"The Maid of Brakel" is a German
fairy tale
A fairy tale (alternative names include fairytale, fairy story, magic tale, or wonder tale) is a short story that belongs to the folklore genre. Such stories typically feature magic (paranormal), magic, incantation, enchantments, and mythical ...
collected by the
Brothers Grimm
The Brothers Grimm ( or ), Jacob (1785–1863) and Wilhelm (1786–1859), were a brother duo of German academics, philologists, cultural researchers, lexicographers, and authors who together collected and published folklore. They are among the ...
in ''
Grimms' Fairy Tales
''Grimms' Fairy Tales'', originally known as the ''Children's and Household Tales'' (german: Kinder- und Hausmärchen, lead=yes, ), is a German collection of fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm, Grimm brothers or "Brothers Grimm", Jacob Grimm, Ja ...
'', tale number 115.
[Jacob and Wilheim Grimm, ''Household Tales'']
"The Maid of Brakel"
/ref>
It is Aarne-Thompson type 1476A, Praying to the Statue's Mother.D.L. Ashliman
Dee L. Ashliman (born January 1, 1938), who writes professionally as D. L. Ashliman, is an American folklorist and writer. He is Professor Emeritus of German at the University of Pittsburgh and is considered to be a leading expert on folklore and ...
,
The Grimm Brothers' Children's and Household Tales (Grimms' Fairy Tales)
The story is set in Brakel, Germany
Brakel () is a town in the district of Höxter in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.
Geography
Location
Brakel lies at the midpoint of the district of Höxter between the Eggegebirge and the Weser in the Oberwälder Land nature area in the ol ...
.
Synopsis
A chapel held a statue of Saint Anne
According to Christian apocryphal and Islamic tradition, Saint Anne was the mother of Mary and the maternal grandmother of Jesus. Mary's mother is not named in the canonical gospels. In writing, Anne's name and that of her husband Joachim come o ...
and the Virgin Mary as a child. An unmarried woman prayed to Saint Anne
According to Christian apocryphal and Islamic tradition, Saint Anne was the mother of Mary and the maternal grandmother of Jesus. Mary's mother is not named in the canonical gospels. In writing, Anne's name and that of her husband Joachim come o ...
that she might wed a man. A clerk, who heard her, said she would not have him. The woman took it to be the child Mary and scolded her, because she was talking to her mother.
Notes
Saint Anne
According to Christian apocryphal and Islamic tradition, Saint Anne was the mother of Mary and the maternal grandmother of Jesus. Mary's mother is not named in the canonical gospels. In writing, Anne's name and that of her husband Joachim come o ...
was the patron saint of unmarried women, particularly because of the legend that she had been married three times.
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Maid of Brakel, The
Maid of Brakel
Maid of Brakel
Maid of Brakel
ATU 1440-1524