"The Sea-Hare'" 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 ...

, number 191. It is Aarne-Thompson type 554, The Grateful Animals, and similar to 851, Winning the Princess with a Riddle.

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)"
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Stith Thompson Stith Thompson (March 7, 1885 – January 10, 1976) was an American folklorist: he has been described as "America's most important folklorist". He is the "Thompson" of the Aarne–Thompson–Uther Index, which indexes folktales by type, and the ...

classified the tale as AT 329, "Hiding from the Devil (Princess)", tales where the hero must hide from the princess's mirror or windows that can peer into the whole world.Thompson, Stith (1977). ''The Folktale''. University of California Press. p. 106.

Synopsis

A princess had a magical tower with twelve windows, and whenever she looked from a window, she saw more clearly from it than the one before. Being haughty, she had no wish to marry, and decreed that any suitor must hide from her to win her, but if she found him, he was to lose his head. After ninety-seven lost their lives, three brothers presented themselves, and the first two lost. The

youngest son The youngest son is a stock character in fairy tales, where he features as the hero. He is usually the third son, but sometimes there are more brothers, and sometimes he has only one; usually, they have no sisters. In a family of many daughters, ...

asked for three tries. He went hunting and spared a raven, a fish, and a fox. The raven tried to hide him in an egg, where he could be seen only from the eleventh window. The fish swallowed him, where he could be seen only from the twelfth. The fox turned him into a pretty sea-hare and sold him, to the princess. When she went to the windows, he hid in her hair. She could not see him and angrily threw the sea-hare out of her hair. He sneaked off, the fox restored him, and he went to claim her, and they married.

Adaptations

Two Hungarian variants of the tale were adapted into episodes of the Hungarian television series ''Magyar népmesék'' ("Hungarian Folk Tales") ( hu), with the titles ''Zöld Péter'' ("Green Peter") and ''Kiskondás'' ("The Little Swineherd").

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sea-Hare, The Sea-Hare Sea-Hare Sea-Hare Sea-Hare Sea-Hare Sea-Hare Sea-Hare Sea-Hare ATU 500-559

Synopsis

Adaptations

See also

References

External links