"The Three Snake-Leaves" ( German: ''Die drei Schlangenblätter'') 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, tale number 16. It is Aarne-Thompson type 612, "The Three Snake-Leaves".

Synopsis

Via his valor in battle, a young man wins the king's daughter to wife, but has to agree to an unusual demand from the princess: if either of them should die, the other will be buried alive with the former. Sometime later, the princess falls sick and dies, so the prince is buried alive in her

crypt A crypt (from Latin ''crypta'' "vault") is a stone chamber beneath the floor of a church or other building. It typically contains coffins, sarcophagi, or religious relics. Originally, crypts were typically found below the main apse of a chur ...

. While waiting to starve to death, the prince is attacked by a snake, which he kills by chopping into three pieces. Another snake revives the dead snake with three

leaves A leaf (plural, : leaves) is any of the principal appendages of a vascular plant plant stem, stem, usually borne laterally aboveground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", wh ...

, giving the prince the idea to use the leaves on the princess, successfully reviving her. The prince and princess then take a sea voyage to visit his father. The princess falls in love with the ship captain, and the pair throws the prince into the sea and drown him. A servant rows after the prince's body, and he revives him using the snake leaves. The prince and the servant return to the kingdom and report the

murder attempt Attempted murder is a crime of attempt in various jurisdictions. Canada Section 239 of the ''Criminal Code'' makes attempted murder punishable by a maximum of life imprisonment. If a gun is used, the minimum sentence is four, five or seven ...

, for which the princess and the captain are executed.

Analysis

Austrian consul Johann Georg von Hahn noted the motif of the resurrection by the herb or plant a snake brought to revive its mate echoes the Greek tale of Polyidus and Glaucus. Professor indicated its parallel in Greek tradition, but also pointed that the motif of the animal reviving its mate with a plant can be found in the poem ''

Eliduc "Eliduc" is a Breton lai by the medieval poet Marie de France. The twelfth and last poem in the collection known as ''The Lais of Marie de France'', it appears in the manuscript Harley 978 at the British Library. Like the other poems in this colle ...

'' by Marie de France.

Hans-Jörg Uther Hans-Jörg Uther (born 20 July 1944 in Herzberg am Harz) is a German literary scholar and folklorist. Biography Uther studied Folklore, Germanistik and History between 1969 and 1970 at the University of Munich and between 1970 and 1973 at the Uni ...

noted literary predecessors in the Indian ''

Panchatantra The ''Panchatantra'' (IAST: Pañcatantra, ISO: Pañcatantra, sa, पञ्चतन्त्र, "Five Treatises") is an ancient Indian collection of interrelated animal fables in Sanskrit verse and prose, arranged within a frame story.

'', in Apollodorus and in Hyginus.Uther, Hans-Jörg (2004). ''The Types of International Folktales: A Classification and Bibliography, Based on the System of Antti Aarne and Stith Thompson''. Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia, Academia Scientiarum Fennica. p. 352. .

References

External links

"The Three Snake-Leaves"
on About.com
"The Three Snake-Leaves" on ClassicReader.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Three Snake-Leaves Grimms' Fairy Tales ATU 560-649

Synopsis

Analysis

See also

References

External links