"The Robber Bridegroom" 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 ...
, tale number 40.
Joseph Jacobs
Joseph Jacobs (29 August 1854 – 30 January 1916) was an Australian folklorist, translator, literary critic, social scientist, historian and writer of English literature who became a notable collector and publisher of English folklore.
Jacob ...
included a variant, ''Mr Fox'', in ''English Fairy Tales'', but the original provenance is much older;
Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
(circa 1599) alludes to the ''Mr. Fox'' variant in ''
Much Ado About Nothing
''Much Ado About Nothing'' is a comedy by William Shakespeare thought to have been written in 1598 and 1599.See textual notes to ''Much Ado About Nothing'' in ''The Norton Shakespeare'' ( W. W. Norton & Company, 1997 ) p. 1387 The play ...
'', Act 1, Scene 1:
:''Like the old tale, my lord: "it is not so, nor `t was not so; but, indeed, God forbid it should be so."''
It is
Aarne–Thompson type 955, the robber bridegroom. This type is closely related to tales of type 312, such as ''
Bluebeard
"Bluebeard" (french: Barbe bleue, ) is a French folktale, the most famous surviving version of which was written by Charles Perrault and first published by Barbin in Paris in 1697 in ''Histoires ou contes du temps passé''. The tale tells the st ...
'', and type 311, such as ''
How the Devil Married Three Sisters
How the Devil Married Three Sisters is an Italian fairy tale found in Thomas Frederick Crane's ''Italian Popular Tales'' (1885). It was collected and originally published in German as "''Der Teufel heirathet drei Schwestern''" by Widter and Wolf ...
'' and ''
Fitcher's Bird
"Fitcher's Bird" (German: ''Fitchers Vogel'') is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm, tale number 46.Margaret Hunt (tr.)
It is Aarne-Thompson type 311, the heroine rescues herself and her sisters. Another tale of this type is ...
''.
Synopsis
A miller wishes to marry his daughter off, and so when a rich suitor appears, he betroths her to him. One day the suitor complains that the daughter never visits him. He tells her that he lives in the forest and overrides her reluctance to visit by telling her he will leave a trail of ashes so she could find his home. She fills her pockets with peas and lentils and marks the trail with them as she follows the ashes.
They lead her to a dark and silent house. A bird in a cage calls out "Turn back, turn back, thou bonnie bride, Nor in this house of death abide." An old woman in a cellar kitchen tells her that the people there will kill and eat her unless the old woman protects her and hides her behind a cask. A band of robbers arrives with a young woman whom they kill and prepare to eat. When one chops off a finger to get at the golden ring on it, the finger and ring fly through the air and land in the lap of the hiding woman. The old woman discourages the group from searching for it, because "neither the finger nor the ring are likely to run away: they will find it in the morning."
The old woman then drugs the robbers' wine. As soon as they fall asleep, the two living women flee. Although wind has blown away the ashes that guided the miller's daughter to the house, the peas and lentils have sprung up into seedlings and the two follow the path of plants and reach the young woman's home.
When the wedding day arrives and the guests are telling stories, the bridegroom urges the young woman to tell a story. She says she will tell of a dream she had and tells the story of going to the murderers' den, in between each sentence saying, "This was only a dream, my love!" When she tells the part of the finger falling into her lap she produces the finger. The robber bridegroom and all his band are subsequently put to death.
Variants
In the Grimms' 1812 version of the tale, the titular character is a prince. The bride is a princess, and her father is a king. The king has the authority to order the execution of the bandits. In the Grimms' 1857 version, the bride is the daughter of a miller, and the titular bridegroom is a rich suitor. The band are executed by the courts rather than the bride's father.
In Jacobs's version, the woman, Lady Mary, went to the house out of curiosity, Mr. Fox having not even suggested that she come, and she was not told of the horrors there, but found the murdered bodies of women, as in ''
Bluebeard
"Bluebeard" (french: Barbe bleue, ) is a French folktale, the most famous surviving version of which was written by Charles Perrault and first published by Barbin in Paris in 1697 in ''Histoires ou contes du temps passé''. The tale tells the st ...
''.
Pushkin
Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin (; rus, links=no, Александр Сергеевич ПушкинIn pre-Revolutionary script, his name was written ., r=Aleksandr Sergeyevich Pushkin, p=ɐlʲɪkˈsandr sʲɪrˈɡʲe(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ ˈpuʂkʲɪn, ...
has written a variant of the tale called Жених (The Bridegroom), starting with the woman coming home from the robbers' house.
In an American variant, from the Ozarks, the heroine resolved never to marry and never did, because she had concluded men were bad; she just stayed with her own family, who were happy to have her.
[Angela Carter, ''The Old Wives' Fairy Tale Book'', p 230, Pantheon Books, New York, 1990 ]
Adaptations
Literature
Eudora Welty
Eudora Alice Welty (April 13, 1909 – July 23, 2001) was an American short story writer, novelist and photographer who wrote about the American South. Her novel ''The Optimist's Daughter'' won the Pulitzer Prize in 1973. Welty received numero ...
's first novel ''
The Robber Bridegroom'' adapts the story to eighteenth-century Natchez, Mississippi. In this version, the Bridegroom is a heroic outlaw whose rival (the historically real Mississippi bandit,
Little Harp) is the bloodthirsty villain. This Bridegroom eventually kills Harp and marries the girl, Rosamond. Welty's version became the basis for a
broadway musical of the same name.
Norman Partridge
Norman Partridge (born May 28, 1958) is an American author of horror and mystery fiction. He has written two detective novels about retired boxer Jack Baddalach, ''Saguaro Riptide'' and ''The Ten Ounce Siesta''. He is also the author of a C ...
's story "Mr. Fox" is a retelling of this legend transposed into the modern era, published in his collections ''
The Man With the Barbed Wire Fists'' and ''
Mr. Fox and Other Feral Tales''.
Neil Gaiman
Neil Richard MacKinnon GaimanBorn as Neil Richard Gaiman, with "MacKinnon" added on the occasion of his marriage to Amanda Palmer. ; ( Neil Richard Gaiman; born 10 November 1960) is an English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, gr ...
wrote a short story entitled ''The White Road'', based on "Mr Fox". In this short story, published in Gaiman's 1998 book ''
Smoke and Mirrors
Smoke and mirrors is a classic technique in magical illusions that makes an entity appear to hover in empty space. It was documented as early as 1770 and spread widely after its use by the charlatan Johann Georg Schröpfer, who claimed the app ...
'', a recent love interest of Mr Fox's has followed him home. She finds evidence of murder in his home and, later, witnesses the grisly killing of another victim. She reveals his true nature to a crowd at a local Inn, via a "story of a dream". She ultimately shouts that he is "Bluebeard" and "
Gilles de Rais
Gilles de Rais (c. 1405 – 26 October 1440), Baron de Rais (), was a knight and lord from Brittany, Anjou and Poitou, a leader in the French army, and a companion-in-arms of Joan of Arc. He is best known for his reputation and later conv ...
". However, unlike the original "Mr Fox", in Gaiman's version Mr Fox is actually innocent, and the woman kills him with her story.
Margaret Atwood
Margaret Eleanor Atwood (born November 18, 1939) is a Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, teacher, environmental activist, and inventor. Since 1961, she has published 18 books of poetry, 18 novels, 11 books of non-fiction, nin ...
's novel, ''
The Robber Bride
''The Robber Bride'' is a Margaret Atwood novel first published by McClelland and Stewart in 1993.
Plot summary
Set in present-day Toronto, Ontario, the novel is about three women and their history with old friend and nemesis, Zenia. Roz, Cha ...
'' changes the sex of the villain to a predatory woman, Zenia, who metaphorically devours men after seducing them away from their partners. The tale is told through the eyes of the men's wives/partners, women whom Zenia befriends and then betrays. Other allusions to fairy tales and folklore are present throughout the book.
''The Robber Bridegroom'' was adapted for the sixth issue of the comic series ''
Grimm Fairy Tales''. The story is retold as two sisters who are being courted by a mysterious count. When he chooses the younger of the two, the older sister murders her and becomes the Count's bride. However, it turns out that the Count is really a carnivorous ghoul, and he and the people of his castle devour the girl. This is a
story within a story
A story within a story, also referred to as an embedded narrative, is a literary device in which a character within a story becomes the narrator of a second story (within the first one). Multiple layers of stories within stories are sometimes c ...
, being told to two bickering teenage sisters who are fighting over a boyfriend.
The titular character of
Helen Oyeyemi
Helen Oyeyemi FRSL (born 10 December 1984) is a British novelist and writer of short stories.
Life
Oyeyemi was born in Nigeria and was raised in Lewisham, South London from when she was four. Oyeyemi wrote her first novel, '' The Icarus Girl'' ...
's novel ''Mr. Fox'' is named for the robber.
References
External links
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''The Robber Bridegroom'' with links to variants
{{DEFAULTSORT:Robber Bridegroom, The
Grimms' Fairy Tales
German fairy tales
ATU 850-999
ATU 300-399