Bearskin (fairy tale)
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Bearskin is a fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm, as tale no. 101.[1] A variant from Sicily, Don Giovanni de la Fortuna, was collected by Laura Gonzenbach in Sicilianische Märchen and included by Andrew Lang in The Pink Fairy Book[2]. Italo Calvino included another Italian version, The Devil's Breeches from Bologna, in his Italian Folktales.[3]
It is Aarne-Thompson type 361, Bearskin, in which a man gains a fortune and a beautiful bride by entering into a pact with the devil.
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[edit] Synopsis
A man was a soldier, but when war ended, his parents were dead, and his brothers had no place for him.
A green-coated man with a cloven foot appeared to him and offered to make him rich if he would for seven years not cut his hair, clip his nails, bathe, or pray, and wear a coat and cloak that he would give him. At the end, if he survived, he would be rich and free; if he died during the time, the devil would have him. The desperate soldier agreed, and the devil gave him the green coat, telling him he would find its pockets full of money, and then a bearskin, telling him that he had to sleep in it and would be known as Bearskin because of it.
Bearskin set out, and gave much money to the poor that they would pray for him, to live out the seven years. After several years, he grew so hideous that he had to pay heavily to get any shelter. In the fourth year, he heard an old man lamenting, and persuaded him to tell his tale: he had lost all his money, did not know how to provide for his daughter, and could not pay the innkeeper, so he would be sent to jail. Bearskin paid the innkeeper and gave the old man a purse of gold as well.
The old man said that he would marry him to one of his daughters in gratitude. The oldest ran away, screaming, from the sight; the middle one said he was worse than a bear that had tried to pass itself off as human; the youngest one agreed to fulfill her father's promise. Bearskin gave her half a ring and promised to return in three years. Her sisters ridiculed her at length.
At the end of the seven years, Bearskin found the devil again and demanded he fulfill his promise. Clean and with his money, he dressed himself as a fine gentleman and went to the old man's house, where the older sisters served him, and his bride, dressed in black, showed no reaction to him. He told the old man that he would marry one of his daughters. The two older sisters ran off to dress splendidly, and Bearskin dropped his half of the ring into a winecup and gave it to his bride. She drank it and realized that he was her bridegroom.
They married. One sister hanged herself in rage, and the other drowned herself, and the devil knocked on the door to tell Bearskin that he had gotten two souls instead of Bearskin's one.
[edit] Variants
In Don Giovanni de la Fortuna, Don Giovanni is not a soldier; he squandered the fortune his father left him and met the devil while begging. The time limit is three years, three months, and three days, and in that time, he buys a house and his fame spreads; the king asks him to lend him money, and that is how the promise to marry is brought about. The sisters, though they die, are not explicitly taken by the devil.
The Devil's Breeches is close to Don Giovanni de la Fortuna, but while the hero also squanders his money, he attempts to support himself by working as a servant, an attempt that fails because all his masters' wives or sisters fall in love with him, and he has to leave every job. Calvino notes that in his sources, the sisters were merely envious, and added their explicit wish that they would gladly be taken by the Devil because of their rage.[4]
[edit] Commentary
The tale has much in common with Beauty and the Beast and other tales of monstrous bridegrooms (or brides), but unlike most the main character is the transformed bridegroom. Some other tales, such as Hans My Hedgehog have such a main character, but differ in that, in Bearskin, the wedding is not the trigger for his being restored to human form.
The hero of the German version is a soldier. The tale was collected at a time at which many German kings were conscripting many more men into their armies, and the people of the country and town, who were forced to pay taxes to support such new armies and to house them. Soldiers often left, whether by any discharge they could get, or by deserting, and such an ex-soldier often had to make his way in the world like the hero of Bearskin.[5]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Jacob and Wilheim Grimm, Grimm's Fairy Tales, "Bearskin"
- ^ Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, "Don Giovanni de la Fortuna"
- ^ Italo Calvino, Italian Folktales p 725 ISBN 0-15-645489-0
- ^ Italo Calvino, Italian Folktales p 725 ISBN 0-15-645489-0
- ^ Jack Zipes, The Brothers Grimm: From Enchanted Forests to the Modern World, p 80-3, ISBN 0-312-29380-1
