"The Three Linden Trees" (German: "Drei Linden") is a 1912fairy tale by Hermann Hesse strongly influenced by the Greek legend of Damon and Pythias. The story, set in the medieval period, tries to explain three huge linden trees whose branches intertwine to cover the entire cemetery of the Hospital of the Holy Spirit in Berlin.
According to the story, three brothers care very deeply for each other. One day, the youngest brother comes across a blacksmith's apprentice who has just been stabbed to death. While he decides whether to tell the authorities or to flee the scene of the crime, the city constables find him and arrest him for the murder. At his trial, facts come out that link him to the victim, and it appears that he will be hanged, despite all his protests that he is innocent.
Just then, the middle brother, who has been waiting for his younger brother to return home, hears what has happened. Not wanting to see his brother executed, he appears in court and accuses himself of the murder. He is locked up while the judge tries to determine who the real murderer is. Shortly after, the eldest brother returns home from his travels and, learning what happened to his two younger brother, accuses himself of the crime. He too is arrested. When the youngest brother unwittingly discovers what his two brothers have done on his behalf, he tearfully admits to the judge that he is the murderer.
Not knowing whom to blame, the judge turns to the local prince. He does not believe that any of the brothers is guilty, but realizes that it is too important a decision to leave to chance. To resolve the problem, he announces that he will leave it up to God and comes up with an ordeal. Each of the brothers will plant a linden tree with its crown in the ground and its roots in the sky. Whoever's tree withered first would be considered the murderer.
The unexpected happened and all three trees began to grow and flourish. All three brothers were innocent, so all three trees thrive. These are the trees overhanging the cemetery outside the Hospital of the Holy Spirit.
The story was written in German and originally published in Die Alpen in 1912.
The Brothers Grimm, Jacob (1785–1863) and Wilhelm (1786–1859), were German academics who together collected and published folklore. The brothers are among the best-known storytellers of folktales, popularizing stories such as "Cinderella", "The Frog Prince", "Hansel and Gretel", "Town Musicians of Bremen", "Little Red Riding Hood", "Rapunzel", "Rumpelstiltskin", "Sleeping Beauty", and "Snow White". Their first collection of folktales, Children's and Household Tales, was first published in 1812.
"Beauty and the Beast" is a fairy-tale written by French novelist Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve and published in 1740 in La Jeune Américaine et les contes marins.
The Fairy Tales of Hermann Hesse is a collection of 22 fairy tales written by Hermann Hesse between the years of 1904 and 1918 and translated by Jack Zipes. A list of the individual fairy tales and the year in which they were written follows. This collection was published in 1995 and is the first English translation for most of the tales.
Murder One is an American legal drama television series that aired on ABC from September 19, 1995, until May 29, 1997. The series was created by Steven Bochco, Charles H. Eglee, and Channing Gibson.
The Pillowman is a 2003 play by British-Irish playwright Martin McDonagh. It received its first public reading in an early version at the Finborough Theatre, London, in 1995, also a final and completed version of the play was publicly read in 1998 and then finished and released as a book in some places in 1999. Production started in 2000 for the eventual 2003 performance. It tells the tale of Katurian, a fiction writer living in a police state, who is interrogated about the gruesome content of his short stories and their similarities to a number of bizarre child murders occurring in his town. The play received the 2004 Olivier Award for Best New Play, the 2004-5 New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best New Foreign Play, and two Tony Awards for production. It was nominated for the 2004 Evening Standard Award for Best New Play.
"The Twelve Dancing Princesses" is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm and published in Grimm's Fairy Tales in 1815. It is of Aarne-Thompson type 306.
"The Story of the Youth Who Went Forth to Learn What Fear Was" or "The Story of a Boy Who Went Forth to Learn Fear" is a German folktale collected by the Brothers Grimm in Grimm's Fairy Tales. The tale was also included by Andrew Lang in The Blue Fairy Book (1889).
"The Juniper Tree" is a German fairy tale published in Low German by the Brothers Grimm in Grimm's Fairy Tales in 1812. The story contains themes of child abuse, murder, cannibalism and biblical symbolism and is one of the Brothers Grimm's darker and more mature fairy tales.
"The Blue Bird" is a French literary fairy tale by Madame d'Aulnoy, published in 1697. An English translation was included in The Green Fairy Book, 1892, collected by Andrew Lang.
The youngest son is a stock character in fairy tales, where he features as the hero. He is usually the third son, but sometimes there are more brothers, and sometimes he has only one; usually, they have no sisters.
"The Devil and his Grandmother" or "The Dragon and His Grandmother" is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm, number 125. According to Jack Zipes, the source of the story was Dorothea Viehmann, the wife of a tailor from Hesse.
"Kemp Owyne" or "Kempion" is a traditional English-language folk ballad.
"The Three Little Birds" is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm, tale number 96. The story is originally written in Low German. It is Aarne-Thompson type 707, the dancing water, the singing apple, and the speaking bird. The story resembles Ancilotto, King of Provino, by Giovanni Francesco Straparola, and The Sisters Envious of Their Cadette, the story of the 756th night of the Arabian Nights.
"The Water of Life" is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm, tale number 97.
Prâslea the Brave and the Golden Apples is a Romanian fairy tale collected by Petre Ispirescu in Legende sau basmele românilor.
Saat Bhai Champa or Sat Bhai Chompa is a popular folk tale in the Bengal region in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent. The story was first officially published by Dakshinaranjan Mitra Majumder in the book Thakurmar Jhuli in 1907. The introduction to Thakurmar Jhuli was written by Nobel-Laureate, Rabindranath Tagore. A more detailed version of the story was published by Bishnu Dey under the name "Sat Bhai Champa" in 1944.
"The Gnome" is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm in Grimm's Fairy Tales, tale number 91.
The lime tree, or linden, (Tilia) is important in the mythology, literature, and folklore of a number of cultures.
The King of the Snakes is a Chinese folktale published by John Macgowan in 1910. In it, a father gives his youngest daughter to a snake spirit, who turns out to be a human. Out of jealousy, the girl's sister conspires to take her place and kills her. The heroine, then, goes through a cycle of transformations, regains human form and takes revenge on her sister.
Knulp is a series of three tales by Hermann Hesse, published in 1915 by S. Fischer Verlag. The three tales chronicle the life of a vagrant named Knulp. Hesse wrote them between 1907 and 1914, and they are considered to be part of his “Gerbersau” cycle of works.
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