Deutsche Sagen( "German Legends" ) is a publication by theBrothers Grimm,appearing in two volumes in 1816 and 1818. The collection includes 579 short summaries ofGerman folk talesand legends (where "German"refers not just toGerman-speaking Europegenerally but includesearly Germanic historyas well).
Deutsche Sagenfollowed the 1812 publication ofKinder- und Hausmärchen(known in English asGrimms' Fairy Tales). It never gained the wide popular appeal and influence of the latter, although it did influence the scholarly study of folk narrative.
The first volume contains 362 short tales, provided in short summary with a source. The source is in some cases "oral", with the region where it was collected (as in no. 1,Die drei Bergleute im Kuttenberg"the three miners inKuttenberg",marked" oral "fromHessen), in other cases with a reference to the tale's previous publication (as in no. 362, Die drei Alten"The three old men", attributed to "Schmidt aus Lübek", imFreimüthigen1809. Nr. 1.) The tales of the first volume tend to blend common concerns of the poor and working classes withmagical realismincluding the attainment of wealth and status, and includes references toFrau Holle,theWild Hunt,ghostly apparitions,and magic, thedevil,dwarves,giants,kobolds,nixes,etc. Less than a dozen folk tales contain the German word for witch or witchcraft (hexen) but there are many mentions of the devil and one tale (#120) also mentions an old woman that was a magician or sorceress (ein altes Weib, das eine Zauberin war).[1]
The second volume (entries numbered 363–579) focusses on historical legends, including numerous translations from Latin sources pertaining toGermanic antiquity,beginning withTacitus(no 363.Der heilige Salzfluß"the sacred salt-river",AnnalesXIII. 57), spanning both medieval legend (e.g. no. 576.Hungersnoth im Grabfeld"famine inGrabfeld",Annales Fuldensesad ann. 850) and early modern folkloristic records (e.g. no. 579Die Gräfin von Orlamünde"the countess of Orlamünde", attributed toWolfgang Laziusde migratione gentium libri VIIin the edition of Waldenfels,antiquitatis selectae libri XII1677, 4.465-474), blurring the lines betweenoral folk traditionandliterary tradition.
Numbers 505–514 group a number ofSwissentries, includingRadbot von Habsburg(505),Rudolf von Strättlingen(506),Idda von Toggenburg(507),Auswanderung der Schweizer(508),Der Bund im Rütli(511) andWilhelm Tell(512).
A number of the stories record medieval antisemitic beliefs held by Germanic-speaking peoples. For example,The Jews' Stone,The Girl Who Was Killed by Jews,andPfefferkorn the Jew at Halle,among others.[2]
Twelve of the tales were translated byThomas Roscoe(1826),[3][4]three byThomas Crofton Croker(1828),[5]ten byWilliam Thoms(1834),[6]and one by Joseph Snowe (1839),[7]but the first full translation into English wasDonald J. Ward'sThe German Legends of the Brothers Grimm(1979).[8][9]The original German collection is also freely available online.
See also
editReferences
edit- ^Grimm,Deutsche Sagen,p 184
- ^"Anti-Semitic Legends".www.pitt.edu.Archived fromthe originalon 2020-02-17.Retrieved2020-03-09.
- ^The German Novelists.Vol. 2. Translated byRoscoe, Thomas.London: Henry Colburn. 1826. pp. 245–286.
- ^Denecke, Ludwig, ed. (1997).Brüder Grimm Gedenken.Schriften der Brüder Grimm-Gesellschaft Kassel e.V (in German). Vol. 12. N. G. Elwert. p. 74.ISBN978-3-7776-0739-9.
- ^Croker, Thomas Crofton(1828).Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland.London: John Murray. pp. 52–53, 63–64, 233–234.
- ^Thoms, William J.(1834).Lays and Legends of Germany.Lays and Legends of Various Nations. London: George Cowie. pp. 37–40, 95–97, 117–120, 179–180, 208–210, 239–243, 257–261, 269–271.
- ^"The Erection".The Rhine, Legends, Traditions, History, from Cologne to Mainz.Vol. 1. Translated by Snowe, Joseph. London: F. C. Westley. 1839. pp. 31–33.
- ^The German Legends of the Brothers Grimm.Vol. 1. Translated byWard, Donald.Philadelphia: Institute for the Study of Human Issues. 1981.ISBN0-915980-72-X.
The German Legends of the Brothers Grimm.Vol. 2. Translated byWard, Donald.Philadelphia: Institute for the Study of Human Issues. 1981.ISBN0-915980-71-1. - ^Bruce Allen,"Grimms' legends at last in English",The Christian Science Monitor,18 September 1980.
- Deutsche Sagen. Herausgegeben von den Brüdern Grimm,Berlin (1816) (google books)
- Deutsche Sagen. Herausgegeben von den Brüdern Grimm. Zweiter Teil,Berlin (1818)
- Donald Ward (trans.),The German Legends of the Brothers2 vols, Philadelphia, Pa: Institute for the Study of Human Issues (1979).
External links
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The full text ofde:Deutsche Sagenat Wikisource- E-textat Projekt Gutenberg-DE
