Grimm's Household Tales UNDER CONSTRUCTION | Annotated Tale

All tales with known ATU tale types entered with footnotes. Still missing Introduction materials and End Notes to Tales.



149. Beam, The

THERE was once an enchanter who was standing in the midst of a great crowd of people performing his wonders. He had a cock brought in, which lifted a heavy beam and carried it as if it were as light as a feather. But a girl was present who had just found a bit of four-leaved clover, and had thus become so wise that no deception could stand out against her, and she saw that the beam was nothing but a straw. So she cried, "You people, do you not see that it is a straw that the cock is carrying, and no beam?" Immediately the enchantment vanished, and the people saw what it was, and drove the magician away in shame and disgrace. He, however, full of inward anger, said, "I will soon revenge myself?"

               After some time the girl's wedding-day came, and she was decked out, and went in a great procession over the fields to the place where the church was. All at once she came to a stream which was very much swollen, and there was no bridge and no plank to cross it. Then the bride nimbly took her clothes up, and wanted to wade through it. And just as she was thus standing in the water, a man, and it was the enchanter, cried mockingly close beside her, "Aha! Where are thine eyes that thou takest that for water?" Then her eyes were opened, and she saw that she was standing with her clothes lifted up in the middle of a field that was blue with the flowers of blue flax. Then all the people saw it likewise, and chased her away with ridicule and laughter.

Notes

FOOTNOTE

[1] Hahnenbalken (collar beam). This is technically the upper tiebeam or collar of the rafters of a roof, but as in small houses the roof is open and fowls are allowed to roost on it, its name with cottagers is naturally the hen-beam.—TR.

SurLaLune Note

 

This tale has multiple ATU classifications:

ATU 987: False Magician Exposed by Clever Girl

ATU 1290: Swimming in the Flax-Field

Bibliographic Information

Tale Title: 149. Beam, The
Tale Author/Editor: Grimm, Jacob & Grimm, Wilhelm
Book Title: Grimm's Household Tales UNDER CONSTRUCTION
Book Author/Editor: Grimm, Jacob & Grimm, Wilhelm
Publisher: George Bell and Sons
Publication City: London
Year of Publication: 1884
Country of Origin: Germany
Classification: ATU 987: False Magician Exposed by Clever Girl








Back to Top