Page:Grimm's household tales, volume 2 (1884).djvu/428

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414
GRIMM'S HOUSEHOLD TALES.

very grape in which Persius was hidden, and swallowed it down half-chewed; however, as he imagined that the man was a grape seed, he spat him out again, so that he was sent flying away high up in the air for miles. In order to get on to the wall, he now drew down with a cord the top of a fir-tree which stood by it, seated himself upon the tree, relaxed the cord, and was thus carried quickly on to the wall. There is a lying-tale, which dates from the 10th century, in Modus florum, in Ebert's Ueberlieferungen, 1. 79. In Norwegian see Asbjörnsen, p. 284; in Servian, Wuk, No. 1; in Slavonian, Vogl. No 2; in Wendish, Haupt, No. 2. Compare the English story of Jack and the Beanstalk (see further on), and the Rabbinical myth in Helwig, Nos. 2 and 3.

From Paderborn. Very characteristic, good, and perfectly conceived. It resembles The Singing, Soaring Lark (No. 88), in the high price asked of the false bride, and Foundling (No. 51), and Dearest Roland (No. 56), in the pursuit. It also resembles the latter in the forgetfulness of the lover. Compare The Orange Tree and the Bee (No. 8), in D'Aulnoy. For the tasks which are set, compare Altd. Wälder, 1. part 4. The expression "Arweggers herut," is very remarkable, for among the names of dwarfs (Dvergaheiti) in the Edda, Aurvagur also occurs, although it is a variant, and the Völuspâ gives "Aurvangur." A man who awakes betimes is arvakur, a name for bulls and horses (Sigurdsrifa, Str. 17). Perhaps, however, we get most information from Anglo-Saxon, according to which Arwegger would be earwig, a facetious appellation for dwarfs because of their small, stunted shape. In that language, ear-wigga means vermis auricularis, Eng. earwig. The Hungarian story, The Glass Axe, is manifestly related to this (see further on).

From the Schwalm district in Hesse. Quite in the spirit of The Valiant Tailor (No. 20). The riddle about the gold and silver hair appears elsewhere. There is a variant which has many points which are distinctive, in Pröhle's Märchen für die Jugend (No. 28). In the Bukowina there is The Gipsy and the Bear, see Wolf's Zeitschrift für deutsche Mythologie, 1. 360.

From Zwehrn. There is another story from Swabia, in Meier, No. 13, and in Pröhle's Märchen für die Jugend, No. 43. A deep and noble thought is here expressed in a homely manner. No one