The Blue Light (fairy tale)

Last updated
The Blue Light
Folk tale
NameThe Blue Light
Also known asDas blaue Licht
Aarne–Thompson groupingATU 562 (The Spirit in the Blue Light)
CountryGermany
Published in Grimms' Fairy Tales

The Blue Light is a Brothers Grimm fairy tale about a soldier who finds a magical object that provides him a supernatural helper. Many of the features from Hans Christian Andersen's later work The Tinderbox and from the story of Aladdin and his magic lamp originate with this version. Other tales of this type include The Three Dogs and The Tinderbox. [1]

Contents

Synopsis

A soldier has been discharged from the king's service because of his wounds. The soldier leaves the castle and, as night falls, he requires somewhere to stay. Encountering the home of a witch, he asks her for lodging. The witch agrees on condition that he spade her garden the next day. This takes so long that he must stay another night, and in return she asks him to chop her wood. Once again, he must stay another night.

The soldier summons the Spirit in the Blue Light at the bottom of the well. Illustration by George Cruikshank for Grimm's Goblins, by Edgar Taylor (1823). GrimmsGoblins-159-TheBlueLight.jpg
The soldier summons the Spirit in the Blue Light at the bottom of the well. Illustration by George Cruikshank for Grimm's Goblins, by Edgar Taylor (1823).

The following day, she requests that he go into a well and retrieve her blue light for her. He is in the process of doing so, but realizes he is being tricked and will be trapped in the well as soon as he gives it to her. He keeps the light for himself, not knowing what it is, but she leaves him in the well. He decides to smoke one last time and lights his pipe with the blue light. A dwarf comes to grant him whatever he wishes. He first asks to be led out of the well, then for the witch to be taken to jail and hanged.

To retaliate against the king, the soldier commands the dwarf to bring him the princess so she can act as his maid. When she wakes up, the princess tells her father of her strange "dream", which the king believes could have actually happened. He has the princess fill her pocket with peas and put a little hole in it so that if she actually is carried away they will be able to follow the path.

The dwarf, however, notices, and spreads peas all over the city so that the peas lead to everywhere and cannot pin it on the soldier. The next night, she plans on hiding her shoe in the home to which she is taken. The dwarf warns against this to the soldier, but he does not heed it. The next day, the princess's shoe is found in his quarters and he is taken to jail. He sends his friend to get the blue light and as his final request asks for a last smoke of his pipe. The dwarf appears and kills the henchmen; the soldier also demands the king's life, but spares him after he begs for mercy. The soldier marries the princess and takes the throne.

Analysis

Tale type

The tale is classified in the Aarne–Thompson–Uther Index as tale type ATU 562, "The Spirit in the Blue Light". [2] [3] [4] [5] In the Index, the story is situated next to two similar tale types: ATU 560, The Magic Ring, and ATU 561, Aladdin. [6] [7] [8] [9] All of these stories deal with a down-on-his-luck and impoverished boy or soldier, who finds a magical item (ring, lamp, tinderbox) that grants his wishes. In this regard, German folklorist Hans-Jörg Uther, in his revision of the international index, published in 2004, remarked that the similarities between the three tale types make it hard to differentiate them. [10] On the other hand, per Stith Thompson's The Folktale, in type 562, Thompson remarked that, despite the great similarities between types 561 and 562, the "essential difference" lies in the accidental loss of the object by the hero. [11] Similarly, Czech scholar Karel Horálek  [ cs ] distinguishes the three types in that, in type 560, the hero is helped by animals (the snake gives the ring and the dog and the cat retrieve the stolen object); type 561 does away with the animals, leaving the hero to recover the stolen lamp with the second object, and, finally, type 562 inserts another person that helps the hero. [12]

Motifs

The magical object

The hero finds the magical object in an underground room: a fire steel or a tinder box, [13] but it can also be a book of the dark arts or a flute. [14] The blue light in Hungarian tales is sometimes replaced by a tobacco pipe. [15]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aladdin</span> Middle-Eastern folk tale

Aladdin is a Middle-Eastern folk tale. It is one of the best-known tales associated with One Thousand and One Nights, despite not being part of the original text; it was added by the Frenchman Antoine Galland, based on a folk tale that he heard from the Syrian storyteller Hanna Diyab.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Snow-White and Rose-Red</span> German fairy tale

"Snow-White and Rose-Red" is a German fairy tale. The best-known version is the one collected by the Brothers Grimm in 1837 in the third edition of their collection Grimm's Fairy Tales. It was first published by Wilhelm Grimm in 1827 in Wilhelm Hauff's Märchen-Almanach. An older, somewhat shorter version, "The Ungrateful Dwarf", was written by Caroline Stahl (1776–1837). Indeed, that appears to be the oldest variant; no previous oral version is known, although several have been collected since its publication in 1818. Oral versions are very limited regionally. The tale is of Aarne-Thompson type 426.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Iron John</span> German fairy tale

"Iron John" is a German fairy tale found in the collections of the Brothers Grimm, tale number 136, about an iron-skinned wild man and a prince. The original German title is Eisenhans, a compound of Eisen "iron" and Hans. It represents Aarne–Thompson type 502, "The wild man as a helper".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Frog Prince</span> German fairy tale

"The Frog Prince; or, Iron Henry" is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm and published in 1812 in Grimm's Fairy Tales. Traditionally, it is the first story in their folktale collection. The tale is classified as Aarne-Thompson type 440.

The Aarne–Thompson–Uther Index is a catalogue of folktale types used in folklore studies. The ATU index is the product of a series of revisions and expansions by an international group of scholars: Originally published in German by Finnish folklorist Antti Aarne (1910), the index was translated into English, revised, and expanded by American folklorist Stith Thompson, and later further revised and expanded by German folklorist Hans-Jörg Uther (2004). The ATU index is an essential tool for folklorists, used along with Thompson (1932)Motif-Index of Folk-Literature.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maid Maleen</span> German fairy tale

"Maid Maleen" is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm, number 198.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Hut in the Forest</span> German fairy tale

"The Hut in the Forest" is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm. Andrew Lang included it in The Pink Fairy Book (1897). It is Aarne-Thompson type 431.

The Blue Mountains is a fairy tale. Andrew Lang included it in The Yellow Fairy Book (1894), but provided no bibliographical information and its origin remains obscure.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Lute Player</span> Russian fairy tale

The Lute Player, The Tsaritsa Harpist or The Tsaritsa who Played the Gusli, is a Russian fairy tale. It was published by Alexander Afanasyev in his collection Russian Fairy Tales, as number 338. Andrew Lang included it in The Violet Fairy Book (1901).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Magic Swan Geese</span> Russian fairy tale

The Magic Swan Geese is a Russian fairy tale collected by Alexander Afanasyev in Narodnye russkie skazki, numbered 113.

The Little Bull-Calf is an English Romani fairy tale collected by Joseph Jacobs in More English Fairy Tales.

The Enchanted Watch is a French fairy tale collected by Paul Sébillot (1843–1918). Andrew Lang included it in his The Green Fairy Book (1892).

The Blue Belt is a Norwegian fairy tale collected by Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe in Norske Folkeeventyr. It is Aarne-Thompson type 590.

Sapia Liccarda is an Italian literary fairy tale written by Giambattista Basile in his 1634 work, the Pentamerone. It is not known whether he had a specific source, either literary or oral, for this tale.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The King of the Golden Mountain</span> German fairy tale

"The King of the Golden Mountain" is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm in Grimm's Fairy Tales.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grateful dead (folklore)</span> Motif and a group of related folktales

Grateful dead is both a motif and a group of related folktales present in many cultures throughout the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Puss in Boots</span> European fairy tale about a cat

"Puss in Boots" is a European fairy tale about an anthropomorphic cat who uses trickery and deceit to gain power, wealth, and the hand in marriage of a princess for his penniless and low-born master.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Gnome (fairy tale)</span> German fairy tale

"The Gnome" is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm in Grimm's Fairy Tales, tale number 91.

In folkloristics, "The Animal as Bridegroom" refers to a group of folk and fairy tales about a human woman marrying or being betrothed to an animal. The animal is revealed to be a human prince in disguise or under a curse. Most of these tales are grouped in the international system of Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index under type ATU 425, "The Search for the Lost Husband". Some subtypes exist in the international classification as independent stories, but they sometimes don't adhere to a fixed typing.

"The Forgotten Bride" or "The Forgotten Fiancée" is a motif of folktales recognized in several folktale motif indices.

References

  1. ↑ D. L. Ashliman, "The Blue Light: Folktales of Aarne–Thompson–Uther Type 562"
  2. ↑ Aarne, Antti; Thompson, Stith. The types of the folktale: a classification and bibliography. Folklore Fellows Communications FFC no. 184. Helsinki: Academia Scientiarum Fennica, 1961. p. 204.
  3. ↑ Uther, Hans-Jörg (2004). The Types of International Folktales: A Classification and Bibliography, Based on the System of Antti Aarne and Stith Thompson. Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia, Academia Scientiarum Fennica. pp. 330–331. ISBN   978-951-41-0963-8.
  4. ↑ Ashliman, D. L. A Guide to Folktales in the English Language: Based on the Aarne-Thompson Classification System. Bibliographies and Indexes in World Literature, vol. 11. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1987. p. 123. ISBN   0-313-25961-5.
  5. ↑ D. L. Ashliman, "The Grimm Brothers' Children's and Household Tales (Grimms' Fairy Tales)"
  6. ↑ Ranke, Kurt (1966). Folktales of Germany. Routledge & K. Paul. p. 214. ISBN   978-81-304-0032-7.
  7. ↑ Ranke, Kurt (2016) [1977]. "Alad(d)in (AaTh 561)" [Aladdin (ATU 561)]. In Rolf Wilhelm Brednich; Heidrun Alzheimer; Hermann Bausinger; Wolfgang Brückner; Daniel Drascek; Helge Gerndt; Ines Köhler-Zülch; Klaus Roth; Hans-Jörg Uther (eds.). Enzyklopädie des Märchens Online (in German). Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter. pp. 245–246. doi:10.1515/emo.1.059. AaTh 561 hat eine starke Affinität zu den benachbarten Märchentypen AaTh 560 (Zauberring) und AaTh 562 (Geist im blauen Licht).[[Type] AaTh 561 has a strong affinity with the neighbouring types AaTh 560 ("Magic Ring") and AaTh 562 ("Spirit in the Blue Light").]
  8. ↑ Thompson, Stith (1977). The Folktale. University of California Press. pp. 70–72. ISBN   0-520-03537-2.
  9. ↑ van den Berg, Paula (1997). "De tondeldoos". In Ton Dekker; Jurjen van der Kooi; Theo Meder (eds.). Van Aladdin tot Zwaan kleef aan. Lexicon van sprookjes: ontstaan, ontwikkeling, variaties (in Dutch) (first ed.). Kritak: Sun. p. 366. De typen at 560 ('The Magic Ring'), 561 ('Aladdin en de wonderlamp') en 562 zijn nauw aan elkaar verwant en worden vaak door elkaar gemengd.[Types 560, 561 and 562 are greatly connected and many times are contaminated.]
  10. ↑ Uther, Hans-Jörg (2004). The Types of International Folktales: A Classification and Bibliography, Based on the System of Antti Aarne and Stith Thompson. Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia, Academia Scientiarum Fennica. pp. 328, 330, 331. ISBN   978-951-41-0963-8.
  11. ↑ Thompson, Stith. The Folktale. University of California Press. 1977. p. 72. ISBN   0-520-03537-2
  12. ↑ Horálek, K. (1974). "Folk Poetry: History And Typology". In Arthur S. Abramson (ed.). Linguistics and Adjacent Arts and Sciences: Part 2. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 741-808 [778]. doi:10.1515/9783110821659-004. In the fairy tale about the magic ring [AT 560 The magic ring] it is necessary for the hero to win the gratitude not only of the donor of the talisman (this is generally a serpent), but also of a dog and a cat (not of other animals) because these two animals are alloted [sic] a special task at the end of the fairy tale, i.e. to help the hero to recover the stolen talisman. (...) In the fairy tale about Aladdin [AT 561 Aladdin's lamp] the situation is substantially different: the task of the dog and the cat would be superfluous here because besides the magic lamp the hero is in possession of another talisman with the help of which he recovers the lamp and also conjures up palace and princess. In type AT 562 [The spirit in the blue light], which is derived from the Aladdin fairy tale, the motif of the second talisman is missing, while the task of the helper is performed here by the hero's friend.
  13. ↑ Thompson, Stith (1977). The Folktale. University of California Press. p. 72. ISBN   0-520-03537-2.
  14. ↑ van den Berg, Paula (1997). "De tondeldoos". In Ton Dekker; Jurjen van der Kooi; Theo Meder (eds.). Van Aladdin tot Zwaan kleef aan. Lexicon van sprookjes: ontstaan, ontwikkeling, variaties (in Dutch) (first ed.). Kritak: Sun. p. 366.
  15. ↑ Grimm, Jacob & Grimm, Wilhelm; Taylor, Edgar; Cruikshank, George (illustrator). Grimm's Goblins: Grimm's Household Stories. London: R. Meek & Co.. 1877. p. 294.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.