The Willful Child
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The Wilful Child (German: Das eigensinnige Kind) is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm as tale number 117.[1]
It is Aarne-Thompson type 779, divine rewards and punishments.[2] Another tale of this type is The Star Money.
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[edit] Synopsis
Once upon a time there was a child who was willful and would not do what her mother wished. For this reason, God had no pleasure in her, and let her become ill. No doctor could do her any good, and in a short time the child lay on her deathbed. When she had been lowered into her grave, and the earth was spread over her, all at once her little arm came out again and reached upward. And when they had pushed it back in the ground and spread fresh earth over it, it was all to no purpose, for the arm always came out again. Then the mother herself was obliged to go to the grave and strike the arm with a rod. When she had done that, the arm was drawn in, and at last the child had to rest beneath the ground.
[edit] Commentary
In their first edition, the girl merely became ill; that God made her ill was added in later ones.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Jacob and Wilheim Grimm, Household Tales, The Wilful Child
- ^ D.L. Ashliman, "The Grimm Brothers' Children's and Household Tales (Grimms' Fairy Tales)"
