Breaking the Magic Spell: Radical Theories of Folk and Fairy Tales

Introductory Fairy Tales

The Fairy Tale in Our Time In our time there was once a little girl who set out to find the fairy tale, for she had heard everywhere that the fairy tale had become lost. Indeed , some people said that the fairy tale had been dead for some time. Supposedly it was lying buried somewhere, perhaps in a mass grave. But the little girl did not let herself be deterred. She simply could not believe that fairy tales no longer existed. So she went into the forest and asked the trees, but the trees only murmured: the elves have long since left the meadows, the dwarfs have abandoned the caves, the witches the ravines. And she asked the birds, but they said: "Human beings fly faster than we do-tweet, tweet, there are no more human beings!" And the deer said, ridiculous, and the rabbits laughed, and the moose refused to speak at all.The whole thing was too stupid for him. And the cows said that they found it all foolish, and anyway one shouldn't talk about things like that in front of young calves. They shouldn't be exposed to such stupid, senseless questions. They must be prepared to be slaughtered, castrated or to give milk. Even if one should survive as bull, that was not a fairy tale. The calves must be enlightened. An old horse stood on the street. He was going to be taken to the slaughter-house, for he had served out his purpose. The butcher sat in a bar and drank. He won't know either, the girl thought, but I'll ask anyway since he's an old horse and must certainly know a great deal. So she asked the horse. The horse looked at the girl and snorted with his nostrils and stamped with his hoofs. "You're looking for the fairy tale?" he asked. "Yes." "Then I don't understand," the horse said, "why you are still looking since this is a fairy tale already!" And the horse blinked at the girl. lnrroductory Fairy Tales "Hmmm. It seems to me that you yourself are the fairy tale.You're looking for yourself. Yes, yes, the closer 1 look at you, the more I can see it. You are the fairy tale. Come, tell me a story!" The little girl was at first greatly embarrassed. But then she began to tell a story. She told about a young horse who was very handsome and won all the prizes at the race-track. And about a horse at the grave of his master. And about wild horses who lived out in the open. And then the old horse wept and said: "Thank you!Yes, yes, you are the fairy tale. I knew it all along!" The butcher came, and the horse was slaughtered. On Sunday the little girl was at home with her parents, and they had horsemeat for dinner since they were very poor. But the little girl would not touch anything. She thought about the horse and how he had wept. "She doesn't eat horsemeat," the mother said. "Then you'll eat nothing." "She's a spoiled princess," her brothers and sisters said. And the little girl ate nothing. But she felt no hunger. She thought about the old horse and how he had wept, and she was full. Yes, she was a fairy tale. - Odon von Horvhth' xvi Sleeping Beauty Keep sleeping: I'm not a prince, I have no sword nor have I time to cut the hedge to climb the wall to give a kiss or marry you . .. Tomorrow I must start work early (or 1'11be fired). My dreaming must wait till Sunday My thinking till vacation Time Keep sleeping and dream another hundred years until the right one appears -Josef Witmann2 xvii SleepingBeauty once upon a time or twice upon a time or more times and still some more the spell cast by the thirteenth fairy (not invited) and now all the dead princes Sleeping Beauty behind the hedge of roses unclear voices noises beyond that quite clearly music: a kiss: I write a poem and the cook gave the kitchen boy such a smack that he screamed Sleeping Beauty How can you dare to wake my father the king. His generals would rise up with him. How can...