample with a good witch is that found in “The Goosegirl at the Well,” where both the count and the witch say ihr to each other at the beginning of the story (though see further below for complications): »Wollt Ihr mir helfen?« sprach sie, als er bei ihr stehen blieb, … Der junge Mann empfand Mitleiden mit der Alten, »zwar ist mein Vater kein Bauer,« antwortete er, »sondern ein reicher Graf, aber damit Ihr seht, daß die Bauern nicht allein tragen können, so will ich Euer Bündel aufnehmen.«22 (Grimm 1857, v. 2:â•›340)

3. A husband uses du to his wife (2), and brothers do so with each other (8):  r rief seine Frau und sprach »brat mir den Goldvogel und sorge, daß nichts E davon wegkommt; ich habe Lust, ihn ganz allein zu essen.«23  (husband to wife – Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›312–13)  arauf zogen sie weiter, und der jüngste sprach »du siehst aus wie ich, hast köD nigliche Kleider an wie ich, und die Tiere folgen dir nach wie mir: wir wollen zu den entgegengesetzten Toren eingehen und von zwei Seiten zugleich beim alten (brother to brother – Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›334) König anlangen.«24



Thus close family members on the same generational level say du.

21. He said “climb (thou) down and warm thyself, if thou freezest.” She however said “No, thy animals will bite me.” 22. “Will you help me?” she said when he remained next to her, … The young man felt sympathy with the old one, “to be sure my father is not a peasant,” he answered, “but a rich count, but in order that you see, that not only peasants can carry, I will take up your bundle.” 23. He called his wife and said “fry (thou) up the golden bird for me, and take (thou) care that nothing is missing from it; I’d like to eat it all myself.” 24. After that they went further, and the youngest said “thou lookest like me, (thou) hast royal clothes on like me, and the animals follow after thee like me: let’s go in the opposing gates and arrive at the old king from two sides at the same time.”



Chapter 5.╇ Forms of address

4. A princess uses du to the hero who rescues her (2): Sie freute sich und sprach »nun wirst du mein liebster Gemahl werden, denn mein Vater hat mich demjenigen versprochen, der den Drachen tötet.«25  (princess to hero – Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›319)



Thus here future spouses say du.

5. A master hunter uses du with his young pupils (1), and the king with his daughter (2):  er Jäger sah über sich und sah eine Kette von Schneegänsen in der Gestalt eines D Dreiecks fliegen, da sagte er zu dem einen »nun schieß von jeder Ecke eine herab.«26  (hunter to pupil – Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›314)  un sprach der König an der königlichen Tafel zu seiner Tochter »was haben N die wilden Tiere alle gewollt, die zu dir gekommen und in mein Schloß ein und ausgegangen sind?«27  (king to daughter – Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›327)



These are unequal-status relationships. The hunter-pupils address their master with ihr (1), as does the princess her father (8): » wir rühren die Speise nicht an und nehmen keinen Bissen, bevor Ihr uns eine (pupils to master hunter – Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›315) Bitte gewährt habt.«28   a antwortete sie »ich darfs nicht sagen, aber schickt hin und laßt den Herrn D dieser Tiere holen, so werdet Ihr wohl tun.«29  (daughter to king – Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›327)

6. The villainous marshal uses du with the princess (2):  aber der Marschall sprach »du bist in meinen Händen, du sollst sagen, daß ich … es gewesen bin, der den Drachen getötet hat.«30  (villain to princess – Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›320–21)

25. She was happy and said “now thou wilt become my dearest spouse, for my father has promised me to the one who kills the dragon.” 26. The hunter looked up and saw a chain of snow-geese flying in the form of a triangle, and he said to the one “now shoot (thou) one down from each corner.” 27. Then the king said at the royal table to his daughter “what did all the wild animals want who came to thee and went in and out of my castle?” 28. We will not touch the food nor take any bit, before you have granted us a wish. 29. Then she answered “I may not say it, but send (you) and have the master of these animals summoned, and you will do well.” 30. but the marshal said “thou art in my hands, thou shouldst say that it was I who killed the dragon.”

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There is certainly an unequal power relationship here, and an unwanted familiarity, but the princess never addresses the villain directly. An indication of the pronoun she might have used may come from “The Robber Bridegroom,” where the villainous bridegroom and his intended bride speak to each other in the following passage:  inmal sprach er zu ihr »du bist meine Braut und besuchst mich nicht einmal.« E Das Mädchen antwortete »ich weiß nicht, wo Euer Haus ist.«31  (villain and girl to each other – Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›219)



This then brings us to the 13 examples of er singular to be found in this tale. All of them are used by the hero with the innkeeper he is staying with:  en Wirt vergaß er auch nicht, und ließ ihn kommen und sprach zu ihm »sieht D er, Herr Wirt, die Königstochter habe ich geheiratet, und sein Haus und Hof sind mein.« Sprach der Wirt »ja, das wäre nach dem Rechten.« Der junge König aber sagte »es soll nach Gnaden gehen: Haus und Hof soll er behalten, und die tausend Goldstücke schenke ich ihm noch dazu.«32  (hero to innkeeper – Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›329–30)

Clearly, when one looks at examples of er and sie singular, one must conclude that these pronouns are indeed politer than du. However, when they are used, they are addressed to personages of lower standing than ihr persons, and are indeed generally used by persons of lower standing (thereby putting them in the pronoun-stage Grimm would ascribe to the late 18th century, only without the sie plural being available). Thus in the examples cited or mentioned above, we find er or sie used to address a bourgeois lady fox, a cat servant, a fox suitor, a jam seller, a farmer, a sorceress-mother and an innkeeper, by a cat servant, a fox suitor, a tailor, the farmer’s (giant) son, the quasi-daughter Rapunzel and a hunter (albeit one who has turned into a king). Er and sie singular certainly have a place in the Grimms’ fairy tales, but it seems clear from their relatively limited usage that they are not part of their preferred system. They are both a bit too late historically, and a bit too limited sociologically, to fill the Grimms’ apparent desire for a language accommodating the timeless but certainly pre-modern aura of the KHM.

31. Once he said to her “thou art my bride and (thou) dost not even visit me.” The girl answered “I don’t know where your house is.” 32. He also didn’ t forget the innkeeper, and he had him come and said to him “see he, Mr. Innkeeper, I have married the princess, and his house and possessions are mine.” The innkeeper said “yes, that would be just.” The young king however said “it will happen according to mercy: he shall keep house and possessions, and I also grant him the thousand gold peces in addition.”



Chapter 5.╇ Forms of address

5.2.3 The du/ihr system This brings us, then, to the pronominal address system overwhelmingly preferred by the Grimms, namely the two-way one in which du is opposed to ihr. That it is more than adequate to situations parallel to those given above using er and sie singular can be documented in the quotations below. Thus In “Gossip Wolf and the Fox” (compare with the situation in “Mrs. Fox’s Wedding”), the fox thanks the mother wolf for asking him to stand as a godfather: »liebwerte Frau Gevatterin, ich danke Euch für die Ehre, die Ihr mir erzeigt, ich will mich aber auch so halten, daß Ihr Eure Freude daran haben sollt.«33  (Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›379)

And when the evil stepmother is disguised as a vendor in “Snow White” (compare with the vendor scene in “The Brave Little Tailor”), the latter asks her: »guten Tag, liebe Frau, was habt Ihr zu verkaufen?«34 

(Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›273)

A farmer’s son in “The Golden Goose” (compare with “The Young Giant”) requests: »Vater, laß mich einmal hinausgehen und Holz hauen.«35  (Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›347)

And in “ Table-Be-Set, Gold-Donkey, and Cudgel-out-of-the-Sack,” our hero addresses the innkeeper as follows (compare with “The Two Brothers”): … der junge Geselle aber sprach »gebt Euch keine Mühe, meinen Grauschimmel führe ich selbst in den Stall und binde ihn auch selbst an, denn ich muß wissen, (Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›200–1) wo er steht.«36 

The great majority of tales from the KHM in fact get by with a two-way du/ihr distinction, placing them in a system that, according to Jacob Grimm, ran from the 9th to the 16th century. But although the pronouns in the system remained the same for that period, criteria for their use changed. Where earlier the lower classes used only du with each other, they increasingly used ihr in politeness. And while Middle High German shows mainly ihr usage between nobility and to a lesser extent lovers (according to Grimm, but these were also from the nobility),

33. dear lady godmother, I thank you for the honor that you show me, I however will behave in such a manner that you shall take your pleasure in it. 34. good day, dear lady, what do you have to sell? 35. Father, just let (thou) me go out and chop wood. 36. … but the young journeyman said “don’t you take any trouble, I will take my grey horse into the stall myself and tie him up myself, for I have to know where it is.”

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clearly things had gotten more complicated by the time of the 16th century rhetoricians Grimm cites. What drives the choice of ihr over du in the Grimm tales? The answer is not in fact uniform. In many tales which involve nobility of some kind or another, and frequently also magic, we appear to find something like the earlier du/ihr system (specifically, one in which nobles say ihr to one another, commoners say du, and there is an unequal ihr/du address between people of different status). In other tales dealing with tailors, tricksters, peasants, soldiers and the like (though their interlocutors may sometimes be the devil) we can often find the more recent, though still old, system (this one in which most strangers of equal status address one another as ihr, but unequals still have the ihr/du Â�discrepancy). To illustrate these two types of usage, I have chosen four tales, two of the definitely “elevated” type, and two of the “folk” type. All of them are among the 11 tales in the KHM that show ten or more tokens of ihr addressed to a single person (or actually Ihr, bless the capitalization!), along with the associated forms Euch, Euer- and Eur-. Indeed, two of them, one of each type, are the two tales with the very highest number of ihr tokens, namely “The Goosegirl at the Well” with 40 examples on 16 pages, and “Hans in Luck” with 36 on nine pages. The 40 examples of ihr to be found in “The Goosegirl at the Well” (which is dripping with royalty and magic) may be broken down as follows:

Lower to higher status – 24 Respect for age? – 2 Child to parent – 7 High status to each other – 7

The 36 in “Hans in Luck” (a “folk” tale if ever there was one) are as follows:

Lower to higher status – 3 Low status (politely) to each other – 33

The seriously reduced differentiating power of ihr in “Hans im Glück” correlates here with an overall relative drop in du (or dich, dir, dein-) usage:

Higher to lower status – 7 Self to self – 1

These eight examples (thus eight vs. 36) should be contrasted with a much more balanced (and nuanced) ihr/du relationship in “Die Gänsehirtin am Brunnen,” where we find 37 du examples (vs. the 40 ihr):





Chapter 5.╇ Forms of address

Higher to lower status – 2 (1 in anger) Parent to child – 26 Self to self – 2 Affectionate break (witch to count) – 7

I need to explain this last category. The (good) witch involved here has called the count ihr (he being of higher status) many times up to this point, but at the same time she has rather cruelly forced him to carry her heavy pack and baskets for her, mentioning an unspecified reward. It is at the point that she is actually giving him his reward, which will lead to his ultimate marriage to her own beloved adoptive “daughter,” that she addresses him quite fondly as du. As noted further above, the count does in fact use ihr with this witch twice at the beginning of the story. This occurs when she has challenged him to help an old lady, and he experiences a sense of noblesse oblige. I repeat part of the quote: Der junge Mann empfand Mitleiden mit der Alten, »zwar ist mein Vater kein Bauer,« antwortete er, »sondern ein reicher Graf, aber damit Ihr seht, daß die Bauern nicht allein tragen können, so will ich Euer Bündel aufnehmen.«37  (Grimm 1857, v. 2:â•›340)

Before this, however, he has addressed her with the socially-expected du, and he does so again in anger when the witch will not let him rest. It of course needs to be emphasized that it is not necessarily the proportion of du tokens to ihr tokens that distinguish the earlier from the later pronominal systems (or in my rendering the “elevated”-ihr from the “folk”-ihr tales), it is the range of possible applications for du that is at stake. To further support this observation, I turn to two more tales, namely “The Clever People” (folk) and “The Six Servants” (elevated). In the first, besides 24 ihr examples, we find 24 du examples. 19 of these are husband to wife, one is wife to husband, two are mother to child, one is self to self, and one is author to reader. The ihr examples are all (lower) equal to equal. In “The Six Servants,” on the other hand, of the 52 du examples (vs. 14 ihr), four are father to son (matched by 1 ihr form of the verb from son to father), 17 are prince to servant (matched by eight ihr forms from servant to prince), 20 are evil queen to the prince courting her daughter (matched by three responding ihr forms), four are servant to servant, four mother to daughter, and three prince to wife. The remaining three ihr forms are addressed to the new wife of the prince (whether she knows it or not) by commoners.

37. The young man felt sympathy with the old one, “to be sure my father is not a peasant,” he answered, “but a rich count, but in order that you see, that not only peasants can carry, I will take up your bundle.”

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Naturally, by looking mainly at tales with high numbers of ihr forms, I have left out those with du alone. In some cases, this is due to lack of appropriate ihr situations, that is, those which include characters who are noticeably higher in the social scale, or those in which characters are trying to be polite to each other. Thus “Clever Hans” has only a mother, son and girlfriend in (repetitious) dialogues with each other. “The Two Travelers” also doesn’t have any examples of ihr, though it certainly has a tailor and a shoemaker interacting with a king. The problem here is, there are simply no cases in which they address this king directly (even when talking with him). He of course addresses them as du, and they address each other, even when they first meet, as du, and thus do not appear to belong to the “folk”-ihr type of tale. It should be clear that there is no neat break between “elevated” and “folk” tales, but in fact a continuum from the most magic (and royal) to the most plebian. “The Two Travelers” itself seems to evolve from one type of tale to another. The first part, establishing the relationship between a happy-go-lucky tailor and a sadistic shoemaker, appears to be a pure “folk” tale, but much of the second half, where our hero spares animals and later receives their help, along the way winning riches and a princess,38 is much more of the “elevated” variety. I conclude this section with another “mixed” tale, “The Good Bargain.” Here the protagonist is a not-very-bright farmer who says ihr to a merchant (thus apparently following the newer du/ihr system):39 Spaß beiseite, ich will mein Geld: hat der große Hund Euch nicht die ganze ge(Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›65) schlachtete Kuh vor drei Tagen heimgebracht?40 

He also, however, says du to a soldier who has addressed him with du: »Hör,« sprach der Soldat, »gib mir etwas davon! was willst du mit all dem Geld anfangen!« »Weil dus bist,« sprach der Bauer, »so sollst du zweihundert haben, melde dich in drei Tagen beim König, und laß dirs aufzählen.«41  (Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›66)

38. This part of the story is highly reminiscent of #62 “Die Bienenkonigin,” which, though an “elevated” story as outlined above, has almost no direct speech, and neither ihr nor du examples. 39. The merchant doesn’t address him directly. 40. Kidding aside, I want my money: didn’t the big dog bring you the entire slaughtered cow three days ago? 41. “Hey,” said the soldier, “give (thou) me some of that! What art thou going to do with all that money?” “Because it is thou,” the peasant said, “thou shalt have two hundred, report to the king in three days, and let thyself be paid.”



Chapter 5.╇ Forms of address

Finally, he uses du with a Jew who has addressed him with ihr: » … ich wills Euch wechseln, ich wills Euch umsetzen in Scheidemünz, was wollt Ihr mit den harten Talern?«»Mauschel,« sagte der Bauer, »dreihundert kannst du noch haben, gib mirs gleich in Münze, heute über drei Tage wirst du dafür beim (Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›66) König bezahlt werden.«42 

I think both of these latter usages of du have to be seen as deliberate violations of an expected ihr. In the first, the soldier has initiated his request for money with a false intimacy, and the farmer has replied in kind. In the second case, the Jew has made his duplicitous exchange offer in the politest terms (ihr), and the farmer has acceded, but with contempt (du). The other person with whom the farmer talks in the story is the king himself. Here, as expected, he uses ihr, while the king uses du with him: Da ward der König zornig und sagte »du bist ein Grobian.« »Ach, Herr König,« antwortete der Bauer, »was könnt Ihr von einem Ochsen anders erwarten als (Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›66) Rindfleisch!«43 

I hope that this discussion has shown that there is a regularity in the Grimms’ choice of pronouns of address, that the systems they use can be related to historical stages of the German language itself, and that the pronouns chosen may not only reflect the preexisting statuses of the interlocutors (whether societal, amical or familial), but also emotional or deliberate deviations from the expected pronouns.

5.3 Idiosyncratic or general? The question posed by the subheading here can actually be laid out as several questions: 1. Did the Grimms use more pronouns of address than their sources and contemporaries? 2. Was the avoidance of sie plural in their tales idiosyncratic? 3. Were er and sie singular used more, or differently, in others’ tales? 4. Did du and ihr pattern differently in others’ tales? 42. “I want to exchange it for you, I want to change it into small change, what do you want with the hard talers?” “Jew,” said the peasant, “thou canst have three hundred, give (thou) it to me right now in coins, three days from now thou wilt be paid for them by the king.” 43. Then the king became angry and said “thou art a ruffian.” “Ah, Lord King,” said the peasant, “what can you expect from an ox besides beef!”

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I think the answer to the first question is yes, and correlates rather directly with the fact that the Grimms, as illustrated rather well in the changes to “The Six Swans” documented in Chapter 2, livened up their stories a great deal with direct speech. A comparison of Grimm versions of a tale44 with those published by other author/editors often reveals far more direct speech in the Grimm tales. To illustrate this, I use two selections from the tale “The True Bride,” which has both an obvious source (“Ein Märchen aus der Oberlausitz” (‘A Fairy Tale from the Oberlausitz’), Haupt 1842) and a competitor from another fairy-tale collection (“Helene,” Bechstein 1845, here in Bechstein 1979). In the first comparison, a wicked stepmother is making impossible demands on her stepdaughter: Eines Tages sagte sie zu ihm »da hast du zwölf Pfund Federn, die sollst du abschleißen, und wenn du nicht heute abend damit fertig bist, so wartet eine Tracht Schläge auf dich. Meinst du, du könntest den ganzen Tag faulenzen?«45  (Grimm 1857, v. 2:â•›368–9) eines males verlangte sie von ihr, sie solle fünf pfund federn in einem tage absschleissen, und drohte ihr mit harten strafen, wenn sie abends heimkäme und die (Haupt from Rölleke 1998:â•›440) arbeit nicht gethan fände.46  Eines Tages verlangte die alte von Helene, diese solle zwölf Pfund Federn in einem Tag abschleißen, und drohte ihr mit harten Strafen, wenn sie abends nach Hause zurück käme, und die Arbeit sei nicht von Helene getan.  (Bechstein 1979:â•›421)

In the second, the heroine is taking leave of her presumed husband-to-be with a meaning kiss: Das Mädchen küßte ihn auf den linken Backen und sprach »bleib mir treu, und laß dich von keiner andern auf diesen Backen küssen. Ich will hier unter der (Grimm 1857, v. 2:â•›373) Linde warten, bis du wieder zurückkommst.«47 

44. I refer here to their final versions of tales, since their tendency is to increase the amount of direct speech in successive editions. 45. One day she said to her “there thou hast twelve pounds of feathers, thou shouldst pick them, and if thou art not finished with them this evening, then a beating is waiting for thee. Didst thou think thou couldst laze around all day?” 46. Here and in the following quote we have essentially the same content as above, but indirectly. I don’t want to be totally redundant; Suffice it to say that they they both run approximately “One day she demanded that she pick five (twelve) pounds of feathers …” and so on. 47. The girl kissed him on the left cheek and spoke: “stay (thou) true to me, and let no other kiss thee on this cheek. I will wait here under the linden tree until thou returnest.”



Chapter 5.╇ Forms of address

Helene küsste ihn beim abschiede auf den linken backen und bat ihn so lange er von ihr entfernt sein werde sich von niemand auf diesen backen küssen zu lassen, (Haupt from Rölleke 1998:â•›446) unter der linde wolle sie ihn erwarten.48  Helene küßte ihn beim Abschiede auf den linken Backen und bat ihn, so lange er von ihr entfernt sein werde, sich von niemand anderem auf diesen Backen küssen zu lassen. Unter der Linde wolle sie ihn erwarten.  (Bechstein 1979:â•›423)

As to the second question, the rejection of plural sie in direct address, the Grimms are perhaps the most consistent about this. Even their closest competitor in the area of putatively “found” rather than “constructed” fairy tales, Ludwig Bechstein, occasionally uses sie plural systematically in some of his tales, apparently not partaking in the extreme distaste for this form documented for Jacob Grimm in 5.1 above. I quote below from “Der Wandergeselle” (‘The Journeyman’), where the author clearly plays with the homophony of sie singular and sie plural: » … ich möchte gar zu gerne heiraten!« »Dagegen habe ich gar nichts einzuwenden, mein lieber Kutscher. Aber will Ihn denn jemand?« »Die schätzbare Person, welche ich zu heiraten wünsche, sagte mir, sie habe nichts dagegen einzuwenden!« antwortete der Kutscher. »Nun gut, so nehme Er sie!« – versetzte die Prinzessin. »Nun gut, so nehme ich Sie!« erwiderte der Kutscher. »Wen denn eigentlich?« fragte die Prinzessin. »Nun denn Sie! Sie haben es ja gesagt!« entgegnete der Kutscher. »Ich glaube, Er ist verrückt!« schrie die Prinzessin außer sich vor Entsetzen. »I Gott bewahre!« versetzte der Kutscher. »Im Gegenteil, Prinzeßchen, ich glaube dies nicht im entferntesten. Wozu viele Worte? Sie sagen zu Hause, daß ich es war, der Sie befreite, und heiraten mich! Wollen Sie das nicht, so fahre ich Sie nicht nach Hause, sondern wieder zum Teufel. Und damit Punktum!«49  (Bechstein 1979:â•›575) 48. Same as with earlier sentence. This runs “Helene kissed him when he departed on the left cheek, and asked him …”, and so on. 49. “I would so like to get married!” “I have nothing against that, my dear coachman. But does anyone want him?” “The treasured person I desire to marry told me that she didn’t have anything against it,” the coachman answered. “So good, he should take her!” – the princess retorted. “Well good, then I will take them,” the coachman responded. “Who, then?” the princess asked. [the princess misunderstands the coachman’s sie as referring to a singular third person ‘her’: OWR] “Why, them! They said it, after all!” the coachman parried. “I think he is crazy!” the princess cried, beside herself in horror.

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I address the er singular examples below. In most of his stories, like the Grimms, Bechstein normally shows only faint traces of sie plural, as in the following quote from “Die Probestücke des Meisterdiebes” (‘The Challenges of the Master Thief ’), where it takes the dative form Ihnen: »Schönsten guten Morgen, Herr Pate! Ich wünsche Ihnen und der Frau Patin (Bechstein 1979:â•›42) recht wohl geruht zu haben!«50 

Understandably, given his rare usage of sie plural, Bechstein is not consistent in this tale, as the following quote shows: »Herr Pate, meine dritte Probe ist auch gelöst. Pfarrer und Schulmeister hängen im Schornstein, und so es Euch gefällig, könnt Ihr sie selber zappeln sehen und (Bechstein 1979:â•›43) schreien hören!«51 

The Grimms, who tell the same story in “The Master Thief,” but unfortunately do not have speech at the same two points in it, have a consistent ihr, documented in the similar passage below: »Guten Morgen, Herr Graf,« rief er ihm zu, »hier ist das Pferd, das ich glücklich aus dem Stall geholt habe. Schaut nur, wie schön Eure Soldaten daliegen und schlafen, und wenn Ihr in den Stall gehen wollt, so werdet Ihr sehen, wie bequem (Grimm 157, v. 2:â•›393–4) sichs Eure Wächter gemacht haben.«52 

A lot of the “Märchen” being written at the time that the KHM were coming out had fewer pretensions to pure German authenticity, at least in their details, and in general a claim to higher literary values. One such, published posthumously by their quasi-mentor Brentano in 1846, but apparently written in his early adulthood, was “Das Märchen von dem Rhein und dem Müller Radlauf ” (‘The Tale of

“God help me!” retorted the coachman. “On the contrary, little princess, I don’t think so in the least. Why so many words? They will say at home that it was I that freed them, and marry me! If they don’t want to do that, then I won’t drive them home, but back to the Devil. And that’s that!” 50. A most beautiful good morning, Godfather! I hope that they and Lady Godmother have rested well! 51. Godfather, my third test has also been passed. The pastor and the schoolmaster are hanging in the chimney, and if it pleases you, you can see them flounder and hear them cry out yourself. 52. “Good morning, Count,” he called to him, “here is the horse, which I succeeded in getting out of the stall. Just (you) see, how beautifully your soldiers are lying there and sleeping, and if you want to go into the stall, you will see how comfortable your guards have made it for themselves.”



Chapter 5.╇ Forms of address

the Rhine and Miller Radlauf ’), supposedly based on an old legend. In it, we find basically the system Grimm describes for the period shortly before his own time. Thus sie plural is used between high equals (a king and a prince from another kingdom, a queen and her king), but also from lower to higher (miller to princess before he knows her), and as a sign of respect for an offended other (prince to upset stork). Ihr is used, as far as I can see, for more affectionate or less gaping respectful relationships (miller to princess after he knows her better and loves her, a prince to his mother (he thinks), a fisherwoman to a barber and a wigmaker). Er/sie singular (here only sie) is used (respectfully) to common folk by other common folk or animals (not discussed in Jacob’s grammar). The conclusion here is that sie plural was still recognized at this time as a recent innovation. Authors who wanted their tales to appear old and authentic (and not just the Grimms) tended to avoid it. As far as the usage of er and sie singular is concerned, the evidence from Â�Brentano and the lengthy quotation from Bechstein above, as well as other Bechstein stories such as “Die scharfe Schere” (‘The Sharp Scissors’) document that these forms were used principally to address tradesmen and common people, mostly, but not entirely, by other folks of the same sort (we do have a princess above). A wonderful metalinguistic rumination on these forms is surely to be found in Bechstein’s story “Der gastliche Kalbskopf ” (‘The Convivial Calf ’s Head’), where the simple hero dithers over what to call the calf ’s head: Wie tituliere ich den Kalbskopf? Ich kann nicht unterscheiden, ob es ein Er ist oder eine Sie? Ob schon verheiratet oder noch ledig? Er scheint noch ziemlich jung zu sein. Soll ich zu ihm oder zu ihr sagen: Euer oder Ihre Gnaden?53  (Bechstein 1979:â•›538)

All these er/sie usages are consistent with those found in the Grimms. As I have demonstrated above, however, the Grimms use these forms a lot less. To the extent to which sie plural and er/sie singular are more prevalent in the tales of others, of course du and ihr would pattern differently in them than for the Grimms. But in general, if only du and ihr are found in a tale, whether by the Grimms or not, they tend to be used the same ways, described above. Thus entirely parallel to the usage of ihr between polite commoners in the Grimm tale “Hans in Luck” is the usage in Bechsteins version of the same story, “Hans im Glücke.” Similarly, the restriction of ihr to the evil queen in “Snow White” is paralleled by a similar usage in Bechstein’s “Schneeweißchen.”54 53. What do I call the calf ’s head? I can’t tell if it’s a he or a she? Whether already married or still single? It still seems to be rather young. Should I call him or her your or their Graces? 54. The dwarves in Bechstein’s story even go so far as to call the prince du.

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Where the Grimms differ from most other authors, perhaps, is in their insistence on consistency. To show this, I return to “The Goosegirl at the Well,” which they adapted from an 1840 Standard German version (Kletke 1840) of a Viennese dialect original. In that 1840 version, the long interaction between the witch and the count at the beginning is marked by a rather confusing back-and-forth between du and ihr on the part of both characters. While the count begins, as do the Grimms, with the count calling the witch du, as befits their relative stations, and goes over to ihr when he is about to help her, he unaccountably returns to du right in the middle of it, a situation the Grimms quite understandably revise (their version is given further above): “Ei nicht, Mütterchen, das ist nicht schön von Euch, daß Ihr so murrt und raisssonniert. … Mein Vater ist wohl ein Graf – aber, daß Du siehst, daß der Bauer (Rölleke 1998:â•›356) nicht allein trägt, so werd‘ ich Dir helfen. …”55 

On the other side, the witch, who has quite properly addressed the count with ihr from the beginning of the 1840 story, unaccountably lapses into du at one point: “Nun, soll’s denn schon da sein?” – sagt ihm die Alte drauf. – “Du trägst ja nur so ein Bischen! man sieht‘s wohl, daß Du keine Arbeit gewohnt bist!”56  (Rölleke 1998:â•›358)

None of that for the Grimms: »Nichts da,« antwortete die Alte, »wenn wir angelangt sind, so könnt Ihr ausruhen, aber jetzt müßt Ihr vorwärts. Wer weiß, wozu Euch das gut ist.«57  (Grimm 1857, v. 2:â•›341)

Indeed, in the 1840 version she continues to call the count du, which the Grimms consistently revise to ihr up to the previously mentioned point when she affectionately gives him his reward.

55. No, little mother, it is not nice of you, that you grumble and argue that way … After all, my father is a count – but in order that thou seest that the peasant isn’t the only one carrying, I will help thee … 56. “Well, is that supposed to be enough?” the old one said to him then. “Thou only carriest a little bit! One can see that thou art not used to work!” 57. “Not here,” answered the old one. “When we have arrived, you can rest, but now you must go forwards. Who knows how that may benefit you?”



Chapter 5.╇ Forms of address

5.4 Concluding remarks on address To answer the questions posed at the beginning of the chapter, then, the Grimms were well aware of the history of pronouns of address in German, and they used that knowledge to help create an archaic pre-modern atmosphere for the tales (in general a pre-17th century one). This involved rejecting out-of-hand the polite sie plural form that was otherwise the default usage in their day (as it is today), which they in any case disapproved of on esthetic grounds. Er and sie singular, also representing a relatively late (17th century) development in polite address, are rare in the tales as well, and basically restricted to the lower classes and to non-magical folk tales. By preference in most of their tales, including those just mentioned, they used a two-way du/ihr (‘thou/you’) system, one that was present in the German language from the 9th through the 16th century. Parallelling historical developments within that two-way system, in the Grimms’ more magical “elevated” tales the usage of these pronouns is evocative of the High Middle Ages, and in the lower “folk” tales the system is more reminiscent of the Late Middle Ages.

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chapter 6

Reports and omissions In this final chapter devoted to those grammatical choices made by the Grimms that are not necessarily related either to Germanicity or to gender roles, I deal with two verb-related phenomena. In 6.1 I focus on the Grimms’ preferred method for indicating indirect speech, while in 6.2 I discuss their treatment of a phenomenon, popular in their time, whereby certain auxiliary verbs could optionally be dropped in a written text.

6.1

Indirect discourse

In Chapter 2 on “The Six Swans,” I pointed out that one of the things the Grimms did in their revision of the tale, and indeed of virtually every tale that saw more than one edition, was to introduce direct speech where formerly there had been indirect speech. This means as a matter of course that the subjunctive forms used to indicate indirect speech would be lost in later versions. But in this section I want to demonstrate that, even when the Grimms retained indirect speech, by preference they used a different subjunctive form (the so-called “preterite subjunctive,” in German “Konjunktiv II,” here abbreviated II) than they used earlier (the “present subjunctive,” or “Konjunktiv I”, here I). I begin with the table below, in which I return to “The Six Swans,” but now looking not only at the first and last editions, but all of the editions between as well. What I think it illustrates is that the changeover from present subjunctive (I) to preterite subjunctive (II) was a gradual one, although at least for this tale the decision to replace indirect speech by direct speech was completely carried out by the second edition (DS stands for direct speech):

. My thanks to Sue Bottigheimer for access to many editions of the KHM that are hard to come by. My thanks also to her 1990 article that argues against the notion that all the important editing changes in the KHM had taken place by the second edition.

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Indirect and direct speech in “The Six Swans” (all editions) 1st ed.

2nd ed. 3rd ed. 4th ed. 5th ed. 6th ed. 7th ed. Comments

mögte geschähe müsse könne heirate könne

DS DS DS DS DS könnte

DS DS DS DS DS möchte

DS DS DS DS DS möchte

DS DS DS DS DS möchte

DS DS DS DS DS möchte

DS DS DS DS DS möchte

habe

habe

habe könne

habe könne

habe könne

habe könnte

habe könnte

käm

wäre

käme

käme

käme

käme

käme

hätte

0

0 habe wären hätte würde

0 habe wären hätte würde

0 habe wären hätte würde

0 habe wären hätte würde

0 habe wären hätte würde

dürfte DS DS DS 0 sei hätte

dürfte DS DS DS 0 sei hätte

dürfte DS DS DS 0 sei hätte

dürfte DS DS DS 0 wäre hätte

dürfte DS DS DS 0 wäre hätte

wären w/o Aux. hätte möge würde mögte sollte wisse sey habe sey

dürfte DS DS DS 0 0 halte

II modal > DS in 2nd. II main verb > DS in 2nd. I modal > DS in 2nd. I modal > DS in 2nd. I main verb > DS in 2nd. I To II modal in 2nd, modal change (II) in 3rd. habe (I) unchanged throughout. I modal introduced in 3rd, changed to II in 6th. II main verb throughout, II modal in 2nd. Phrase deleted from 2nd on. habe (I) introduced in 3rd. ed., kept. II of sein introduced in 2nd, kept. II of haben introduced in 2nd ed., kept. I of modal in 1st replaced by würde (II) in 2nd, this kept. II throughout, change of modal in 2nd. II modal > DS in 2nd. I main verb > DS in 2nd. I sein > DS in 2nd. Phrase (haben I) deleted from 2nd on. I of sein replaced by II in 6th. Possible2 I of main verb replaced by II of haben in 3rd.

The following facts should be noted about this chart (for our purposes, here and later, I will characterize their distribution using the following abbreviations: Main verb (V), modal (M), werden (W) sein (S), haben (H)): 1. In the first edition, there are 10 present subjunctives and 6 preterite subjunctives. Of the present subjunctives, 2 are V, 4 are M, 2 are S, 2 H. Of the preterite subjunctives, 2 are V, 3 are M, and 1 is H. 2. By the second edition, in which the proportion of present to preterite subjunctives has changed drastically (only two present subjunctives – maybe, see Note 2 – to six preterite subjunctives), we find present subjunctive in 1 V and 1 H, preterite subjunctive in 2 M, 1 W, 2 S and 1 H.

. I think it is very possible that the re-edition of the 2nd edition misread the verb here, given the clear uniformity afterwards.



Chapter 6.╇ Reports and omissions

3. Third edition: four present to seven preterite subjunctives – present in 1 M, 1 S, 2 H, preterite in 1 V, 3 M, 1 W, 2 H. 4. Fourth edition: again four present to seven preterite subjunctives – same as third edition. 5. Fifth edition: again four present to seven preterite subjunctives – same as previous two editions. 6. Sixth edition: (relatively) big change, with only two present to nine preterite subjunctives – present in 2 H only, preterite in 1 V, 3 M, 1 W, 2 S and 2 H. 7. Seventh edition: identical to sixth. If nothing else, these data support the observation that the Grimms increasingly preferred the preterite subjunctive to the present subjunctive when reporting speech indirectly. And to judge from this small sample, there appears to be a tendency for verbs from different subcategories to be differentially subject to this overall trend. There is only one indirect-speech main verb by the 7th edition, and it has been in the preterite subjunctive since the 1st edition. Others have either gone over to direct speech by the 2nd edition, or in one questionable case (see Note€2) have substituted a preterite-subjunctive hätte. Haben has been much more resistant. The two remaining present subjunctives in the 7th edition are both tokens of this verb, having remained since their introduction in the 1st and 3rd editions. There are also two preterite subjunctives of haben in the 7th edition, but they have been there all along since their introduction in the 2nd and 3rd (see Note 2) editions. Modals and sein fall between these two poles. Thus although we find none of these in the present subjunctive by the 7th edition. it is only in the 6th edition that the last present subjunctive modal and the only present subjunctive of sein are replaced by preterite subjunctive forms. In order to further document the overall trend to the preterite subjunctive, I cite below several passages from the 1st edition version of #92 “The King of the Golden Mountain”: Da erzählte der Kaufmann, dass ihm sein ganzer Reichtum auf dem Meere zu Grunde gegangen wäre und habe er nichts mehr übrig, als diesen Acker.  (Grimm 1815, v. 2:â•›44–5)

. Then the merchant related that all his wealth had foundered (II S) in the sea, and that he had (I H) nothing left but this land.

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Da fragte ihn der Sohn einmal, was ihm fehle; der Vater wollte es nicht sagen, aber er hielt so lange an, bis er ihm endlich sagte, er habe ihn, ohne daß er es gewusst, einem schwarzen Männchen versprochen für vieles Geld, und habe seine Handschrift mit Siegel darüber gegeben, und nun müsse er ihn, wenn zwölf Jahre (Grimm 1815, v. 2:â•›46) jetzt herum wären, ausliefern.  Da redeten sie noch lange miteinander, endlich wurden sie einig, der Sohn, weil er nicht dem Erbfeind und nicht mehr seinem Vater zugehöre, solle sich in ein Schiffchen setzen, das auf einem hinabwärts fliessenden Wasser stehe, und der Vater solle es mit seinem eigenen Fuss fortstossen und da solle der Sohn dem (Grimm 1815, v. 2:â•›46–7) Wasser überlassen bleiben. 

In these quotes, sein stands out as the only verb with preterite subjunctive forms (two of them). Otherwise we have present subjunctives of three main verbs (fehle, zugehöre, stehe), two modals (müsse, solle (three times)), and habe both as an auxiliary verb (habe versprochen, habe gegeben) and as a main verb (in “er habe nichts mehr übrig”). All of these forms have been replaced by preterite subjunctives by the 7th edition: Da erzählte der Kaufmann, daß ihm sein ganzer Reichtum auf dem Meer zugrunde gegangen wäre, und hätte er nichts mehr übrig als diesen Acker.  (Grimm 1857, v. 2:â•›44) Da fragte ihn der Sohn einmal, was ihm fehlte: der Vater wollte es nicht sagen, aber jener hielt so lange an, bis er ihm endlich sagte, er hätte ihn, ohne zu wissen, was er verspräche, einem schwarzen Männchen zugesagt und vieles Geld dafür bekommen. Er hätte seine Handschrift mit Siegel darüber gegeben, und nun müßte er (Grimm 1857, v. 2:â•›45) ihn, wenn zwölf Jahre herum wären, ausliefern. 

. Note the lack of auxiliary here, and other quotes below. I will treat this phenomenon in the next section. . Then his son asked him once what was wrong (I V); the father didn’t want to tell him, but he persevered so long that he finally told him that he had (I H), without knowing it, promised him to a little black man for a lot of money, and had (I H) given his signature regarding it with a seal above, and now that twelve years were up (II S), he had to (I M) give him up. . Then they talked with each other a long time, eventually they agreed that the son, because he didn’t belong (I V) to the Devil and no longer to his father, should (I M) seat himself in a little ship which lay (I V) on a downwards-flowing river, and the father should (I M) push it off with his own foot, and the son should (I M) then be left to the river.



Chapter 6.╇ Reports and omissions

Da redeten sie noch lange miteinander, endlich wurden sie einig, der Sohn, weil er nicht dem Erbfeind und nicht mehr seinem Vater zugehörte, sollte sich in ein Schiffchen setzen, das auf einem hinabwärts fließenden Wasser stände, und der Vater sollte es mit seinem eigenen Fuß fortstoßen, und dann sollte der Sohn dem (Grimm 1857, v. 2:â•›46) Wasser überlassen bleiben.

The diachronic tendency noted above for indirect-speech verbs of various types to go over to the preterite subjunctive in the KHM is reflected synchronically in the 7th edition of the tales. To illustrate the situation for main verbs, I chose three of high frequency (namely kommen ‘come,’ gehen ‘go,’ wissen ‘know’), and went through all possible examples of their 3rd singular present and preterite subjunctives in the KHM to see how they might be used in indirect speech. These are the results: – There are 0 examples of 3rd singular present subjunctive komme, 27 of preterite subjunctive käme characterizing indirect speech. – There is 1 example of 3rd singular present subjunctive gehe, 10 of preterite subjunctive ginge characterizing indirect speech. – There are 0 examples of 3rd singular present subjunctive wisse, 15 of preterite subjunctive wüßte characterizing indirect speech. So for these verbs, at least, the present subjunctive is almost totally out as a means of expressing indirect speech. The same can be said for the modals. Here I found 0 examples of present subjunctive dürfe and möge (opposite 20 and 57 examples of preterite subjunctive dürfte and möchte respectively, not all in indirect speech usage), but also only 2 of müsse, 8 of solle and 9 of könne (vs. 47, 343 and 128 tokens of preterite subjunctive müßte, sollte, könnte, respectively). There were more examples of indirect discourse sei even in the 7th edition, namely 24. This stands opposite a token count of 443 wäre (not all of which indicate indirect discourse). Because of its two functions as copula and auxiliary, the verb itself occurs more frequently than those discussed above. With haben, finally, we find a full 35 examples of the indirect-discourse present subjunctive habe versus a total of 291 tokens of the preterite subjunctive hätte. As suggested by its resistance to change in successive editions of “The Six Swans,” haben of all verbs, both in absolute and in percentage terms, is most likely to retain present subjunctives in indirect speech. . Here as elsewhere below, I didn’t undertake the task of reading through all examples to differentiate indirect speech from other uses of the preterite subjunctive. The low number of present subjunctives would seem to make that unnecessary. . sollte includes preterite indicatives as well, which is why the number is so large.

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In the following chart I present these findings more visually: 7th edition present and preterite subjunctives by verb category Verb category

Verb

# 3rd sg. present subjunctives

# 3rd sg. preterite subjunctives

present subjunctive % of total

Main verbs

kommen ‘come’ gehen ‘go’ wissen ‘know’ dürfen mögen müssen sollen können sein haben

â•⁄ 0 â•⁄ 1 â•⁄ 0 â•⁄ 0 â•⁄ 0 â•⁄ 2 â•⁄ 8 â•⁄ 9 24 35

â•⁄ 27 â•⁄ 10 â•⁄ 15 â•⁄ 20 â•⁄ 57 â•⁄ 47 343 128 443 291

â•⁄ 0 â•⁄ 9.1 â•⁄ 0 â•⁄ 0 â•⁄ 0 â•⁄ 4.1 â•⁄ 2.3 â•⁄ 6.6 â•⁄ 5.1 10.8

Modal verbs

Copula/Auxiliary ‘be’ Verb/Auxiliary ‘have’

There is no question that at the time of the 1st edition, as in the modern language, the preterite subjunctive was already in serious competition with the present subjunctive as a possible marker of indirect speech. The preterite subjunctive, it should be noted, has one obvious advantage, namely that it is totally distinct from the indicative for all possible persons (1st, 2nd, 3rd) and in both singular and plural, whereas the present subjunctive is distinct from the indicative only in a few of these categories, most notably in the 3rd person singular. In the 3rd person plural, the present subjunctive is only different from the indicative for a few verbs. In other words, while “er habe” can be depended on to indicate an indirect speech occurrence, “sie haben” cannot. The same situation holds for most other verbs. Thus even in the 1st edition of the Grimms’ fairy tales, the preterite subjunctive is used when the subject of the reported materiel is plural. Compare the following quote from the first edition of “The King of the Golden Mountain” with the earlier ones showing singular habe: Darauf erzählte er ihnen, er wäre König vom goldenen Berge, und eine Königstochter wäre seine Gemahlin, und sie hätten einen schönen Sohn von sieben (Grimm 1857, v. 2:â•›48) Jahren.10 

. Notably, however, the 3rd plural form “seien” is distinct from the indicative, and is used. 10. Thereupon he told them that he was the king of the golden mountain, and that a princess was his bride, and they had (II H) a beautiful son of seven years.



Chapter 6.╇ Reports and omissions

There is nothing really unusual about this disparity between singular and plural, even in the modern language, and any glance at a modern German news report will suffice to convince one that it is still very alive in the language. To illustrate this in a way related to the topic of this book, I quote below from an interview with the eminent Grimm scholar Heinz Rölleke printed in ARTE Magazin on January 18, 2005: Die einen empörten sich, die Grimms hätten gelogen, sie hätten uns französische Märchen als deutsche verkauft. Die BILD-Zeitung schrieb, Rotkäppchen habe einen französischen Rosé im Körbchen gehabt.11

Indeed, while conceding that there is a great deal of variation in Modern Standard German, one of its bibles, Duden: Die Grammatik (2006:â•›541–2), basically states that the Grundregel (‘basic rule’) for indirect speech is use of the present subjunctive when the relevant form is unambiguously recognizable as subjunctive, which in practice works out to forms of the verb sein (especially the 1st and 3rd persons singular and plural), all singular forms of the modals and wissen, and 3rd person singular forms of all other verbs (including haben). Otherwise the preterite subjunctive is used, and for some writers the 2nd person singular and plural show preterite subjunctive regardless. It is interesting that the Grimms followed this prescriptive rule, found even today (but which Lockwood 1968:â•›138 characterizes as a “measure of agreement” reached in the late 18th century), only in their earliest edition, and then gradually moved away from it in subsequent editions. And it seems pretty clear why they would. Most scholars, including those writing the Duden grammar (p. 542–543), concede that these somewhat convoluted rules are truly a mark of written language, and rather far removed from everyday speech. In many colloquial versions of German, there basically is no present subjunctive, and the overall trend finds the preterite subjunctive replacing the present subjunctive in most functions. The Grimms were ahead of the “Standard” curve here because they wanted their tales to sound more natural than bookish. Normally, one cannot observe the leveling of a paradigm (and I would claim that that is what is happening here to the “indirect speech” paradigm12) occurring 11. Some were outraged: the Grimms had lied (3rd pl. pret. subj.), they had sold (3rd pl. pret. subj.) us French fairy tales as German ones. The BILD newspaper wrote that Little Red Riding Hood had had (3rd sg. pres. subj.) a French rosé in her basket. 12. I am using the term “paradigm” in an unorthodox way here, that is, from a functional rather than a morphological perspective. Commonly one thinks of this alternation between present and preterite subjunctive as an alternation between two different, more or less regular, paradigms. Yet I would maintain that this is exactly one way in which irregular paradigms might be created.

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over a few decades. It tends to occur over generations in the spoken language, is usually unconscious and unintended, and involves different speakers at different stages. Yet I would claim that some form of leveling happened in the written Grimm fairy tales in the way that indirect discourse was signaled, that it was quite conscious (revision usually is), and that it represented choices made by the Grimms themselves.

6.2 Auxiliary deletion In the 1st edition version of “Die sechs Schwäne,” I noted several instances where an inflected auxiliary was omitted at the end of a subordinate clause. I list them below:13 (1) und er selber hätte ihn nicht gefunden, wenn ihm nicht eine weise Frau einen Knauel von Garn gegeben, ...14  (Grimm 1812, v. 1:â•›220) (2) Der König erschrak, gedachte aber nimmermehr, dass die Königin die böse Tat vollbracht, ...15  (Grimm 1812, v. 1:â•›221) (3) niemand wisse, woher die Dirne gekommen, ...16 

(Grimm 1812, v. 1:â•›223)

(4) sie erzählte, wie die Schwiegermutter sie so boshaft verläumdet, ...17  (Grimm 1812, v. 1:â•›225)

As noted in Chapter 1, none of these have survived to the 7th edition. In the first two, the auxiliary hätte has been “restored,” in the third direct speech is used without such a construction, and in the fourth, a new participial construction is used, but with hätte. Here, too, although the direction of editorial change is clear, it did not take place all at once. Thus in the 2nd edition, while the first example above has been replaced (by a passive construction with the auxiliary wäre), the second has “restored” hätte, and the third, as in the 7th edition, shows direct speech, the fourth remains “wie die alte Schwiegermutter so schändlich sie verläumdet.” And in the 2nd edition of the story, which is substantially more circumstantial than the 1st, we actually gain a few new auxiliary-less participles, to wit: 13. In the English translations, the omitted auxiliary is that given in parentheses. 14. and he himself would never have found it if a wise woman (had) not given him a ball of yarn, ... 15. The king was horrified, but never thought that the queen (had) carried out the evil deed, … 16. nobody knew where the girl (had) come from, … 17. she recounted how the mother-in-law (had) so evilly maligned her, …



Chapter 6.╇ Reports and omissions

(5) das erzählte ihm, daß es aus seinem Fensterlein gesehen, ...18  (Grimm 1819, v. 1:â•›173) (6) das … zeigte ihm die Federn, … die es aufgelesen.19 (Grimm 1819, v. 1:â•›173)

In the 3rd edition, Examples (1), (2), (3) and (4) have all been given auxiliaries or otherwise replaced. The same is true for the new clauses in (5) and (6). And from this edition on, in this story we find no such examples of participles without auxiliaries. The story is similar for the development of other tales from the 1st to the 7th edition. I will give only three more examples, from “Sneewittchen,” with quotes from those two editions: (7) da erzählte es ihnen, wie seine Mutter es habe wollen umbringen, der Jäger ihm aber das Leben geschenkt, und wie es den ganzen Tag gelaufen, ...20  (Grimm 1812, v. 1:â•›242) Da erzählte es ihnen, daß seine Stiefmutter es hätte wollen umbringen lassen, der Jäger hätte ihm aber das Leben geschenkt, und da wär es gelaufen den ganzen Tag, ...21  (Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›272) (8) die Königin … erschrack … und sah, daß sie betrogen worden ...22  (Grimm 1812, v. 1:â•›243) Da erschrak sie, … und merkte, daß der Jäger sie betrogen hatte ...23  (Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›273) (9) Die Zwerge aber kamen zu rechter Zeit, sahen was geschehen, und …24  (Grimm 1812, v. 1:â•›245) Phrase deleted in the 7th edition

These constructions without auxiliaries, or what Ebert (1986:â•›132–133) calls “afinite” constructions, reached their high point, according to him, in the 17th and 18th centuries, when they are found “copiously” in laws, regulations, and Â�military

18. she told him that she (had) seen from her window … 19. she showed him the feathers that she (had) collected. 20. then she told them how her mother had wanted to kill her, the hunter however (had) given her her life, and how she (had) run all day, … 21. Then she told them that her stepmother had wanted to have her killed, but that the hunter had given her her life, and then she had run the whole day, … 22. the queen was dismayed and saw that she (had) been deceived … 23. Then she was dismayed, and realized that the hunter had deceived her … 24. But the dwarves came at the right time, saw what (had) happened, and ...

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and diplomatic reports. Behaghel (1928:â•›492) allows for a more literary usage when he notes that they were also employed with some frequency by poets of the Classical Period. But in fact, as both of these types of texts would suggest, they are quite distant from normal spoken German, and it is surely partly this distance that the Grimms were trying to reduce by getting rid of them. I say partly, because another motivation may be found, yet again, in Grimms Deutsche Grammatik (1898:â•›202): [Die] Sprache sträubt sich wider Dunkelheiten und Zweideutigkeiten, die dabei entspringen. Häufig fällt uns die 3 sg., 2 und 3 pl. mit der Participialform zusammen (z.B. in erblickt, vertraut, verheißen) und dann dient das Hilfswort den Zweifel zu lösen. Auch wegen des erörterten Wechsels beider Hilfsverba scheint die Auslassung bedenklich, z.B. wenn gesagt wäre: der Wagen in dem wir gefahren, wüßte man nicht, ob haben oder sind zu verstehen ist, und des Ausdrucks feinere Färbung gienge verloren.25

Although I think such lack of transparency is a little hard to interpret into most of the “afinite” constructions found in the earlier editions of the tales, the striving for maximal grammatical clarity is, I think, a motivation we can safely ascribe to their authors.

6.3 Verbs and colloquiality In both of the phenomena I have looked at in this chapter, we find the Grimms making decisions in favor of more colloquial rather than more learned construction possibilities. Although the language then had, and still has, a rule allowing for, or even preferring, the present subjunctive in indirect speech reportage when it would be distinct from the indicative, in successive editions of the KHM the Grimms move away from that rule in the direction of the preterite subjunctive. This is in line with the German dialects and colloquial usages of their time (and

25. The language struggles against obscurities, and ambiguities that result from them. Frequently our form for the 3rd person singular or the 2nd or 3rd person plural falls together with that of the participle (for example in erblickt ‘beholds/behold/beheld,’ vertraut ‘trusts/trust/ trusted,’ verheißen ‘promise/promised’) and then the auxiliary serves to dispel the doubt. Also, because of the previously discussed alternation between the two (past tense) auxiliaries, leaving them out seems questionable, for example if one says the Wagon in which we traveled [the latter a participle:OWR], one wouldn’t know whether have or be should be understood as the auxiliary [this makes a difference in German, since the use of be implies change of condition or position:OWR], and the finer coloration of the expression would be lost.



Chapter 6.╇ Reports and omissions

today), and lends their tales a more informal quality that they clearly found more conducive to the telling of their tales. The same observation can be made regarding the second phenomenon discussed in this chapter, namely the omission of auxiliary verbs in a number of syntactic constructions. Here, too, the phenomenon itself is clearly associated with more official, officious and literary documents than the Grimms perceived themselves as presenting in the fairy tales. Additionally, a desire for clarity probably played a role in the restoration of the deleted auxiliaries in later editions.

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Nouns (and their adjectives) In Chapters 3 through 6, I argued that the Grimms used forms of language, whether dialectal or just colloquial, which were intended to give their tales the semblance of age and Germanic authenticity. Here I demonstrate how this same posture is realized by means of their choice of nouns and adjectives. At the same time, I want to show that they were evoking not just a sense of literary Germanness, but also a very German, or perhaps in some cases uniquely Grimmian, view on the expected or proper roles of girls and boys in German society. I begin with the most common nouns that the Grimms used to denote the heroines and heroes of their tales (or their opposites), and attempt to discern some structure in their use of these terms. I then proceed to look at the adjectives most commonly associated with the terms in question, to determine, among other things, what types of adjectives are typically predicated of girls (or certain types of girls), and what of boys (or certain types of boys). Following that, in the next three chapters devoted primarily to the adjectives themselves, I study a selected subset of all the adjectives found with regard to their connotation, �positivity/negativity and gender valence.

7.1 Nouns for girls There are a few tales in which more or less regular German names are used to refer to girls, and in which those names are more or less regularly used when the girls are being mentioned. Thus we find Gretel used in three tales (“Hänsel and Gretel,” “Clever Hans” and “Clever Gretel”), and it is used almost every time the girls in question are referred to. Else is similarly used in one tale (“Clever Else”), Trine in another (“Lazy Heinz”), and so on. Jungfrau Maleen, in her eponymous tale “Maid Maleen,” shows much the same pattern, but it should be noted that she is the only one of these girls with real names who comes from an elevated station, a fact probably also correlated with the presence of the accompanying word Jungfrau (‘maiden’). . Another Trine is directly addressed in “The Clever People,” though not referred to as such in 3rd person reference.

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Most girls’ names are not like this, however, especially not in tales involving magic or featuring girls, whether heroines or not, of a higher social station. Quite commonly, these girls have names that have something to do with their looks or other significant aspects of their stories. I think here of Rapunzel (‘rampion’), Aschenputtel (‘cinderella,’ where cinders = ashes), Rotkäppchen (‘little red cap’), Dornröschen (‘little briar rose’), Sneewittchen (‘little snow white’), Allerleirauh (‘all kinds of pelt’), Einäuglein, Zweiäuglein, Dreiäuglein (‘little one eye, little two eyes, little three eyes’), Schneeweißchen or Sneewittchen (‘little snow white’), and Rosenrot (‘rose red’). Unlike those found in the previous paragraph, many of the named girls in this category are referred to, not just with their names, but with other more generic nouns as well. Thus Aschenputtel is also called das Stiefkind (‘the step-child’) and das Mädchen (‘the girl’), Dornröschen is called das Mädchen, Sneewittchen das Kind (‘the child’) and das Mädchen, and so on. The word Schwesterchen (‘little sister’) might also be assigned to this category, especially as found in the tale “Little Brother and Little Sister.” In this illustrative quote, Schwesterchen is clearly treated as a name: Brüderchen stand auf, nahm Schwesterchen an der Hand, und sie wollten das (Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›80) Brünnlein suchen. 

Yet in the following quote, in reference to the same person, its status as a name is not as clear, given the article: Nun weinte das Schwesterchen über das arme verwünschte Brüderchen …  (Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›81)

In all, of the 20 examples of Schwesterchen to be found in this tale, only about five seem unambiguously to be a name. The rest, including also six examples of Schwesterlein, seem to describe the girl rather than name her. The examples of Schwesterchen as a proper noun rather than a name may be seen as transitional to other examples where girls are referred to by their condition or occupation. Here one can think of Marienkind (‘Mary’s child’), die Gänsemagd (‘the goosemaid’), die faule Spinnerin (‘the lazy spinner’), die weiße Braut (‘the white bride’) and die schwarze Braut (‘the black bride’), die Gänsehirtin (am Â�Brunnen) (‘the . Little Brother stood up, took Little Sister by the hand, and they wanted to look for the little spring. . Now the little sister cried about the poor cursed little brother … . Out of a total of 37 in the tales. . There are only 10 examples of Schwesterlein in all of the tales. . Never actually referred to as such in the text.



Chapter 7.╇ Nouns (and their adjectives)

goosegirl (at the well)’), die wahre Braut (‘the true bride’). Although in principle one could imagine a constant reference within the text to these individuals with these words, this does not normally happen. As with the girls named after their appearance or circumstances, most references to these individuals involve common nouns such as Stieftochter (‘step-daughter’) or Mädchen. This preponderance of common nouns over proper nouns in the tales, and indeed the dearth of normal names rather than descriptive ones, can be seen as serving several functions. First, it distances the characters rather decisively from any individuals one might encounter in everyday life. Thus use of a name like Sneewittchen, or a description like die weiße Braut, instantly signals to the reader that the action of the narrative takes place in a very different place and time than one’s own. Secondly, the use of words such as Jungfrau ‘maiden’ and Königstochter ‘princess,’ and even Mädchen and Kind, rather than any name at all, enables a kind of universalization and stereotyping which can be very useful in establishing the parameters of a tale in very few words. In other words, one expects a KönigsÂ�tochter to have certain attributes and not others, whereas with a Gretel one needs to be told more explicitly what her attributes are. It is the main objective of this chapter to establish, for boys as well as girls, precisely which are the most frequent common nouns used by the Grimms in this way, and what stereotypes can be associated with them. In fact, most of the girls in the Grimms’ tales, most of the time, are referred to with a very small range of possible words for ‘girl.’ As I see it, these are (in terms of decreasing frequency, given to the left of the slash, and decreasing number of tales, given to the right of the slash):

Mädchen – 324/59 Königstochter –196/44 Jungfrau – 127/28 Magd – 55/20 Prinzessin – 21/8

‘girl’ ‘king’s daughter’ ‘maiden’ ‘maid’ ‘princess’

Thus the most common word for a girl in the tales is Mädchen (‘girl’). KönigsÂ� tochter (‘king’s daughter’) is the next most popular, and clearly reflects the social status of many of the girls in the tales, especially the magic tales. Jungfrau (‘maiden’, ‘virgin’) is also a popular choice, opening a bit of a window on what it takes to be a “good” heroine. Magd (‘maid’) is the next most frequent words for girls, but indicates servant status, and Prinzessin (‘princess’) is rather infrequent.

. This includes five tokens of hyphenated Mädchen, including Bettelmädchen (‘beggar girl’) and Dienstmädchen (‘serving girl’).

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In fact, it is a bit puzzling that the word Prinzessin is found at all. When one compares the 1st edition of the Grimm tales with the 7th, it becomes apparent that Wilhelm quite systematically eliminated occurrences of the word Prinzessin, frequently in favor of Königstochter, but also in favor of other girl-words. Compare, for example, the following passages from the first and last versions of “Cinderella:” Der Prinz aber sah den Wagen vor dem Thor halten, und meinte eine fremde (Grimm 1812, v. 1:â•›94) Prinzessin käme angefahren.  Seine Schwestern aber und die Stiefmutter kannten es nicht und meinten, es müsse eine fremde Königstochter sein, so schön sah es in dem goldenen Kleide aus.  (Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›140)

or from “Little Brier Rose:” Das traf auch ein, und der König war so erfreut über die Geburt der Prinzessin, daß er ein großes Fest anstellen ließ … dem erzählte ein alter Mann davon, man glaube, daß hinter der Dornhecke ein Schloß stehe, und eine wunderschöne (Grimm 1812, v. 1:â•›225, 227) Prinzessin schlafe darin …10  Was der Frosch gesagt hatte, das geschah, und die Königin gebar ein Mädchen, das war so schön, daß der König vor Freude sich nicht zu lassen wußte und ein großes Fest anstellte… ein alter Mann … erzählte, es sollte ein Schloß dahinter stehen, in welchem eine wunderschöne Königstochter, Dornröschen genannt, (Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›257) schon seit hundert Jahren schliefe, …11 

It should be noted that Prinz ‘prince’ and Königssohn ‘king’s son’ bear the same relationship to each other, and indeed the relevant princes change from the former to the latter designation in the same tales. Two questions immediately come to mind: (1) Why would the Grimms favor Königstochter over Prinzessin? (2) Why are there any Prinzessinnen left? I think . But the prince saw the carriage halt before the gate, and thought a foreign princess was arriving. . But her sisters and the stepmother didn’t recognize her and thought that it had to be a foreign king’s-daughter, she looked so beautiful in her golden dress. 10. And that was fulfilled, and the king was so overjoyed about the birth of the princess that he had a great festival put on … an old man told him that people believed there was a castle behind the hedge of thorns, and that a wonderfully beautiful princess was sleeping in it … 11. What the frog had said, happened, and the queen bore a girl that was so beautiful that the king couldn’t control himself for joy and put on a great festival … an old man related that there was supposedly a castle behind it, in which a wonderfully beautiful king’s-daughter, named Little Briar Rose, had been sleeping for a hundred years, …



Chapter 7.╇ Nouns (and their adjectives)

the answer to the first is reasonably obvious, and has been noted by other scholars.12 Prinz and Prinzessin were originally French words, borrowed into the German language in medieval times (as the Grimms well knew), whereas Königssohn and Königstochter are good German compounds. If the tales were to be seen as the product of the German culture, rather than, say, the French one, it stands to reason that German words should be used for their characters. The answer to the second question is not so obvious. Remarkably enough, of the surviving 21 examples of Prinzessin, a full ten are found in the tale “The Clever Little Tailor,” while another seven are found in two Low German tales (“FerenandÂ� Faithful and Ferenand Unfaithful” and “The Three Black Princesses”). The remaining four tales, with one example each, are “The Water of Life” (along with 20 examples of Prinz!), “The Two Travelers,” “Hans My Hedgehog” and, perhaps remarkably, “Cinderella.” I say remarkably because, as I noted above, “Cinderella” is one of the tales where the Grimms appear to have edited Prinzessin out. Yet in this one instance, it seems that Königstochter might not have been appropriate: »Seht einmal die stolze Prinzessin, wie sie geputzt ist!«13 (Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›137). This is said by Cinderella’s nasty stepsisters after they have removed her beautiful clothes and dressed her in rags. Here it would seem that Prinzessin bears a degree of irony that Königstochter would not carry, possibly because a Königstochter actually has to be one. There are two more terms quite commonly used for girls in the tales, to wit Tochter (‘daughter’) (by my count 224 occurrences)14 and Schwester (‘sister’) (84 occurrences not counting Schwesterchen/-lein, and including 5 Stiefschwester (‘step-sister’)). As we will see later, Tochter especially may be used in situations where two or more girls are being explicitly compared (Schwester not so much), which results in a different adjective-valence than for other girl-words.

7.2

Nouns for boys

With boys again, we find tales in which regular German names can be found, and indeed, this happens much more often than with girls. But the range of such names

12. See for example Tatar (2003:â•›31). 13. Just look at the proud princess, how decked out she is! 14. Including 6 Töchterlein (‘little daughter’), 10 Töchterchen (‘little daughter’), 11 Stieftochter (‘step-daughter’), 10 Müllerstochter (‘miller’s daughter’) 2 Bauerntochter ‘peasant’s Â�daughter’, 2 Schweinehirtentochter (‘swineherd’s daughter’) but not Königstochter, which was discussed above.

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is rather seriously limited. By far the most frequently found boy-name is Hans, occurring 289 times in 16 tales. In none of these tales is the individual in question of high social rank, though a couple (e.g. “Hans My Hedgehog”) achieve it in the end. We also find variants on Hans, e.g. Hansl (2 in one tale), Hänsel (45 in one tale), and Heinz (12 in one tale, plus three other occurrences in two other tales, one of which is a falsely guessed name, while the other two are essentially cross-references to the first tale). There are a few scattered other names such as Benjamin (11 in one tale) and Roland (14 in one tale), but again, as with the girls, they are rare. Also as with the girls, we do find male protagonists whose names say something about their condition or appearance. These are rather fewer in number than real names, however, and the two traits most referenced are stupidity and smallness: Dummling (‘Simpleton’ – 42 occurrences in three tales), Daumesdick (‘Thumbthick’€– 27/1), Daumerling (‘Thumbling’ – 16/1), Däumling (‘Thumbling’ – 3/1). Finally, boys too may be described by occupation or condition, and indeed this happens quite a bit more than with girls, and with more consistent reference within the tales. Thus in “The Brave Little Tailor” the protagonist is consistently referred to (40 times) as Schneider (‘tailor’) and Schneiderlein (‘little tailor’). The same goes for the hero of “The Tailor in Heaven” and the good Schneider of “The Two Travelers.” The bad Schuster (‘shoemaker’) of this latter tale is referred to as Schuster throughout. Other common occupations are Soldat (‘soldier’) and Jäger (‘hunter’). Given the number of times that male protagonists are referred to by names or by occupation in the tales (e.g. 203 Schneider, 201 Jäger), it is no surprise that there are fewer tokens of the more generic terms for boys or young men than for girls. The following are the principal ones I have found, with frequencies given after the dash, but ordered so as to parallel the girl-words:

Junge – 171/43 Knabe – 43/20 Bube – 15/7



Königssohn – 140/24 ‘king’s son’



Jüngling – 75/25

‘youth’



Knecht – 60/18 Bursche – 26/12

‘servant’ ‘fellow, apprentice’



Prinz – 32/6

‘prince’



Freier – 21/12

‘suitor’

all ‘boy,’ see discussion below

It should be noted that I have listed more words for boys than for girls. The primary reason for this is the fact that there seems to be no single male equivalent to



Chapter 7.╇ Nouns (and their adjectives)

the word Mädchen, but by my count at least three, by decreasing frequency (and I think age) Junge, Knabe and Bube15. Furthermore, the one servant-girl word corresponds with two male-servant words, namely Knecht and Bursche, the latter being more of an apprentice (a function not allotted to girls).16 It may be that I should see Jüngling as also being a Mädchen equivalent, but in fact, as we shall see later, the adjectives used with that word would argue that it is the closest one can get to a male Jungfrau. Finally, the word Freier (‘suitor’) represents another function girls do not have. As with the girl-word Tochter, the word Sohn (‘son’), but here also Bruder (‘brother’) opens up the possibility of a contrast between two or more boys, and shows a different adjective-valence pattern than the other boy-words.

7.3

Noun-use summary

The following points can thus be made regarding the nouns applied to boys and girls in the Grimm fairy tales: 1. On the whole, the use of real names for heroines in the Grimm tales is quite restricted. While far more male protagonists have such names, most of them are variations on Hans. In general, when real names are used for either gender they are usually applied to individuals of lower social standing in tales marked by an overall lack of magic (“Hänsel and Gretel” being in the latter respect a notable exception). 2. Names incorporating aspects of the protagonists’ physical appearance or significant aspects of their stories are more common for girls than boys. In the case of boys, the attributes referenced are primarily stupidity and smallness, whereas for girls the references are more varied (and notably do not include smallness and stupidity).

15. Bube includes the diminutives Bübchen and Büblein, and also compound words like Hofbuben (‘court boys’), but I’ve left out tokens of Spitzbube (‘rogue’), really only used as an epithet. 16. The word Lehrling (‘apprentice’) occurs once in the tales (in “The Trained Hunter,” 452), where this connection is clear: Er wär ein Schlossergesell, sagte der Bursch, aber das Handwerk gefiele ihm nicht mehr, und hätte Lust zur Jägerei, ob er ihn als Lehrling annehmen wollte. [‘He was a locksmith’s apprentice, the fellow said, but trade didn’t appeal to him any more, and he had an appetite for hunting, and he asked whether he would take him on as an apprentice.’]

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3. Both girl and boy protagonists can be referenced by nouns (not names) indicating their condition or occupation. This happens much more often for boys than for girls, however, clearly corresponding to the fact that boys are more likely to have an occupation than girls. 4. Most references to girls in the tales are by means of a limited number of common nouns. While one can find corresponding nouns referencing boys (an expanded number, in fact, because of boys’ larger number of possible roles), the name Hans, for example, with 289 tokens in the tales, and, as I noted, the common noun Schneider with 203, far outstrip any of them, Junge being the most frequent common noun with 171 tokens. By contrast, Gretel, with 96 tokens, is the most frequent girl-name (compared with 324 Mädchen). 5. Prinzessin and Prinz are very low-frequency words by comparison with Königstochter and Königssohn, and this is a result of systematic substitution by the Grimms from the first to the seventh edition of the tales. 6. (More a promise than an established fact:) The words Tochter, Sohn and Bruder (not so much Schwester) differ from other common nouns referencing girls and boys by their increased potential for contrasting individuals with one another. The differences noted here between boys and girls should be kept in mind in the following sections. While both are subject to the kind of stereotyping discussed in 7.1.6 (stupidity being a property common to many heroes of tales), with their personal names and occupational designations boys in general are less stereotyped, which, as we will see, also correlates with an overall smaller number of predictable adjectives associated with them.

7.4

Adjectival properties of the nouns

In this section, I intend to demonstrate a notable asymmetry in the types and numbers of adjectives applied to girl-words and boy-words in the KHM. I have restricted myself to the common nouns listed above; names normally do not have adjectives associated with them except in titles (although we can certainly deduce the qualities involved, frequently beauty or stupidity). The subsections are arranged according to the groups of parallel girl-words and boy-words I have discussed above, to see what adjectives are associated with them, and what regularities can be ascertained. In the next chapter I will focus more on the adjectives themselves.



Chapter 7.╇ Nouns (and their adjectives)

7.4.1 Mädchen/Junge/Knabe/Bube In this, as well as the following sections, I used the following procedure: For each token of the nouns involved, found in a word-search of the database, I looked at the passages in which they were found, and noted all the adjectives within twenty words in either direction. Only those adjectives were tabulated which I determined were in fact meant to apply to the person denoted by the noun. I then checked my tabulations for individual noun-adjective pairings by doing the relevant Boolean AND search. While I think I in fact captured every adjective meant to be applied to the relevant nouns, some of them which do not appear to bear on the discussion, such as unbekannt (‘unknown’), neugeboren (‘newborn’), unerwartet (‘unexpected’) and even verzaubert (‘enchanted’) have been left out. By far the most common adjective to be applied to Mädchen is schön (‘beautiful’). It represents 26 out of the total of 67 adjectives associated with that noun (or 39%). It is also applied to 26 out of 324 Mädchen tokens (or 8%). The only other physical appearance adjective, besides size, to be associated with Mädchen is weiß (‘white’) with one token. One example of the size-adjective klein (‘small’) is also found, clearly not an important association. For the boy-words, physical beauty is clearly not as important. Though we find four associations (out of a possible 43) of schön with (the younger) Knabe, and one out of a possible 15 with (the also younger) Bube, out of 171 tokens of Junge none is schön. Overall, then, only 2% of these boy-words is associated with schön. These five tokens of schön also represent only 10% of the overall number of 49 adjectives associated with these nouns. For males, however, size is important. Seven Jungen are klein, two groß (‘big’). Four Knaben are klein, one groß. One Bube is klein. In all, then, these size-words are applied to 6.5% of all the boy-tokens, and represent 30.5% of all adjectives applied to them. Another category apparently important for Mädchen is that of industry and hard work. We find five tokens of the positive adjectives gehorsam (‘obedient’) fleißig (‘industrious’) and arbeitsam (‘industrious’) applied to them, and one of the negative adjective nachläßig (‘careless’), in total representing 9% of all adjectives. For the boys, we find no such adjectives at all. Though the numbers are small, we find three Mädchen characterized as treu (‘faithful’) and none of the boy-words. It should be noted that this word, and indeed the entire category of faithfulness, is normally reserved for words like Diener (‘servant’). Again with small numbers, the category of bravery is represented with wacker (‘valiant’) for two Jungen. No girls show adjectives in this category. Boys and girls are about equally split on the adjective arm (‘helpless’) (which certainly has good representation). We find 10 tokens applying to Junge, 1 to

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Knabe, and 11 to Mädchen. They also appear about equal in adjectives characterizing moral disposition, with four tokens of Mädchen being associated with fromm (‘pious’) while one is associated with gemein (‘common’) and one with gottlos (‘godless’). The boys have only the negatives gottlos (1 token) and böse (‘bad’€– 2 tokens) associated with them. This latter gender difference in the proportion of good to bad adjectives is undoubtedly related to the Grimms’ tendency, discussed in 7.4.â•›6, to use the word Mädchen by preference for “good” girls. While we will find important differences in Chapter 10, by the test applied here to these words (and the resulting small numbers), boys and girls do not differ in intelligence/mental skills adjectives. Two Mädchen are klug (‘clever’), one närrisch (‘foolish’), while two Jungen are klug, one gescheit (‘bright’) and one verschlagen (‘wily’). There remain a number of adjectives and adjective-categories with numbers much too small to call. In personal disposition words dealing with sociability, one Junge is ungeraten (‘undutiful’), one Bube is lieblich (‘charming’) and one Mädchen is garstig (‘nasty’). In those dealing with mental attitude, important for other girl-words and boy-words, we have one Knabe associated with munter (‘cheerful’). Under health, finally, one Knabe is frisch (‘fresh’) and one stark (‘strong’). In the category of age, we find not only jung (‘young’) and alt (‘old’), but also jüngst (‘youngest’) and ältest (‘oldest’) applying to both girl-words and boy-words, here in small numbers. I will argue in 7.4.â•›6 that the comparative age adjectives are in fact important for establishing contrasts between individuals, especially boys. To sum up for the words looked at in this section: Important adjectives for categorizing girls, but not boys, involve physical appearance (but not size), industry and hard work, and possibly faithfulness. Boys’ categories involve size and possibly bravery. We will find these gender distinctions confirmed below and in the following chapters, where other categories such as intelligence/mental skills, rather feebly documented for these words, will also be found to show significant gender differences.

7.4.2 Königstochter/Königssohn My discussion of adjectives associated with these words can be shorter than that found in the last section, for the simple reason that there are fewer such adjectives, especially for Königssohn. Furthermore, the range of adjectives applying to them is much more restricted. Beginning with Königstochter, again by far the main adjective applied is schön (20 times, applying to 10% of all noun tokens). But whereas for Mädchen it represents 39% of all adjectives, here it represents 52.5%. The one other physical appearance adjective which applies to Königstochter is prächtig (‘magnificent’) (once).



Chapter 7.╇ Nouns (and their adjectives)

Königssohn, on the other hand, shows no examples of schön, unless one counts an example of mit schönen Augen (‘with beautiful eyes’). But lest one suspect that these males simply show a preponderance of adjectives in other categories, I should make it clear that there are no such categories. Königssohn takes practically no adjectives at all, in total really only seven (for 140 noun tokens). None of these have to do with personal physical or personality characteristics, either. Of adjectives found in the last section we have one example of arm, two of jung, one of jüngst, and one of ältest. These are rounded out by one example of größer in the meaning ‘of higher social standing’ and one example of verzaubert (‘enchanted’). Returning to Königstochter, although we have more adjectives applying to tokens of this word than to those of its male equivalent, outside of schön they tend to be of the same sort. Thus we have one example of arm, three of jung, three of jüngst, one word reich (‘rich’) characterizing social standing, and two of verzaubert. Additionally we find two examples of fremd (‘foreign’), one of the health word gesund (‘healthy’), and one of schlafend (‘sleeping’). Königstochter is rescued from total vacuity, however, by three examples of mental attitude adjectives, namely übermütig (‘arrogant’), verdrießlich (‘peevish’), and stolz (‘proud’). In Chapter 9, we will see that this is more interesting than the numbers here suggest. To summarize this section: To judge from accompanying adjectives, the nouns Königstochter and Königssohn represent more stereotypical concepts than the nouns found in the preceding section, with very few truly personal characteristics attached to them. This is especially the case for Königssohn, with its true paucity of accompanying adjectives. The association of Königstochter with schön reinforces the notion that descriptions of physical appearance are strongly associated with females, but of personality we have only three relevant adjectives, though I will argue later that they are important ones.

7.4.3 Jungfrau/Jüngling If Mädchen and Königstochter are associated with schön more than any other adjective, Jungfrau reaches an entirely new plane in this respect. Out of the total of 127 Jungfrau tokens, fully 30 (24%) are schön. This also represents 71.5% of all adjectives used for them. If one adds the positive appearance adjectives weiß (four tokens) and golden (‘golden’) (one token) to this number, this reaches 83.5% of all adjectives used for Jungfrau. At this point, it would appear that all Jungfrauen must be beautiful. Yet we find one example of schwarz (‘black’) associated with the word, and one of Â�schmutzig (‘dirty’). As it happens, though, I think both can be explained. The schwarze Jungfrau is really not black, but white. Her appearance has been changed

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by Â�enchantment, and in the course of the tale the enchantment is broken and she resumes her true color. As for the Jungfrau who is schmutzig, I believe it is an anomaly created by the Grimms’ desire not only to use poetry in their tales (as documented in Chapter€3), but also frequently to repeat verses with, if not identical, at least parallel form.17 Here is the schmutzige Jungfrau, from “Frau Holle:”

kikeriki, unsere schmutzige Jungfrau ist wieder hie.18

This is uttered by a rooster when the lazy and ugly bad sister returns from her adventures covered by pitch, and parallels completely, except for one word, the earlier greeting uttered when the beautiful and industrious sister returns from hers covered with gold:

kikeriki, unsere goldene Jungfrau ist wieder hie.19

I noted earlier that I found Jüngling to be that male word most parallel to Jungfrau. This is based largely upon a parallel emphasis on physical beauty, albeit with a lower overall frequency. Of the 75 tokens of Jüngling found in the tales, a full seven (out of 13 total adjectives, or 54%) are characterized as schön, which in absolute numbers outstrips any other boy-term, and in proportion of adjective to noun tokens (9%) even outstrips Mädchen. Furthermore, we find two other positive physical appearance terms associated with this noun, namely königlich (‘regal’) once and stolz once. If we look at other types of adjectives associated with Jungfrau and Jüngling, we may detect more parallels, but also at least the hint of a gender difference. Parallel is the fact that negative adjectives, except for the schmutzig discussed above, are conspicuously absent. But the categories into which the good adjectives fall are different, if one can judge from very few examples. Throwing out the adjective verzaubert (‘enchanted’), three of the remaining four adjectives applying to Jungfrau describe the girls’ moral disposition, these being one example each of unschuldig (‘innocent’), rein (‘pure’) and keusch (‘chaste’). On 17. Examples abound. One may think of the numerous repetitions of Spieglein, Spieglein an der Wand … (‘Mirror, mirror on the wall’) in “Snow White,” or, with the kind of variation found here, the birds’ warning in “Cinderella:” Rucke di guck, rucke di guck, Blut ist im Schuck/kein Blut im Schuck (‘Rucke di guck, there’s blood in the shoe/no blood in the shoe’). 18. Cockadoodle-doo, our dirty maiden is back again. 19. Cockadoodle-doo, our golden maiden is back again.



Chapter 7.╇ Nouns (and their adjectives)

the other hand, The remaining three adjectives describing Jünglinge (leaving out unbekannt (‘unknown’)) appear to describe social traits: gut (‘good’) (when helping animals; I will argue later that gut is best translated ‘good-hearted’ when describing male individuals), freundlich (‘friendly’), and gutmütig (‘good-natured’) (one token each). There remains one adjective-token applying to an instance of Jungfrau, namely klug (‘clever’). While this is not inconsistent with a girl-word, I find it a bit unexpected here. But the person denoted by this instance of Jungfrau is more of a bit actor in her tale (“The Prince Who Fears Nothing”), and it is her cleverness, not her maidenhood, that plays a role in the plot. In other words, both Jungfrauen and Jünglinge are primarily characterized by adjectives reflecting their physical beauty. If this external beauty is a reflection of anything internal, judging from the other adjectives associated with them it would seem to be purity for the girls (innocent, pure and chaste), and generosity for the boys (good-hearted, friendly and good-natured).

7.4.4 Magd/Knecht/Bursche It is surely a reflection of their relative importance in the tales, and not really of the number of noun-tokens, but the boy servants here have a lot more associated adjectives than the girl servants. Indeed, if one ignores horchend (‘listening’) and gewesen (‘former’), there is only one adjective applying to Magd at all, with one token, and that is arm. This should be contrasted with 13 adjectives applying to the 60 Knecht tokens (21.5%), and 10 to the 26 Bursche tokens (38%). Needless to say, physical appearance is not an important category for these boywords, and no such adjectives are applied to them. Instead, the most important categories would appear to be those of social traits and mental skills. Thus we find 7 tokens of gut (‘good’) and one of lieb (‘dear’) applied to Knecht, as well as three tokens of klug (‘clever’). Burschen are described as artig (‘well-behaved’), behend (‘nimble’), närrisch (‘foolish’) and albern (‘daft’) (one token each). The remaining adjectives applying to Knecht are faul (‘lazy’) (once) and treu (‘true’) (once), while Burschen are jung (four times) and schlecht (‘of lower social standing’) (twice). To sum up this section: girl-servants appear not to play a major role in most fairy tales (at least under the noun Magd – the nasty maid of “The Goosegirl” appears as a Kammerjungfer (‘chamber maiden’) and Kammerfrau (‘chamber woman’) before she emerges as the falsche Braut (‘false bride’)), and thus they rate no adjectives. Male servants are much more central, being indeed the main characters in a number of tales. Like other boys, they are primarily ranked according to social traits and mental skills.

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7.4.5 Prinzessin/Prinz, Freier In Section 7.1 I explained that Prinzessin and Prinz were scaled back a great deal in the KHM due to their Romance origin. The limited number of noun tokens left naturally corresponds to a limited amount of adjective evidence. There are only six adjectives associated with Prinzessin and four with Prinz (which, compared with Königssohn, is proportionally quite a lot). The adjectives used are not inconsistent with those used for Königstochter and Königssohn. Thus for Prinzessin we find two adjectives of physical appearance (schön and schwat = schwarz), one of size (klein), two of mental attitude (both stolz), and ältest. For Königssohn, we find two examples of schön, one of klein, and one verwünscht (‘enchanted’). Finally, for the word Freier (‘suitor’), a male word with no female equivalent, there are no associated adjectives beyond unerwartet (‘unexpected’) and ordentlich (‘proper’). There are, of course, only 21 tokens of this noun.

7.4.6 Relationship terms I noted earlier that relationship terms such as Tochter, Sohn and Bruder, more than any of the girl- and boy-words discussed to this point, opened up the possibility of contrast between different individuals in the same tale. Such contrasts may in turn be reflected by (1) a larger overall proportion of adjectives to nouns, and (2) a wider variety of adjectives used. As I stated earlier, there are 224 occurrences of Tochter-variants in the tales. The adjectives associated with them follow some of the same general tendencies as the girl words discussed earlier, as far as the general categories are concerned. Thus with 35 tokens schön is used far more than any other adjective, and appearance terms in general (including four weiß (‘white’), one glänzend (‘magnificent’), two rot (‘red’), three schwarz (‘black’) and eight häßlich (‘ugly’)) represent 53 of the total of 86 adjective tokens (excluding relative-age adjectives, discussed below). The category of industry, with 6 tokens (one fleißig (‘industrious’), four faul (‘lazy’), one arbeitsam (‘hard-working’)), is like that for the word Mädchen above. Moral disposition is represented by two fromm (‘pious’), one tugendreich (‘virtuous’) and three böse (‘bad’). One Tochter is arm. The category of mental attitude is represented with three tokens (or four, if one counts ernsthaft (‘earnest’)), namely one übermütig (‘arrogant’) and two stolz (‘proud’). One reich (‘rich’) captures social standing. Again the category of mental skills is hardly represented at all (two klug meant seriously, one not). One noticeable difference, however, is that, with 12 tokens, the category of sociability is much better represented for Tochter than for any of the other Â�girl-wordsÂ�



Chapter 7.╇ Nouns (and their adjectives)

above. We find five instances of lieb (‘dear’), one of lieblich (‘charming’), four of gut,20 and one each of widerlich (‘obnoxious’) and unartig (‘naughty’). Another, even more striking difference from the other girl-words is that negative words in most categories are much better represented with the Tochter variants. Fully 23 of 86 adjective tokens, or 28% of all adjectives for Töchter (again excluding relative-age adjectives), are negative ones. 21 This can be compared with a total of 13 negative adjectives out of 156 adjectives (8.5%) for all other girl-words discussed in previous sections. Yet another noticeable difference between Tochter and other girl words is the simple proportion of such words that are associated with adjectives at all. The proportion of adjective tokens to Tochter tokens is 86 to 224, or a full 38.5%, which easily beats out any and all of the girl words above. The highest of those is Jungfrau at 33%, but the more frequent Königstochter and Mädchen stand at about 20%, and the absolute numbers for Magd and Prinzessin are too low to put in percentages. As I noted earlier, I believe that what accounts for these differences is that, unlike the other words for girls I have discussed (and here I include KönigsÂ� tochter, which frequently appears without any kings or siblings in the tale), most of these Tochter words involve a relationship between the person in question and another person in the tale, and in a subset of cases it involves comparison with someone else in the tale, possibly the (step)parent (cf. “Snow White”), more often with a (step)sister. This is the situation of the good girl in “Frau Holle,” of the white bride in “The White and the Black Bride,” and many other heroines in other tales. It is the need for comparison (especially at the beginning of a tale) that increases the relative number of adjectives used, and also the proportion of negative adjectives overall.22 The need for comparison might also account for the number of relative-age adjectives I have delayed discussing until now. The fact is, there are proportionately a lot more of them (10 jüngst (‘youngest’), 8 ältest (‘oldest’), out of a total 20. Actually, as I will argue later, gut in girls is frequently ambiguous as to whether it describes a moral state or a social trait. 21. I will demonstrate later that stolz is a negative word for girls. 22. Interestingly enough, the same cannot be said for the word Schwester, with its variants Schwesterlein, Schwesterchen, or Stiefschwester. These words appear a total of 116 times. Of that total, many are simply used as names (the 20 examples of Schwesterchen in “Little Brother and Little Sister” are a good example). But in any case, adjectives are hardly ever used with Schwester tokens. In all, I find 8 examples of lieb, 1 of schön, 1 gut, 1 falsch ‘false,’ and 1 arm. “Old Hildebrand” provides us with 8 examples of krank (‘sick’), but this is of course not a personal characteristic per se.

99

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now of 104 adjectives, or 17.5%, versus 6/156 or 4% for the other girl-words23). Generally speaking, jüngst is good, ältest is less good, though I find one exception where the älteste Tochter, also a Prinzessin, is the prize for a hero. But note this peripherality; she’s a prize, not a heroine, unlike, say, stepdaughters. It is also not the case that the younger sisters are bad in this tale; they’re hardly mentioned. In contrast with Sohn, which I discuss below, one or both of these two features, peripherality and lack of a real contrast, characterize most of the relativeage Töchter I have identified. Only in “Saint Joseph in the Forest,” which bears some similarity to “Frau Holle,” is a good jüngste Tochter both the heroine and contrasted with a bad älteste Tochter. Three other jüngste Töchter, in “The Frog King,” “The Singing, Springing Lark” and “The Goose Girl at the Well,” are heroines without any real contrast with their sisters, and while the good jüngste Tochter in “Bearskin” definitely has speaking lines, she’s a prize, not a heroine. There is another reason besides the need for explicit comparison that Tochter shows more negative adjectives than any of the other words for girl, and this is that the Grimms clearly tended to avoid using those other words for an individual already identified as bad. “Frau Holle” offers us a good example of this. At the beginning, the two girls are introduced as follows: “Eine Witwe hatte zwei Töchter, davon war die eine schön und fleißig, die andere häßlich und faul.” (Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›150)24 Subsequently we hear of the good daughter that “Das arme Mädchen mußte sich täglich auf die große Straße bei einem Brunnen setzen, und mußte so viel spinnen, daß ihm das Blut aus den Fingern sprang.” (Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›150)25 Thereafter she is referred to as a Mädchen or a Kind. The bad daughter, however, besides being referred to twice more as die häßliche und faule Tochter,26 goes on either as a simple sie (‘she’) (vs. the good daughter’s es (‘it’), see Chapter 9 for a discussion) or as die Faule (‘the lazy one’). She does end up being a schmutzige Jungfrau, as I noted above, but as I have also indicated, this is an exceptional pairing due to the Grimms’ desire for parallel rhymes for the rooster greeting the two sisters on their return home.

23. Actually, at 3/39, or about 7.5%, Königstochter distantly approaches Tochter (though with a much smaller proportion of adjectives overall), and reduces the remaining usage of relative age words to 3/117 or 2.5% for the remaining girl words. 24. A widow had two daughters, of which one was beautiful and industrious, the other ugly and lazy. 25. The poor girl had to sit every day by the big highway next to a well, and had to spin so much that blood sprang from her fingers. 26. the ugly and lazy daughter



Chapter 7.╇ Nouns (and their adjectives) 101

The same phenomenon of Mädchen-avoidance can be observed in “Cinderella,” where the heroine is regularly a Mädchen when her name isn’t being used, but the bad girls are referred to as Stieftöchter (‘stepdaughters’), Schwestern (‘sisters’), and individually as die älteste and die andere Schwester (‘the oldest’ and ‘the other sister’). There are admittedly two references to them as Mädchen, but they stand out by their rarity. The heroine of “Little Brother and Little Sister” is a Mädchen when she isn’t Schwesterchen, but her bad stepsister is always a Tochter. The heroine of “The White and the Black Bride” gets to be a Mädchen, but the bad sister is regularly die Schwarze (‘the black one’). I do not claim that all Mädchen are good (certainly there exist counterexamples, such as the bad girl in “Frau Trude”), just that the Grimms tended to avoid using the word for bad girls. And to judge from the paucity of negative adjectives associated with Jungfrau, Königstochter, and Prinzessin, they felt the same way about those terms as well. Sohn, like Tochter, opens up the possibility of contrast, and thus in principle more adjectives. But in fact, excluding adjectives indicating birth sequence, we end up with 35 adjectives spread across 215 Sohn tokens, or about 16% (roughly the same as other boy words). In a number of categories these adjectives are not inconsistent with the characteristics of other boy-words. Thus we have two examples of “physical-appearance” schön (which is not much when compared with the girls), two of “size” klein, three “moral-disposition” adjectives (two unschuldig (‘innocent’), one böse (‘bad’)), one “mental-attitude” adjective munter (‘cheerful’), and a “health” adjective frisch (‘fresh’). In the areas of sociability and mental skills, Sohn is comparable to the boyservant words Knecht and Bursche, but because of the larger number of tokens, the importance of those categories for boys is accentuated. Thus fully nine of the 35 overall adjectives are lieb, the other sociability words being wild (‘wild’€– once) and undankbar (‘unthankful’ – twice). In the mental skill category, we have a full 14 adjectives, including klug (four), gescheit (‘bright’ – two), listig (‘cunning’€– one), schlecht beschlagen (‘ill-equipped’ – one), einfältig (‘simple’ – one) and dumm (‘dumb’ – five). Interestingly enough, it is harder here than for the girls to determine fully which adjectives are positive and which negative, especially because so many of them fall in the area of mental skills. As we will see in Chapter 10, klug isn’t always, or even normally, positive for boys, nor is dumm normally negative. At best, we can say that, as with Tochter, there are more oppositions in the adjectives applied to Sohn than with the other boy-words. It will be remembered that jüngst and ältest, while being relatively good and bad adjectives, are not usually employed in a central, contrastive way for Tochter. The same cannot be said for Sohn, and here also the sibling-word Bruder (‘brother’). For these words, the relative-age adjectives function the same way that

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Â� stepdaughterhood does for girls: The youngest son or brother, like the stepdaughter, is normally the (good) hero of the story, as contrasted with his non-good brothers, and wins the prize. By my count, there are 7 jüngste Söhne tokens in the tales, as well as 9 Â�jüngste Brüder. There are also 8 älteste Söhne tokens and 5 älteste Brüder. Of the 11 tales that have the jüngst tokens, 8 of them have that character as the hero and a contrast with his brothers (“The Singing Bone,” “The Golden Bird,” “The Queen Bee,” “The Three Feathers,” “The Sea-Hare,” “The Tale of One Who Went Out to Learn Fear,” “The Water of Life” and “The Golden Goose”). In the other three (“The Twelve Brothers,” “The Two Brothers“ and “The Four Skillful Brothers“), while the jüngst character may or may not be the protagonist, there is no explicit contrast with his older brothers. As for the ältest characters, they mostly appear in the same tales (negatively when the youngest brother is positive), except for two (“The Three Spinning Women” and “Table-Be-Set …”) where no explicit jüngst character is around, and the characters are not seen as negative. To sum up this section on relationship terms: Far more than other girlwords and boy-words, they are associated with contrasts between individuals in the tales. For Tochter, this leads to a higher proportion of adjectives to nouns, and for both Tochter and Sohn it leads to more contrasting adjectives. For both Tochter and Sohn, adjectives in the area of “social traits” assume a more pronounced importance than for the other girl-words and boy-words. Otherwise, the data for Tochter reinforce the emphasis on physical appearance, industry and moral disposition in characterizing girls, and the emphasis on mental skills to characterize boys.

7.4.7 Common common nouns and their traits in the KHM Tabulating adjectives other than jüngst and ältest, but combining now the earlier girl-words with Tochter, and the boy-words with Sohn, we note a striking overall contrast between the types of adjectives used to refer to girls and boys in the tales, captured by the following chart:27

27. Note that the numbers don’t add up to the total at the top of the columns, nor do the percentages equal 100%, because unclassified adjectives, such as those mentioned at the beginning of 7.4.1, have been left out.



Chapter 7.╇ Nouns (and their adjectives) 103

Numbers and types of adjectives applied to Girl and Boy nouns in the KHM Adjective category

Appearance Moral disposition Industry Sociability Size Mental skills

schön other other

(positive) (positive) (negative) (positive) (negative) (positive) (negative) (positive) (negative)



(smarter) (dumber)

Faithfulness Helplessness Age Mental attitude Health Social standing Tokens tabulated (percentage of total)

Tokens applied to Girls (% of 242 total adjectives)

Tokens applied to Boys (% of 134 total adjectives)

112 (46.5%) â•⁄ 14 (6%) â•⁄ 14 (6%) â•⁄ 10 (4%) â•⁄â•⁄ 5 (2%) â•⁄â•⁄ 7 (3%) â•⁄â•⁄ 5 (2%) â•⁄ 12 (5%) â•⁄â•⁄ 6 (2.5%) â•⁄â•⁄ 2 (1%) â•⁄â•⁄ 6 (2.5%) â•⁄â•⁄ 1 (.5%) â•⁄â•⁄ 3 (1%) â•⁄ 14 (6%) â•⁄â•⁄ 7 (3%) â•⁄â•⁄ 6 (2.5%) â•⁄â•⁄ 1 (.5%) â•⁄â•⁄ 2 (1%) 227 (94%)

â•⁄ 17 (12.5%) â•⁄â•⁄ 2 (1.5%) â•⁄ – â•⁄â•⁄ 2 (1.5%) â•⁄â•⁄ 4 (3%) â•⁄ – â•⁄â•⁄ 1 (.75%) â•⁄ 21 (15.5%) â•⁄â•⁄ 4 (3%) â•⁄ 18 (13.5%) â•⁄ 16 (12%) â•⁄â•⁄ 9 (6.75%) â•⁄â•⁄ 1 (.75%) â•⁄ 12 (9%) â•⁄â•⁄ 7 (5.25%) â•⁄â•⁄ 3 (2.25%) â•⁄â•⁄ 3 (2.25%) â•⁄â•⁄ 2 (1.5%) 122 (91%)

In this chart, I have highlighted in boldface the most important differences I see between the adjectives used for girls and boys. This means that, as far as the categories of faithfulness, helplessness, age, mental attitudes, health, social standing and enchantment standing are concerned, I do not see important differences between the adjectives used for the girl and boy nouns presented in this chapter. And except for arm, the percentages of usage are low for both genders in these categories. Moral disposition is a bit more complicated. While girl words show more positive adjectives of this sort than do boy words, there appears to be no significant difference in negative adjectives. One might initially think that this is an artifact of the way this chart was established, based on the appearance of adjectives with the specific set of words discussed in this chapter. For as I note in 7.4.6, the Grimms have a tendency to refer to bad girls with formulations like “the black one” or “the lazy one” (both of these actually incorporating negative adjectives), rather than words like Mädchen, so negative adjectives referring to them are less likely to appear on this particular chart. But in fact, as we will see in Chapter 9, while positive moral disposition adjectives are much more frequently applied to

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girls than to boys, or adults of either sex, negative moral disposition adjectives are not. Indeed, here the tendency is towards characterizing adults rather than children, with boys and girls showing a similar paucity of such attributes. It will also be important to look at the main adjective found in my category for mental attitude, stolz, since I find that it has a different valence for the different genders (I do this in Chapter 9). It should furthermore be noted that in the mental skills category, rather than rating the adjectives as positive or negative, because of gender differences I have simply used the terms “smarter” and “dumber.” I will explore this further in Chapter 10. These categories aside, clearly with or without schön, external appearance is much more important for girls than for boys. So is industriousness, though the overall numbers are lower in these samples (if we just looked at the tokens modifying Mädchen and Tochter, the only nouns so modified, the proportion would be higher, namely 12/153, or 8%). On the other hand, mental skills are much more important in the description of boys than for girls (though what is good and what is bad may be debatable, as I noted above). Social appeal or abilities also seem more important for boys than girls, and size (mostly klein, less often groß) is clearly more important for the male gender. It should be noted that while we have been able above to establish clear trends in the use of adjectives for boys and girls in the fairy tales, we have by no means captured every example of an adjective applying to a girl or boy. In the first place, words for boys and girls other than those I list above crop up from time to time, with associated adjectives, and those will not have been entered in the tables above. To give but two examples: 1. The heroine in “King Thrushbeard,” referred to among other things as a Tochter and Königstochter, also occurs as a schöne Frau (‘beautiful woman’) twice, as well as an arme Frau (‘poor woman’) once. 2. The young man who saves and marries the heroine in “One-Eye, Two-Eyes. Three-Eyes” happens to be a Ritter (‘knight’) rather than a Königssohn. He is jung and schön all the same. Another factor contributing to the incompleteness of my tabulation is the fact, already discussed, that some of the actors in the fairy tales have names. “Clever Hans” and “Clever Else” contain two such characters, and even the titles show adjectives not tabulated above. Though adjective-tokens such as these may not have been counted in the tables above, it is important to note that the adjectives themselves have normally been listed, and their usage in instances such as these are very much in line with that portrayed in the tables. Furthermore, many of these adjective-tokens will in fact be considered in the following chapters dealing with conjoined adjectives and a number of the individual adjectives.



Chapter 7.╇ Nouns (and their adjectives) 105

7.4.8 Kind For the sake of completeness, I should note that there is one more common noun used to refer to either girls or boys in the tales, namely Kind (‘child’). A perusal of the 400+ tokens of this morpheme in the tales, including items such as Königskind (‘king’s child’) and Kindlein (‘little child’), but not items like Glückskind (‘lucky fellow’) used as an appellation or, say, Kinderfrau (‘nanny’) or Kinderstube (‘children’s room’), reveals that only about a third of these tokens refer to a girl, while the other two-thirds are boys, unclear, or mixed-gender in the plural. By far the most frequent adjective used to refer to a Kind or Kinder is lieb or liebst (‘dearest’), found 25 times in the tales (plus one liebreich (‘loving’)). 16 of these adjectives are used in direct speech from an adult, usually a parent. Whether these examples of lieb can be referred to as actual traits of the children involved is open to debate. There remain 10 examples, then, where one can speak of lieb or liebreich as a social trait. These are joined by four examples of gut, one of mitleidig (‘empathetic’), one of eigensinnig (‘headstrong’) and one of unartig (‘naughty’). The second most common adjective applying to Kind is the physical-appearance term schön, with 15 tokens, joined by blaß (‘pale’) (once), häßlich (twice) and ungestalt (‘misshapen’) (once). The third is arm, with 13 tokens, joined as a helplessness term by hungrig (‘hungry’), hilflos (‘helpless’) and verlassen (‘abandoned’). Moral state is clearly an important category for Kind, with a total of 12 adjective tokens, including fromm (‘pious’) (thrice), unschuldig (‘innocent’) (twice), ehrlich (‘honest’) (thrice), gottlos (‘godless’) (once), unehrlich (‘dishonest’) (once) and böse (‘wicked’) (twice). Finally, the other adjectives applying to Kind are six tokens of the size-adjective klein, two of the relative-age adjective jüngst, one of ältest, and a full six, like neugeboren (‘newborn’), ungleich (‘unequal’), recht (‘genuine’) and the like, which don’t bear on the discussion here. If we compare the findings for Kind with those for the more explicit girlwords and boy-words above, we may note that Kind in fact shares traits with both. As with girls, though not so extreme, physical appearance is important (19 out of 94 adjectives, or 20%), as with boys social traits are (18%). Positive moral state at 8.5% is more important even than for girls. And helplessness, at 17%, seriously trumps both girl- and boy-words. Notably lacking are the industry and mentalskills categories associated most prominently with girls and boys, respectively.

7.5 Grimm stereotyping – a first take In this chapter I have approached the KHM from the perspective of the nouns that the Grimms favored when referring to the heroines or heroes of their tales. Proceeding from those nouns, I have looked at the adjectives that are typically

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associated with them. On the level of noun-choice itself, we have seen several tendencies. As a first observation, and in line with the Germanizing tendencies discussed in Chapter 3, I found that as regards words for ‘prince’ or ‘princess’ the demonstrably German words Königssohn and Königstochter are preferred over the clear French borrowings Prinz and Prinzessin. Other choices that the Grimms make would seem to reflect their gender stereotypes rather than their nationalism, however. For example, one thing notable about the central boy-words I have discussed in this chapter is that there are more of them, which reflects more distinctions for males than for females in the fairy tales. And as for those central words the Grimms do use for girls, they are by preference used for good girls, with bad girls being relegated to descriptive phrases like “the black/lazy one.” There are other characteristics of the nouns used to refer to males that distinguish them from females. Males are referred to with real names more often than females, even if the name is often Hans. Girls’ names, on the other hand, much more often than those for males, refer to their appearance or story situation (”Snow White,” “Little Brier Rose”). And while males can be, and are referred to as, tailors and soldiers, rather than just boys, females don’t have that option. This tendency to generalize and stereotype the female figures more than the male figures in the KHM is also amply demonstrated by the adjectives associated with the nouns discussed in this chapter. It is perhaps most clearly documented in the fact that a full 58% of all adjectives applied to the female nouns refer to their physical appearance, and of those the vast majority are tokens of schön (‘beautiful’). In contrast, there is no category of adjectives which dominates in the description of males, the most numerous one, that of sociability, adding up to a mere 18%. That said, there are definitely categories of adjectives more likely to be assigned to males than to females in the KHM. If girls are predominantly classified according to their appearance, moral disposition and industry, boys are more likely to be associated with adjectives describing their sociability, size and mental acuity. In the next three chapters I will devote detailed descriptions, with extensive documentation from the tales, to a subset of the adjectives we have seen in this chapter. The ones I discuss stand out for several reasons: (1) their overall frequency; (2) their tendency to occur in contrastive environments where one individual is explicitly compared with another or others; (3) in many cases (though this will be discussed in the individual sections), their strong association with one gender rather than the other when they are applied to human beings. But while the emphasis is on the application of adjectives to people, where relevant (and this is especially the case with the colors) I discuss and classify all uses of a given adjective.

chapter 8

Appearance In this chapter I will be looking at five adjectives of appearance, and how they are used, in some detail. The category itself, as I argued in the last chapter, is largely reserved to females, but we will have occasion to discuss a few instances of schön (‘beautiful’) and weiß (‘white’) applied to males that are not, I will argue, entirely unconnected with this feminine bias. The adjectives were chosen in line with the criteria outlined at the end of the last chapter. That is, they are frequent, they occur in contrastive environments, and they are associated much more with girls than with boys. The adjectives in question are the two contrasting attractiveness terms schön and häßlich (‘ugly’), and the three color terms weiß (‘white’), schwarz (‘black’) and rot (‘red’).

8.1 Beauty The pair of contrasting adjectives discussed in this section not only lies at the center of other appearance adjectives applying to Grimm heroines and their bad counterparts, it can also predict most of their other traits as well. As we will see, unless otherwise stipulated, the beauty or ugliness of a girl entails other facts about her moral disposition, her industriousness, her sociability, in fact about anything that distinguishes good from bad.

8.1.1 schön (‘beautiful’) Not only is the adjective schön overwhelmingly predicated of girls and young women in the KHM (being also the main adjective so predicated), perhaps unsurprisingly, the girls of whom it is predicated are almost always good. A useful test for this is to look at all of the adjectives linked with schön in the tales by the conjunction und (‘and’), on the assumption that adjectives so linked are at least compatible in terms of positivity/negativity. There are 34 such linkages in the KHM, 26 of them referring to females. All of these (and the other eight as well, actually) involve positive or at least goodness-neutral conjuncts. The most frequent adjective thus conjoined, with five tokens, is in fact weiß, which

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is Â�discussed later in this chapter. Others discussed in this or later chapters are fleißig (‘industrious’), fromm (‘pious’), rein (‘pure’), gut (‘good’), and klug (‘clever’), and these are rounded out by sittsam (‘well-behaved’), tugendreich (’virtuous’), treu (‘true’), verständig (‘sensible’), holdselig (‘sweet’), lieblich (‘charming’), freundlich (‘friendly’), jung (‘young’), lebendig (‘lively’), gesund (‘healthy’) and reich (‘rich’). All in all, a good description of what a Grimm heroine should be, and rather amply documented in the following quote from “Little Brier Rose:” An dem Mädchen aber wurden die Gaben der weisen Frauen sämtlich erfüllt, denn es war so schön, sittsam, freundlich und verständig, daß es jedermann, der (Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›258) es ansah, lieb haben mußte. 

Of course, while schön itself is a positive adjective, in some girls it may be a misleading one. In such cases, the bad traits of the girls in question are commonly brought up right away by use of the adversative conjunction aber (‘but’). A famous example from “Cinderella” is in the quote shown below: Die Frau hatte zwei Töchter mit ins Haus gebracht, die schön und weiß von Angesicht waren, aber garstig und schwarz von Herzen.  (Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›137)

This quote contains yet another (negative) word, schwarz, to be discussed later in this chapter. Grown women are rarely characterized as schön in the KHM, and in the few examples we find they are either dead, leading their husbands to look for inappropriate (and girlish) replacements (e.g. “Thousandfurs”), or, explicitly in the case of the queen in “Snow White,” failing to compete in schön’ness with a girl. There is some room for schön in men, but the situations in which that occurs are limited. Specifically, in all such cases I have found, the man referred to is being evaluated by a girl as a fit husband. Three examples follow:

. But the gifts of the wise women were completely fulfilled in the girl, for she was so beautiful, decent, friendly and sensible that everyone that saw her had to love her. . The woman had brought two daughters along with her into the house, who were beautiful and white of face, but nasty and black of heart. . There is one example, from “König Drosselbart,” where a clearly young Königstochter is called a Frau in “die Leute kauften der Frau, weil sie schön war, gern ihre Ware ab” (‘the people liked to buy her wares from the woman because she was beautiful’), so I have made her a woman for the sake of linguistic consistency.



Chapter 8.╇ Appearance 109

als er sie fragte, ob sie ihn zum Manne nehmen wollte, und sie sah, daß er jung und schön war, so dachte sie: »Der wird mich lieber haben als die alte Frau Go(“Rapunzel” – Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›89) tel,« und sagte ja …  Weil er so schön war und so herzlich bat, so sagte sie »ja, ich will dir das bewilligen, aber es wird dir nicht glücken.« … Die Hochzeit ward gefeiert, und er war jetzt der König und Herr des ganzen Reichs. (“The Sea-Hare” – Grimm 1857, v. 2:â•›386, 388) wie es sich umsah, war der Baum ein schöner Mann, der es umfaßte und herzlich küßte und sagte: »Du hast mich erlöst …« … Da fuhren sie fort in sein Reich, denn er war eines Königs Sohn, und sie heirateten sich und lebten glücklich.  (“The Old Woman in the Woods” – Grimm 1857, v. 2:â•›182)

The dividing line between men and boys is a little hard to draw. In cases where the individual concerned is characterized as a Jüngling, and schön, he seems to be equally fated to marry: Die Königstochter blickte darauf den Trommler an, und als sie sah, daß es ein schöner Jüngling war, und bedachte, daß er sein Leben daran gesetzt hatte, um sie zu erlösen, so reichte sie ihm die Hand und sprach: »Du hast alles für mich gewagt, aber ich will auch für dich alles tun. Versprichst du mir deine Treue, so sollst du mein Gemahl werden…«  (“The Drummer” – Grimm 1857, v. 2:â•›404)

Knaben and Buben are not. Nor are Söhne or Brüder (though age isn’t necessarily an issue with them), or Kinder who turn out to be boys. And Kinder who are unspecified for gender clearly aren’t.

8.1.2 häßlich (‘ugly’) Schön in some form appears in our texts over 450 times (thus including not only predicate uses, but all attributive uses, participation in noun compounds and the like). The same cannot be said for häßlich, of which we have 27 tokens, by my

. when he asked her if she wanted to take him as a husband, and she saw that he was young and beautiful, she thought: “He will love me more than old Frau Gotel,” and said yes … . Because he was so beautiful and asked so earnestly, she said “yes, I will grant you that, but it won’t turn out well for you.” … The wedding was celebrated, and he was now king and lord of the entire kingdom. . when she looked around, the tree was a beautiful man, who embraced her and kissed her heartily and said: “You have released me …” Then they went forth to his kingdom, for he was a prince, and they married and lived happily. . After that the princess looked at the drummer, and when she saw that he was a beautiful youth, she held out her hand to him and said: “You have wagered everything for me, but I will also do everything for you. If you promise me to be true, you shall become my husband …”

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count. Yet here, too, we can say that by preference it is used for girls (but in this case bad ones). Four times in the texts the word is applied to objects or nonhumans (a frog’s head, a cage, a spider, devils), and twice to the gender-neutral Kinder (in “The Unequal Children of Eve,” where it is also goodness-neutral). There are only two male humans to which it applies. One of them is a grown man, a duplicitous one-eyed captain in “The Trained Hunter” who is falsely trying to claim the princess. The other one refers to a young man, and that is one who first appears to the princesses in a bearskin, and will later appear as a handsome prince (“Bearskin” – Grimm 1857, v. 2:â•›89–90): dann aber sprach sie [an older, unworthy sister: OWR] »wie kann ich einen Mann nehmen, der keine menschliche Gestalt mehr hat? … Wenn er nur häßlich wäre, so könnte ich mich an ihn gewöhnen.«

In both cases, it would seem that, like schön, häßlich is being used to classify males as fit for marriage to a girl (or in this case not). There are four grown women in the texts to whom the term häßlich is applied. One of them (in “The Cabbage Donkey” – Grimm 1857, v. 2:â•›172), is “ein altes häßliches Mütterchen,” who gives the protagonist positive magic, another is a thief, “eine alte häßliche Frau”10 spotted by “The Tailor in Heaven” (Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›194) In “The White and the Black Bride,” an evil stepmother is twice characterized as häßlich along with her true daughter.11 The other seventeen examples, all negative, are mostly used to characterize bad (step)sisters as opposed to the normally schön (and good) heroines. Examples can be found in “Little Brother and Little Sister,” “Dearest Roland,” “The Three Little Men in the Woods,” “Frau Holle,” and “The White and the Black Bride,” from which the following quote is taken. Note the pairing with kohlschwarz (‘coal black’): Als die Stiefmutter mit ihrer Tochter nach Hause kam und sah, daß sie beide kohlschwarz und häßlich waren, die Stieftochter aber weiß und schön, so stieg die Bosheit in ihrem Herzen noch höher, und sie hatte nichts anders im Sinn, als (Grimm 1857, v. 2:â•›229) wie sie ihr ein Leid antun könnte.12  . then however she spoke “how can I take a husband who no longer has a human form? If he were only ugly, I could get used to him.” . an old ugly little mother 10. an old ugly woman 11. Note that because of this double counting, I discuss 29 usages of the 27 häßlich tokens. 12. When the stepmother came home with her daughter and saw that they were both black as coal and ugly, but the stepdaughter was white and beautiful, the wickedness in her heart rose even higher, and she could think of nothing else but how she could do harm to her.



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I give two more representative quotes from these tales: Ihre rechte Tochter, die häßlich war wie die Nacht und nur ein Auge hatte, die machte ihr Vorwürfe …13 (“Little Brother and Little Sister” – Grimm 1857, v.€1:â•›84) Es war einmal eine Frau, die war eine rechte Hexe, und hatte zwei Töchter, eine häßlich und böse, und die liebte sie, weil sie ihre rechte Tochter war, und eine schön und gut, die haßte sie, weil sie ihre Stieftochter war.14  (“Dearest Roland” – Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›288)

In “Maid Maleen,” although they are not stepsisters, the same relationship holds between the “false bride,” who is “ebenso häßlich von Angesicht als bös von Â�Herzen”15 (Grimm 1857, v. 2:â•›420), and the heroine, who is wunderschön ‘wonderfully beautiful.’ As with the young hero from “Bearskin,” there are two heroines in the texts who initially appear häßlich, but are later revealed to be schön. These are the princess in “The Goosegirl at the Well,” who first appears as “eine bejahrte Trulle, stark und groß, aber häßlich wie die Nacht”16 (Grimm 1857, v. 2:â•›341) and that in “The Crystal Ball,” from which the quote below is taken (Grimm 1857, v. 2:â•›417): »Ach,« erwiderte sie, »das ist meine Gestalt nicht, die Augen der Menschen können mich nur in dieser Häßlichkeit erblicken, aber damit du weißt, wie ich aussehe, so schau in den Spiegel, der läßt sich nicht irre machen, der zeigt dir mein Bild, wie es in Wahrheit ist.«17

Several of the quotes above show that, as with schön, häßlich is seen to accompany other traits that on the face of it do not in any obvious way correlate with ugliness. Using the und test described above, we find eight linkages involving the adjectives faul (‘lazy’), böse (‘bad/wicked’), widerlich (‘abhorrent’), and, as discussed in the next section, schwarz (‘black’) opposite the good girls’ weiß.

13. Her real daughter, who was ugly as the night and only had one eye, reproached her … 14. There was once a woman who was a real witch, and had two daughters, one ugly and wicked, and she loved her because she was her real daughter, and one beautiful and good, and she hated her because she was her stepdaughter. 15. just as ugly of face as wicked of heart 16. an aged wench, strong and large, but ugly as the night 17. “Alas,” she responded, “this is not my shape, the eyes of people can only behold me in this ugliness, but so that you know what I look like, just look into the mirror, it can’t be fooled, it will show you my image as it truly is.”

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8.2 Color terms We have noted in the last two sections that when good schön girls are associated with a color, it is white, and when bad häßlich girls are, it is black. But the range of application of these color terms is more widespread than this. In Sections 8.2.1 and 8.2.2, I want to describe these wider applications, while at the same time not losing sight of our point of departure, the goodness or badness of girls in the KHM. This sets the stage for a discussion in 8.2.3 of the color rot (‘red’) as it applies to girls, where, no pun intended, I argue that its appearance resists the kind of black or white interpretations associated with weiß and schwarz.

8.2.1 weiß (‘white’) A search of the corpus yielded a total of approximately 120 examples of weiß, excluding all occurrences of the unrelated form weiß for the verb ‘to know,’ and not counting the many tokens found in names like Schneeweißchen. On the whole, their usage is totally consistent with the implications of goodness and purity found in the last section (and documented so well in “The White and the Black Bride”). A few more examples of their use in “The Prince Who Fears Nothing” may be instructive. In this tale, the hero comes to a castle containing “eine Jungfrau von schöner Gestalt und feinem Antlitz, aber sie war ganz schwarz.”18 (Grimm 1857, v. 2:â•›170) She is, of course, under an evil enchantment. The hero can only release her from it by undergoing three nights of increasingly horrible beatings without making a sound. In between, the girl comes to restore him with the water of life, at which point he can observe her clearly. This is what she looks like in the three successive nights: da trat die schwarze Jungfrau zu ihm herein… im Weggehen bemerkte er, daß (Grimm 1857, v. 2:â•›171) ihre Füße weiß geworden waren.19  als sie wegging, sah er mit Freuden, daß sie schon weiß geworden war bis zu den (Grimm 1857, v. 2:â•›171) Fingerspitzen.20 

18. a maiden of beautiful form and fine face, but she was totally black. 19. then the black maiden came in to him … as she went away, he noticed that her feet had become white. 20. when she went away, he saw with delight that she had already become white except for her fingertips.



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wie er die Augen aufschlug, so sah er die Jungfrau neben sich stehen, die war (Grimm 1857, v. 2:â•›171) schneeweiß und schön wie der helle Tag.21 

While the princess in this passage is enchanted, Thousandfurs, in her own tale, has deliberately darkened herself with soot and dirt. She is only found out by the king in the following passage: in der Eile machte sie sich auch nicht ganz rußig, sondern ein Finger blieb weiß… Der König, als er den Haspel auf dem Grunde fand, ließ Allerleirauh rufen, da erblickte er den weißen Finger und sah den Ring, den er im Tanze ihr (Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›356) angesteckt hatte.22 

These are both passages in which some kind of return to whiteness may be seen as the desirable unfolding of a perfect girl.23 In other cases, white objects, such as bones (“Brother Jolly”) and shirts (“The Drummer”) stand as representative of a perfect girl that needs saving. Sometimes white birds are enchanted maidens as well. The “white” bride of “The White and the Black Bride” appears as a white duck twice in her story, and the white geese of “The Goosegirl at the Well” are suspected at the end of that story to be maidens as well:

21. when he opened his eyes, he saw the maiden standing next to him, she was snow-white and as beautiful as the brilliant day. 22. and in her haste she didn’t make herself completely sooty, but one finger stayed white … When he found the bobbin on the ground, the king had Thousandfurs summoned, then he saw the white finger and the ring that he had put on her while dancing. 23. “Hans My Hedgehog” shows us an example where a male undergoes a similar transition to white: und als sie das Feuer verzehrt hatte, da war er erlöst, und lag da im Bett ganz als ein Mensch gestaltet, aber er war kohlschwarz wie gebrannt. Der König schickte zu seinem Arzt, der wusch ihn mit guten Salben und balsamierte ihn, da ward er weiß, und war ein schöner junger Herr (‘and after the fire had consumed it, he was released, and lay in bed completely in human shape, but he was coal-black as if burned. The king sent for his doctor, who washed him with good salves and balms, then he became white, and was a beautiful young man.’)  (Grimm 1857, v. 2:â•›123) As I argued concerning schön in a previous section (and note the use of that adjective here as well), I think that weiß here is a basically female-oriented adjective used to indicate Hans’ suitability for marriage to a princess.

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Ob die schneeweißen Gänse, die bei dem Häuschen gehütet wurden, lauter Mädchen waren …, das weiß ich nicht genau, aber ich vermute es doch.24  (Grimm 1857, v. 2:â•›349)

White birds are not always enchanted maidens, however, but sometimes their helpers. One need only think about Cinderella, who is aided by white Vöglein ‘little birds’ and Täubchen ‘little doves.’ And if one recalls that it is Gretel doing the summoning, the white duck in “Hänsel and Gretel” would fit in here as well. Sometimes, however, the helper “bird” may turn out to be a bit more than that. Thus the helpful white dove in “The Old Woman in the Woods” turns out to be the prince: 25 Du hast mich erlöst und aus der Gewalt der Alten befreit, die eine böse Hexe ist. Sie hatte mich in einen Baum verwandelt, und alle Tage ein paar Stunden war ich eine weiße Taube, und solang sie den Ring besaß, konnte ich meine menschliche (Grimm 1857, v. 2:â•›182) Gestalt nicht wiedererhalten.26 

Similarly, the prince in “The Singing, Springing Lark,” though not a “helper” in the same sense, is condemned to be a white dove for seven years because he is touched by torchlight. Sometimes the white helpers are not birds, but rather angels. “The Girl Without Hands” is helped by a white or snow-white Engel/Jungfrau (‘angel/maiden’) several times in her story, and Snow White and Rose Red are similarly protected by a white Engel/Kind (‘angel/child’) from falling into an abyss. White flowers play a role as well. Clearly white roses represent Snow White in “Snow White and Rose Red” (as the red ones represent Rose Red), and the twelve white lilies in “The Twelve Brothers” which the sister plucks are the enchanted brothers. The white flower (with red stripes) in the legend “Our Lady’s Little Glass,” finally, represents the power of the Virgin Mary. White is also the color of magic objects doing the work of good. A white cloth releases a maiden in “Dearest Roland,” and is meant, together with three drops of blood,27 to help the heroine of “The Goosegirl.” Finally, a bite of the white snake gives the gift of animal languages in “The White Snake.”

24. Whether the snow-white geese who were tended next to the little house were nothing but girls … I don’t know for sure, but I do suspect so. 25. Again, I argue, his whiteness indicates his suitability for marriage. 26. You have released me and freed me from the power of the old lady, who is an evil witch. She had changed me into a tree, and every day for a few hours I was a white dove, and as long as she possessed the ring, I could not regain my human form. 27. See discussion below for the blood.



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Although not inconsistent with the basic categories of goodness and purity, there are a few examples in which the color white would seem to correlate with death more than anything else. The grave of Cinderella’s mother is covered with white snow at the beginning of the story, the schön und lieblich (‘beautiful and charming’) dead child of “The Little Shroud” (who is with God) is wearing a white shirt, as is the repentant dead child of “The Stolen Heller.” The white bone of the murdered (and good) younger brother reveals all as the mouthpiece for a horn in “The Singing Bone.” On a more trivial deathly level, we find a (fake) ghost outfitted in white in the “The Tale of One Who Went Out to Learn Fear.” In examples I gave at the beginning of this section, good girls start out misleadingly black, but turn out to be actually white. In the same way, we may find examples of misleading whiteness in the Grimm texts, a whiteness that covers a deeper reality which is revealed in the course of the story. The evil stepsisters in “Cinderella” are of course a perfect example of this, as shown in the last section, being “schön und weiß von Angesicht …, aber garstig und schwarz von Herzen.” Other cases of misleading (or counterfactual) whiteness in the tales can certainly be cited: *In “The Wolf and the Seven Kids,” the wolf covers his black paws with flour to make them white and fool the kids. *In “The Two Brothers” a snow-white hind leads both brothers, at different times, into a trap laid by a witch. *In “Hänsel and Gretel,” similarly, a white bird leads them to the house of the witch. *The water sprite of “The Water Sprite in the Pond” is introduced as beautiful and white, but ultimately plays the role of the witch in her tale. *The poisoned apple in “Snow White” is red on one side, white on the other. Of course, it’s the white side, eaten by the witch, which is okay (the red, by contrast, is definitely bad!28).

For the remaining examples of the word weiß in the tales (by my count about 35), goodness and purity do not seem to play an important role, though they may always be present in the background. The whiteness of the shirts that transform “The Six Swans” into swans, and (along with red and yellow) that of the wine used to drug the brides in “The Robber Bridegroom” seems something of a peripheral property, while with the kreideweiß ‘chalkwhite’ face of the robber bridegroom himself at the end of his story, and the white face of the tailor who is close to death 28. I return to “red” farther below.

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in “The Two Travelers,” it seems more the aspect of death which is being emphasized. To these we can add numerous examples of white paper, gloves, horses, feathers, beds, cats, sheets, beards and the like, where, in my opinion, whiteness seems to have no symbolic value at all.

8.2.2 schwarz (‘black’) A search of the tales revealed about 85 examples of the word schwarz in the corpus. As is clear from preceding sections, a number of them are used to characterize bad girls and women. I note again the bad sisters in “Cinderella,” and the black bride (and her mother!) in “The White and the Black Bride:” Da zürnte der liebe Gott über die Mutter und Tochter, wendete ihnen den Rücken zu und verwünschte sie, daß sie sollten schwarz werden wie die Nacht und (Grimm 1857, v. 2:â•›228) häßlich wie die Sünde.29 

The collocation of schwarz with Sünde (‘sin’) in this quotation indicates one of the primary directions taken by schwarz in our texts. In the same way that weiß may refer to the angelic, the adjective schwarz frequently refers to the demonic. Thus schwarz or its nominalization der Schwarze ‘the black one’ are used to refer to real or supposed devils, or to hell: als er voll Verwunderung hinzuging, so saß oben auf der Glut ein kleiner schwar(“The Peasant and the Devil ” – Grimm 1857, v. 2:â•›383) zer Teufel.30  es dauerte nicht lange, so kam der Teufel und hatte ein Säckchen Gold in der Hand…. Der Schwarze leerte das Säckchen, das Gold fiel durch und der Stiefel blieb leer.31  (“The Grave Mound” – Grimm 1857, v. 2:â•›412) Machte sich auf und ging den breiten und angenehmen Weg, und kam endlich zu einem großen schwarzen Tor, und das war das Tor der Hölle.32  (“Brother Jolly” – Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›403)

29. Then God was angered with the mother and daughter, turned his back on them and cursed them, that they should become black as the night and as ugly as sin. 30. when he went there full of amazement, there sat on top of the blaze a small black devil. 31. it didn’t take long before the Devil came with a little sack of gold in his hand … The black one emptied the sack, the gold fell through it and the boot remained empty. 32. He got up and took the broad and comfortable path, and finally came to a large black gate, and that was the gate of Hell.



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Schwarz is also used to describe beings, whether male or female, whom one would presume to be in league with the Devil, such as evil sorcerers, witches, or other nefarious underworldly types. The black bull fighting with a beautiful stag at the beginning of “The Glass Coffin” turns out to be a wicked magician, also referred to as a Schwarzkünstler ‘master of black arts.’ The merchant in “The King of the Golden Mountain” is tricked by a schwarzes Männchen ‘little black man,’ also referred to as der Erbfeind ‘the hereditary enemy,’ into bargaining away his own son, who, later in the story, is beaten and ultimately decapitated by increasing numbers of schwarze Männer ‘black men’ in his quest to disenchant a beautiful princess.33 One manifestation of the demonic “Frau Trude” is as a schwarzer Mann. The hero in “The Tale of One Who Went Out to Learn Fear” is confronted, to no effect, with a succession of black cats and dogs with glowing eyes. While not necessarily suggesting demonic powers, other instances of schwarz certainly express a high degree of negativity. Murder in “The Singing Bone” is a schwarze Tat ‘black deed,’ the forest in “Strong Hans” is certainly no fine place: Plötzlich sprangen aus dem Gebüsch zwei Räuber hervor, packten die Mutter und das Kind und führten sie tief in den schwarzen Wald, wo jahraus, jahrein (Grimm 1857, v. 2:â•›303–04) kein Mensch hinkam.34 

In the same story, we are also surely meant to take the schwarzer Tisch as a menacing item in the following passage: An der Wand hingen Schwerter, Säbel und andere Mordgewehre, … und in der Mitte stand ein schwarzer Tisch, an dem vier andere Räuber saßen …35  (Grimm 1857, v. 2:â•›304)

And while we know it is only our old friend the ass, the poor robber in “The Bremen Town Musicians” surely fears him as a schwarzes Ungeheuer ‘black monster.’ Finally, while the force behind it is not clear, the increasing blackness of things in “The Fisherman and his Wife” is meant to terrify: 33. An interesting variation on these schwarze Männchen is the one to be found in “The Blue Light,” who, under the spell of the blue light, uses magical powers to aid a soldier in his various adventures, including killing a witch, forcing a princess to work like a slave for him, and amassing wealth and a kingdom. He never actually turns on the soldier, but he’s no angel. It’s not clear why he’s black. In most ways, he is like the other non-black Männchen or Männlein operating in many of the tales: Magical, but neither white nor black, capable of anger and revenge but also generosity. 34. Suddenly there sprang out of the bushes two robbers, who grabbed the mother and child and led them deep into the black forest, where year-in, year-out not a person entered. 35. On the wall there hung swords, sabers and other weapons of murder,… and in the middle stood a black table at which four robbers sat …

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un de Himmel wöör ganß pickswart, un dat dunnerd un blitzd, un de See güng in so hoge swarte Bülgen as Kirchentöörn un as Baarge36  (Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›127)

While the last quotation utilizes one substance, pitch, which can exemplify blackness, and which is used as such occasionally in the fairy tales (one might think of the reward for the bad daughter in “Frau Holle,” who is permanently covered with pitch at the end of that story), another one is black coal, which is the reward for the greedy goldsmith in “The Gifts of the Little People.” And we have already come across numerous examples, mainly describing bad girls, where “night” is the standard for blackness. Schwarz is also found as the color of mourning in several tales. Thus the bride of “Bearskin” wears black when he leaves her for an indefinite period, and the city is hung with black crape in “The Two Brothers” when it appears the princess must be sacrificed to a potentially rampaging dragon. As I illustrated in the weiß section above, schwarz is also sometimes the negative state from which basically weiß characters are saved (“Thousandfurs”, “The Prince Who Fears Nothing,” “Hans My Hedgehog,” to which can be added the brothers enchanted as kohlschwarze Raben (‘coal-black ravens’) in “The Seven Ravens” and the prince enchanted as a bear in “Snow White and Rose Red”), or the true state of characters who are feigning goodness (“The Wolf and the Seven Kids”). Are there any instances in the text where schwarz is seen as good? The main one I can find has to do with the description of hair, especially that of Snow White. Of course, in the passages where this occurs, white and red get their due as well as descriptors of female beauty: Bald darauf bekam sie ein Töchterlein, das war so weiß wie Schnee, so rot wie Blut, und so schwarzhaarig wie Ebenholz, und ward darum das Sneewittchen (Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›269) (Schneeweißchen) genannt.37 

Although this is the only place where the color black is unambiguously positive, the three colors we are looking at here do occur together in several different tales. For example, in “Iron Hans” the hero is outfitted with three successive sets of armour when he goes to capture the golden apple of the princess:

36. and the sky was completely pitch-black, and there was thunder and lightning, and the sea heaved in huge black waves as high as church-towers and mountains … 37. Immediately after that she bore a little daughter who was as white as snow, as red as blood and as black-haired as ebony, and she was accordingly named Snow White.



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»du sollst auch eine rote Rüstung dazu haben und auf einem stolzen Fuchs reiten.« … Am zweiten Tag hatte ihn Eisenhans als weißen Ritter ausgerüstet und ihm einen Schimmel gegeben. … Am dritten Tag erhielt er vom Eisenhans eine (Grimm 1857, v. 2:â•›240–41) schwarze Rüstung und einen Rappen ….38 

Similarly, in “The Raven” the enchanted princess makes three passes at her wouldbe savior in the following way: Drei Tage lang komm ich jeden Mittag um zwei Uhr zu dir in einem Wagen, der ist erst mit vier weißen Hengsten bespannt, dann mit vier roten und zuletzt mit vier schwarzen, wenn du aber nicht wach bist, sondern schläfst, so werde ich (Grimm 1857, v. 2:â•›51–52) nicht erlöst.39

Unfortunately, it is impossible to establish a color hierarchy based on these three examples, though it appears that black always comes last. Is it then the most potent, or the most fraught with complications? It is impossible to say based on this evidence. As in the “weiß” category, there are a number of instances of “schwarz” in the text which have no obvious bias either positively or negatively. Including cows, robes, the night sky, a cloud of dust, chickens and the like, I count 10–15 of these.

8.2.3 rot (‘red’) I must admit that, unlike the situation with weiß and schwarz, there are no instances in our texts where the adjective rot is predicated of a girl (as opposed to, say, a girl’s cheeks). Yet the quotes given at the end of the last section would indicate that these three adjectives deserve to be discussed together, and I hope to demonstrate in this section that the adjective rot belongs in any discussion of language and gender in the Grimm fairy tales. Indeed, I believe it plays a central role in the cluster of adjectives surrounding girls in the tales. A search of the corpus yields about 95 examples of the word rot not included in names, specifically Rosenrot (‘Rose Red’) and Rotkäppchen (‘Little Red Riding Hood’). As the very existence of those protagonists’ names implies, rot is by no means normally a negative adjective. But as I will show here, neither does it have

38. “and you shall have a red suit of armor with it and ride on a proud fox.” … On the second day Iron Hans had outfitted him as a white knight and given him a white horse … On the third day he got from Iron Hans a black suit of armor and a black horse … 39. For three days I will come to you every afternoon at two in a carriage, first drawn by four white stallions, then by four red ones and finally by four black ones, but if you are not awake, but sleeping, I will not be saved.

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the implications of goodness and purity commonly associated with weiß. Instead, I will show that it goes off in yet another direction that resists the kind of blackand-white connotations frequently associated with schwarz and weiß. It would perhaps be useful to begin this discussion by describing the one situation where rot is unalloyedly negative, namely in its application to eyes.40 The appearance of rote Augen is a sure sign one is dealing with the dark side in “The Riddle”, “The Drummer,” “Hänsel and Gretel,” and “Jorinde and Joringel” (all describing witches). Similarly, the evil dwarf in “Snow White and Rose Red” has rote feurige Augen (‘red fiery eyes’). Along with glühend ‘burning’ and feurig, rot in conjunction with Augen almost always indicates an evil being. One exception to this, though surely quite negative, is the eyes of the tailor in “The Two Travelers,” who, when close to death, has red eyes as well as a white face (see above). To look at the remaining examples of rot in our corpus, it may be useful to begin with a passage from “Snow White and Rose Red,” since the two girls named in the title are both surely good. What is the difference between their characters? Just this issue is addressed in the fairy tale right at the beginning: Sie waren aber so fromm und gut, so arbeitsam und unverdrossen, als je zwei Kinder auf der Welt gewesen sind: Schneeweißchen war nur stiller und sanfter als Rosenrot. Rosenrot sprang lieber in den Wiesen und Feldern umher, suchte Blumen und fing Sommervögel; Schneeweißchen aber saß daheim bei der Mutter, half ihr im Hauswesen oder las ihr vor, wenn nichts zu tun war.41  (Grimm 1857, v. 2:â•›278)

Both of the girls are “fromm und gut, … arbeitsam und unverdrossen,” fine attributes for good girls, as we have seen. But Snow White has two more attributes which fit in better with a truly good girl: She is both still and sanft, and, one might add, a stay-at-home and mother’s helper. Rose Red is much more lively and out in the world.42

40. The Devil, referred to once in “The Grave Mound” as “Herr mit der roten Feder” (‘the man with the red feather’) is certainly a negative character, but red feathers in themselves are neutral, see the reference to “roter Federbusch” in reference to a fox’s tail further below. 41. But they were as pious and good, as hard-working and assiduous as any two children in the world have ever been. Snow White was just quieter and gentler than Rose Red. Rose Red preferred to gambol in the meadows and fields, look for flowers and catch butterflies; but Snow White sat at home with their mother, helped her with the housework or read to her when there was nothing to do. 42. It may be worth noting that Schneeweißchen ends up with the enchanted prince in this story, while Rosenrot only gets his brother.



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I believe that it is precisely in this sometimes dubious quality of liveliness that rot in general differs from weiß. If white has a tendency toward the ethereal, red has one towards the nitty-gritty of life. Thus we find the adjective rot used to emphasize robust health, for example at the point in “Little Brother and Little Sister” when the heroine is restored to life: Da antwortete sie: »Ja, ich bin deine liebe Frau,« und hatte in dem Augenblick durch Gottes Gnade das Leben wiedererhalten, war frisch, rot und gesund.43  (Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›86)

Rote Backen (‘red cheeks’) frequently characterize people in robust health. The tailor at the beginning of “The Two Travelers” (shortly before losing his health and gaining a deathly pallor) is frisch (‘fresh’) and munter (‘lively’) with hübsche (‘pretty’) rote Backen. The witch in “Hänsel and Gretel” admires the volle (‘full’) rote Backen of the protagonists with great appetite. In “Tales of the Toad,” a boy undergoes the following changes: Es war, solange die Unke mit ihm gegessen hatte, groß und stark geworden, jetzt aber verlor es seine schönen roten Backen und magerte ab.44  (Grimm 1857, v. 2:â•›101)

The heroine of “Snow White” herself has red cheeks, even in her (unreal) death: es sah noch so frisch aus wie ein lebender Mensch, und hatte noch seine schönen (Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›276) roten Backen.45 

The story of Snow White, of course, is the occasion for many instances of redness in the text, what with the many references to her being as white as snow, red as blood and black as ebony. As a component of beauty, “rot” also shows up in descriptions of other heroines: That of “The Goosegirl at the Well” is described as having been “so weiß wie Schnee, so rot wie Apfelblüte” (‘as white as snow, as red as apple blossoms’ – Grimm 1857, v. 2:â•›343). But this kind of lively redness can at times be seen as inappropriate or downright unseemly. At the beginning of “King Thrushbeard,” various suitors for the hand of the princess are dismissed for a number of reasons, including redness:

43. Then she answered “Yes, I am your dear wife,” and had at that moment through the grace of God returned to life, and was fresh, red and healthy. 44. He had become big and strong as long as the toad had eaten with him, but now he lost his beautiful red cheeks and lost weight. 45. she still looked as fresh as a living person, and still had her beautiful red cheeks.

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Nun ward die Königstochter durch die Reihen geführt, aber an jedem hatte sie etwas auszusetzen. Der eine war ihr zu dick, … [d]er andere zu lang, … [d]er dritte zu kurz, … [d]er vierte zu blaß, »der bleiche Tod!« der fünfte zu rot, »der Zinshahn!«46 der sechste war nicht gerad genug, »grünes Holz, hinterm Ofen (Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›264) getrocknet!«47 

The noble count in “The Goosegirl at the Well” becomes from exertion “so rot im Gesicht wie ein Zinshahn” (‘as red of face as a prize rooster’48 – Grimm 1857, v.€2:â•›341) and at the end of that story the heroine, upon meeting the handsome count who had spied on her earlier, has this reaction: Der junge Graf stand neben ihnen, und als sie ihn erblickte, ward sie so rot im Gesicht wie eine Moosrose; sie wußte selbst nicht warum.49  (Grimm 1857, v. 2:â•›349)

I think we can guess why. And in the following quotation from “Spindle, Shuttle, and Needle,” the same speculation can be made: Es blickte auf, und als es bemerkte, daß der Königssohn hereinschaute, ward es über und über rot, schlug die Augen nieder und spann weiter; ob der Faden diesmal ganz gleich ward, weiß ich nicht, aber es spann so lange, bis der Königssohn (Grimm 1857, v. 2:â•›381) wieder weggeritten war.50 

This is about as close as the Grimms get to romantic or even sexual attraction. It seems clear that the Grimms were at least ambivalent about female sexuality, a point that I will also argue in Chapter 11 on the use of third-person pronouns in reference to girls. On the one hand, in the form of good little girls they 46. Note the direct contrast between “blass” and “rot” here, the first too deadly, the second too lively. 47. Now the princess was taken down the line, but she had a criticism to make of each one. The one was too fat for her … the next one too tall … the third too short … the fourth too pale, “waxen Death!,” the fifth too red, “the prize rooster!,” the sixth not straight enough, “green wood dried behind the oven!” 48. Although the dwarf in “Schneeweißchen und Rosenrot” is in any case a negative character, it is the same kind of exaggerated redness which shows up in the following quote:

»Was steht ihr da und habt Maulaffen feil!« schrie der Zwerg, und sein aschgraues Gesicht ward zinnoberrot vor Zorn. (‘“Why are you standing there gaping?” screamed the dwarf, and his ash-gray face became vermilion-red in fury.’)

49. The young count stood next to them, and when she caught sight of him she became as red of face as a moss-rose; she herself did not know why. 50. She looked up, and when she saw that the prince was looking in, she became completely red, cast her eyes down and spun further; I don’t know whether the thread was quite even at this point, but she kept spinning until the prince had ridden away.



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are the absolute center of attention in many fairy tales, with positive adjectives of all kinds lavished on them, including weiß. On the other hand, as women they are often witches and awful stepmothers, with the occasional old helper thrown in. And as marriageable young women, they are scary. This ambivalence is one of the things going on in the Grimms’ use of rot vs. weiß, I feel. Good unsexed girls are very much on the weiß side of things, but sexed girls, whether good or not, are more on the rot side, as are sex, romance, and the very liveliness of life. I hope in the following paragraphs to make a case for this interpretation. The single noun to which the word rot is applied more than any other in the corpus is Blut (‘blood’). The most obvious example is the numerous repetitions of “so rot wie Blut” (‘as red as blood’) in “Snow White,” but this is nothing but a simile evoking beauty, as I noted earlier. There are other examples of red blood where the blood is real. In “The Singing, Springing Lark” the prince, after being transformed into a dove because of an oversight on the part of his princess/wife, leaves a trail of red drops of blood as a path for her to follow. In “Fitcher’s Bird,” the two measly occurrences of the actual word “red” in reference to blood disguise the extremely sanguinary nature of the villain’s relationship to his wives. One of the brothers in “The Two Brothers” decapitates the other, making his red blood flow, upon hearing that he has slept with his wife. If the two quotes given immediately above from “The Goosegirl at the Well” and “Spindle, Shuttle and Needle” at least document the association of rot with female sexuality, the ones I cite now (both explicitly involving Blut) cast this association in an undeniably negative light. The first is from “Cinderella,” at the point where the prince has mistakenly chosen as his bride one of the stepsisters who has cut off her heel to fit the shoe. Again, a surface whiteness is revealed to be misleading, but this time the true color which is revealed is rot: Er blickte nieder auf ihren Fuß und sah, wie das Blut aus dem Schuh quoll und an den weißen Strümpfen ganz rot heraufgestiegen war. Da wendete er sein Pferd (Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›143) und brachte die falsche Braut wieder nach Haus.51 

In this tale we now have the whole ball of wax. A sister with a white and beautiful face is not only revealed at the beginning to be nasty and black inside, at the end the reddening of her white stockings, I would claim, reveals her unseemly sexuality, a sexuality earlier indicated by her and her sister’s active scheming to win the prince. 51. He looked down at her foot and saw how the blood welled out of the shoe and had climbed up her white stocking completely red. Then he turned his horse and brought the false bride back to her home.

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How does this negative view of female sexuality square with the fact that almost all good girls in the Grimm fairy tales are rewarded by marriage? With difficulty, but that is precisely the locus of the Grimms’ ambivalence. If marriage is a desirable goal for girls, it is still not one they should actively seek; it needs to just happen to them, or even be forced upon them. Some good girls, such as Cinderella herself, but also Thousandfurs and numerous others, actively try to avoid discovery by the prince. Yet others, such as the heroines of “The Goosegirl” and “The True Bride,” stand by in an almost incomprehensible manner while other women steal their men, a situation which is always, unbelievably, resolved at the end. In no case, however, should a good girl actively seek marriage.52 The following examples come from “The Twelve Brothers.” In this tale, redness ends up being associated, not just with sexed girls, but with the whole idea of girls. And although the heroine of this tale ends up being in fact a very good girl, this is not the way it comes across before her birth. The king in this story, for whatever reason, has determined to kill his twelve sons if his next child is a daughter. Their mother warns the sons of this in the following passage: Gebär ich ein Söhnlein, so will ich eine weiße Fahne aufstecken, und dann dürft ihr wiederkommen; gebär ich ein Töchterlein, so will ich eine rote Fahne aufstecken, und dann flieht fort, so schnell ihr könnt, und der liebe Gott behüte euch.53  (Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›72)

The plot of course requires that a daughter be born, as indeed one is. This is the passage immediately following: es war aber nicht die weiße, sondern die rote Blutfahne, die verkündete, daß sie alle sterben sollten. Wie die Brüder das hörten, wurden sie zornig und sprachen: »Sollten wir um eines Mädchens willen den Tod leiden! Wir schwören, daß wir uns rächen wollen, wo wir ein Mädchen finden, soll sein rotes Blut fließen.«54  (Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›72–3)

52. Heroines like Zweiäuglein in “Einäuglein, Zweiäuglein und Dreiäuglein,” who actively solicits help from the knight, and shortly marries him, are almost absent in the fairy tales, and even she betrays no romantic interest in him. 53. If I bear a little son, then I will put up a white flag, and then you can come back. If I bear a little daughter, I will put up a red flag, and then flee forth as quickly as you can, and may Dear God protect you. 54. it was, however, not the white one, but the red blood-flag, which meant that they all were to die. When the brothers heard that, they became furious and said: “Should we all suffer death for the sake of a girl? We swear that we will avenge ourselves, when we find a girl, her red blood will flow.”



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I noted above that the adjective “red“ is here, as it was in the “Cinderella” quotation, associated with the noun “blood.” This is of course an obvious association, yet it cannot have escaped the Grimms that blood, in the form of menstruation, is one of the items differentiating women from girls, and as such may serve as the focal point for their ambivalence concerning the former. When sex rears its ugly head, the real-life redness of blood entails a fall from the angelic grace of weiß. Straying for a moment from the word rot itself, there are in our corpus about 65 examples of the words Blut (including compounds) or blutig ‘bloody,’ and it is by no means the case that all of them are associated with girls or women. Nor, given that an awful death is the frequent punishment for evil in the tales, is it a surprise that more bad girls and women end up bloody than good ones do. Nonetheless, I find interesting the explicit relationship of bloodiness with faithlessness made in passages such as that below from “Hans My Hedgehog:”55 als sie ein Stück Wegs von der Stadt waren, da zog ihr Hans mein Igel die schönen Kleider aus, und stach sie mit seiner Igelhaut, bis sie ganz blutig war, sagte »das ist der Lohn für eure Falschheit, geh hin, ich will dich nicht,« und jagte sie damit (Grimm 1857, v. 2:â•›122) nach Haus, und war sie beschimpft ihr Lebtag.56 

Or that found in “The Three Snake-Leaves” describing the revival and subsequent affect of the faithless princess: Und kaum war es geschehen, so bewegte sich das Blut in den Adern, stieg in das bleiche Angesicht und rötete es wieder… Es war aber in der Frau, nachdem sie wieder ins Leben war erweckt worden, eine Veränderung vorgegangen: es war, als ob alle Liebe zu ihrem Manne aus ihrem Herzen gewichen wäre.57  (Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›110)

As with rot itself, I do not mean to imply that Blut is always negative. I do want to maintain, however, that like rot it participates in a much less pure world than that represented by angels and good little white girls. Though she is surely good, the bargain made by the true wife with the false Braut in the passage below (from “The Singing, Springing Lark”) is hardly on that elevated plane:

55. Interestingly, also a case where the false bride has made herself appear weiß. 56. when they were a bit of a way out of the city, Hans My Hedgehog pulled her beautiful clothes off, stabbed her with his hedgehog quills until she was completely bloody, said “that is the reward for your falsity, go away, I don’t want you,” and with that chased her back home, and she was reviled as long as she lived. 57. And scarcely had that happened when the blood moved in the veins, flowed into the pale face and reddened it again … But a change had taken place in the woman after she had been restored to life: it was as if all love for her husband had drained out of her heart.

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Und das Kleid gefiel der Braut so gut, daß sie dachte, es könnte ihr Hochzeitskleid geben, und fragte, ob es nicht feil wäre. »Nicht für Geld und Gut«, antwortete sie, »aber für Fleisch und Blut.« Die Braut fragte, was sie damit meinte. Da sagte sie: »Laßt mich eine Nacht in der Kammer schlafen, wo der Bräutigam schläft.«58  (Grimm 1857, v. 2:â•›22)

The word rot does not just apply to people, cheeks and blood in our texts, of course. Sometimes the modified nouns may stand as symbols of these, though. The red rose in “Snow White and Rose Red,” for both her mother and for us, stands in for the actual girl. The red rock in “Dearest Roland” is the (selfenchantedÂ�) heroine herself. Despite the red-and-white similarity of the apple in “Snow White” to the heroine, it is hard to see it being a symbol of her. It is of course enchanted, and, as I noted above, it’s the red side that’s poisonous. Nonetheless, owing to the ambiguous nature of rot, red apples may sometimes be good. Thus in “The Prince Who Fears Nothing,” the red apple comes from the tree of life, and is associated with positive magic. In “The Griffin,” the red apples are just apples; it’s the golden ones that cure the princess. In line with its implication of robust life, rot in association with Feuer (‘fire’) may be lifegiving. Thus in “The Young-Forged Little Man” we find red fire associated with the bestowal of youth on an ancient. On the other hand, in “The Twelve Brothers” the red tongues of fire threaten the life of the heroine. And the rotglühende Schuhe (‘red-burning shoes’), in which Snow White’s tormenter dances to her death, while they do punish a malefactor, are surely not good in themselves. Rot is also used in situations of celebration or extravagance. The mouse in “Cat and Mouse in Partnership” speaks of süßer roter Festwein (‘sweet red festival wine’), the journeyman in “Table-Be-Set…” receives a miraculous table on which, in addition to all the other requirements for a feast, “ein großes Glas mit rotem Wein leuchtete, daß einem das Herz lachte.”59 (Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›198) I don’t consider the remaining case in which the redness of wine is explicitly referred to, in “The Robber Bridegroom,” to be particularly relevant here. This is the reference mentioned above to the white, red and yellow wines used to drug the robber bridegroom’s victims. The contrast between black as the color of death and red as the color of life is brought out explicitly in the following quotation from “The Two Brothers:”

58. And the bride liked the dress so well that she thought it could be her wedding dress, and she asked whether it were for sale. “Not for money and property,” she answered, “but for flesh and blood.” The bride asked what she meant by that. Then she said: “Let me sleep for one night in the room where the bridegroom sleeps.” 59. a large glass with red wine glowed, so that one’s heart laughed.



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»Vor’m Jahr sollte unseres Königs Tochter dem Drachen ausgeliefert werden, aber der Marschall hat mit ihm gekämpft und ihn getötet, und da soll morgen ihre Vermählung gefeiert werden; darum war die Stadt damals mit schwarzem Flor zur Trauer und ist heute mit rotem Scharlach zur Freude ausgehängt.«60  (Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›322–23)

Red cloth in general is used to express opulence. Thus when the heroine of “The House in the Forest” wakes up to see a hut transformed into a palace, she sees among other things red velvet on the ceiling, while “The True Bride” sees a red carpet on the stairs of her newly created castle. Though perhaps not quite as extravagant, Little Red Riding Hood’s hood is made of red velvet, and the well in “The Death of the Little Hen” demands red silk in exchange for its water. Even if it is not really extravagant, the red roof of the new house the Lord has given to the poor people in “The Poor Man and the Rich Man” qualifies as at least striking enough to arouse the envy of the rich man: Er legte sich ins Fenster und sah gegenüber ein neues reinliches Haus mit roten (Grimm 1857, v. 2:â•›15) Ziegeln, wo sonst eine alte Hütte gestanden hatte.61 

Certainly interpretable as extravagant are the red shoe-heels of “Clever Gretel,” who in general lives life perhaps a bit too lustily: Es war eine Köchin, die hieß Gretel, die trug Schuhe mit roten Absätzen, und wenn sie damit ausging, so drehte sie sich hin und her, war ganz fröhlich und (Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›386) dachte »du bist doch ein schönes Mädel.«62 

Fully consistent with the lively, but not necessarily good, nature of rot are the numerous references to foxes in the tales. The fox as lovable trickster is of course a common figure in European tales and fables, and redness is an important part of him. This shows up not just with references to him as der Rote (‘the red one’), as in “Table-Be-Set …,” but also in the rote Höslein (‘little red pants’) the widow vixen insists on for her new husband in “Mrs. Fox’s Wedding” and the roter Federbusch (‘red feather-bush’) referred to by the fox/general in “The Wren and the Bear.” I have already mentioned the red/white/black sequence of steeds and armour in “Iron Hans” and the white/red/black sequences of horses in “The Raven.” 60. A year ago our king’s daughter was supposed to be delivered up to the dragon, but the marshall fought with it and killed it, and tomorrow their wedding is to take place. That’s why the city at that time was hung with black crape in mourning, but today with red scarlet for joy. 61. He sat down at the window and saw opposite him a new neat house with red tiles, where formerly an old hut had stood. 62. There was a cook called Gretel who wore shoes with red heels, and when she went out with them, she minced back and forth, was very merry, and thought “you are a pretty girl.”

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Â� Although these appear to be pregnant with meaning, I don’t know what it is. If nothing else, the grouping of just these colors seems to be significant, one reason I have chosen to treat them in more detail here. There remain about 15 instances of rot which I have not fit in above or in footnotes. Six of them refer to the Red Sea. After that, beyond red jackets, cows, scratches, stripes on flowers, roosters, berries, etc., we do have two instances which seem to have some significance: In “The Crystal Ball” the enchanted princess, when in her ugly enchantment phase, has red hair, and in “The Fisherman and His Wife,” just before the fisherman delivers the second-to-last excessive demand of his wife, the sky is characterized by a redness of the sort threatening a heavy thunderstorm.

8.3 Books and covers in the KHM In this chapter on external appearances in the KHM, we have seen several things. First, this category of adjectives seems to be reserved almost exclusively to young women, unless they are used to characterize young men who would be suitable spouses for equally attractive girls. Secondly, the positive adjectives schön and weiß entail a number of other positive traits in their bearers, and the negative adjectives häßlich and schwarz entail other negative traits. Any deviation from these implicational tendencies are dealt with explicitly in the texts, either linguistically, as with the use of aber for Cinderella’s beautiful stepsisters, or indeed as part of the plot, as with the gradual whitening of the enchanted black princess in “The Prince Who Fears Nothing.” Rot is more interesting, because it is less stereotyped. On the positive side, it characterizes life, liveliness, even beauty. But all of this can go too far, and rot characterizes this as well. Beauty may become the more dubious opulence, liveliness the equally dubious frivolity or overexertion. And especially when associated with girls, rot (often in association with the noun Blut) seems to point to a sexuality with which the Grimms were clearly uncomfortable.

chapter 9

Moral states and mental dispositions In this chapter I turn from external appearances to internal qualities, even though, as I noted in the last chapter, there is sometimes a strong correlation between the two spheres. Thus a beautiful girl is not only likely to be white, she is also likely to be pious, pure, and good, as elaborated on below. And in the same way that boys are not normally characterized as to their external appearance (except for size), they are also not normally evaluated as to their moral state. An apparent exception to this is the use of the word gut (‘good’), which can be found describing several boys in the tales, in one case quite systematically. I argue, however, that this word actually means different things for males and females, an argument I also make for the word stolz (‘proud’). It is notable that in the following sections I discuss more positive adjectives than negative ones (with the exception of stolz in females). On the face of it, this may seem strange. If schön has its antonym häßlich, and weiß has schwarz, shouldn’t these moral state terms have their own opposites used to characterize the bad people? Opposite fromm (‘pious’) one in principle has gottlos (‘godless’), opposite rein (‘pure’) unrein (‘impure’) or schmutzig (‘dirty’), opposite gut (‘good’) böse (‘bad’). Yet we find no examples of unrein, and only four examples of schmutzig in the texts directly applying to people. Of the latter, only one is really used for a negative person, namely the bad daughter in “Frau Holle” discussed earlier. Two of the others can be taken as an accurate but non-morally-loaded description of Cinderella, and the last one, applying to Eve’s less-favored children in “The Unequal Children of Eve,” is morally neutral. Gottlos is only a bit better, with nine (non-epithetic) tokens applying to people. But in fact, it would seem that böse, with 55 such tokens, is the negative moral-state adjective of choice. I will discuss these adjectives after fromm and gut, respectively.

9.1

fromm (‘pious’) and gottlos (‘godless’)

I find a total of 20 tokens of the word fromm in the tales. Besides three that do not characterize people (Tier ‘animal,’ Bitte ‘request,’ Wünsche ‘wishes’), we find two usages for an old married couple (“The Poor Man and the Rich Man”), four for men

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(Soldaten ‘soldiers,’ Mann ‘man,’ Bürle ‘little farmer’ and Einsiedler ‘hermit’), and a full 11 for girls or young women. It should be noted that most of the latter (7) are also either gut (“Cinderella,” “The Six Swans,” “The Star Talers,” “Snow White and Rose Red,” “Sharing Joy and Sorrow”) or schön (“The Girl Without Hands”). As noted above, gottlos does have nine tokens referring to people. None of them, however, refer to girls. Instead, we find four referring to evil women, four to men (including a dwarf in “Snow White and Rose Red”) and one, in “The Golden Bird,” to duplicitous brothers. Apparently, in a tale that contrasts good girls with bad girls (or people in general), gottlos, though the closest antonym to fromm, is not the favored adjective for those bad people.

9.2 rein (‘pure/clean’) Though this morpheme only occurs 52 times in the Kinder- und Hausmärchen, it is clearly an important word for the Grimms, since 8 of those times are in their preface to the collection, all directly or indirectly referring to the nature of the tales themselves. Two representative quotes: Darum geht innerlich durch diese Dichtungen jene Reinheit, um derentwillen (Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›16) uns Kinder so wunderbar und selig erscheinen 

and in reference to their editoral activity: im Gegenteil ist Aufmerksamkeit und ein Takt nötig, der sich erst mit der Zeit erwirbt, um das Einfachere, Reinere und doch in sich Vollkommenere von dem (Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›21–2) Verfälschten zu unterscheiden. 

As for the other 44 tokens of rein, 6 of them are in the verb reinigen ‘clean(se),’ and 9 in the adjective reinlich ‘cleanly.’ I will return to reinlich at the end of this discussion, but turn first to the 29 instances of rein proper, plus the causative reinigen. As far as I can tell, rein is actually predicated of good girls only twice in the texts. The first quote below is from “The Girl Without Hands” and the second is from “The White and the Black Bride:”

. That’s why there can be found inside of these tales that purity which makes children appear so wonderful and blessed to us. . on the contrary, close attention is necessary, and a discretion that one can only gain with time, to differentiate the simpler, purer, and nonetheless more complete from the counterfeit.



Chapter 9.╇ Moral states and mental dispositions 131

Als nun die Zeit herum war, und der Tag kam, wo sie der Böse holen wollte, da wusch sie sich rein und machte mit Kreide einen Kranz um sich.  (Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›177) Da sprach das Mädchen »ich möchte gern so schön und rein werden wie die Sonne;« alsbald war sie weiß und schön wie der Tag.  (Grimm 1857, v. 2:â•›229)

In the first quote, although the first English translation that leaps to mind (and I use it in the footnote) is ‘clean,’ since she is after all washing herself, it should be kept in mind that she is trying to thwart the Devil. In that situation, perhaps the better translation would be ‘pure.’ And surely, in the second quote the girl is not wishing to be beautiful and clean! The only example we have of an attributive rein for a girl in the texts, from “The Two Brothers,” reinforces this choice of meaning: Draußen vor der Stadt ist ein hoher Berg, darauf wohnt ein Drache, der muß alle Jahre eine reine Jungfrau haben, sonst verwüstet er das ganze Land.  (Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›317)

Yet a look at other uses of the word rein in “The Girl Without Hands” should convince us that we should not necessarily be choosing between ‘clean’ and ‘pure.’ In the two passages below, it is clear that in an interesting way the one implies or reinforces the other: Am andern Morgen kam der Teufel wieder, aber sie hatte auf ihre Hände geweint, und sie waren ganz rein. Da konnte er ihr wiederum nicht nahen …  (Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›177)

. When the time was up, and the day had come that the evil one wanted to take her, she washed herself clean and drew a circle around herself with chalk. . Then the girl said “I would like to be as beautiful and pure as the sun;” immediately she was as white and beautiful as the day. . There is another instance in the text, applying to “Herz” where the (body) part should be taken for the whole (“Die Gänsehirtin am Brunnen”): “sie hat drei Jahre lang die Gänse hüten müssen: sie hat nichts Böses dabei gelernt, sondern ihr reines Herz behalten.” (‘she had to tend the geese for three years: she didn’t learn anything evil thereby, but kept her pure heart intact’) . Out there in front of the city there is a high mountain, on which a dragon lives; he must have a pure virgin each year, otherwise he will lay waste the entire land. . The next morning the Devil came again, but she had cried on her hands, and they were completely clean/pure. Then he again could not approach her.

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Der Teufel kam zum drittenmal, aber sie hatte so lange und so viel auf die Stümpfe geweint, daß sie doch ganz rein waren. Da mußte er weichen und hatte alles Recht (Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›177–78) auf sie verloren. 

What we see here, of course, is a connection also made in the English expression “cleanliness is next to godliness.” But it is not just for God that one must be clean; in the following quote from “Cinderella,” we note that it is a requirement to get the prince: Da wusch es sich erst Hände und Angesicht rein, ging dann hin und neigte sich vor dem Königssohn, der ihm den goldenen Schuh reichte.10  (Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›144)

And it is not only one’s self that girls must keep clean. It would appear to be their job in numerous tales to keep objects around them rein as well. Thus we find the word associated with lentils (“Cinderella”), boots (“The Blue Light”), containers (“The Two Kings’ Children”), beds (“The Frog King” and “The Twelve Brothers”), back doorways (“The Three Little Men in the Woods”), flax (“The Scraps”), pots (“Snow White and Rose Red”), houses (“Spindle, Shuttle, and Needle”), or just alles ‘everything’ (“The Goosegirl at the Well”). In “Snow White and Rose Red,” the girls even keep rein the pelt of the bear who will turn out to be an enchanted prince. As with schön, rein is not limited to girls (and girls’ activity). But in the realm of humans and their activity (thus not having to do with things like pure air, water, heavens or gold),11 we find the word used sparingly otherwise. A mother reinigt (‘cleans’) her child’s clothes with an ear of corn in “The Ear of Corn.” A mayor keeps the moon clean in “The Moon.” A soldier has to keep the Devil’s house clean in “The Devil’s Sooty Brother” (his own Cinderella!). In “The Young Giant,” it is suggested that the young giant be lowered into a well, ostensibly to be cleaned, but actually killed. . The Devil came for the third time, but she had cried on the stumps for so long and so much that they were completely clean/pure. Then he had to retreat and had lost all right to her. . Similarly, though the word “rein” is not mentioned, the same purification process takes place in “Thousandfurs” when she is going to meet the king: “Da nahm sie ihr Öllämpchen, ging in ihr Ställchen, zog den Pelzrock aus und wusch sich den Ruß von dem Gesicht und den Händen ab, so daß ihre volle Schönheit wieder an den Tag kam.” (‘Then she took her little oil lamp, went into her little stall, took off the fur jacket and washed the soot from her face and her hands, so that all her beauty was revealed again.’) 10. Then she first washed her hands and face clean, went in and bowed before the prince, who handed her the golden shoe. 11. I also need to exclude instances where rein has the same effect as “up” in English “eat up.”



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As regards actual men and their body parts, we find two instances of rein in “Bearskin:” »So weit sind wir noch nicht« antwortete der Bärenhäuter, »erst sollst du mich reinigen.« Der Teufel mochte wollen oder nicht, er mußte Wasser holen, den Bärenhäuter abwaschen, ihm die Haare kämmen und die Nägel schneiden. Hierauf sah er wie ein tapferer Kriegsmann aus und war viel schöner als je vorher.12  (Grimm 1857, v. 2:â•›91) Da sprach er »ich bin dein verlobter Bräutigam, den du als Bärenhäuter gesehen hast, aber durch Gottes Gnade habe ich meine menschliche Gestalt wiedererhal(Grimm 1857, v. 2:â•›91–2) ten, und bin wieder rein geworden.«13 

Additionally, in “The Prince Who Fears Nothing,” we find the following: Da erkannte der Königssohn den Wink Gottes, neigte sich herab zu dem Wasser und wusch und badete sich darin das Gesicht. Und als er sich aufrichtete, hatte er seine Augen wieder so hell und rein, wie sie nie gewesen waren.14  (Grimm 1857, v. 2:â•›170)

As with schön, I would suggest that the men in these latter two stories exceptionally receive the adjective rein precisely because they are being characterized as fit for marriage to a good girl (the bear/prince in “Der Bärenhäuter” being in fact one of these examples of schön). Though of course a related word, reinlich (more or less ’tidy’ or ‘cleanly’) surely doesn’t have the same connotations of purity as rein. Nonetheless, the distribution of its nine tokens bears a distinct resemblance to that of the latter.

9.3 gut (‘good’) There are of course hundreds of tokens of the word gut in the Grimm tales. For my purposes here, I counted only those tokens that applied to individuals or to their hearts. I did not count instances, such as guter Freund ‘good friend’ or guter Jäger 12. “We haven’t gotten there yet,” said Bearskin, “first you must clean me.” The Devil, want it or not, had to get water, wash Bearskin off, comb his hair and cut his nails. After that he looked like a brave warrior snd was much more beautiful than before. 13. Then he said, “I am your promised bridegroom, whom you have seen as Bearskin, but through the grace of God I have regained my human form, and have become clean/pure again.” 14. Then the prince recognized the sign of God, knelt down to the water and washed and bathed his face in it. And when he rose, his eyes were again as clear and pure, as they had never been before. (sic)

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‘good hunter,’ where the word gut does not point to a quality of the individual in question, but rather to how well they fulfill the function indicated by the noun. With this restriction, we initially find a fairly even distribution of gut according to gender. Thus I count 11 examples applying to girls, 10 to women, 14 to boys, 15 to men, 4 to people in general, and one (the noun Güte (‘goodness’)) to God. Yet a closer look reveals definite gender differences in both the syntactic distribution and the interpretation of the word gut. In the quotes below, for a girl and a woman respectively, it appears as a predicate adjective: Das Mädchen ging jeden Tag hinaus zu dem Grabe der Mutter und weinte, und (“Cinderella” – Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›137) blieb fromm und gut.15  Es war einmal ein Schneider, der war ein zänkischer Mensch, und seine Frau, die gut, fleißig und fromm war, konnte es ihm niemals recht machen.16  (“Sharing Joy and Sorrow” – Grimm 1857, v. 2:â•›319)

In the following it is part of a predicate nominal: Es war einmal eine Mutter, die hatte drei Töchter, davon war die älteste unartig und bös, die zweite schon viel besser, obgleich sie auch ihre Fehler hatte, die jüngste aber war ein frommes gutes Kind.17  (“Saint Joseph in the Forest” – Grimm 1857, v. 2:â•›431)

In all of these cases, and they are typical for gut occurrences for females, one gains the impression that gut is a moral-state adjective. It is clearly linked with fromm and opposed to böse, as is also the case in the quote below, where, although not technically in a predicate construction, gut is clearly being introduced in the same way: Es war einmal eine Frau, die war eine rechte Hexe, und hatte zwei Töchter, eine häßlich und böse, und die liebte sie, weil sie ihre rechte Tochter war, und eine schön und gut, die haßte sie, weil sie ihre Stieftochter war.18  (“Dearest Roland” – Grimm 1857, v. 2:â•›288)

15. The girl went out every day to the grave of her mother and cried, and remained pious and good. 16. There once was a tailor, he was a contentious man, and his wife, who was good, industrious and pious, could never satisfy him. 17. There was once a mother who had three daughters, of whom the oldest was vicious and bad, the second a lot better, though she had her faults too, but the youngest was a pious good child. 18. There was once a woman who was a real witch and had two daughters, one ugly and bad, and she loved her because she was her real daughter, and one beautiful and good, she hated her because she was her stepdaughter.



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The female examples above should be contrasted with the following typical examples of male gut tokens: Da stieg der gute Jüngling ab, tötete das Pferd mit seinem Degen und überließ es den jungen Raben zum Futter.19  (“The White Snake” – Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›115) … der gute Hans aber ging, seiner Sorgen entledigt, mit der Gans unter dem (“Hans in Luck” – Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›410–11) Arme der Heimat zu.20  Der jüngste, der nichts Arges dahinter vermutete, ging hinein und erzählte ihm von dem guten Männlein, das ihm einen Spieß gegeben, womit er das Schwein getötet hätte.21  (“The Singing Bone” Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›165–66) wenn der gute Schiffer mir nicht Beistand geleistet hätte, so wäre es mir schlimm (“The Three Snake-Leaves” – Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›112) ergangen …22 

Syntactically, gut here serves as an attributive adjective, and the meaning is definitely biased in a social-trait direction. Gut is ‘kind-hearted,’ ‘helpful,’ or even ‘pleasantly credulous’ in the case of Hans, but is surely not ‘morally upright.’ One might even argue this for God’s Güte as found in “The Lord’s and the Devil’s Animals,” where he is taking pity on the delicate plants and trees. All of this is not to say that it is totally impossible for females to be socially gut, or males to be morally gut. Certainly the use of “gut von Herzen” (‘good of heart’) in the quote below, as well as the action of the tale in which it is found, allow for a social-trait reading for a girl (as well as the moral one): Das Töchterchen, das ihre Mutter, die Königin, geboren hatte, war nun herangewachsen, war gut von Herzen und schön von Angesicht und hatte einen golde(“The Twelve Brothers” – Grimm 1857, v.1:â•›73) nen Stern auf der Stirne.23

Such a reading is also totally appropriate for the Schwesterchen in the process of rescuing her brothers below:

19. The the good youth alighted, killed the horse with his knife, and gave it to the young ravens as food. 20. but good Hans went homewards, relieved of worry, with the goose under his arm. 21. The youngest, who didn’t suspect anything bad behind it, went in and told him about the good little man who had given him a lance with which he had killed the boar. 22. if the good boatman hadn’t given me assistance, it would have gone badly with me … 23. The little daughter that their mother the queen had given birth to had grown up now, was good of heart and beautiful of face and had a golden star on her forehead.

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Das gute Schwesterchen nahm ein Messer, schnitt sich ein kleines Fingerchen ab, steckte es in das Tor und schloß glücklich auf.24  (“The Seven Ravens” – Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›155)

On the other hand, there seems no reason to deny moral rectitude to the broombinder in the quote below: Der reiche war ein Goldschmied und bös von Herzen: der arme nährte sich davon, daß er Besen band, und war gut und redlich.25  (“The Two Brothers” – Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›312)

But these are rare examples. In general, the readings of gut for girls and boys follow the tendencies documented in the chart in Section 7.4.↜7: Girls are judged more by moral traits, boys by social ones.26 It is a notable fact that, of the 14 boy examples of gut found in the 211 fairy tales and legends, a full seven of them are in one tale, “The Jew in the Thornbush,” the most anti-Semitic of them all. I cannot believe that this is a coincidence. Consultation of the first edition of the KHM shows that none of the gut tokens to be found in the final edition were there originally (though a subsequently-deleted token of gutmütig (‘good-natured’) was). What the Grimms have done between the first and seventh editions is systematically substitute der gute Knecht (‘the good lad’) in the final edition for mein Knecht (‘my lad’) in the first edition. Why did they do this? I think that the Grimms have to have been aware that the actions of the protagonist in this particular story were on the whole quite brutal, and not really in line with those of other heroes in their tales. In order to compensate for this at least somewhat, in the final edition the Grimms emphasize the boy’s generosity in the scene at the beginning of the tale, when he gives his money to a magical little man (two instances of gutes Herz ‘good heart’), and then remind the reader of this generosity (with der gute Knecht) throughout the depredations of the rest of the tale. An interesting case, I think, of linguistic sleight-of-hand.

24. The good little sister took a knife, cut off one of her little fingers, stuck it the gate and unlocked it happily. 25. The rich one was a goldsmith and wicked of heart: the poor one sustained himself binding brooms, and was good and honest. 26. In fact, that chart has four instances of gut assigned to the social traits category for girls. If they were moved to the moral traits category, the contrast between boys and girls would be even stronger than outlined there.



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9.4 böse (‘bad/wicked/evil’) As I noted in the introduction to this chapter, the negative-moral-state adjective apparently favored most of all by the Grimms is böse. Of tokens applying to people in the tales, and not in the meaning ‘angry,’ I count a full 55. But these are not in general applied to young people at all, either boys (a total of 6 tokens) or girls (a total of 5). On the other hand, 20 instances describe malevolent older women, usually witches, who even more than siblings or step-siblings threaten the heroines and heroes of the tales. There follow two representative quotes, one from “The Frog King:” “Da erzählte er ihr, er wäre von einer bösen Hexe verwünscht worden ….”27 (Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›32); the other from “The Six Swans:” “Der König aber hatte eine böse Mutter, die war unzufrieden mit dieser Heirat und sprach schlecht von der jungen Königin.”28 (Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›255). 11 tokens of böse refer directly to the Devil, and indeed, as with schwarz, we can probably see the Archenemy and his allies (like witches and sorcerers) as central representatives of this adjective. The following quote from “The Juniper Tree” (a famous Low German tale) shows the Devil as the guiding force of yet another evil woman’s actions, even though she herself isn’t referred to as böse in this tale: Un as sik de lüttje Jung henin bückd, so reet ehr de Böse, bratsch! slöögt se den Deckel to, dat de Kopp afflöög un ünner de roden Appel füll.29  (Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›241)

If one reckons two dwarves as belonging to the demonic side rather than the human one, this leaves 11 böse men who, while bad enough, seem more ambitious, greedy or just mean than servants of the dark. An example already given in Section 9.3 contrasts a böse goldsmith with his gut broom-binder brother, where the bad one’s main sin is that he wants all of a golden bird (which he has paid for) for himself.

27. Then he told her he had been enchanted by an evil witch … 28. But the king had a wicked mother who was unhappy with this marriage and spoke ill of the young queen. 29. And when the little boy leaned inside, the Evil One moved her, and crash! She closed the lid, so that his head flew off and fell among the red apples.

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9.5 stolz (‘proud’) In the Grimm tales we find 24 tokens of the morpheme stolz ‘proud.’ On the whole, this is not an adjective one would expect to be negative, and in the 7 instances when we find it applied to objects and animals (Tier ‘animal,’ Hirsch ‘stag,’ Pferd ‘horse,’ Kleid ‘gown,’ Fuchs ‘fox,’ Bart ‘beard’), it indeed seems to have nothing but positive connotations associated with it. Thus in “Cinderella” we have a stolzeres Kleid (‘prouder gown’) being offered to her for the second ball, the hero in “Iron Hans” has a stolzer Fuchs (‘proud fox’) as a steed, the heroine in “The Iron Stove” possesses a stolzes königliches Kleid (‘proud royal gown’), and so on. In the realm of human beings, this positive orientation is also found, but only when applied to males. In “The Little Donkey” the king discovers to his joy the true form of his son-in-law: »Dein Rat ist gut«, sprach der König, und abends, als sie schliefen, schlich er sich hinein, und wie er zum Bett kam, sah er im Mondschein einen stolzen Jüngling da ruhen, und die Haut lag abgestreift auf der Erde.30  (Grimm 1857, v. 2:â•›255)

At the end of his story, “Iron Hans” appears to his protege as follows: Und als sie an der Hochzeitstafel saßen, da schwieg auf einmal die Musik, die Türen gingen auf, und ein stolzer König trat herein mit großem Gefolge.31  (Grimm 1857, v. 2:â•›242)

Surely stolz is not meant as a negative characteristic of the king in “The True Bride” either, even when he doesn’t recognize his true love: Er saß stolz auf seinem Pferd und sah sie nicht an, aber als sie ihn ansah, so erkann(Grimm 1857, v. 2:â•›374) te sie ihren Liebsten.32 

There is only one example in the texts where stolz as applied to a man implies an overweening (and thus negative) pride, specifically in the phrase “stolz sagen” (‘say proudly’) applied to an older brother (not good) in “The Water of Life:”

30. “Your advice is good,” said the king, and at night, when all were sleeping, he crept in, and whe he came to the bed, he saw in the moonlight a proud youth resting there, and the skin lay stripped off on the ground. 31. And while they were seated at the wedding table, all of a sudden the music stopped, the doors opened, and a proud king entered with a great retinue. 32. He sat proud on his horse and didn’t look at her, but when she saw him she recognized her dearest.



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»Dummer Knirps,« sagte der Prinz ganz stolz, »das brauchst du nicht zu wissen,« (Grimm 1857, v. 2:â•›69–70) und ritt weiter.33 

In the remaining 13 tokens, all applied to females, there are no positive ones. At its worst, stolz is associated with a totally evil person, such as the wicked queen in “Sneewittchen.” Aschenputtel’s awful sisters are also described as the zwei stolze Töchter (‘two proud daughters’), and they are surely irredeemably bad. Normally, however, stolz is a characteristic predicated of girls who are too much above themselves, especially as regards possible husbands, and need to be taken down a peg. This is made explicit in “King Thrushbeard,” where we find stolz used three times in reference to the princess who initially rejects the hero (first example below): Ein König hatte eine Tochter, die war über alle Maßen schön, aber dabei so stolz und übermütig34, daß ihr kein Freier gut genug war.35  (Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›264)

The same situation can be found in “The Clever Little Tailor”: Es war einmal eine Prinzessin gewaltig stolz; kam ein Freier, so gab sie ihm etwas zu raten auf, und wenn ers nicht erraten konnte, so ward er mit Spott fortge(Grimm 1857, v. 2:â•›146) schickt.36 

Similarly proud princesses reject their worthy suitors in “The Six Servants” and “The Sea-Hare.“ Overweening pride of a different sort characterizes the title character of “Mary’s Child,“ who refuses to confess to opening the forbidden door, but repents at the last minute: “da schmolz das harte Eis des Stolzes und ihr Herz ward von Reue bewegt” (‘then the hard ice of her pride melted, and her heart was filled with contrition’ – Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›41). In sum, for girls (and it is primarily applied to them) stolz may be seen as a negative adjective, but one not totally incompatible with better traits, and frequently curable.

33. “Stupid twerp,” the price said most proudly, “you don’t need to know that,” and rode on. 34. übermütig (‘haughty’), which has much the same meaning as stolz here, is unambiguously negative, but has only five examples referring to people in the texts. 35. A king had a daughter who was beautiful beyond all measure, but in addition so proud and haughty that no suitor was good enough for her. 36. There was once a princess who was tremendously proud; if a suitor came, she set him a riddle, and if he could not answer it, he was sent away in ridicule.

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9.6 Concluding remarks on inner qualities and dispositions There are curious imbalances in the use of the adjectives studied in this chapter. While fromm and rein by preference are applied to good girls and young women, their obvious opposites, gottlos and unrein, are not used for their bad counterparts. Unrein is not found, and gottlos, which appears rarely, doesn’t apply to girls at all. And while there are quite a few tokens of böse in the text, in general they apply by preference to wicked older women (or witches), the Devil and his minions, and malevolent men, and not often to either girls or boys (though there are a few in contrast situations). Gut, too, is found frequently in the tales, and apparently reasonably equally allocated to girls and boys, women and men. But a curious difference becomes apparent when one studies uses of this adjective for the two sexes. Applied to females, it normally indicates a positive moral state, while when applied to males it normally indicates social facility (‘good-hearted’ and the like). Stolz also has this type of gender difference. When applied to males (and objects other than humans), it is almost always a positive trait. When applied to females, it is always negative, though in the case of girls usually curable. Mostly these findings reinforce the differences we noted in Chapter 7 between boys and girls in the Grimm tales. Positive moral attributes are much more commonly associated with the latter than the former. The one apparent counterexample, gut, turns out, when applied to boys, to describe social traits. As for negative moral adjectives, the Grimms don’t use them for children or adolescents much at all. It seems that for bad girls, negative appearance or laziness are normally enough by themselves to indicate that badness.

chapter 10

Industry and intelligence In the last chapter, we found an adjective (stolz) which took on a different valence (positive or negative) depending on which gender it was associated with. In this chapter, I will discuss sets of polar adjectives that work the same way. For girls, as we will see, it is good to be industrious, and at least not bad to be smart. For boys, on the other hand, it usually pays to be lazy, and is downright helpful to be dumb. In line with the observations made in Chapter 7, however, industry is the more important category for females, while intelligence (or lack thereof) is more important for males.

10.1 fleißig (‘industrious’) The morpheme fleiß appears 20 times in our texts, once, in the Prologue, used by the Grimms to characterize their collection activity. It appears twice in the noun Fleiß ‘industry.’ Only five of the nineteen tokens in the tales themselves are associated with males (one of them a sparrow). All of these are not actually descriptive of the males themselves, but of the manner in which they do something. In one case what the male does is serve, in the other four (including the sparrow) it has to do with learning something well: Es war einmal ein reicher Mann, der hatte einen Knecht, der diente ihm fleißig (“The Jew in the Thornbush” – Grimm 1857, v. 2:â•›124) und redlich, …  Da ging der Junge auf eine hohe Schule und lernte fleißig, so daß ihn seine Lehrer rühmten, und blieb eine Zeitlang dort.  (“The Spirit in the Bottle” – Grimm 1857, v. 2:â•›78)

Of the fourteen female examples, one (“Sharing Joy and Sorrow”) has to do with a grown woman, and fleißig is simply predicated of her as a state (though it is clear it means to work hard in the household). The others, all dealing with girls or young . There once was a rich man who had a servant who had served him industriously and honestly. . Then the boy went to a good school and learnt industriously, so that his teachers boasted of him, and stayed there for a while.

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women, are also usually presented as a desired or actual property of the protagonists, rather than the way they do some specific thing: Es war einmal ein armes Dienstmädchen, das war fleißig und reinlich, kehrte alle Tage das Haus und schüttete das Kehricht auf einen großen Haufen vor die (“The Elves” – Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›217) Türe.  Eine Witwe hatte zwei Töchter, davon war die eine schön und fleißig, die andere (“Frau Holle” – Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›150) häßlich und faul.  Das Mädchen lebte nun in dem kleinen Haus ganz allein, war fleißig, spann, webte und nähte, und auf allem, was es tat, ruhte der Segen der guten Alte.  (“Spindle, Shuttle, and Needle” – Grimm 1857, v. 2:â•›380)

In practice, of course, as two of the examples above show explicitly, what these girls are supposed to do industriously is housework. In the fourteen examples found, one encounters picking fruit, harvesting grain, sweeping the house, spinning or just working in general. Two more examples are given below: Je fleißiger es arbeitete, je mehr ward ihm aufgelegt  (“The True Bride” – Grimm 1857, v. 2:â•›368) »Bleib bei mir, wenn du alle Arbeit im Hause ordentlich tun willst, so soll dir’s gut gehn.« … »Das sollst du haben, weil du so fleißig gewesen bist,« sprach die Frau (“Frau Holle” – Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›151) Holle …

In general, then, fleißig belongs to the class of attributes of good girls.

10.2 arbeitsam (‘hard-working’) Arbeitsam is actually only found three times in the tales (as a close synonym for fleißig), but all of them apply to girls. One example:

. There was once a poor servant girl, who was industrious and cleanly, swept the house every day and shook the sweepings into a great heap in front of the doors. . A widow had two daughters, of whom one was beautiful and industrious, the other ugly and lazy. . The girl now lived completely alone in the little house, and was industrious, spun, wove and sewed, and on everything that she did lay the blessing of the good old woman. . The more industriously she worked, the more work she was given . “Stay with me, if you will do all the work in the house properly, it will go well with you.” … “You shall have that because you have been so industrious,” Frau Holle said …



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Nun hatte es ein Dienstmädchen, das war arbeitsam, suchte den weggeworfenen Flachs zusammen, reinigte ihn, spann ihn fein und ließ sich ein hübsches Kleid (“The Scraps” – Grimm 1857, v. 2:â•›272) daraus weben. 

10.3 faul (‘lazy’) It seems clear that fleißig and arbeitsam are words used primarily to describe good girls, or at least ideally good girls. If we then ask whether their antonym faul is an adjective used for bad girls, or for a failing (aber faul (‘but lazy’)) of otherwise positively described girls, the answer is yes. Indeed, as a contrast item we find it in some of the same tales where fleißig is found. We can see this above in the quote from “Frau Holle” describing the pair of sisters. And in “The Three Spinning Women” the contrast is between what the future mother-in-law expects (much spinning), and the reality: Es war ein Mädchen faul und wollte nicht spinnen, und die Mutter mochte sagen, (Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›97) was sie wollte, sie konnte es nicht dazu bringen. 

In “The Scraps” the fleißig good girl wins the man over from a rival described as follows: Es war einmal ein Mädchen, das war schön, aber faul und nachlässig.10  (Grimm 1857, v. 2:â•›271)

All of these are instances in which spinning is the most salient activity in which the girls show their faul natures, and this is certainly the case for “The Lazy Spinning Woman” as well: Auf einem Dorfe lebte ein Mann und eine Frau, und die Frau war so faul, daß sie immer nichts arbeiten wollte: und was ihr der Mann zu spinnen gab, das spann sie nicht fertig, und was sie auch spann, haspelte sie nicht, sondern ließ alles auf (Grimm 1857, v. 2:â•›199) dem Klauel gewickelt liegen.11 

. Now she had a servant-girl, she was hard-working, gathered the flax which had been thrown away, cleaned it, spun it finely and had a pretty dress woven out of it. . There was a girl who was lazy and didn’t want to spin, and her mother could say what she wanted, she couldn’t make her do it. 10. There was once a girl who was beautiful, but lazy and careless. 11. In a village there lived a man and a woman, and the woman was so lazy that she never wanted to work; and whatever her husband gave her to spin, she didn’t spin to the end, and even what she spun she didn’t put on a reel, but left everything tangled on the bobbin.

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Indeed, between them these four tales show 11 of the 13 examples I found where faul was used for girls or women.12 The others will be discussed below. If one now asks whether, as with fleißig, the word faul is mostly restricted to girls and women, on the face of it the answer is no. Indeed, we find it used 16 times in the texts for boys and men, almost the same numbers as for females. Yet when we study those examples, a curious fact emerges: faul in males is not usually a negative trait. It certainly is not negatively sanctioned. On the contrary, it may be rewarded. The three main sources for faul in males are “Lazy Heinz” (4 tokens), “The Three Lazy Ones” (5 tokens) and “The Twelve Lazy Servants” (5 tokens).13 In the first, lazy Heinz, and ultimately his equally lazy wife Trine, although at the end of their story bereft of goats, honey and geese, see this as an opportunity to stay in bed longer. In “The Three Lazy Ones” the laziest of a king’s sons wins the kingship. And the twelve lazy boys of “The Twelve Lazy Servants” boast of their increasingly extravagant laziness, none of which seems to have hurt them. No loss of a possible spouse, no pitch, no problem. There is one more tale in which a male is described as faul. In “Lean Lisa,” we actually have two direct cross-references to “Lazy Heinz,” one of them an unwarranted accusation, the other the following first sentence of the tale: Ganz anders als der faule Heinz und die dicke Trine, die sich von nichts aus ihrer (Grimm 1857, v. 2:â•›312) Ruhe bringen ließen, dachte die hagere Liese.14 

To summarize my findings for faul males: All of them can be found in comic tales where laziness is in any case not punished, and may actually lead to a positive outcome. These males are joined by similar females in three instances. I noted above that Heinz’s wife is as lazy as he is. Katie in “Frieder and Katie” is described as faul for plucking beets in a crouch rather than upright, and somehow succeeds thereby in convincing a passerby that she is the Devil. And the protagonist of “The Lazy Spinning Woman” succeeds through trickery in never having to spin again. Although the numbers are not large, I think the trend here is clear: Faul is used for both males and females, but while it is a humorous trait in the former, in the latter it is normally a serious failing.

12. I am not counting here, or in the count for males below, instances of nicht faul meaning ‘immediately’ or the pejorative Faulenzer as used by characters in the tales. 13. The last two are both numbered 151. 14. Gaunt Lisa thought completely differently than lazy Heinz and Fat Trina, who would allow nothing to disturb their peace.



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10.4 klug (‘clever’) There are 49 examples of this adjective in the tales. On the face of it, it would seem to be an extremely positive one. And indeed, our texts show us several examples where the hero (or heroine, because the word klug itself is not gender-specific) is characterized as klug and wins the prize. Yet there are interesting deviations from this. In the first place, of course, there are cases where the adjective klug is clearly being used tongue-in-cheek.15 Both “The Clever Servant” and “Clever Else” have protagonists that are anything but clever. Sent out to look for a cow, the first ends up chasing blackbirds, while the second ends up her tale not even knowing who she is. The wife in “The Clever People” is so stupid that her husband despairs of finding someone stupider in the world (he does). And the wife in “Frieder and Katie,” referred to by her husband once, presumably ironically, as klug, is truly an idiot, sharing a number of characteristics with Else, though she seems to come out of her story better off. On the other hand, “The Clever Peasant’s Daughter” truly is clever, and is rewarded for it. “Clever Gretel,” though something of a miscreant, gets herself out of a scrape by being klug. The little tailor in “The Clever Little Tailor,” though characterized at the beginning of his story as not even understanding his craft, does some awfully clever stuff to win the hand of the princess, and the third sister in “Fitcher’s Bird,” referred to as klug und listig (‘clever and cunning’) is able to avoid the grisly fate of her sisters, and even restore them to life. Other examples of rewarded klug-ness may be found in “The Riddle” (the prince, who outwits a princess also characterized as klug), “The House in the Forest” (the third daughter), “Thumbthick” (the title character), “The Farmer and the Devil” (the farmer), and “The King of the Golden Mountain” (the son). The following quote comes from the last mentioned: “Unterdessen ward der Junge groß und dabei klug und gescheit.” (‘In the meantime the boy became big and in addition clever and bright’€– Grimm 1857, v. 2:â•›45.) There are other cases in which klug is at least not negative, though one cannot say that the hero or heroine is actually rewarded for it. In addition to the princess of “The Riddle,” this includes the girl of “The Rooster Beam,” who wins one and loses one, and the title character of “The Master-Thief,” who after all has to leave town. The giant’s clever girlfriend in “The Prince Who Fears Nothing” is not a main character, the narrators’ characterization of the people of today as klug und verschmitzt (‘clever and astute’) in “The Owl” is surely meant ironically, and the

15. Or used incorrectly in self-reference, cf. “The Poor Boy in the Grave.”

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inkeeper’s estimation of “The Three Journeymen” as nicht recht klug (‘not really clever’) is clearly a mistake, even if true. Yet even given examples where the klug person wins the prize, there is plenty of evidence from the fairy tales that the favored adventurer is not always the klug one. Thus in “The Singing Bone” two brothers respond to a king’s plea to capture or kill a wild boar: Der älteste, der listig und klug war, tat es aus Hochmut, der jüngste, der unschul(Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›165) dig und dumm war, aus gutem Herzen.16 

In “The Three Feathers,” the three brothers, of whom the third is the hero, are characterized as follows: Es war einmal ein König, der hatte drei Söhne, davon waren zwei klug und gescheit, aber der dritte sprach nicht viel, war einfältig und hieß nur der Dummling.17  (Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›343)

In “The Poor Miller’s Lad and the Cat,” the two older apprentices, referred to as die Klugen (‘the clever ones’) don’t end up with the princess; the albern (‘foolish’) one does. Similarly, in “The Golden Goose” and “The Golden Bird” it is the non-klug brother who wins. In “The Tale of One Who Went Out to Learn Fear,” the hero is the second of the two sons found in the passage below: Ein Vater hatte zwei Söhne, davon war der älteste klug und gescheit und wußte sich in alles wohl zu schicken. Der jüngste aber war dumm, konnte nichts begreifen und lernen, und wenn ihn die Leute sahen, sprachen sie: »Mit dem wird der (Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›41) Vater noch seine Last haben.«18 

In “The Two Brothers,” finally, the goldsmith/uncle is characterized as klug und listig vs. his gut und redlich (‘honest’) brother (whose sons are the brothers of the title). Even though the word klug can be applied both to males and females in our text, and can be applied to both positive and negative characters, there are a few interesting distinctions I think we can make based on the facts summarized above:

16. The eldest, who was cunning and clever, did it out of arrogance, the youngest, who was innocent and dumb, out of a good heart. 17. There once was a king who had three sons, of whom two were clever and bright, but the third didn’t speak much, and was only called the Simpleton. 18. A father had two sons, of whom the eldest was clever and bright, and knew how to act correctly in everything. The youngest, however, was dumb, could not understand or learn anything, and when people saw him they said “His father is going to have trouble with him.”



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1. Eliminating the clearly ironic uses of the word klug listed above, there is a strong tendency to use the adjective more when describing males than females (17 vs. 9). 2. In cases where the protagonist19 is one of a comparison set of males, he is almost always the non-klug one. This is found in 7 out of 8 cases above, and the youngest tailor in “The Clever Little Tailor” (the 8th) is only clever in the title. In the introduction to the story this is his description: Der dritte war ein kleiner, unnützer Springinsfeld, der nicht einmal sein Handwerk verstand, aber meinte, er müßte dabei Glück haben; denn woher sollt’s ihm (Grimm 1857, v. 2:â•›146) sonst kommen.20 

3. In a female comparison set, if the word klug is used at all (as we’ve seen earlier, this isn’t one of the normal terms of comparison for girls), it is the protagonist to whom it applies (2 examples above). 4. Males and females who are not part of a comparison set are free to be either klug or not.

10.5 gescheit (‘bright’) What was said about klug in the last section is basically true of gescheit as well. Once one eliminates ironic uses (one in “Clever Hans,” two of them in “Clever Else”), one is left with nine tokens, all of them applying to males. As shown in three of the quotations in the last section, where gescheit and klug are conjoined, the former shares with the latter the tendency to be negative when a direct comparison is being made, but not necessarily so when no comparison is present.

10.6 listig (‘cunning’) As with gescheit, more or less so with listig. Of the eight tokens of this morpheme (including Listigkeit ‘cunning’) which deal with human beings (thus foxes excluded), seven deal with males, one with a female. This last, from “Fitcher’s Bird,” characterizes the heroine of that tale over against her two sisters, thus, as with klug, against the male pattern: “Er ging nun und holte die dritte, die aber war

19. Or, accounting for “Die zwei Brüder,” the “good” one of the comparison set. 20. The third was a small, impractical greenhorn, who didn’t even understand his trade, but thought that he would have to have good fortune in it; for how else would he succeed?

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klug und listig.” (‘He now went and got the third, but she was clever and cunning.’€– Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›237)

10.7 weise (‘wise’) I couldn’t leave the category of intelligence without discussing the one word which represents perhaps the outermost positive in this area, namely weise. But as the English translation of this word might suggest, one hardly expects young people to achieve it. And in fact, of the 24 non-ironic tokens of this adjective and its nominalization Weisheit (‘wisdom’) in the tales, precisely one applies to a girl and three to a boy. There is also one king with Weisheit, and God distributes wealth and poverty weislich (‘wisely’). All of the other 18 examples of weise apply to old women who are the helpers of the heroines/heroes of the tales. A representative example from “Dearest Roland:” Die gute Aufwartung gefiel ihm freilich, aber zuletzt ward ihm doch angst, so daß er zu einer weisen Frau ging und sie um Rat fragte.21  (Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›291)

It is striking that this adjective applies by preference to the same category of persons as the word böse. The two of them together certainly indicate the importance of old women, as either tormentors or helpers, to the boys and girls who are the protagonists of most of the tales. Older men almost never play the same kind of role.

10.8 dumm (‘dumb’) In two of the male comparison sets cited for klug above (“The Three Feathers” and “The Golden Goose”), the younger protagonist is named Dummling, and in two others (“The Tale of One Who Went Out to Learn Fear” and “The Singing Bone”) the protagonists are not only not klug, but in fact dumm. A check of the 79 tokens of dumm in the tales support the thrust of these examples, namely that dumm is frequently, even normally, a positive adjective for males in these texts. Of the 79, 42 are tokens of the name Dummling, found in the two tales mentioned above and in “The Queen Bee” (where Dummling is similarly the hero). I also found two more examples, after Dummling, of a name containing the word, namely der dumme Hans (‘Dumb Hans’) in “The Griffin” (2 tokens) and a similarly named protagonist in “The Little Gnome.” 21. The good attendance certainly appealed to him, but finally he became afraid, so that he went to a wise woman and asked for her advice.



Chapter 10.╇ Industry and intelligence 149

In addition to these names, we find the adjective dumm as an attribute of the protagonist a further three times, i.e. in the aforementioned tales and also in “The Three Languages:” In der Schweiz lebte einmal ein alter Graf, der hatte nur einen einzigen Sohn, (Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›186) aber er war dumm und konnte nichts lernen.22 

All other tokens of the morpheme dumm are to be found in direct quotations from characters in the stories, usually consisting of direct insults or characterizations of other characters in the stories. These range from Cinderella’s stepsisters’ taunting her as a dumme Gans (‘stupid goose’ – a phrase used elsewhere in the tales as well) and Brother Jolly’s maligning of St. Peter as a dummer Teufel (‘dumb devil’) through dummer Knirps (‘dumb twerp’ in “The Water of Life”) and Dummbart (‘Dumbbeard’ – numerous places), to Hans’ mother’s constant refrain of “das hast du dumm gemacht, Hans” (‘that was dumb of you, Hans’) in “Clever Hans.” If one throws out these attributions made by characters within the tales themselves, but takes the names Dummling and der dumme Hans to be at least indirect predications by the narrators, we come to a total of eight tales in which the quality dumm is directly addressed linguistically. Given that four of them overlap with the klug cases above, it should be no surprise that the same general tendencies can be discerned in them (in reverse). But 1. dumm is predicated only of boys, and 2. In the case of comparison sets it characterizes the good or successful one (only the protagonist of “The Three Languages ” lacks an older, smarter brother).

10.9 Attributes of the Grimm heroine and hero I have already stated the basic conclusions concerning adjectives of industry and intelligence in the introduction to this chapter: Girls are by preference Â�industrious, and may sometimes be smart, though this is not a focus; lazy or dumb boys are often the heroes and winners in their own tales. What these observations perhaps obscure, as well as those in the previous two chapters, is that, in terms of their desire to characterize adjectivally the protagonists of their tales (as documented numerically in the tales themselves), the Grimms concentrated on the good girls. There are very few traits a male must have to come out well in his tale. We don’t normally know whether the heroes of a Grimm tale are good-looking or not (of

22. In Switzerland there once lived an old count, he only had a single son, but he was dumb and couldn’t learn anything.

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course the princes/prizes who marry the heroines are!). Whether they are morally upright or pious normally doesn’t matter, though they should be good-hearted. And on the whole, as shown in this chapter, it isn’t really important that they be hard-working or smart. But what of the heroines? I hope to have shown in the last four chapters that the standards that they must meet are much higher and more stereotyped, as expressed in the adjectives that the Grimms lavish on them. Beautiful, white, pious, pure, good, not proud, industrious: These are the attributes of the ideal heroine. Not to mention unsexed, which I have already touched upon in my discussion of rot (‘red’) in Chapter 8, and will return to in the next chapter. As for bad girls, it seems to be sufficient to characterize them as ugly or lazy; everything moral naturally follows. Bad boys, at least in comparison sets, are normally klug (not to mention älter), while böse is sufficient for bad people of whatever gender or age, although by preference older women, and weise is the preferred adjective for old female helpers.

chapter 11

Gender and the use of pronouns In this chapter I again deal with a phenomenon that may be taken as revealing something about the way the Grimms viewed young women and girls. Here, however, the issue is not really a lexical one, but rather a core grammatical one. Specifically, what I am looking at in the following pages is when it was that the Grimms used the neuter pronoun es (‘it’) to refer to them, and when they used the feminine pronoun sie (‘she’), and what other aspects of the characters in question can be correlated with the linguistic one. Here I must insert a necessary remark on my translations in the footnotes below. English does not have anything like the es/sie distinction discussed here, and English translations of the fairy tales invariably render both of them as “she.” This is too bad, if unavoidable, since the pronominal distinction reflects and reinforces other elements of the stories that can be understood regardless of the language of transmission. In any case, in my English translations of the German passages cited, I have taken the totally unEnglish step of translating all of the relevant neuter pronouns (which include the possessive pronoun sein- (‘its’) and the oblique case form ihm (‘to it’), as well as es) with forms of English “IT” in capitals. When the contrast is especially relevant, I have done the same with the feminine pronouns (thus SHE, HER, etc.)

11.1 Pronoun/noun correspondences On the face of it, one might be tempted to ascribe the use of referential es to a use of the word Kind (‘child’) or especially Mädchen (‘girl’) in the text (since both of them, like the pronoun, are grammatically neuter), and sie to the use of some other word for a female human being. And indeed, there is something to be said for this. Thus in the passages cited below (From the Grimms’ 7th and last edition of 1857), the pronoun follows closely upon a noun of the appropriate gender (all of the emphases are mine):

. Much of this chapter has appeared previously in Robinson (2007). My thanks to Marvels and Tales and Wayne State University Press.

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Rapunzel ward das schönste Kind unter der Sonne. Als es zwölf Jahre alt war, schloß es die Zauberin in einen Turm, der in einem Walde lag und weder Treppe (“Rapunzel” – Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›88) noch Türe hatte; …  Das arme Mädchen mußte sich täglich auf die große Straße bei einem Brunnen setzen und mußte so viel spinnen, daß ihm das Blut aus den Fingern sprang. Nun trug es sich zu, daß die Spule einmal ganz blutig war, da bückte es sich damit in den Brunnen und wollte sie abwaschen; sie sprang ihm aber aus der Hand und fiel hinab.  (“Frau Holle” – Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›150) Da fing sie an zu weinen und weinte immer lauter und konnte sich gar nicht trösten. Und wie sie so klagte, rief ihr plötzlich jemand zu: “Was hast du vor, (“The Frog King” – Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›29) Königstochter? …” 

Of course, the choice of the initial noun might then itself become the focus of the discussion. In cases where two competing nouns seem equally possible, such as Königstochter or Mädchen, why was one chosen over the other? To illustrate with another princess (compare with the third quotation above): Es geschah, daß an dem Tage, wo es gerade fünfzehn Jahr alt ward, der König und die Königin nicht zu Haus waren und das Mädchen ganz allein im Schloß zurückblieb. Da ging es allerorten herum, besah Stuben und Kammern, wie es Lust hatte, und kam endlich auch an einen alten Turm.  (“Little Briar Rose” – Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›258)

. Rapunzel became the most beautiful child [neuter:OWR] under the sun. When IT turned twelve, the enchantress shut IT up in a tower which lay deep in the woods and had neither stairs nor doors;… . The poor girl [neuter:OWR] had to sit daily next to a well at the big road, and had to spin so much that the blood spurted out of ITS fingers. Once it happened that the spool became completely bloody; at that point IT leaned forward into the well and wanted to wash it off, but it jumped out of ITS hand and fell in. . Then SHE began to cry, and cried harder and harder and was completely inconsolable. And while SHE was wailing this way, suddenly someone called to HER: “What’s wrong, princess [feminine:OWR]? …” . It happened that, on the day that it just turned fifteen, the king and the queen weren’t at home and the girl [neuter:OWR] remained in the castle completely alone. Then IT went all over the place, looked at all the parlors and chambers that it felt like, and finally came to an old tower.



Chapter 11.╇ Gender and the use of pronouns 153

11.2 Exceptions to gender concord But in fact there are many bits of evidence that would appear to rule out a simple gender-concord rule. In the first place, male human beings are usually exempt from it in the KHM. In “The Brave Little Tailor,” where, it should be noted, the word Schneiderlein (‘little tailor’) is emphatically neuter, the pronoun es is normally avoided: Das klang dem Schneiderlein lieblich in die Ohren, er steckte sein zartes Haupt zum Fenster hinaus und rief: »Hierherauf, liebe Frau, hier wird Sie Ihre (Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›127) Ware los.« 

It would also appear that the Grimms had trouble being consistent with certain girls under certain circumstances. Both of the quotations below evince sie incursions into an otherwise consistent es narrative: Als es nun vierzehn Jahr alt geworden war, rief es einmal die Jungfrau Maria zu sich … Das Mädchen versprach, gehorsam zu sein, und als nun die Jungfrau Maria weg war, fing sie an und besah die Wohnungen des Himmelreichs: jeden Tag schloß es eine auf, bis die zwölfe herum waren.  (“Mary’s Child” – Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›36) Es tanzte, bis es Abend war, da wollte es nach Haus gehen. Der Königssohn aber€… wollte sehen, wem das schöne Mädchen angehörte. Sie entwischte ihm aber … Und als sie ins Haus kamen, lag Aschenputtel in seinen schmutzigen Kleidern in (“Cinderella” – Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›140) der Asche … 

In the rest of this chapter, I would like to explore more precisely which girls, and under what circumstances, are more likely to be referred to with es or sie.

. There are very occasional es incursions into the text. . That sounded sweet to the ears of the little tailor [neuter:OWR]; HE stuck his delicate head out of the window and called out: “Up here, dear lady, here you can sell your wares.” . Now when IT turned fourteen, the Virgin Mary once called IT to her … The girl [neuter: OWR] promised to be obedient, and when the Virgin Mary was gone, SHE began to investigate the apartments of Heaven: every day IT opened one, until the twelve were all done. . IT danced until evening, then IT wanted to go home. The prince, however … wanted to see whom the beautiful girl [neuter:OWR] belonged to. SHE escaped him however … And when they came into the house, Cinderella lay in ITS filthy clothes in the ashes …

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11.3 Age, sex, goodness As I see it, the issue is not just a simple one of asking what es or sie mean. The choice made does not always mean the same thing; rather, in different tales the two pronouns, though always in opposition to each other, take on different shades of meaning, which can be correlated with each other, but are not identical. Specifically, I want to argue that we can find at least three different ways in which the pronouns es and sie (and, I would argue following a statement made above, sometimes the choice of associated nouns) are opposed to each other. The three axes along which the two pronouns are opposed, I claim, are the following (always granted that the referent is a female human being):

es younger unsexed good (/nice)

sie older sexed bad (/naughty)

I hope to demonstrate not only that all three of these oppositions are well-attested in various of the fairy tales, but also that elements of all three of them, whether consciously intended by the Grimms or not, lend to certain tales a stylistic complexity they would otherwise not have. That es can refer to younger girls who nonetheless miss on some of the other criteria may be illustrated with “Frau Trude,” of which the heroine is surely at least naughty, and maybe bad. Of course, she gets rather short shrift in this short tale: Es war einmal ein kleines Mädchen, das war eigensinnig und vorwitzig, und wenn ihm seine Eltern etwas sagten, so gehorchte es nicht: wie konnte es dem (Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›226) gut gehen?10 

Obviously related to age, but nonetheless distinguishable from it, is the notion of sexual maturity. For girls in the Grimm tales, the age of twelve would appear to be the approximate point at which this occurs, usually necessitating a change of pronouns. One might expect “Rapunzel,” a tale in which a witch tries and fails to shield her quasi-daughter from all commerce with men, to show us a development from es to sie, and indeed, this is what we find, at precisely the expected point. Rapunzel is es until the witch shuts her into a tower at the age of twelve (documented in the first quote of this chapter), directly after which she becomes “sie:”:

10. There once was a little girl [neuter:OWR] who was obstinate and meddlesome, and when ITS parents told it anything, IT didn’t pay attention: how could things turn out well for IT?



Chapter 11.╇ Gender and the use of pronouns 155

Wenn die Zauberin hinein wollte, so stellte sie sich unten hin und rief: “Rapunzel, Rapunzel, Laß mir dein Haar herunter!” Rapunzel hatte lange, prächtige Haare, fein wie gesponnen Gold. Wenn sie nun die Stimme der Zauberin vernahm, so band sie ihre Zöpfe los, wickelte sie oben um einen Fensterhaken, und dann fielen die Haare zwanzig Ellen tief herunter, (Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›88) und die Zauberin stieg daran hinauf.11 

It should be noted that there is absolutely no intervening feminine common noun that would necessitate this change to sie. I would argue that the main thing that has happened is that Rapunzel has become available for sex and/or marriage. In “Rapunzel,” it is indeed sex that comes first. In other cases, the emphasis is more on marriage. There are many examples of this kind of es to sie change. In the passage below, the girl remains an es up to the very point that the king “proposes,” if one can call it that: Er tat ihm seinen Mantel um, nahm es vor sich aufs Pferd und brachte es in sein Schloß. Da ließ er ihm reiche Kleider antun, und es strahlte in seiner Schönheit wie der helle Tag, aber es war kein Wort aus ihm herauszubringen. Er setzte es bei Tisch an seine Seite, und seine bescheidenen Mienen und seine Sittsamkeit gefielen ihm so sehr, daß er sprach ‘Diese begehre ich zu heiraten und keine andere auf der Welt,’ und nach einigen Tagen vermählte er sich mit ihr.12  (“The Six Swans” – Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›255)

It might be worth noting that this last tale (“The Six Swans”), in which a girl must remain silent in order to save her brothers who have been transformed into swans, but in the meantime marries a king, shows similarities in plot structure to a number of other tales. This is no big surprise, since the Grimms are known to have recycled plot elements frequently. But it is interesting to compare such tales in terms of the pronouns used to refer to the heroine. Thus in “The Six Swans” the heroine remains sie from the passage above all the way to the end, when she is able to transform her brothers back into men: 11. When the enchantress wanted to get in, she stood below and called “Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair to me.”  apunzel had long, beautiful hair, as fine as spun gold. Whenever SHE heard the voice of the R enchantress, SHE unbound HER braids and wound them around a window-hook, and then the hair fell down twenty ells, and the enchantress climbed up on it. 12. He put his cloak on IT, took IT onto his horse in front of him and brought IT to his castle. Then he had rich clothes put onto IT, and IT radiated in ITS beauty like the bright day, but no word could be gotten from IT. He placed IT at the table by his side, and ITS modest looks and ITS demureness appealed to him so much that he said “I desire to marry this one [feminine pronoun:OWR], and no other in the world”, and after a few days he married HER.

156 Grimm Language

Die Schwäne rauschten zu ihr her und senkten sich herab, so daß sie ihnen die Hemden überwerfen konnte: und wie sie davon berührt wurden, fielen die Schwanenhäute ab, und ihre Brüder standen leibhaftig vor ihr und waren frisch (Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›256) und schön;13 

In a story entitled “The Seven Ravens” we find again a sister bent on releasing her brothers from their fowl shapes. But although she undergoes a number of adventures on her way to this conclusion, marriage, or even the interest of men, is not one of them. This is the transformation scene at the end of this latter tale: Und wie der siebente auf den Grund des Bechers kam, rollte ihm das Ringlein entgegen. Da sah er es an und erkannte, daß es ein Ring von Vater und Mutter war, und sprach ‘Gott gebe, unser Schwesterlein wäre da, so wären wir erlöst.’ Wie das Mädchen, das hinter der Türe stand und lauschte, den Wunsch hörte, so trat es hervor, und da bekamen alle die Raben ihre menschliche Gestalt wieder.14  (Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›156)

No marriage, no sie. Another tale partially similar in structure to “The Six Swans,” though not involving brothers and birds, is “Mary’s Child,” where a girl is struck mute by the Virgin Mary for telling a lie, but is able even in this state to attract the eye of a king. Like the girl in “The Six Swans,” es becomes sie at the predictable juncture, here preceded by an appropriate feminine noun: Und ob es gleich nicht sprechen konnte, so war es doch schön und holdselig, daß er es von Herzen lieb gewann, und es dauerte nicht lange, da vermählte er sich mit ihm. Als etwa ein Jahr verflossen war, brachte die Königin einen Sohn zur Welt. Darauf in der Nacht, wo sie allein in ihrem Bette lag, erschien ihr die Jungfrau Maria …15  (Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›39)

13. The swans swooshed to HER and sank down so that SHE could throw the shirts over them; and when they were touched by them, the swan skins fell off, and her brothers stood before her in the flesh, and were fresh and beautiful 14. And when the seventh got to the bottom of the goblet, the little ring rolled toward him. Then he looked at it and recognized that it was a ring of his father and mother, and he said “If only God would grant that our sister were here, we would be saved.” When the girl [neuter: OWR], who [neuter:OWR] was standing behind the door and listening, heard the wish, IT stepped forward, and then all of the ravens received their human form back. 15. And although IT couldn’t speak, IT was nonetheless beautiful and graceful, so that he fell in love with IT, and it did not last long before he got married to IT. After about a year had gone by, the young queen [feminine:OWR] brought a child to the world. In the night after that, as SHE lay alone in HER bed, the Virgin Mary appeared to HER …



Chapter 11.╇ Gender and the use of pronouns 157

In order to emphasize that it is the state of marriageability, rather than any specific nouns, which determines the choice of pronouns, I give one more example. The heroine of the following tale, having virtuously survived the depredations of an evil stepmother and become the possessor of great wealth, remains an es up until the point that marriage is a clear possibility (and from this point on, despite the use of the noun Mädchen, and the deferral of the actual marriage, she is a sie): Nun gehörte das prächtige Schloß dem Mädchen ganz allein. Es wußte sich in der ersten Zeit gar nicht in seinem Glück zu finden, … und es hatte keinen Wunsch, den es nicht erfüllen konnte. Bald ging der Ruf von der Schönheit und dem Reichtum des Mädchens durch die ganze Welt. Alle Tage meldeten sich Freier, aber keiner gefiel ihr. Endlich kam auch der Sohn eines Königs, der ihr Herz zu rühren wußte, und sie verlobte sich mit ihm.16  (“The True Bride” – Grimm 1857, v. 2:â•›372–3)

The last opposition I want to talk about in connection with the choice between es and sie is “good” vs. “bad,” which may be seen as having the less extreme variants “nice” and “naughty.” I am not totally happy with these conflations, and it may be that one should handle the two oppositions separately, on the basis of their differences in alienability: “naughty,” it seems to me, is an attribute one can have from time to time, even when being basically “good,” while badness and goodness, especially for the Grimms, are enduring characteristics. There are two reasons that I nonetheless conflate them: first, it is sometimes hard to decide how “naughty” a girl has to be to be “bad;” secondly, while “good” girls can sometimes be “naughty,” with pronominal consequences, in the Grimm fairy tales “bad” girls can never really be “nice.” All this said, in the discussion below I nonetheless hope to be sensitive to the complexity of this particular opposition. To illustrate naughtiness, I can return to a tale I discussed earlier, “The Frog King.” The princess in this tale, admittedly a Königstochter, [feminine:OWR] is consistently sie from the very beginning, unlike es princesses to be found in other tales. Why? I think the answer is that she is not very nice. Unlike princesses of, say, Snow White’s virtuous and industrious stamp, she cries over dropped balls, doesn’t keep her promises, and throws helpful frogs against the wall. A spoiled brat, in short. Not irremediably bad, however; the prince still wants to marry her, and happiness seems assured to both of them at the end of the tale. Of course, it’s too late for her to become an es because she is now married. 16. Now the splendid castle belonged to the girl [neuter:OWR] all by herself. At the beginning, IT was entirely unable to comprehend ITS good fortune … and IT had no wish that IT could not fulfill. Soon the renown of the girl’s [neuter:OWR] beauty and wealth spread throughout the entire world. Every day suitors called, but none appealed to HER. Finally the son of a king also came, who was able to touch HER heart, and SHE got engaged to him.

158 Grimm Language

I believe that naughtiness also explains some of the sie incursions into es narratives noted earlier in this chapter, again whether the Grimms meant it or not. The child in “Mary’s Child” becomes a sie once at the critical juncture in the story when she is about to disobey the Virgin Mary’s prohibition. Cinderella becomes a sie briefly when she escapes the prince, perhaps not the nicest thing to do to a man you’ve enchanted. Little Briar Rose, afflicted by a curiosity the Grimms clearly didn’t approve of, becomes a sie for several sentences at the point when she pricks her finger with€the spindle: Es stieg die enge Wendeltreppe hinauf und gelangte zu einer kleinen Türe. In dem Schloß steckte ein verrosteter Schlüssel, und als es umdrehte, sprang die Türe auf, und saß da in einem kleinen Stübchen eine alte Frau mit einer Spindel und spann emsig ihren Flachs… »Was ist das für ein Ding, das so lustig herumspringt?« sprach das Mädchen, nahm die Spindel und wollte auch spinnen. Kaum hatte sie aber die Spindel angerührt, so ging der Zauberspruch in Erfüllung, und sie stach (”Little Briar Rose” – Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›258) sich damit in den Finger.17 

The heroine of “The Three Spinning Women,” finally, though on her way to being a married sie, becomes a conniving sie when she hides her magical helpers from her future mother-in-law: Da ließ es die drei seltsamen Weiber herein und machte in der ersten Kammer eine Lücke, wo sie sich hinsetzten und ihr Spinnen anhuben… Vor der Königin verbarg sie die drei Spinnerinnen und zeigte ihr, sooft sie kam, die Menge des gesponnenen (Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›98–9) Garns, daß diese des Lobes kein Ende fand.18 

As I noted earlier, at the outermost extreme of naughtiness one is dealing with inborn badness, or downright evil, as opposed to the occasional naughtiness discussed in the preceding section. Certainly examples of “bad” girls spring to mind for anyone who has read the Grimms’ fairy tales. Cinderella’s awful stepsisters, beautiful on the outside, but “nasty and black of heart within,” provide a wonderful example. True, Aschenputtel has a moment of naughty sie-ness, as illustrated above, and is destined to be married to the prince (we actually have no references 17. IT climbed up the narrow spiral staircase and came to a small door. In the lock there was a rusty key, and when IT turned it, the door sprang open, and there in a small chamber an old lady was sitting with a spindle and spinning assiduously with her flax … “What kind of thing is that that jumps around so amusingly?” the girl [neuter:OWR] asked, took the spindle and wanted to spin too. But no sooner had SHE touched the spindle than the magic spell was fulfilled, and SHE stuck herself in the finger with it. 18. Then IT let the three peculiar old women in and made a space in the first room where they sat down and began their spinning … SHE hid the three spinning women from the queen and showed her, whenever she came, the mass of spun yarn, so that the latter had no end of praise.



Chapter 11.╇ Gender and the use of pronouns 159

to her after this point, thus no pronouns), but how is it with the sisters? As one might expect, they are sie throughout, as opposed to Cinderella’s es. This becomes especially salient at the point at which they are sequentially trying on the slipper that the prince is trying to match. Here is the passage for the oldest sister (and note the reference to her as a Mädchen): Die Älteste ging mit dem Schuh in die Kammer und wollte ihn anprobieren, und die Mutter stand dabei. Aber sie konnte mit der großen Zehe nicht hineinkommen, und der Schuh war ihr zu klein, da reichte ihr die Mutter ein Messer und sprach: »Hau die Zehe ab: wann du Königin bist, so brauchst du nicht mehr zu Fuß zu gehen.« Das Mädchen hieb die Zehe ab, zwängte den Fuß in den Schuh, verbiß den Schmerz und ging heraus zum Königssohn. Da nahm er sie als seine Braut aufs (Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›142) Pferd und ritt mit ihr fort.19 

Compare the above with the parallel passage for Cinderella herself: Da wusch es sich erst Hände und Angesicht rein, ging dann hin und neigte sich vor dem Königssohn, der ihm den goldenen Schuh reichte. Dann setzte es sich auf einen Schemel, zog den Fuß aus dem schweren Holzschuh und steckte ihn in den Pantoffel, der war wie angegossen. Und als es sich in die Höhe richtete und der König ihm ins Gesicht sah, so erkannte er das schöne Mädchen, das mit ihm getanzt hatte, und rief: »Das ist die rechte Braut!« Die Stiefmutter und die beiden Schwestern erschraken und wurden bleich vor Ärger: er aber nahm Aschenputtel (Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›144) aufs Pferd und ritt mit ihm fort.20 

Perhaps the clearest good girl vs. bad girl opposition to be found within a Grimms’ fairy tale is in “Frau Holle.” Here we find two journeys by two (step)sisters of approximately the same age to the same place, with potentially the same adventures, but of course with different outcomes. One of them is, naturally, beautiful and

19. The eldest [feminine:OWR] went into the room with the shoe and wanted to try it on, and the mother stood beside her. But SHE couldn’t get into it with her big toe, and the shoe was too small for HER, then the mother handed HER a knife and said: “Cut the toe off: when you are queen, you won’t need to walk anymore.” The girl [neuter:OWR] cut the toe off, squeezed the foot into the shoe, bit back the pain and went out to the prince. Then he took HER onto his horse as his bride and rode off with HER. 20. Then IT first washed its hands and face clean, and then went in and bowed before the prince, who handed the golden shoe to IT. Then IT sat on a footstool, pulled its foot out of the heavy wooden shoe and stuck it in the slipper; it was as if it had been poured on. And when IT stood up and the king looked in ITS face, he recognized the beautiful girl [neuter:OWR] that [neuter:OWR] had danced with him, and cried out: “That is the right bride!” The stepmother and the two sisters were dismayed and became pale with irritation: but he took Cinderella onto his horse and rode away with IT.

160 Grimm Language

industrious, and the other one ugly and lazy. The good one, who goes first, has, among others, the following adventures: Auf dieser Wiese ging es fort und kam zu einem Backofen, der war voller Brot; das Brot aber rief: »Ach, zieh mich raus, zieh mich raus, sonst verbrenn ich: ich bin schon längst ausgebacken.« Da trat es herzu und holte mit dem Brotschieber alles nacheinander heraus. Danach ging es weiter und kam zu einem Baum, der hing voll Äpfel, und rief ihm zu: »Ach, schüttel mich, schüttel mich, wir Äpfel sind alle miteinander reif.« Da schüttelte es den Baum, daß die Äpfel fielen …21  (Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›151)

This should be compared with the parallel passages for the bad sister: Als sie zu dem Backofen gelangte, schrie das Brot wieder: … Die Faule aber antwortete: »Da hätt ich Lust, mich schmutzig zu machen«, und ging fort. Bald kam sie zu dem Apfelbaum, der rief: … Sie antwortete aber: »Du kommst mir recht, es könnte mir einer auf den Kopf fallen«, und ging damit weiter.22  (Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›152–3)

11.4 Setting priorities I hope to have made the case above that the Grimms’ usage of the pronouns es and sie to refer to girls is neither random nor tightly related to accompanying nouns referring to the same girls (though even if it were, the choice of the latter needs explaining). Instead, I claim, the more positive pronoun es frequently refers to young, unsexed, nice and/or good girls, while the pronoun sie frequently refers to older, sexed, naughty and even bad girls, and of course women. The problem is, a given individual may not fall on the same side of all three of these axes, or not always in the same story. We do, of course, find individuals who do. The queen in “Snow White” is surely about as mature, sexed and bad as one can imagine, and of course she is referred to with sie versus Sneewittchen’s es:

21. On this meadow IT walked on and came to an oven which was full of bread: but the bread cried out: “Oh, pull me out, pull me out, otherwise I will burn: I’ve been done for a long time.” Then IT approached and pulled out the loaves one after another with the baker’s paddle. Then IT went further and came to a tree that hung full of apples, and it called out to IT: “Oh, shake me, shake me, we apples are all ripe.” Then IT shook the tree, so that the apples fell … 22. When SHE came to the oven, the bread again cried out: … The lazy girl [feminine:OWR] however answered: “Oh, right, I really want to make myself dirty!”, and went on. Soon she came to the apple tree, which called out: … SHE however answered: “Sure, and then one could fall on my head!”, and with that walked on.



Chapter 11.╇ Gender and the use of pronouns 161

… so antwortete der Spiegel »Frau Königin, Ihr seid die Schönste im Land.« Da war sie zufrieden, denn sie wußte, daß der Spiegel die Wahrheit sagte. Sneewittchen aber wuchs heran und wurde immer schöner, und als es sieben Jahr alt war, war es so schön wie der klare Tag, und schöner als die Königin selbst.23  (Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›268)

On the other side, we do have girls who are about as young, unsexed and good as one can imagine. Here the totally selfless heroine of „The Star Talers“ comes to mind: Es war aber gut und fromm. Und weil es so von aller Welt verlassen war, ging es im Vertrauen auf den lieben Gott hinaus ins Feld. Da begegnete ihm ein armer Mann, der sprach: »Ach, gib mir etwas zu essen, ich bin so hungerig.« Es reichte ihm das ganze Stückchen Brot und sagte: »Gott segne dir’s«, und ging weiter.24  (Grimm 1857, v. 2:â•›269)

What interests me, of course, is precisely the conflicts between values along these different scales. Which of these criteria takes precedence over the others, and when? As a first approximation, and perhaps not surprisingly, it would seem that individuals who are sufficiently old or sufficiently young will be referred to as sie and es respectively, no matter what their other attributes. Thus it is not only the heroine of “The Star Talers” who must be referred to as es, but also the girl in “Frau Trude” mentioned earlier, naughty as she is; they are both simply in the realm of “sufficiently young,” which of course implies “unsexed.” On the other hand, in the Grimm fairy tales we have plenty of “sufficiently old” (thus also “sexed”) women who, good though they might be as wise-women helpers, have to be sie (here from “The Robber Bridegroom”): Darauf führte es die Alte hinter ein großes Faß, wo man es nicht sehen konnte. »Sei wie ein Mäuschen still,« sagte sie, »rege dich nicht und bewege dich nicht, sonst ist’s (Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›220) um dich geschehen …«25  23. … then the mirror answered “My queen, you are the most beautiful in the land.” Then SHE was content, for she knew the mirror told the truth. But Snow White grew older and got ever more beautiful, and when IT was seven years old, IT was as beautiful as the lucent day, and more beautiful than the queen herself. 24. But IT was good and pious. And because IT had been thus abandoned by all the world, trusting in God IT went into the field. Then a poor man encountered IT, who said: “Oh, give me something to eat, I am so hungry.” IT gave him the whole little piece of bread and said “May God bless it for you,” and went farther. 25. After that the old woman led IT behind a big barrel, where one could not see IT. “Be as still as a mouse,” SHE said, “don’t stir and don’t move, or you are done for …”

162 Grimm Language

It is the in-between group that makes for interesting contrasts here. But first, it must be granted that, no matter how good one might be, or might have been, as soon as sex rears its ugly head, a girl is doomed to sie-dom. One need only consider the many examples above where pronoun-change follows closely upon marriageable status. So when it comes down to it, where does “good” vs. “bad” come into the equation? I would argue that it is only after the person in question has been determined to be middling in age (i.e. from seven to twelve, to judge from “Snow White” and “Rapunzel”) and evinces no signs of sexedness as yet. That is, of course, precisely where a number of the classic fairy tales are situated. This is the case, surely, with the good and the bad sisters in “Frau Holle,” and with Cinderella and her sisters (of course, towards the end of the tale, part of the badness of the latter involves scheming for a man; earlier it’s just greed and cruelty). The arguments I have made above can be represented as the following choice diagram: female person

young enough regardless middling  (girls in “The Star Talers”,  “Frau Trude”)  

old enough regardless (old lady in “The Robber Bridegroom,” queen in “Snow White”)

unsexed

sexed (later “Rapunzel”, “The True Bride”)



bad (bad sisters in “Frau Holle,” “Cinderella”)



good (good sisters in “Frau Holle”, “Cinderella,” earlier “Rapunzel”)

es sie

Choosing a Pronoun for a Girl



Chapter 11.╇ Gender and the use of pronouns 163

11.5 Choice and style in the Grimms’ pronominal usage As noted earlier above, and even as indicated in the diagram with “Rapunzel,” the same person may be referred to with different pronouns in the same story, depending on what categories are coming to the fore at a certain point. That this can be a quite complicated matter, stylistically speaking, may be illustrated from one of the lesser-known fairy tales, but indeed one of the longest and meatiest ones, “The Goosegirl at the Well.” In this tale a young girl is banished in Learlike manner from her royal home for not finding the right words to express her love for her father. She is taken under the wing of an old witch, who, however, gives her an ugly skin that she must wear most of the time and that clearly turns her into something hag-like and non-maidenish. When we first meet the goosegirl she is in her hag-skin, and definitely sie, even though the witch addresses her as Töchterchen (‘little daughter’). Not only is the goosegirl old and ugly in her hag-persona, she is also, incongruously, a potential object of romance, according to the witch: Hinter der Herde mit einer Rute in der Hand ging eine bejahrte Trulle, stark und groß, aber häßlich wie die Nacht. »Frau Mutter,« sprach sie zur Alten, »ist Euch etwas begegnet?« … Dann sprach sie zu der Gänsehirtin »Geh du ins Haus hinein, mein Töchterchen, … er könnte sich in dich verlieben.«26  (Grimm 1857, v. 2:â•›341–2)

In our next reference to this girl, we hear the story of the earlier rejection by the father. At this point, she’s a young and very beautiful princess, but explicitly referred to as 15 years old. Whatever the reason, at this point she is still consistently sie, up to her expulsion into the woods: Da sagte sie endlich: »Die beste Speise schmeckt mir nicht ohne Salz, darum habe ich den Vater so lieb wie Salz.« Als der König das hörte, geriet er in Zorn… Da teilte er das Reich zwischen den beiden ältesten, der jüngsten aber ließ er einen Sack mit Salz auf den Rücken binden, und zwei Knechte mußten sie hinaus in (Grimm 1857, v. 2:â•›344) den wilden Wald führen.27 

26. Behind the flock with a rod in her hand there walked an aged hag, strong and large, but ugly as the night. “Mother,” SHE said to the old woman, “did something happen to you?” … Then she said to the goose-girl “Go into the house, my daughter, … he could fall in love with you.” 27. Then SHE finally said “The best food doesn’t taste good to me without salt, that’s why I love my father as much as salt.” When the king heard that he became furious … Then he divided the kingdom between the two eldest, but he had a sack of salt bound on the back of the youngest, and two servants had to take HER out into the wild forest.

164 Grimm Language

But our heroine is not doomed to be a sie forever (not yet, anyway). The quote below comes from a section when she has gone down to the river to wash her outer (hag) skin, and is espied by a young, eligible count. While she goes down to the spring a sie, after she removes her troll-skin she becomes for one brief (half-)paragraphÂ� a pitiful and innocent es. After she has been discovered by the count, however, she puts the skin back on and returns to the witch’s house as a sie: Sie zog eine Haut ab, die auf ihrem Gesicht lag, bückte sich dann zu dem Brunnen und fing an sich zu waschen. Als sie fertig war, tauchte sie auch die Haut in das Wasser und legte sie dann auf die Wiese … Aber wie war das Mädchen verwandelt! … Als der graue Zopf abfiel, da quollen die goldenen Haare wie Sonnenstrahlen hervor und breiteten sich, als wär’s ein Mantel, über ihre ganze Gestalt. … Aber das schöne Mädchen war traurig. Es setzte sich nieder und weinte bitterlich. Eine Träne nach der andern drang aus seinen Augen und rollte zwischen den langen Haaren auf den Boden. So saß es da und wäre lang sitzengeblieben, wenn es nicht in den Ästen des nahestehenden Baumes geknittert und gerauscht hätte. Sie sprang auf wie ein Reh, das den Schuß des Jägers vernimmt… im Augenblick war das Mädchen wieder in die alte Haut geschlüpft … Zitternd wie ein Espenlaub lief sie (Grimm 1857, v. 2:â•›345–6) zu dem Haus zurück.28 

This passage marks an interesting point in the story, however. As it happens, the girl’s time with the witch is up, and she is about to return to young maidenhood. At this point the witch is described as speaking with an es: Die Alte wollte dem Mädchen nicht sagen, was ihm bevorstand. »Meines Blei(Grimm 1857, v. 2:â•›347) bens ist nicht länger hier,« sprach sie zu ihm …29 

She tells the girl to take off her troll-skin, and wait in her room until she is called.

28. SHE pulled off a skin that covered her face, bent down then to the spring and began to wash herself. When SHE was finished, she dipped the skin into the water as well, and then lay it on the grass … But how changed the girl [neuter:OWR] was! … When the gray braid fell away, the golden hair swelled forth like rays of sun and spread itself over HER entire body as if it were a cloak … But the beautiful girl [neuter:OWR] was unhappy. IT sat down and cried bitterly. One tear after another forced its way out of ITS eyes and rolled between the long hair strands to the ground. Thus IT sat there, and would have sat for a long time if it had not crinkled and rustled in the branches of a near-by tree. SHE jumped up like a deer that hears the shot of the hunter … in a moment the girl [neuter:OWR] had slipped back into the old skin … Shivering like an aspen leaf SHE ran back to the house. 29. The old lady did not want to tell the girl [neuter:OWR] what awaited IT. “My time here is at an end,” she said to IT …



Chapter 11.╇ Gender and the use of pronouns 165

Obviously the girl did not obey this injunction, since in the next paragraph we find her, in her hag-skin, going down to the spring again. She again takes her troll-skin off to wash it, but is now from the beginning an object of the count’s desire, and ineligible for es-reference: »Oho!«, rief er, »da kommt sie, und habe ich erst die eine Hexe, so soll mir die andere auch nicht entgehen.« Wie erstaunte er aber, als sie zu dem Brunnen trat, die Haut ablegte und sich wusch, als die goldenen Haare über sie herabfielen, und sie so schön war, wie er noch niemand auf der Welt gesehen hatte. Kaum daß er zu atmen wagte, aber er streckte den Hals zwischen dem Laub so weit vor, als er nur konnte, und schaute sie mit unverwandten Blicken an.30  (Grimm 1857, v. 2:â•›347–8)

Hopelessly compromised, from this point on the girl is a sie, doomed to marry the count, whom she finally meets in the company of her father and mother in this sentence we have already seen in Chapter 8 (there dealing with the sexual connotations of the color rot): Der junge Graf stand neben ihnen, und als sie ihn erblickte, ward sie so rot im Gesicht wie eine Moosrose; sie wußte selbst nicht warum.31  (Grimm 1857, v. 2:â•›349)

11.6 The Grimms and other tale tellers It is instructive to compare the differentiated use of es and sie in this tale with the uniform sie to be found in the literary model from which the Grimms drew it (identified by them as the translation of a story by Andreas Schuhmacher of Â� Vienna from an 1840 collection by Hermann Kletke – Grimm 1984:â•›263, 509). I give below the passages from the latter that are rendered with es in the Grimm tale:

30. “Oho,” he cried, “here she comes, and once I have the one witch, the other will not escape me.” But how astonished he was when she went to the well, took off her skin and washed herself, when the golden hair fell down about her, and she was more beautiful than anyone else he had seen in the world. He scarcely dared to breathe, but he stretched his neck as far out of the leaves as he could, and looked at her with a steadfast gaze. 31. The young count stood next to them, and when she caught sight of him she became as red of face as a moss-rose; she herself did not know why.

166 Grimm Language

der graue Zopf war weg und als ob sich die Sonnenstrahlen über sie ausgegossen hätten, haben sich ihre goldenen Haare ausgebreitet über die ganze Gestalt… Sie war dabei recht traurig, wiewohl sie so schön war. Sie hat ganz fürchterlich geweint und ihre Thränen haben eine die andere gejagt… Sie wär’ vielleicht noch lange so gesessen, wenn sie nicht ein Geräusch in dem nächsten Gebüsch aufgeschreckt hätte. Da war’s auf einmal, als hätt’ eine schwarze Wetterwolke den Mondschein zugedeckt – so rasch war das liebe Kind verschwunden und (Rölleke 1998:â•›378, 380) verblasen.32  … Die Alte hat das gute Kind recht erbarmt, aber sie hat sie mit Fleiß in dem Irrtum (Rölleke 1998:â•›382) gelassen… »Meines bleibens ist nicht länger hier …«33 

What the Grimms gain, I think, from their modification of the original story is a much stronger sense of transformation and contrast. When the hag becomes a young innocent girl, the new pronoun reinforces the shock of the change. And when the girl is about to be returned to her previous (young and innocent) state, again the pronoun-switch flags the transition. The same thing can surely be said for the changes the Grimms wrought on “Rapunzel,” where, it should be remembered, the girl becomes a sie just when she turns 12 and is shut up in the tower. The original from which they draw (Grimm 1984:â•›447) is Schultz 1790. Note that in this source, Rapunzel is sie from the very beginning: Es ward ein Mädchen, und sie hieß sie Rapunzel. Sie wickelte sie in Silber- und Goldstoff, sie sprengte sie mit einem kostbaren Wasser ein, das sie in ihrem Büschchen hatte, und nun wurde sie das schönste Kind unter der Sonne.34  (Rölleke 1998:â•›16)

Here again, the Grimms, unlike their source, use the pronominal change to signal a significant change in the referent, in Rapunzel’s case from unsexed to sexed.

32. the gray braid was gone, and just as though the rays of the sun had poured themselves over HER, HER golden hair spread itself over her entire body … SHE was however quite unhappy, despite the fact that SHE was so beautiful. SHE cried most fearfully, and HER tears chased one another down her cheeks … SHE would perhaps have sat that way for a long time, if a rustle in the nearest bushes hadn’t startled HER. Then all of a sudden it was as if a black cloud had covered the moon – so quickly did the dear child [neuter:OWR] disappear and blow away. 33. The old woman really pitied the poor child [neuter:OWR], but she assiduously left her in her misapprehension. “I’m not staying here any longer …” 34. It was a girl [neuter:OWR], and she called her Rapunzel. She wrapped her in cloth of silver and gold, she baptized her with a precious water that she had in her little bush, and now she became the most beautiful child [neuter:OWR] under the sun.



Chapter 11.╇ Gender and the use of pronouns 167

Although I have been assuming above that the Grimms may have been operating on a subconscious level as far as their use of es and sie is concerned, I should qualify that a bit. While they may not have consciously associated these pronouns with the meaning-categories I have outlined above, they were surely aware of the fact that they were changing things, either in original source-stories or in their own earlier versions of a tale. As an example of the latter, I will take another look at “The Six Swans.” In this story, it may be remembered, in its final (seventh edition) version the heroine switches from a definitive es to a definitive sie at the point when a king decides to marry her. Compared with this clear transition, the first edition of 1812 is a mess. While we still have a transition from es to sie at the point in question, references to the heroine are all over the map before then. Note the serious discrepancy between the personal and possessive pronouns in the following sentence: Am anderen Tag kam der König in das Waldschloss, da erzählte es ihm, was geschehen war, und zeigte ihm noch die Schwanenfedern, die von ihren sechs (1st edition, p. 221) Brüdern auf den Hof gefallen waren.35 

After this rather rough and unmotivated transition, the heroine becomes a sie for a while, admittedly after an occurrence of the word Prinzessin. She visits the home of her swan-brothers in the following passage: Sie stieg hinauf und fand eine Stube mit sechs kleinen Betten; weil sie müde war, legte sie sich unter eins und wollte da die Nacht zubringen … und da waren es ihre sechs Brüder. Sie kroch unter dem Bett hervor, und die Brüder waren beides, (1st edition, p. 222) erfreut und betrübt, sie zu sehen:36 

After her brothers fly away the next morning, she’s back to an “es”: Am anderen Morgen aber sammelte sich das Mädchen Sternblumen, setzte sich dann auf einen hohen Baum und fing an zu nähen. Es redete auch kein Wort und (1st edition, p. 223) lachte nicht, sondern sah nur auf seine Arbeit.37 

We then proceed to the meeting with the king described above, with the appropriate pronouns.

35. The next day the king came to the forest castle, then IT told him what had happened, and also showed him the swan feathers, which had fallen from HER six brothers onto the courtyard. 36. She went up the stair and found a room with six little beds. Because she was tired, she lay under one and wanted to spend the night there … and it was her six brothers. She crawled out from under the bed, and the brothers were both delighted and unhappy to see her. 37. But the next morning the girl [neuter:OWR] collected starworts, sat down then in a high tree, and began to sew. And IT spoke not a word and didn’t laugh, but only looked to its work.

168 Grimm Language

Seven years later, in the 1819 2nd edition, much of this has been cleaned up. When the girl tells the king about her brothers’ fate, the passage reads: Andern Tags kam der König, da fand er niemand, als das Mädchen, das erzählte ihm, daß es aus seinem Fensterlein gesehen, wie seine lieben Brüder als Schwäne fortgeflogen wären, und zeigte ihm die Federn, die sie in den Hof hatten fallen (2nd ed., p. 173) lassen und die es aufgelesen.38 

Similarly, the girl is now referred to as es when she finds and enters her brothers’ hut: Da sah es eine Waldhütte, stieg hinauf und fand eine Stube mit sechs kleinen Betten, aber es getraute nicht, sich in eins hineinzulegen, sondern legte sich unter (2nd ed., p. 174) eins auf die Erde …39 

As in the 1st edition, and as would be the case in every subsequent edition, our heroine is also an es after her brothers fly away and until the king marries her. The principles for es usage would even at this point seem to be fairly well established. Unfortunately, in this 2nd edition (and with no nominal support; on the contrary), we still have two apparent deviations from them, when she sees and talks with her brothers: Da sah sie das Mädchen an und sah, daß es ihre Brüder waren … Da sprach sie:40  (2nd ed., p. 174)

Clearly the Grimm brothers (or most probably Wilhelm) perceived a problem here, for from the 3rd edition on at least the subject pronoun in the latter quotation has been replaced by a neuter noun Schwesterchen. Interestingly enough, the possessive adjective ihre found above is the only feminine grammatical form in es territory to have survived the editing process all the way to the last (7th, 1857) edition: Da sah sie das Mädchen an und erkannte ihre Brüder …41 (Grimm 1857, v. 1:â•›253)

With this one exception (which raises interesting questions concerning the gender fixedness of possessive pronouns versus personal pronouns – not to be answered 38. The next day the king came and found nobody but the girl [neuter:OWR], who told him, that IT had seen out of â•›ITS window how ITS dear brothers had flown away as swans, and showed him the feathers, which they had let fall in the courtyard, and which IT had picked up. 39. Then it saw a forest hut, went up the stair and found a room with six small beds, but it didn’t dare to lie in one. but lay under one on the ground … 40. Then the girl [neuter:OWR] looked at them and saw that they were HER brothers … Then SHE said: 41. Then the girl [neuter:OWR] looked at them and recognized HER brothers …



Chapter 11.╇ Gender and the use of pronouns 169

here), everything was cleaned up by the seventh edition. The one transition from es to sie occurs at the point described, and the equivalent of all of the passages above show only es in reference to the heroine, with the appropriate possessive pronoun (the passages in question can be found in Chapter 2). It is interesting, of course, to note that the Grimms have also removed nouns like Mädchen and Prinzessin that might have disturbed the flow, but as I hope to have demonstrated in this chapter, these are correlated phenomena, not directive ones. In the preceding pages, I hope to have made the case that the Grimms’ choice of pronouns to refer to girls was not determined by the choice of accompanying nouns, but was correlated with other aspects of the characters in question as the Grimms saw them (whether the Grimms were aware of these categories or not), and that these correlations were in fact exploited by the Grimms to interesting stylistic effect. There does, of course, exist the possibility that it was not just the Grimm brothers that made these stylistic choices, and that indeed, at the time they were writing and editing their tales, other writers and editors of fairy tales were doing similar things with es and sie. Yet what evidence I have seen does not support this speculation. In the first place, of course, there are those cases I have discussed earlier in this section, like “The Goosegirl at the Well” and “Rapunzel,” in which the Grimms have altered original stories showing a uniform sie. Even more telling, I think, are the choices being made, or not made, by other fairy-tale collectors more or less contemporaneous with the Grimms who are mining the same material. Again I refer the reader to Ludwig Bechstein (Bechstein 1979), who between 1823 and 1857 published a number of collections with a substantial number of tales overlapping those of the Grimms. If one looks at those paralleling the ones discussed in this chapter, one finds the following (all page numbers from Bechstein 1979): “Gold-Maria and Pitch-Maria” (75–78) – in this 1857 story, very similar in structure to “Frau Holle,” both girls are referred to as sie throughout. “The Seven Ravens” (132–136 = “The Seven Ravens”) – While the Grimms have es throughout for the girl who rescues her brothers, Bechstein has sie in this 1857 story, despite frequent use of the word Mädchen. “The Seven Swans” (251–257) – great similarities to the Grimms’ “The Six Swans,” but the girl in this 1857 story (who does not marry) is referred to as sie throughout, except for two instances of es close to the words Dirnlein and Mägdlein, both neuter nouns for ‘little girl.’ “Cinderella” (289–292 = “Cinderella”) – As opposed to the Grimms’ consistent es, the girl in this 1857 story is primarily referred to as sie, though she appears as es in the first paragraph of the story, at the ball, and at random places in the rest of the story.

170 Grimm Language

“Helene” (420–425 = “The True Bride”) – Bechstein took this 1845 story from exactly the same 1842 literary source that the Grimms used. While Bechstein essentially changed nothing (i.e. the girl is sie throughout), the Grimms, as noted earlier, introduced a clear es to sie transition (already in the 1843 edition of KHM). This last example of “Helene” versus “The True Bride” is perhaps the clearest indication that the Grimms had a strategy for their deployment of es and sie, while Bechstein didn’t. And on balance, it seems likely that the categories I have been discussing in this section should be seen primarily as belonging to the Grimms’ (or Wilhelm’s) stylistic practice, not in some general way to the language or the writers of their time.

11.7 Final comments on pronoun use The grammatical phenomenon discussed in this chapter is completely in line with the lexical observations made in Chapters 7 through 10. In those chapters we saw that the ideal girl, for the Grimms, was held to stereotyped standards of beauty, purity and industriousness not at all characteristic of their heroes. In this chapter, we found that any falling away from those standards, whether from the outset, in the case of bad girls, or in the course of a story, when a heroine reaches beddable or marriageable age, leads to the use of the feminine referential pronoun sie rather than the neuter pronoun es.

chapter 12

Concluding remarks With the publication of the first volume of their Kinder- und Hausmärchen in 1812, the Brothers Grimm were only at the beginning of a publication history that would, over the course of 45 years, establish a way of telling what we in English call fairy tales (German Märchen) which was distinctive enough that it could be seen as its own genre. An extremely popular and influential genre at that; it remains one of the most widely published books in the German language, and has produced innumerable translations, spinoffs and retellings around the world. There are aspects of this Grimm genre that can be talked about independently of the original language in which the tales were written, and they have been. But there are others that are dependent on characteristics relatively or completely specific to the German language. It is such phenomena that I discuss in this book. Broadly speaking, I have discussed elements of language utilized by the Grimms to (1) make their tales appear to be authentically German; (2) lend to them an aura of antiquity while at the same time avoiding the whiff of bookishness; (3)€further their own ideas on grammatically proper German; and (4) convey their conscious or unconscious prejudices concerning proper gender roles, especially those for young girls and women. Concerning the first point, in Chapter 3 I discuss the extent to which the Grimms utilized regional German dialect material to add to the arguably German nature of the collection. Although only 10% of the tales are actually in dialect, the insertion of recognizably regional names and verses into otherwise Standard German narrations adds to their credibility as “native” products. These insertions can then be seen as playing a role similar to the inserted folk proverbs and sayings discussed in Bluhm and Rölleke (1997). Also contributing to the authenticity, that is, non-Frenchness, of the Grimm tales is the Grimms’ exclusion of linguistic material from them that was not originally Germanic. This linguistic purism can be seen reflected not only in their systematic substitution of the terms Königstochter and Königssohn for the French borrowings Prinzessin and Prinz, discussed in Chapter 7, but even in their Â�preference for the older Germanic genitive construction indicating possession rather than the newer, French-influenced von construction discussed in Section 4.2.2. As for the second aim, to make the tales appear old without being bookish, this is clearly a balancing act. The genitive construction mentioned above, while

172 Grimm Language

losing out in the Standard language to von constructions, is still around as a viable alternative to them, and probably strikes the right harmonization of venerable and colloquial. The Grimms’ choice of Ihr over Sie as the formal pronoun of address in the tales, however (see Chapter 5), despite the latter’s overwhelming supremacy in the language of their time (and ours), clearly tilts much more in the direction of the archaic (in this case Middle High German) than the colloquial. On the other hand, their choice of the preterite subjunctive over the present subjunctive as a means of indicating indirect discourse in the KHM is so colloquial that it hasn’t yet made it into the grammatical bibles of the written German language. Their rejection of “afinite” constructions, finally, discussed in Section 6.2, is truly a decision for colloquiality over bookishness, not really antiquity. It may also be a decision influenced by the third aim above, namely that of establishing grammatical standards for the standard language. In this case, putting the auxiliaries back into the afinite constructions can be seen as fulfilling the desideratum, expressed in Jacob’s Deutsche Grammatik, of avoiding obscurities and ambiguities in the language. But in this book, the clearest example of the Grimms as barely-disguised prescriptivists can be found in their summary rejection of yet another possessive construction provided by many dialects and sociolects, namely that with the possessor in the dative followed by a possessive pronoun. The entire second half of the book is dedicated to exploring how the Grimms’ views on proper gender roles are reflected in the language of the tales. Thus in Chapter 7 I show that: (1) boys are referred to with real names more than girls; girls’ names are much more likely to reflect their appearance or story situation; (2)€there are more common nouns referring to boys, and not just because of the important fact that they are referred to with more occupational names than the girls; (3) the central common nouns referring to girls (that is, words like Mädchen rather than Gänsehirtin) tend to be used only for good girls, the bad ones being referred to with phrases like “the black/lazy one.” All of these data point to the fact that girls are much more stereotyped in the tales than boys. They’re not individualized, they don’t have real jobs, the bad ones often don’t even get a real noun. When, in Chapter 7, I look at the adjectives associated with the central female words and male words, the same tendencies emerge: Girls have far more adjective tokens applied to them (especially the good girls), but from a seriously limited stock. Appearance adjectives dominate for the girls, no category of adjectives dominates for males. That said, while girls are more commonly described with adjectives of appearance (preponderantly schön), moral disposition and industry, boys are normally characterized with those of sociability, size and mental acuity. Chapters 8 through 10, on individual adjectives, certainly reinforce, but also refine, these observations. We find that, for girls, appearance attributes are very good at predicting other attributes (of morality and industry) as well. We know



Chapter 12.╇ Concluding remarks 173

this because for good girls, the same positive adjectives appear together repeatedly; in fact, bad girls get by with very few adjectives at all – ‘ugly’ or ‘lazy’ is good enough – which is why there is an overall shortage of negative adjectives. Some adjectives seem to have a different meaning or valence (positive or negative) depending on whom they are predicated of. Gut females are morally upright, gut males are good-hearted. Stolz males are normally positive characters, stolz females need taking down a peg. The faul girl rarely gets the prince (of course, she’s usually also häßlich and/or schwarz), but the faul boy usually does fine. And while cleverness seems to be neither helpful nor hurtful to a female, the dumm brother always wins in the end against a klug one. There are two extreme adjectives, for moral disposition and intelligence, which seem not to be predicated of young people much at all, but by preference of older women. While böse is also predicated of the Devil and his minions, it seems primarily reserved for the stepmothers, mothers-in-law and witches who plague the universes of many tale heroes and heroines, whereas weise is overwhelmingly used for the good old women who aid them. Already in Section 8.2.3 on the adjective rot, I introduce sexuality as a troubling factor for the Grimms. The trouble with beautiful, pious, industrious little girls is that they turn into women, and apparently the positive adjectives are threatened! In any case, in Chapter 11 I show that there is a not-so-surprising correlation between age and sexuality, and an unexpected one between those two categories and that of goodness, which works itself out in the Grimm tales with the choice between es and sie as pronominal referents for girls/young women. It seems to me a truism that no analysis of a literary work is really complete without attention being paid to the original language in which it was written, but this kind of neglect occurs more often than it should. I hope that this product of a linguist’s look into correlations between lexical/grammatical aspects of the Grimms’ fairy tales and their literary effects will be a spur to further research in this area.

References Bechstein, Ludwig. Sämtliche Märchen (Walter Scherf, ed.). Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1979. Behaghel, Otto. Deutsche Syntax, Band I: Die Wortklassen und Wortformen: A. Nomen. Pronomen. Heidelberg: Winter, 1923. ———. Deutsche Syntax, Band III: Die Satzgebilde, Heidelberg: Winter, 1928. Bettelheim, Bruno. The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales, New York, Knopf, 1976. Bluhm, Lothar. Grimm-Philologie, Hildesheim: Olms-Weidmann, 1995. Bluhm, Lothar, and Heinz Rölleke. Redensarten des Volks, auf die ich immer horche: Märchen, Sprichwort, Redensart: zur volkspoetischen Ausgestaltung der Kinder- und Hausmärchen durch die Brüder Grimm, neue Ausgabe. Stuttgart: Hirzel, 1997. Bottigheimer, Ruth B. Grimms’ Bad Girls and Bold Boys: The Moral and Social Vision of the Tales, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1987. ———. “Marienkind (KHM 3): A Computer-Based Study of Editorial Change and Stylistic Development within Grimms’ Tales from 1808 to 1864,” ARV: Scandinavian Yearbook of Folklore 46 (1990): 7–31. Brentano, Clemens. “Das Märchen von dem Rhein und dem Müller Radlauf,” Die Märchen des Clemens Brentano, ed. Guido Görres, Stuttgart and Tübingen: Cotta, 1846. “Die Brüder Grimm,” (interview with Heinz Rölleke). ARTE Magazin, Jan. 18, 2005. Carr, Charles T. “The Position of the Genitive in German,” The Modern Language Review 28 (1933): 465–479. Derungs, Kurt (ed.). Die ursprünglichen Märchen der Brüder Grimm. Handschriften, Urfassung und Texte zur Kulturgeschichte. Bern: Lang Druck AG, 1999. DUDEN: Die Grammatik. 7th ed. Mannheim: Dudenverlag, 2006. Ebert, Robert Peter. Historische Syntax des Deutschen II: 1300–1750. Bern: Peter Lang, 1986. ———. “Variation in the Position of the Attributive Genitive in Sixteenth Century German,” Monatshefte 80 (1988): 32–49. Ellis, John M. One fairy story too many: the Brothers Grimm and their tales. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1983. Grimm, Jacob. Deutsche Grammatik: Vierter Teil. Neuer vermehrter Abdruck (Gustav Roethe and Edward Schroeder, eds.). Gütersloh: Bertelsmann, 1898. Grimm, Jacob and Wilhelm. Kinder- und Hausmärchen, 1st ed., V. 1, Berlin: Realschulbuchhandlung, 1812. V. 2., Berlin: Realschulbuchhandlung, 1815. (reissued by Heinz Rölleke (ed.), Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1986). ———. Kinder- und Hausmärchen, 1st ed. V. 1 and 2, at http://www.zeno.org/Literatur/M/ Grimm,+Jacob+und+Wilhelm//Märchen/Kinder-+und+Hausmärchen+(1812-15). ———. Kinder- und Hausmärchen, 2nd. ed. Berlin: George Reimer, 1819 (reissued by Heinz Rölleke (ed.), Köln: Eugen Diederichs, 1982).

176 Grimm Language

———. Kinder- und Hausmärchen, 3rd ed. Göttingen: Dieterichs, 1837 (reissued by Heinz Rölleke (ed.), Frankfurt: Deutscher Klassiker, 1985). ———. Kinder- und Hausmärchen, 4th.ed. Göttingen: Dieterichs, 1840. ———. Kinder- und Hausmärchen, 5th ed. Göttingen: Dieterichs, 1843. ———. Kinder- und Hausmärchen, 6th ed. Göttingen: Dieterichs, 1850. ———. Kinder- und Hausmärchen, 7th ed. Göttingen, Dieterichs, 1857 (reissued by Heinz Rölleke (ed.) in 3 volumes. Stuttgart: Reclam, 1980). Haas, Walter. Jacob Grimm und die deutschen Mundarten (Zeitschrift für Dialektologie und Linguistik, Beiheft 65), Stuttgart: Steiner, 1990. Haase, Donald (ed.). Fairy Tales and Feminism: New Approaches, Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2004. Haupt, Moriz. “Ein Märchen aus der Oberlausitz,” Zeitschrift für deutsches Alterthum 2 (1842): 481–486. Herrgen, Joachim. Koronalisierung und Hyperkorrektion: das palatale Allophon des /CH/-Phonems und seine Variation im Westmitteldeutschen. Wiesbaden: F. Steiner Verlag, 1986. Levorato, Alessandra. Language and Gender in the Fairy Tale Tradition: A Linguistic Analysis of Old and New Story Telling. Houndmills and New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003. McGlathery, James. Fairy tale romance: the Grimms, Basile, and Perrault. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1991. ———. Grimm’s fairy tales: a history of criticism on a popular classic. Columbia, SC: Camden House, 1993. Robinson, Orrin W. “Rhymes and Reasons in the Grimms’ Kinder- und Hausmärchen,” German Quarterly 77 (2004): 47–58. ———. “Does Sex Breed Gender? Pronominal Reference in the Grimms’ Fairy Tales,” Marvels and Tales 21 (2007): 107–123. Rölleke, Heinz. Die älteste Märchensammlung der Brüder Grimm: Synopse der handschriftlichen Urfassung von 1810 und der Erstdrucke von 1812. Cologny-Genève: Fondation Martin Bodmer, 1975. ———. Review of Ellis 1983. Fabula 25 (1984): 330–332. ———. “August Stöbers Einfluß auf die Kinder- und Hausmärchen der Brüder Grimm: Zur Herkunft der KHM 5 und 15”, in Heinz Rölleke, “Wo das Wünschen noch geholfen hat”: gesammelte Aufsätze zu den “Kinder- und Hausmärchen” der Brüder Grimm. Bonn: Bouvier, 1985 ———. Grimms Märchen und ihre Quellen: die literarischen Vorlagen der Grimmschen Märchen / synoptisch vorgestellt und kommentiert von Heinz Rölleke. Trier: WVT Wissenschaftlicher Verlag, 1998. Schede, Hans-Georg. Die Brüder Grimm, 2nd ed. Hanau: CoCon, 209. Schulz, Friedrich. Kleine romane, v. 5, Leipzig: Göschen, 1790. Sick, Bastian. Der Dativ ist dem Genitiv sein Tod. Köln: Kiepenheuer & Witsch, 2004. Tatar, Maria M. The Hard Facts of the Grimms’ Fairy Tales. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1987 (revised ed. 2003). 1000 Märchen und Sagen, die jeder haben muss. Berlin: Directmedia Publ., 2007. Warner, Marina. From the Beast to the Blonde, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1994. Zhirmunskii, V. M. Deutsche Mundartkunde. Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 1962. Zipes, Jack David. Review of Ellis 1983. Children’s Literature 13 (1985): 215–219. ———. The Brothers Grimm: From Enchanted Forests to the Modern World. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002.

appendix

Tales cited from the khm, with translations and numbers in the 7th edition of 1857

Translation of title

Title of tale

Bearskin

Der Bärenhäuter

101

The Blue Light

Das blaue Licht

116

The Brave Little Tailor

Das tapfere Schneiderlein

20

The Bremen Town Musicians

Die Bremer Stadtmusikanten

27

Brother Jolly

Bruder Lustig

81

The Cabbage Donkey

Der Krautesel

122

The Carnation

Die Nelke

Cat and Mouse in Partnership

Katze und Maus in Gesellschaft

Cinderella

Aschenputtel

21

Clever Else

Die kluge Else

34

Clever Gretel

Das kluge Gretel

77

Clever Hans

Der gescheite Hans

The Clever Little Tailor

Vom klugen Schneiderlein

The Clever Peasant’s Daughter

Die kluge Bauerntochter

The Clever People

Die klugen Leute

104

The Clever Servant

Der kluge Knecht

162

The Crumbs on the Table

Die Brosamen auf dem Tisch

190

The Crystal Ball

Die Kristalkugel

197

Dearest Roland

Der liebste Roland

The Death of the Little Hen

Von dem Tode des Hühnchens

The Devil’s Sooty Brother

Des Teufels rußiger Bruder

100

The Drummer

Der Trommler

193

The Ear of Corn

Die Kornähre

194

The Elves

Die Wichtelmänner

Ferenand Faithful and Ferenand Unfaithful

Ferenand getrü und Ferenand ungetrü

The Fisherman and His Wife

Von dem Fischer un syner Fru

Fitcher’s Bird

Fitchers Vogel

The Four Skillful Brothers

Die vier kunstreichen Brüder

#

76 2

32 114 94

56 80

39 126 19 46 129

178 Grimm Language

Translation of title

Title of tale

#

Frau Holle

Frau Holle

24

Frau Trude

Frau Trude

43

Frieder and Katie

Der Frieder und das Katherlieschen

59

The Frog King or Iron Henry

Der Froschkönig oder der eiserne Heinrich

Gambling Hansl

De Spielhansl

The Gifts of the Little People

Die Geschenke des Kleinen Volkes

182

The Girl of Brakel

Dat Mäken von Brakel

139

The Girl Without Hands

Das Mädchen ohne Hände

The Glass Coffin

Der gläserne Sarg

Godfather Death

Der Gevatter Tod

Going Traveling

Up Reisen gohn

The Golden Bird

Der goldene Vogel

57

The Golden Goose

Die goldene Gans

64

The Good Bargain

Der gute Handel

7

The Goosegirl

Die Gänsemagd

89

The Goosegirl at the Well

Die Gänsehirtin am Brunnen

Gossip Wolf and the Fox

Der Fuchs und die Frau Gevatterin

The Grave Mound

Der Grabhügel

195

The Griffin

Der Vogel Greif

165

Hänsel and Gretel

Hänsel und Gretel

Hans in Luck

Hans im Glück

83

Hans My Hedgehog

Hans mein Igel

108

The Hare and the Hedgehog

Der Hase und der Igel

187

The Hare’s Bride

Häsichenbraut

66

The House in the Forest

Das Waldhaus

169

Iron Hans

Der Eisenhans

136

The Iron Stove

Der Eisenofen

127

The Jew in the Thornbush

Der Jude im Dorn

110

Jorinde and Joringel

Jorinde und Joringel

69

The Juniper Tree

Von dem Machandelboom

47

The King of the Golden Mountain

Der König vom goldenen Berg

92

King Thrushbeard

König Drosselbart

Knoist and His Three Sons

Knoist un sine dre Sühne

138

Lazy Heinz

Der faule Heinz

164

The Lazy Spinning Woman

Die faule Spinnerin

128

Lean Lisa

Die hagere Liese

168

1 82

31 163 44 143

179 74

15

52



Appendix.╇ Titles, translations, and numbers 179

Translation of title

Title of tale

#

Little Briar Rose

Dornröschen

50

Little Brother and Little Sister

Brüderchen und Schwesterchen

11

The Little Donkey

Das Eselein

The Little Farmer

Das Bürle

The Little Farmer in Heaven

Das Bürle im Himmel

The Little Gnome

Dat Erdmänneken

The Little Lamb and the Little Fish

Das Lämmchen und Fischchen

Little Red-Cap

Rotkäppchen

The Little Shroud

Das Totenhemdchen

109

The Lord’s and the Devil’s Animals

Des Herrn und des Teufels Getier

148

Maid Maleen

Jungfrau Maleen

198

Mary’s Child

Marienkind

The Master-Thief

Der Meisterdieb

192

The Moon

Der Mond

175

Mr. Korbes

Herr Korbes

41

Mrs. Fox’s Wedding

Die Hochzeit der Frau Füchsin

38

Old Hildebrand

Der alte Hildebrand

Old Rinkrank

Oll Rinkrank

The Old Woman in the Woods

Die Alte im Wald

123

One-eye, Two-eyes and Three-eyes

Einäuglein, Zweiäuglein und Dreiäuglein

130

Our Lady’s Little Glass

Muttergottesgläschen

207

The Owl

Die Eule

174

The Peasant and the Devil

Der Bauer und der Teufel

189

The Poor Boy in the Grave

Der arme Junge im Grab

185

The Poor Man and the Rich Man

Der Arme und der Reiche

The Poor Miller’s Lad and the Cat

Der arme Müllerbursch und das Kätzchen

The Prince Who Fears Nothing

Der Königssohn, der sich vor nichts fürchtet 121

The Queen Bee

Die Bienenkönigin

62

Rapunzel

Rapunzel

12

The Raven

Die Rabe

93

The Riddle

Das Rätsel

22

The Robber Bridegroom

Der Räuberbräutigam

40

Rumpelstilzchen

Rumpelstilzchen

55

The Rooster Beam

Der Hahnenbalken

149

The Rose

Die Rose

KL3

St. Joseph in the Forest

Der heilige Joseph im Walde

KL1

144 61 167 91 141 26

3

95 196

87 106

180 Grimm Language

Translation of title

Title of tale

#

The Scraps

Die Schlickerlinge

156

The Sea-Hare

Das Meerhäschen

191

The Seven Ravens

Die sieben Raben

The Seven Swabians

Die sieben Schwaben

119

Sharing Joy and Sorrow

Lieb und Leid teilen

170

The Singing Bone

Der singende Knochen

28

The Singing, Springing Lark

Das singende springende Löweneckerchen

88

The Six Servants

Die sechs Diener

The Six Swans

Die sechs Schwäne

Snow White

Sneewittchen

Snow White and Rose Red

Schneeweißchen und Rosenrot

25

134 49 53 161

The Sparrow and His Four Children

Der Sperling und seine vier Kinder

157

Spindle, Shuttle, and Needle

Spindel, Weberschiffchen und Nadel

188

The Spirit in the Bottle

Der Geist im Glas

The Star Talers

Die Sterntaler

153

The Stolen Heller

Der gestohlene Heller

154

Strong Hans Table-Be-Set, Gold-Donkey, and Cudgel-out-of-the-Sack The Tailor in Heaven The Tale of One Who Went Out to Learn Fear Tales of the Toad

Der starke Hans Tischchen deck dich, Goldesel und Knüppel aus dem Sack Der Schneider im Himmel Märchen von einem, der auszog, das Fürchten zu lernen Märchen von der Unke

166

The Thief and His Master

De Gaudeif un sien Meester

Thousandfurs

Allerleirauh

The Three Black Princesses

De drei schwatten Prinzessinnen

The Three Feathers

Die drei Federn

The Three Field Surgeons

Die drei Feldscherer

118

The Three Journeymen

Die drei Handwerkerburschen

120

The Three Languages

Die drei Sprachen

The Three Lazy Ones

Die drei Faulen

The Three Little Birds

De drei Vugelkens

96

The Three Little Men in the Woods

Die drei Männlein im Walde

13

The Three Snake-Leaves

Die drei Schlangenblätter

16

The Three Spinning Women

Die drei Spinnerinnen

14

Thumbling’s Travels

Daumerlings Wanderschaft

45

Thumbthick

Daumesdick

37

99

36 35 4 105 68 65 137 63

33 151



Appendix.╇ Titles, translations, and numbers 181

Translation of title

Title of tale

#

The Trained Hunter

Der gelernte Jäger

111

The True Bride

Die wahre Braut

186

True John

Der treue Johannes

6

The Twelve Brothers

Die zwölf Brüder

9

The Twelve Hunters

Die zwölf Jäger

67

The Twelve Lazy Servants

Die zwölf faulen Knechte

The Two Brothers

Die zwei Brüder

151*

The Two Kings’ Children

De beiden Künigeskinner

113

The Two Travelers

Die beiden Wanderer

107

The Unequal Children of Eve

Die ungleichen Kinder Evas

180

The Water of Life

Das Wasser des Lebens

The Water Sprite in the Pond

Die Nixe im Teich

181

The White and the Black Bride

Die weiße und die schwarze Braut

135

The White Snake

Die weiße Schlange

17

The Wolf and the Fox

Der Wolf und der Fuchs

73

The Wolf and the Seven Kids

Der Wolf und die sieben Geißlein

The Wren and the Bear

Der Zaunkönig und der Bär

102

The Young-Forged Little Man The Young Giant

Das jungeglühte Männlein Der junge Riese

145 90

60

97

5

Index

The letter t following a page number indicates a table. A address, forms of. See forms of address adjectives applied to Girl and Boy nouns╇ 103t age, sex, goodness, and pronoun usage╇ 154–160 age distinctions╇ 154 good vs. bad╇ 157–160, 162, 172–73 sexual maturity╇ 154–157 appearance╇ 107–128 overview╇ 107 beauty, 107–109 books and covers in KHM╇ 128 color terms╇ 112–128 häβlich (‘ugly’)╇ 109–12 schön (‘beautiful’)╇ 107–09 See also rot (‘red’); schwarz (’black’); weiβ (‘white’) arbeitsam (‘hard-working’)╇ 142–143 archaisms╇ 37 authenticity, Germanic. See Germanic authenticity auxiliary deletion Deutche Grammatik on╇ 82 examples from “Snow White”╇ 81 restoration of╇ 83 “Six Swans” and╇ 80, 80n13 B “Bearskin”╇ 100, 110 Bechstein, Ludwig╇ 4, 66–69, 169–170 Behaghel, Otto╇ 40–41, 82 “Blue Light, The”╇ 132 Bluhm, Lothar╇ 2, 2n1, 4, 23n3, 36, 171 bookishness, avoidance of╇ 37–38, 79, 82, 171–172 böse (‘bad /wicked/ evil’)╇ 137, 173 Bottigheimer, Ruth B.╇ 4, 38, 38n, 73n boys, nouns for╇ 89–91 “Brave Little Tailor, The”╇ 56, 61, 153 “Bremen Town Musicians, The”╇ 117 Brentano, Clemens╇ 2, 31, 68–69 “Brother Jolly”╇ 43, 113

C “Cabbage Donkey, The”╇ 110 “Cat and Mouse in Partnership, The”╇ 126 Central German dialects, exclusion of╇ 24, 24n5 Children’s and Household Tales (Grimm Brothers). See KHM “Cinderella” black for bad sisters and╇ 116 gut and╇ 130 Mädchen avoidance and╇ 101 misleading whiteness in╇ 115 Prinzessin usage in╇ 88, 89 purification and╇ 132 redness and╇ 123 stepsisters are sie╇ 158–159 taunting of╇ 149 whiteness and╇ 114, 115 “Clever Else”╇ 85, 104, 145, 147 “Clever Gretel”╇ 85, 127, 145, 147 “Clever Hans”╇ 64, 104, 149 “Clever Little Tailor, The”╇ 89, 139, 145, 147 “Clever Peasant’s Daughter, The”╇ 145 “Clever People, The”╇ 63, 86n, 145 “Clever Servant, The”╇ 145 colloquial speech╇ 37–38, 39, 42–43, 49, 79, 82–83, 172 colloquiality and verbs╇ 82–83 color terms╇ 112–128 overview╇ 112 rot (‘red’)╇ 119–128 schwarz (‘black’)╇ 116–119 weiβ (‘white’)╇ 112–116 common common nouns in the KHM╇ 102–104 adjective tabulation noting boy-girl contrasts╇ 102, 102n differences noted on╇ 103–104 examples of clear trends, incompleteness of tabulation and╇ 104 mental skills and boys╇ 103–104

184 Grimm Language

moral disposition and╇ 103–104 Numbers and types of adjectives applied to Girl and Boy nouns in the KHM╇ 103t comparison with sources and contemporaries. See idiosyncratic or general? “Crystal Ball, The”╇ 111, 128 D “Das Märchen von dem Rhein und dem Müller Radlauf ” (Brentano)╇ 68–69 data-sources╇ 4–5 dative possessive construction╇ 40–42 “Dearest Roland”╇ 110–111, 114, 126 “Death of the Little Hen, The”╇ 127 dem Genitiv sein Tod╇ 39–42 Der Dativ ist dem Genitiv sein Tod (Sick)╇ 39 “Der gastliche Kalbskopf ” (Bechstein)╇ 69 “Der Wandergeselle” (Bechstein)╇ 67 Deutsche Grammatik (J. Grimm)╇ 21, 51, 51n1, 82, 172 “Devil’s Sooty Brother, The”╇ 39–40, 132 dialects Central German excluded╇ 24, 24n5 High Alemannic dialect╇ 26 Low Saxon dialect╇ 25 Mecklenburg dialect╇ 25 names and╇ 27 Palderborn area tales and╇ 24 sparingly used╇ 24, 27, 171 tales told in╇ 23–26 verse and╇ 27–30 Westphalian dialect and╇ 24–25, 24n6 “Die Probestücke des Meisterdiebes” (Bechstein), inconsistencies with sie plural╇ 68 “Die scharfe Schere” (Bechstein)╇ 69 Digitale Bibliothek╇ 4, 4n DIRECTMEDIA Publishing GmbH╇ 4 “Drummer, The”╇ 113, 120 DS (direct speech)╇ 73–74 Duden: Die Grammatik╇ 79 du/ihr address system╇ 61–5 alternative to er and sie singular╇ 61 “Clever People, The”╇ 63 “Golden Goose, The”╇ 61 “Good Bargain, The”╇ 64–65 “Goosegirl at the Well, The”╇ 62 -63 “Gossip Wolf and the Fox”╇ 61 “Hans in Luck”╇ 62 pronoun choice consistency and╇ 70 “Six Servants, The”╇ 63 “Snow White”╇ 61

“Table Be Set, Gold Donkey, and Cudgel-outof-the-Sack”╇ 61 dumm (‘dumb’)╇ 148–149, 173 Dutch standard language╇ 39, 39n2 E “Ear of Corn, The”╇ 132 Ebert, Robert Peter, 40, 42, 45, 81–82. Ellis, John M.╇ 23n2 er and sie singular address╇ 56–60 “Brave Little Tailor, The”╇ 56 -57 “Clever Hans”╇ 64 “Clever People, The”╇ 63 consistency in use of in sources╇ 69 du usage with╇ 57–60 “Goosegirl at the Well, The”╇ 58 ihr usage with╇ 56-57, 59-60 “Mrs. Fox’s Wedding”╇ 56, 58 “Rapunzel”╇ 56-57 “Two Brothers, The”╇ 57-60 usage of not preferred╇ 60 “Young Giant, The”╇ 56 F “Farmer and the Devil, The”╇ 145 faul (‘lazy’)╇ 143–144, 144nn12-13, 173 “Ferenand Faithful and Ferenand Unfaithful”╇ 55, 55n7, 89 “Fisherman and His Wife, The”╇ 117, 128 “Fitcher’s Bird”╇ 123 fleiβig (‘industrious’)╇ 141–143 footnote strategy╇ 31–32, 32n17, 36 forms of address, historical outline╇ 51–54 ihr (‘you’ plural)╇ 51, 51n2, 172 new system in 17th century╇ 53–54 nominative forms at issue╇ 51–52 rules for distribution of ihr and du╇ 52–53 sie plural╇ 53 system in 1780╇ 53–54 See also du/ihr system; er and sie singular; sie plural forms of address, usage in KHM╇ 54–65 du/ihr system╇ 61–65 er and sie singular╇ 56–60 “Ferenand Faithful and Ferenand Unfaithful” 55, 55n7 “Mrs. Fox’s Wedding”╇ 55 sie plural╇ 55 “Two Brothers, The”╇ 57–60 “Frau Holle” comparisons and╇ 99, 100



faul (‘lazy’) and╇ 143 good girl vs. bad girl and╇ 159–160 häβlich (‘ugly’) and╇ 110 negativity and╇ 129 repeat verses in╇ 96, 96n17 schwarz and╇ 118 “Frau Trude”╇ 117, 154 “Frieder and Katie”╇ 144 “Frog King or Iron Henry”╇ 9, 31–32, 132, 137, 157 fromm (‘pious’)╇ 129–130 G gender and pronoun usage╇ 151–170 overview╇ 151 age, sex, goodness and╇ 154–160 choice and style in╇ 163–165 Choosing a Pronoun for a Girl╇ 162t exceptions to gender concord╇ 153 final comments on╇ 165–170 Grimms and other tale-tellers and╇ 165–170 pronoun/ noun correspondences╇ 151–152 setting priorities for╇ 160–162 gender concord, exceptions to╇ 153 gender-linked phenomena╇ 14–15, 38, 38n, 153 See also gender and pronoun usage; stereotyping in Grimm genitive modifiers comparable to des Königs╇ 47–48 genitive possessives abstract “objects” and╇ 47 König as person noun most used╇ 45, 45n23 possessors ranked╇ 47–49 preposed and postposed╇ 45–47 preferred for possession by Grimms╇ 45, 45n22 summary of╇ 49–50 German, Grimms’ use of regional╇ 36 Germanic authenticity belonging in the KHM╇ 49–50, 171 “Hänsel and Gretel” and╇ 35–36, 35n29 Märchen and╇ 68–69 nouns and adjectives and╇ 85 gescheit (‘bright’)╇ 147 “Gifts of the Little People, The”╇ 118 “Girl Without Hands, The”╇ 114, 130, 131 girls, choosing pronouns for╇ 162t girls, nouns for. See nouns for girls “Glass Coffin, The”╇ 117 “Golden Bird, The”╇ 102, 130, 146 “Golden Goose, The”╇ 61, 102, 146, 148 “Gold-Maria and Pitch-Maria” (Bechstein)╇ 169 “Good Bargain, The”╇ 64–65, 64n39 goodness/purity. See age, sex, goodness, and

Index 185

pronoun usage; gut (‘good’); rein (‘pure, clean’); weiβ (‘white’) “Goosegirl, The”╇ 114, 124 “Goosegirl at the Well, The” dative construction examples╇ 41–42 good witch and╇ 58 ihr/du relationship in╇ 62–63 lack of sister contrast in╇ 100 pronominal usage and╇ 58, 70, 163–165 redness and╇ 121, 122 rein and╇ 132 whiteness and╇ 113 “Gossip Wolf and the Fox”╇ 61 gottlos (‘godless’)╇ 129–130 grammatical choices╇ 37–38 “Griffin, The”╇ 126, 148 Grimm, Jacob Deutsche Grammatik╇ 21, 51, 172 Germanic linguistics and╇ 3, 7, 54, 61 Grimm, Wilhelm Grimm genre and╇ 2, 2n, 171 revisions made by╇ 7, 24n4, 34, 35n29, 168–169 Grimm genre╇ 2, 2n, 171 gut (‘good’)╇ 133–136 female tokens╇ 134 “Jew in the Thornbush, The”╇ 136 male tokens and╇ 135 occurrences of╇ 133–34, 140 See also Numbers and types of adjectives applied to Girl and Boy nouns in the KHM H Haas, Walter╇ 24n5 Haase, Donald (ed.)╇ 4 häβlich (‘ugly’)╇ 109–111, 173 “Hans im Glücke” (Bechstein)╇ 69 “Hans in Luck”╇ 62, 69 “Hans My Hedgehog”╇ 112n23, 118, 125, 125n55 “Hänsel and Gretel” Germanic authenticity and╇ 35–36, 35n29 names and╇ 27, 35, 35n28, 36 popularity of╇ 35 red eyes and╇ 120 regional German used in╇ 36 rhyming patterns in╇ 34–35, 36 sound changes in╇ 33–34 source of╇ 32, 32n19, 33 verse used in╇ 32–33 white duck and╇ 114 “Hare’s Bride, The”╇ 25 “Helene” (Bechstein)╇ 170

186 Grimm Language

hero/heroine attributes╇ 149–150 Herrgen, Joachim╇ 33n23 “House in the Forest, The”╇ 127, 145 I idiosyncratic or general? “Der Wandergeselle” (Bechstein) and sie singular and plural╇ 67 “Die Probestücke des Meisterdiebes” (Bechstein)╇ 68 direct speech in 7th ed.╇ 65, 65n44 Grimms’ consistency of usage and╇ 69–70 “Hans im Glücke” (Bechstein)╇ 69 “Hans in Luck”╇ 69 questions posed by╇ 65 See also Bechstein, Ludwig Indirect and direct speech in “The Six Swans” (all editions)╇ 74–75t indirect discourse╇ 73–80 Duden: Die Grammatik on╇ 79 haben and╇ 75, 77 leveling of a paradigm╇ 79–80, 79n12 main verbs of high frequency╇ 77, 77nn7-8 modals and sein and╇ 75–76 present subjunctive (Konjunktiv I) and╇ 74, 74n, 75 preterite subjunctive (Konjunktiv II) and╇ 73, 75, 172 preterite subjunctives by verb category, 7th edition╇ 78t sein and╇ 75–76, 79 7th edition present and preterite subjunctives by verb category╇ 78t industry and intelligence╇ 141–150 overview╇ 141 arbeitsam (‘hard-working’)╇ 142–143 dumm (‘dumb’)╇ 148–149, 173 faul (‘lazy’)╇ 143–144, 173 fleiβig (‘industrious’)╇ 141–143 gescheit (‘bright’)╇ 147 hero/heroine attributes╇ 149–150 klug (‘clever’)╇ 145–147, 173 listig (‘cunning’)╇ 147–148 weise (‘wise’)╇ 148 intelligence. See industry and intelligence “Iron Hans”╇ 118–119, 127, 138 J “Jew in the Thornbush, The”╇ 136 Jungfrau/Jüngling╇ 95–97 Jüngling╇ 96–97

K KHM (Kinder- und Hausmärchen) (Children’s  and Household Tales) (Grimm Brothers)╇ 23 archaisms╇ 37 challenges of verse and╇ 30–32 colloquial speech╇ 37–38, 82–83 dulihr system╇ 61–65 er and sie singular╇ 56–60 forms of address in╇ 54–65 grammatical choices╇ 37–38 influence of╇ 1 linguistic authenticity in╇ 23 linguistics overlooked by researchers╇ 3 number of tales in╇ 8 only 21 in dialect╇ 24, 24n6 popularity of╇ 171 publication of╇ 3–4, 171 questions asked about╇ 2 sie plural╇ 55 translations of╇ 3, 3n See also dialects Kind╇ 105 Kinder- und Hausmärchen (Children’s and Household Tales). See KHM “King of the Golden Mountain, The” auxiliary missing from╇ 76, 76n4 blackness and╇ 117 preterite subjunctive (Konjunktiv II) and╇ 75–76 rewarded klug-ness and╇ 145 sein and╇ 76, 79 “King Thrushbeard”╇ 104, 121–122 Kletke, Hermann╇ 165–166 klug (‘clever’)╇ 145–147, 173 König╇ 45, 45n23, 47–49 Königstochter over Prinzessin╇ 88–89 Königstochter/Königssohn╇ 48–49, 94–95 L “Lazy Heinz”╇ 144 “Lazy Spinning Woman, The”╇ 143 “Lean Lisa”╇ 144 Levorato, Alessandra╇ 3n, 4 listig (‘cunning’)╇ 147–148 “Little Brier Rose”╇ 88, 106, 108 “Little Brother and Little Sister”╇ 86, 101, 110, 121 “Little Farmer in Heaven, The”╇ 26, 27, 32 “Little Gnome, The”╇ 148 “Little Lamb and the Little Fish, The”╇ 28, 28n11 “Little Red Riding Hood”╇ 39, 119, 127 “Little Shroud, The”╇ 115



M Mädchen/Junge/Knabe/Bube╇ 93–94, 151 Magd/Knecht/Bursche╇ 97 “Maid Maleen”╇ 27–28, 28n10, 111 “Mary’s Child”╇ 139, 156, 158 “Master Thief, The”╇ 68, 145 McGlathery, James╇ 1–3 Middle High German, rules for ihr and du╇ 52–53 “Moon, The”╇ 132 moral states/ mental dispositions╇ 129–140 overview╇ 129 böse (‘bad /wicked/ evil’)╇ 137 conclusion╇ 140 fromm (‘pious’)╇ 129–130 gottlos (‘godless’)╇ 129–130 gut (‘good’)╇ 133–136 rein (‘pure/ clean’)╇ 130–133 stolz (‘proud’)╇ 138 “Mr. Korbes”╇ 41 “Mrs. Fox’s Wedding” animals as humans in╇ 58 er and sie singular╇ 58 forms of address, usage in KHM╇ 55 pronominal address system and╇ 61 redness and╇ 127 sie plural used in╇ 55 N noun phrases, possessive╇ 38–50 overview╇ 38–39 dem Genitiv sein Tod╇ 39–42 genitive possessives╇ 45–49 von possessives╇ 42–45 nouns (and their adjectives)╇ 85–106 overview╇ 85 noun-use summary╇ 91–92 See also nouns for boys; nouns for girls; stereotyping in Grimm nouns for boys╇ 89–91 condition or appearance and╇ 90, 91 Hans most common name╇ 90, 91, 92 lack of generic names for boys╇ 90–91, 91nn15-16 occupation or condition and╇ 90, 91 regular German names for╇ 89–90 stereotypes less for boys than girls╇ 92 nouns for girls╇ 85–89 by appearance or other story aspects╇ 86, 91, 172 common nouns over proper╇ 87 common names for girls restricted╇ 85, 91, 92, 172

Index 187

by condition or occupation╇ 86–87, 92 gut for girls╇ 173 “Little Brother and Little Sister”╇ 86nn4-5 Marienkind (‘Mary’s child’)╇ 86, 86n6 Prinzessin replaced by Königstochter╇ 88–89, 92 ranking of words for girl╇ 87, 87n7, 91, 92 stolz negative for girls╇ 99n21 Tochter usage for╇ 89, 89n14, 92, 98–99 Trine and╇ 85, 85n noun-use summary╇ 91–92 Numbers and types of adjectives applied to Girl and Boy nouns in the KHM╇ 103t O “One-Eye, Two-Eyes, Three-Eyes”╇ 104 organization of book╇ 5, 21, 38 “Our Lady’s Little Glass”╇ 114 “Owl, The”╇ 145 P Paderbornian storytelling╇ 55 “Poor Miller’s Lad and the Cat”╇ 146 possession╇ 37–50 archaisms, colloquial speech and grammaticality judgments╇ 37–38 possessive noun phrases╇ 38–50 possessive noun phrases. See noun phrases, possessive possessors ranked╇ 47–49 See also König present subjunctive (Konjunktiv I)╇ 74, 74n, 75 preterite subjunctive (Konjunktiv II)╇ 75–76 advantage of╇ 78, 78n9 indirect discourse and╇ 73, 75 “Prince Who Fears Nothing, The” blackness and╇ 118 cleverness and╇ 145 Jungfrau and klug╇ 97 redness and╇ 126 rein and╇ 133 whiteness and╇ 112–113 Prinzessin/Prinz, Freier╇ 98 pronoun usage. See age, sex, goodness, and pronoun usage; gender and pronoun usage Q “Queen Bee, The”╇ 44, 102, 148 R “Rapunzel” er and sie singular╇ 56–57

188 Grimm Language

es to sie at age twelve╇ 154–155, 166 girls’ names and╇ 86 “Raven, The”╇ 119, 127 regional German, use of╇ 36 rein (‘pure/clean’)╇ 130–133 relationship terms╇ 98–102 contrasts reflected in tales╇ 98–99 gut for girls╇ 99, 99n20 Mädchen avoidance and╇ 101 positive and negative terms in╇ 101–102 relative-age adjectives and╇ 99–100, 100n23 Schwester and╇ 99n22 Sohn and╇ 101, 102 Tochter and╇ 99, 100, 102 reports and omissions╇ 73–83 overview╇ 73 auxiliary deletion╇ 80–82 indirect discourse╇ 73–80 verbs and colloquiality╇ 82–83 rhyme, importance of╇ 30, 30n13 “Riddle, The”╇ 145 “Robber Bridegroom, The”╇ 60, 115–116, 126 Rölleke, Heinz╇ 2, 23n2, 27, 34, 36, 79, 171 “Rooster Beam, The”╇ 145 “Rose Red”╇ 119 rot (‘red’)╇ 119–128 Blut or blutig and╇ 125 celebration and╇ 126 eye applications negative for╇ 120 female sexuality and╇ 123, 128, 173 fire and╇ 126 foxes and╇ 127 less stereotyped╇ 128 marriage reward unsought by good girl╇ 124, 124n52 nitty-gritty of life implied by╇ 121 opulence and╇ 127 red/white/black sequences of steeds╇ 127–128 S “Saint Joseph in the Forest”╇ 100 “Schneeweiβchen” (Bechstein)╇ 69 schön (‘beautiful’)╇ 107–109 Schuhmacher, Andreas╇ 165 schwarz (‘black’)╇ 116–119 bad girls/women and╇ 116 demonic and╇ 116–117, 117n33 hair as positive╇ 118 mourning and╇ 118 negativity and╇ 117, 118, 173 “Scraps, The”╇ 143

“Sea-Hare, The”╇ 102, 139 “Seven Ravens, The”╇ 118, 156 “Seven Ravens, The” (Bechstein)╇ 169 “Seven Swabians, The”╇ 27, 29, 32 “Seven Swans, The” (Bechstein)╇ 169 7th edition present and preterite subjunctives by verb category╇ 78t sexuality in Grimm╇ 122–123, 128, 134, 173 “Sharing Joy and Sorrow”╇ 130, 141 Sick, Bastian, Der Dativ ist dem Genitiv sein Tod╇ 39 sie plural address avoidance of╇ 55, 69 Bechstein’s inconsistencies in╇ 68 “Ferenand Faithful and Ferenand Unfaithful”╇ 55 in Jacob Grimm’s Deutsche Grammatik╇ 53 KHM (Kinder- und Hausmärchen) (Children’s and Household Tales)╇ 55 “Mrs. Fox’s Wedding”╇ 55 rejection of consistent in Grimm╇ 67 usage in KHM╇ 55 “Singing, Springing Lark, The”╇ 114, 123, 125 “Singing Bone, The”╇ 102, 115, 117, 146, 148 “Six Servants, The”╇ 63, 139 “Six Swans, The” auxiliary omission in╇ 80–81, 80n13 böse and╇ 137 gut and╇ 130 Indirect and direct speech in all editions of 74–75t pronoun usage for girl in╇ 154–155, 167–168 whiteness of shirts and╇ 115 “Six Swans, The” comparison of two versions╇ 7–22 Bube (‘boy’) to Knabe (‘older boy’)╇ 11 consistency in 7th ed.╇ 13, 16 contemporary usage in 7th ed.╇ 20 direct speech in 7th ed.╇ 9–10, 18, 66, 66n44, 73 empty pronouns in 7th ed.╇ 8, 8n3 “Frog King” opening and╇ 9 gender differences and╇ 14–15 grammatical changes in╇ 11–12, 17–18 habe “had” in both eds.╇ 12 haben and╇ 77 linguistic changes and╇ 8, 8n2 Mädchen and schön usages╇ 10, 14, 17 opaque frame construction omitted╇ 11 possession expressions in╇ 18 purpose of comparison╇ 7 sequentiality of actions in 7th ed.╇ 9 shirt comparisons and╇ 13, 19–20, 21



Tale #49╇ 7, 7n Wild and╇ 7 words of Romance origin replaced╇ 13, 14, 18 “Snow White” auxiliary omission in╇ 81 comparison words and╇ 99 Low German name and╇ 27 names and appearance╇ 106 pronominal address system and╇ 61 red as blood and╇ 123 red cheeks and╇ 121 red side of apple poisonous╇ 126 schön (‘beautiful’) and the queen╇ 108 usage parallels Bechstein’s “Schneeweiβchen” 69 vendor scene in╇ 61 “Snow White and Rose Red” gut and╇ 130 red rose and╇ 126 rein and╇ 132 rot (‘red’) and╇ 119, 120, 120n42 schwarz (‘black’) and╇ 118 white roses and╇ 114 “Spindle, Shuttle, and Needle”╇ 122, 132 “Star Talers, The”╇ 130 stereotyping in Grimm╇ 105–106 boys have real names as opposed to girls╇ 106 categories of adjectives for girls and boys╇ 106 gender stereotypes evident╇ 106 girls’ names and appearance╇ 106 hero/heroine attributes and╇ 149–150 noun and adjective choices and╇ 105–106 pronoun usage for girls and╇ 170 Stöber, August╇ 34, 34nn26-27 “Stolen Heller, The”╇ 115 stolz (‘proud’)╇ 138, 139, 140, 141, 173 “Strong Hans”╇ 117 subjunctives by verb category in 7th edition╇ 78t T “Table Be Set, Gold Donkey, and Cudgel-out-ofthe-Sack”╇ 61, 102, 126, 127 “Tale of One Who Went Out to Learn Fear” blackness and╇ 117 hero as dumm brother╇ 146, 148 jungst tokens in╇ 102 whiteness and╇ 115 Tatar, Maria M.╇ 1, 3, 4, 23n2, 89n12 “Thousandfurs”╇ 108, 132, 132n9 “Three Black Princesses, The”╇ 89 “Three Brothers, The”╇ 102

Index 189

“Three Feathers, The”╇ 102, 146, 148 “Three Field Surgeons, The”╇ 43 “Three Journeymen, The”╇ 146 “Three Languages, The”╇ 149 “Three Lazy Ones, The”╇ 144 “Three Little Men in the Woods, The”╇ 110–111, 132 “Three Snake Leaves, The”╇ 125 “Three Spinning Women, The”╇ 102, 143, 158 “Trained Hunter, The”╇ 46–47 “True Bride, The” comparison of three versions╇ 66–67 good girls and marriage╇ 124 red for opulence in╇ 127 source poem for╇ 30 stolz (‘proud’) and╇ 138 See also “Helene” (Bechstein) “Twelve Brothers, The” redness and╇ 124, 126 rein and╇ 132 white lilies and╇ 114 “Twelve Lazy Servants, The”╇ 144 “Two Brothers, The” black and red symbolism in╇ 126–127 black for mourning in╇ 118 er and sie singular╇ 57 forms of address in╇ 57–60 klug-ness and╇ 146 preposed genitives in╇ 46–47 red blood and╇ 123 rein for girl in╇ 131 “Two Kings’ Children, The”╇ 132 “Two Travelers, The” er and sie singular╇ 64, 64n38 Prinz usage in╇ 89 red eyes and╇ 120 whiteness and death╇ 115–116 U “Unequal Children of Eve, The”╇ 129 V verbs and colloquiality╇ 82–83 verse challenges of╇ 30–32 dialect of╇ 27–30 rhyme and╇ 30, 30n13 von possessives avoidance of╇ 43–45 undisputed examples of╇ 42, 42n14, 44

190 Grimm Language

W “Water of Life, The”╇ 102, 138, 149 weiβ (‘white’)╇ 112–116 counterfactual whiteness and╇ 115, 115n death and╇ 115, 116 flowers and╇ 114 goodness/purity and╇ 112–113 “Hans My Hedgehog” and╇ 112n23 helpers and╇ 114 magic objects and╇ 114 “Prince Who Fears Nothing” and╇ 112–113 weise (‘wise’)╇ 148 Westphalian dialect╇ 24–25, 24n6 “White and the Black Bride, The”╇ 99, 101, 110, 113, 130 “White Snake, The”╇ 114

Wild, Dortchen╇ 7, 33 “Wolf and the Seven Kids, The”╇ 118 women in Grimm gender and pronoun usage and╇ 154–160 sexuality and╇ 122–123, 128, 134, 173 See also nouns for girls; stereotyping in Grimm “Wren and the Bear, The”╇ 127 Y “Young Forged Little Man, The”╇ 126 “Young Giant, The”╇ 56, 61, 132 Z Zhirmunskii, V. M.╇ 32n17 Zipes, Jack David╇ 1, 3, 4, 23n2

In the series Linguistic Approaches to Literature the following titles have been published thus far or are scheduled for publication: 10 Robinson, Orrin W.: Grimm Language. Grammar, Gender and Genuineness in the Fairy Tales. 2010. xi, 190 pp,. 9 Hanauer, David Ian: Poetry as Research. Exploring second language poetry writing. 2010. xiii, 164 pp. 8 Bowles, Hugo: Storytelling and Drama. Exploring Narrative Episodes in Plays. 2010. ix, 216 pp. 7 Lindauer, Martin S.: Psyche and the Literary Muses. The contribution of literary content to scientific psychology. 2009. xiii, 209 pp. 6 Toolan, Michael: Narrative Progression in the Short Story. A corpus stylistic approach. 2009. xi, 212 pp. 5 Zyngier, Sonia, Marisa Bortolussi, Anna Chesnokova and Jan Auracher (eds.): Directions in Empirical Literary Studies. In honor of Willie van Peer. 2008. xii, 357 pp. 4 Peer, Willie van (ed.): The Quality of Literature. Linguistic studies in literary evaluation. 2008. ix, 243 pp. 3 McIntyre, Dan: Point of View in Plays. A cognitive stylistic approach to viewpoint in drama and other text-types. 2006. xii, 203 pp. 2 Simpson, Paul: On the Discourse of Satire. Towards a stylistic model of satirical humour. 2003. xiv, 242 pp. 1 Semino, Elena and Jonathan Culpeper (eds.): Cognitive Stylistics. Language and cognition in text analysis. 2002. xvi, 333 pp.