The Jew Among Thorns

The Jew in the Thorn is an anti-Semitic fairytale ( ATU 592). It is in the children's and house fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm in place 110 (KHM 110). In the first edition was the title of The Jud 'in the thorn .

The servant plays at the gallows. Illustration of Hermann Vogel After three years, a good servant gets paid only three Heller from his greedy master and is satisfied because he does not understand anything about money. He meets a little man who gives him the money and, when he sees his good heart, gives him three wishes. He wants a birdcage that meets everything, a violin to whose music everyone has to dance, and that no one can deny him a wish. He meets a Jew , who shoots a bird from the tree with the birdcage. But when he crawls through the thorns to fetch the bird, the servant lets him dance until he receives a large sum of money from him. The Jew runs to the judge, who captures the servant and has him sentenced to death. On the scaffold the servant asks to be allowed to play his violin once more, whereupon the whole market place has to dance so long and so wildly, until he is acquitted. Under the threat of the servant, he will play again, the Jew confesses to have stolen the money, and is hanged.

Language Wilhelm Grimm specially provided this text from the Small Edition of 1825 with folksy-rough phrases. He characterizes the servant as diligent ( all morning the first out of bed and in the evening the last in ), the greedy greedy with inversion of the speech: "Au weih geschrien" ; "You miserable musician, you beer fiddler: wait, if I catch you alone! I want to chase you, that you should lose the soles of your shoes: you lump, put a penny in your mouth, that you are worth six lighters " For the swear word " bearskin " cf. KHM 101 The Bearskin , to "a stone on the ground may have mercy" KHM 1 The Frog Prince or the Iron Henry and KHM 80 From the death of the chicken . [1]

In the third edition of 1837, the anti-Jewish characterization of the title character is exacerbated: he is described as the "Jew with a long goatee", his clothing is a "shabby skirt" and his language is a grotesque dialect.

Origin The children's and house fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm contain the fairy tale since the second part of the first edition of 1815 (since No. 24, title: The Jew in the thorn ) as No. 110. According to the remarks of the Brothers Grimm it is based on the comedy Historia by a Bawrenknecht of Albrecht Dietrich (there is the servant Dulla and the Jew is a monk ) and a carnival game by Fritz Dölla of Ayrer . They connect him with Till Eulenspiegel . In addition, they used a very simple narrative from the Paderbörn (family von Haxthausen ) and one from Hesse . The latter begins like the Dummlingmärchen , the youngest wants a hat that leads astray on the right path, a wish, a violin that forces everything to dance , and makes in the end all rich.

The legend of dancing in the thorns is very common , they mention KHM 56 The dearest Roland . For the magic manikin cf. z. B. KHM 97 The water of life , to save the last wish in execution KHM 116 The blue light .