The Horror! Gothic Horror Literature and Fairy Tales: The Case of

The Horror! Gothic Horror Literature
and Fairy Tales: The Case of
«Der Räuberbräutigam»
LINDA KRAUS WORLEY
U NIVERSITY
OF
K ENTUCKY
By the beginning of the nineteenth century, German tales of horror had become so popular on an international scale that British and American authors
often included the ominous subtitle «A German Story» in order to draw readership.1 The adjective «German» became a marker for the dark and ominous
not only for stories but also for fairy tales. For example, a collection of fairy
tales titled Hans Andersen’s German Fairy Tales was published in New York
in 1876, a year after the famous Danish author’s death. The use of the adjective
«German» was certainly not a mistake regarding Andersen’s national origins,
but linked his literary fairy tales to the dark tales associated with «German.»2
By the end of the nineteenth century, the Grimms’ collection of Kinder- und
Hausmärchen had gained a wider readership than sunnier competitors such
as Ludwig Bechstein’s Deutsches Märchenbuch (1845), which had dominated
the market for several decades (Bottigheimer «Bechstein»). The ascendancy
of the Grimms’ collection both at home in the German-speaking countries
and abroad strengthened the connection between the adjective «German»
and dark, grim tales.3 The connections between German fairy tales and Gothic novels and stories are, of course, not simply limited to the use of the word
«German» in a title or subtitle. Scholars have long commented on the similarities in tone, motifs, and structure. The excellent articles on «Horrorliteratur»
by Linda Dégh and on «Schauerliteratur» by Jürgen Klein in the Enzyklopädie des Märchens underscore these similarities and provide succinct lists of
relevant secondary literature. Fairy-tale motifs and structures have been seen
to inform a wide range of «Gothic» novels and films ranging from Jane Eyre
to road slasher movies.4
«German» Gothic tales and «German» fairy tales are also connected, although at times indirectly, through debates concerning the possible deleterious effects of this hypothesized dark, «German» quality. The searing search
for the roots of the German atrocities of the Nazi era led to a spate of books
with telling titles such as McGovern’s From Luther to Hitler. It also led to an
examination of the Grimms’ fairy tales in terms of their relationship to reallife cruelty: «Vor allem nach dem zweiten Weltkrieg erhob sich eine ganze
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Presse-Flutwelle gegen die ‹Grimmschen Märchengreuel›» (Röhrich 125).
Renowned fairy-tale scholars such as Max Lüthi and Lutz Röhrich weighed
in on this issue. In The European Folktale: Form and Nature (published originally as Das europäische Volksmärchen in 1947) Lüthi’s emphasis on the abstract nature of Märchen can be read as countering the contention that tales
are viscerally and concretely «grausam,» and thus can dangerously affect
the reader.5 In addition, Lüthi specifically points out that Märchen do not
dwell on «Schauer» (So leben sie noch heute 19). Röhrich addresses the issue
head-on in 1974 in a chapter of his book, Märchen und Wirklichkeit, titled
«Die Grausamkeit im Märchen.» He attempts to rescue Märchen from the
levied charges in a variety of ways. He underscores that the scenes of human
sacrifice found in tales are remnants of distant historical realities, have been
transformed over time into mere motifs, and «bedeuten meist nur noch eine
epische Spannungsformel» (129). Even the horrific fate of the brides in the
Bluebeard tale is seen not as «Selbstzweck einer blutrünstigen Schilderung,
sondern es interessiert nur als mögliche Gefahr für die Heldin selbst und nur
zur Erregung der Spannung wird es so in den Details ausgeführt» (128). In
addition, Röhrich points out that even the most violent scenes of dismemberment, as can be found in the tale «Der Machandelboom,» produce little or
no blood, implying that the scene is therefore not horrific: «Bei dieser Zerstückelung fließt offenbar kein Blut, sie vollzieht sich ohne jeden Akzent der
Grausamkeit, die doch das Machandelboom-Märchen weithin beherrscht»
(135). Indeed, Röhrich goes so far as to advance the following questionable
assertion:
Wirkliche Grausamkeit ist wohl nicht durch Erinnerung an Märchengeschehnisse
entstanden. Der Pädagogik und der Jugendkriminalistik ist kein Fall bekannt, in
dem das Märchen einen schädlichen Einfluß auf die kindliche Psyche ausgeübt
hätte, während die Untersuchung zahlreicher Verbrechen von Jugendlichen nachweisbar ergab, daß die Lektüre von Groschenromanen und der Besuch von Gangster- und Kriminalfilmen die Anregung zu gleichartigen Taten gegeben hat. (153)
Röhrich thus draws a line between the cruelty in fairy tales and that in «Groschenromanen» and «Gangster- und Kriminalfilmen.» (We may add certain
Gothic tales to the list in his argument insofar as some Gothic tales of horror
were published as the dime novels to which Röhrich alludes.) Debates continue regarding the possible negative effects of fairy tales, tales of horror, and
the media in general. My purpose is not to enter this discussion directly, but
to demonstrate that, at least for one particular tale, «Der Räuberbräutigam,»
editorial changes made by the Grimms over time increased the violent content, the horror, the tension, and the tale’s Gothic elements. Their editorial
changes moved the tale away from the abstract style posited by Lüthi.
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Maria Tatar has provided stimulating readings of a set of tales related to
«Der Räuberbräutigam» in Secrets beyond the Door: The Story of Bluebeard
and his Wives. She notes that the many versions of the Bluebeard tale tend
to emphasize either women’s curiosity in opening the forbidden door or
men’s murderous lust.6 She investigates how this «master narrative» (11) has
been «constantly altered, adapted, transformed, and tailored to fit new cultural contexts» (11) so much so that it can inform artistic works as diverse as
Daphne du Maurier’s modern Gothic novel Rebecca and films such as Gaslight (76–107). Tatar does not incorporate «Der Räuberbräutigam» into her
analysis in any detail, mentioning only that «The heroine of ‹The Robber
Bridegroom,› though not faced with a forbidden chamber and a test of obedience, rescues herself from a murderous suitor, mobilizing her wits and her
narrative skills to escape the cannibalistic thieves with whom her betrothed
consorts» (59).
Viewing the Grimms’ version of «Der Räuberbräutigam» within the context of its variants and detailing the editorial changes made from the manuscript version of 1810 to the final edition of 1857 make it possible to argue
that the changes the Grimms made in motifs, plot, and language move this tale
ever closer to the dynamic Gothic genre. Their changes to «Der Räuberbräutigam» run counter to the general tendency for the tales throughout the various editions of Kinder- und Hausmärchen to become ever more suitable for
children. The Grimms’ editing, however, did not occur in a cultural vacuum;
instead, their work occurred during the same time period and in the same literary climate which found other writers of the early nineteenth century reworking the Gothic tale. Writers such as E.T.A. Hoffmann in Germany, Mary
Shelley in England, and Edgar Allen Poe in the United States appropriated for
their own tales elements of earlier Gothic novels such as horrifying, perhaps
supernatural events, «images of ruin and decay» and «episodes of imprisonment, cruelty, persecution» within a claustrophobic atmosphere of oppression and evil («Gothic fiction,» Oxford Reference Online). Their tales reimagined the characteristic «Gothic» theme of «the stranglehold of the past
upon the present, or the encroachment of the ‹dark› ages of oppression upon
the ‹enlightened› modern era» («Gothic Fiction,» Oxford Reference Online).
Since these writers of the Romantic era at times emphasized supernatural elements, at other times psychological torment, guilt, self-division, and paranoid
delusion, their Gothic tales, in turn, moved between the supernatural and the
psychological modes. Scholarly efforts at classifying «Der Räuberbräutigam»
reflect some of the tensions between these modes. Some folklorists read the
tale as a realistic robber saga with gruesome details; others insist it is a true
fairy tale. Thus, the tale inhabits a borderline, perhaps even hybrid, status
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as do literary tales such as Tieck’s Der blonde Eckbert and Hoffmann’s Der
Sandmann.
«The Robber Bridegroom» tale type is popular in German-speaking areas
as well as in England, Central, North, and Eastern Europe (Uther 349–50).7
Christine Goldberg summarizes the relatively stable core of the tale:
Eine junge Frau, die von einem anscheinend reichen Fremden umworben wird […]
geht allein durch den Wald zu seinem Haus. In ihm findet sie Anzeichen fur einen
Massenmord. Voller Angst versteckt sie sich, als sie jemanden kommen hört. Es
ist ihr Bräutigam, der ein neues Opfer anschleppt, tötet und zerstückelt. Der Finger (die Hand) des Opfers mit seinem Ring (nur der Ring) fällt der Heldin in den
Schoß. Nachts flieht sie, kehrt nach Hause zurück und berichtet ihrer Familie, was
sie gesehen hat. Beim nächsten Besuch des Bräutigams (oft das Verlobungs- oder
Hochzeitsfest) ist eine Reihe von Leuten bei ihr versammelt. Sie erzählt ihr Erlebnis, nennt es zuerst einen Traum, zeigt aber zuletzt den Finger als Beweis für die
Wahrheit ihrer Erzählung. Der Mörder ist damit überführt, wird vor Gericht gebracht und hingerichtet. («Räuberbräutigam» 348)
Around this stable core, variants abound – ranging from a gypsy version to
a Russian tale in which werewolves occupy the robber slot. English versions
such as «Mr. Fox» are marked by the rhymed denials of an often-named murderer.8
It is at this point that scholars differ as to the status of the tale as a true fairy
tale. Hans-Jörg Uther revised the tale-type classification system established
by Antti Aarne and StithThompson but did not move the tale to be among the
«Zaubermärchen,» instead keeping the tale (ATU tale type 955) within the
«Realistic Tales/Novelle» section. Walter Scherf, on the other hand, counters,
Andererseits findet sich mehr als ein Zug, der dem Erzähltyp die Nähe oder
Herkunft von den Märchen des Auszugs in eine andere, zutiefst bedrohliche Welt
bescheinigt, wobei diese das Erlebnis von Bewährung und Heimkehr mit einer neu
gewonnenen Selbstsicherheit vermitteln, also aus dem Bereich der Zaubermärchen
[…] stammen. («Räuberbräutigam» 964)9
Details from the realm of faërie include the mysterious journey through the
woods and a talking bird who warns the girl. The robber/murderer of the tale
resonates with mythical figures such as the robber Grünbart so that the tale
can be read as a «säkularisierte Dämonenerzählung» (Scherf, «Räuberbräutigam» 964–65). Scherf’s arguments are convincing if one looks only at «The
Robber Bridegroom» tales; however, this set of tales intertwines with another
set, ATU 956B, «The Clever Maiden alone at Home kills the Robbers,» which
have no such demonic subtext. In these related tales, the heroine kills members of a band of robbers one-by-one as each attempts to climb into her home.
Only the captain escapes. He later returns as a mysterious suitor whose aim
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is to kill her, thus supplying a «realistic» pre-story to the plot of «The Robber
Bridegroom» tales.
Goldberg is correct to point to the problems that occur when an interpretation takes into account neither the historically and geographically diverse
field of variants nor other tales containing the same motifs. A perhaps fatally
flawed interpretation may result if too much emphasis is placed on one, perhaps idiosyncratic, detail of a particular tale. I would, however, argue that it is
too facile to dismiss the details in «Der Räuberbräutigam» as simply a «Reihe
unbedeutender Details» as Goldberg does in her discussion of the tale («Räuberbräutigam» 349). Precisely the details which are added or subtracted by
one person over a protracted length of time reveal much about the individual
taleteller or editor, the particular tale and its audiences. Thus, the Grimms’
ongoing editorial work over the course of 47 years is not insignificant; it reveals much about the nature of the text.10
Scholars have long noted the often extensive changes the Grimms made to
the tales and have hypothesized that the edits were designed to make the tales
more appropriate for children, especially after the success of Edgar Taylor’s
child-friendly English version of 1823, German Popular Tales. Jack Zipes
summarizes the changes:
They [the Grimms] eliminated erotic and sexual elements that might be offensive
to middle-class morality, added numerous Christian expressions and references,
emphasized specific role models for male and female protagonists according to
the dominant patriarchal code of that time, and endowed many of the tales with a
«homey» or biedermeier flavor by the use of diminutives, quaint expressions, and
cute descriptions. (46)
Gruesome and violent elements tended, however, not to be eliminated as
scholars such as Maria Tatar (Off with Their Heads) and Ruth Bottigheimer
(Bad Girls and Bold Boys) have demonstrated. A close examination of the
changes made to «Der Räuberbräutigam» shows that not only were violent
elements retained, they were amplified.
In the manuscript collection of 1810, which the Grimms sent to Clemens
Brentano, they add «Mündlich» to the end of the «Rauberbräutigam.»11 The
tale was told by Marie Hassenpflug (Rölleke, Älteste Märchensammlung 237,
392) to Jacob Grimm (Bottigheimer, Fairy Tales 29). The Grimms revised the
tale for its first publication in 1812 as part of the two-volume edition targeted
at scholars and again for the second edition of 1819, adding a note that the
tale was now a combination of «zwei Erzählungen aus Niederhessen» (3:70).
Certainly some of the changes made in the 1819 edition can be attributed simply to the «contamination» by the second tale.12 However, throughout the
editorial process, the Grimms made conscious choices. It was their choice to
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merge the two versions of the tale for the 1819 edition. Indeed, the Grimms
were able to choose from a wide variety of source material in general. They
solicited tales from among a network of informants, some of whom were
deeply engaged in the Romantic movement, and they were sent many unsolicited tales, especially after the popular success of the Kleine Ausgabe of
1825.13 Print versions of many tales, ranging from those collected by Basile
and Perrault to those in other German anthologies, were literally at hand.14
A princess is engaged to a prince in the manuscript version of 1810 (234).
The only reason given for the princess’s wish to avoid a visit to the prince’s
castle is the fear that «sie sich in dem Wald verirren möchte» (234). Even after the prince has promised to mark the way with ribbons, the story factually states, «Sie that es [visit the prince in his castle] lange nicht, doch endlich
mußte sie nachgeben» (234). The comma and «doch» together create a dramatic narrative pause. This pause is the gap which alerts the reader that all
is not as it should be and suggests that it is not merely the fear of getting lost
which is keeping the bride away from the castle of her bridegroom. The princess finally goes to the castle and, once inside, finds an old woman who answers her question as to the whereabouts of the prince by saying, «ach es ist
gut daß sie jetzt kommen, da der Prinz nicht zu Haus ist, denn ich habe Waßer
in einen großen Keßel tragen müßen, und er will sie umbringen u. in dem
Waßer kochen und eßen» (234). After the old woman hides the princess behind a barrel in the basement, she disappears from the text. The prince returns
with his «Spitzbuben» who bring in the princess’s grandmother «mit Gewalt»
(234). The princess, «welche aus ihrer Ecke alles mit ansah» (234), witnesses
her grandmother’s murder and the theft of her rings. This variant follows the
core tale: one ringed finger is chopped off and lands in the princess’s lap. The
finger remains undiscovered by the robbers. She waits until all are asleep, then
carefully makes her way «über die Schlafenden hinweg» (234), follows the
ribbons home and tells her father what happened. When her fiance next comes
to visit, she relates her story as if it were a dream. The Grimms did not write
out the princess’s narrative, noting instead in parentheses, «(u. erzählt alles,
was ihr in seinem Haus begegnet, als einem Traum, – dies muß alles wörtlich
wieder holt [sic] werden)» (236). The tale’s characteristic mise-en-abyme, the
mirror retelling of events, gets special treatment, although it is not yet written
out.15 This version of «Der Räuberbräutigam» is a straightforward report, almost a police report, despite the fact that it seems to possess the requisites of a
traditional fairy tale – the opening line «Es war einmal,» a prince and princess,
a deep forest, and a helper figure. It lacks, however, the essential element of a
true Zaubermärchen, for there is no faërie, no Zauber. Instead, it is a grisly
tale of murder, theft, and retribution.
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In the first published edition of 1812, the Grimms kept the basic contours outlined above. There are, however, a number of editorial changes
that together function to increase the suspense and evoke feelings of hidden terror. Perhaps the most telling change is an addition to the evocative
gap discussed above. The version now reads: «eine Zeitlang suchte sie es
[the visit to her fiancee’s home] dennoch aufzuschieben, als ob es ihr heimlich gegraut hätte [italics mine].»16 It is with this phrase that the tale truly
begins its journey into the space it shares with the Gothic horror story. It
is worth noting that this princess does not go into the castle to explore; she
is not the curious heroine of the Bluebeard tales. Nor is she in thrall to the
magician husband found in «Fitchers Vogel» (ATU 311). She enters only because of the return of the «Prinz mit seinen Spitzbuben vom Raub» (235),
and the old woman must hide her. The princess’s hidden watching and her
powerless gaze upon the horrific scene is emphasized. Three ocular references occur in one sentence: «die Prinzessin sah wohl, daß es ihre Großmutter war, denn aus ihrer Ecke heraus konnte sie alles mit anschauen, was da
vorging, ohne daß sie von einem Auge bemerkt wurde» (235). Later in the
tale, the mirror narrative is written out by the Grimms for the first time. The
princess frames her story in the subjunctive as if a dream: «ich habe einen
so schweren Traum gehabt, mir träumte, ich käme in ein Haus» (237). Her
tale, however, quickly switches to the simple narrative past and gains speed
by means of a flurry of paratactical clauses linked by «und,» reaching its
high point with the physical presentation of the finger: «u n d h i e r h a b
i c h d e n F i n g e r ! [sic] bei welchen Worten sie ihn plötzlich aus der Tasche zog» (237). The suspense increases markedly as the reader imagines the
prince’s growing fear and dawning recognition that he has been unmasked.
The Grimms underscore the prince’s fear by adding «Wie der Bräutigam das
sah und hörte, wurde er kreideweiß vor Schrecken, dachte alsobald zu entfliehen» (237) to the simpler plot description of 1812 which merely states that
«Der Prinz will entfliehen» (236). Other changes are of the sort typical for
the Grimms. There is more direct speech as when, for example, a «Spitzbube»
discusses how to conduct the search for the missing ring finger (235), and adjectives are added so that the heroine now walks through a «langen, langen
Wald» (235).
The early version told by Marie Hassenpflug was merged with another
variant «aus Niederhausen» for the second edition of 1819.17 After the first
edition of 1812–1815, almost all of the editorial choices were made by Wilhelm Grimm, although Jacob insisted consistently that he had stayed involved in the project. Precisely what Wilhelm added from the other variant,
what he rejected, indeed, which alterations are a product of his own imagina-
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tion is not known. Whatever the source of the changes, his choices pushed the
tale squarely into the evolving Gothic horror genre.
Vladimir Propp, the Russian formalist, would certainly have argued that
changing the actors in the tale from a prince and princess to a robber and a
miller’s daughter is meaningless since their functions in the tale do not change.
However, within the history of this tale it is a significant change. In the 1819
version, the father-king becomes a miller who promises his daughter to a suitor who «sehr reich schien» (1:206). An aura of mistrust accompanies miller
figures who, in traditional folk tales, are often described as avaricious men as
willing to make a profit on their daughters as they are on their milling services.
Wilhelm’s changes also immediately place suspicion on the suitor by adding
that «das Mädchen hatte ihn nicht recht lieb, wie eine Braut ihren Bräutigam
lieb haben soll, und fühlte ein Grauen in seinem Herzen, so oft es ihn ansah,
oder an ihn dachte» (1:206). Wilhelm’s affirmation of nineteenth-century
middle-class gender norms («wie eine Braut ihren Bräutigam lieb haben soll»)
is accompanied by a «Grauen» (1:206) that is described in more detail than in
previous versions. Wilhelm’s choice to replace the ribbons marking the way
to the castle with a much more ominous marker also adds to the reader’s deepening disquiet. Ashes, the ultimate sign of death, are the marker scattered by
the suitor. Death is now palpably linked to the upcoming marriage. The dread
felt by the miller’s daughter prompts her to set her own markers. The peas and
lentils she strews are a staple food of life that will sprout and eventually allow
her to find her way home. Other augers of death are added. A bird warns her
twice, «Kehr um, kehr um, du junge Braut,/du bist in einem Mörderhaus»
(1:207); a «steinalte Frau» inhabiting the basement makes the connection between her marriage and death unambiguously clear by intoning that «deine
Hochzeit soll mit dem Tod seyn» (1:207), and by letting her know that the
robbers’ plans include «zerhacken» (an addition to the gruesome catalogue
of violence in the earlier tales), «kochen» and then «essen» (1:207), ghoulish
perversions of domestic tasks. Wilhelm created a more passive heroine than in
the previous versions, for it now falls to the old woman to give directives, plan
for their escape, put a sleeping potion into the robbers’ wine, and in a moment
of almost comic irony, stop the robbers’ evening search for the missing finger
with the macabre comment, «der Finger lauft (sic) euch nicht fort» (1:208).
It is at this juncture in the Märchen that the radical shift in versions is most
evident. Although the central motif of the chopped-off finger remains constant, the choices made for the 1819 edition foreground fragmentation, splitting and doubling. In this combined, «contaminated» version of the tale the
grandmother of the earlier versions becomes a «Jungfrau» (1:207) whose
«Schrein und Jammern» (1:207) are ignored by the drunken robbers. Wilhelm
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enumerates in grotesque detail the three glasses of wine – white, red, and yellow – with which the robbers drug their victim and cause her heart to burst.
They rip the clothes off the corpse, lay it naked on a table, chop up the beautiful flesh and salt the pieces. The murder and robbery of the earlier versions are
gruesome in and of themselves; here they gain a new quality of terror as they
become part of an act of ritualized, serial murder that unequivocally links sex
and death. These are actions that emphasize a virginal woman’s flesh as flesh,
which is to be literally dismembered and consumed in the dark, hidden abyss
of the basement. At the end of the murder, there is no longer a recognizably
human corpse; there are merely parts of a body lying on the table/bed. The
ringed finger, perhaps to be read as a finger wearing an engagement ring, is
hacked away in an orgy of phallic power.
There is another fragmentation at work in this version: the heroine of the
1812 version has been split into two. Her active functions have been taken
over by the old woman. It is as if the construct «woman» itself has been split
into an old woman who speaks and directs in the basement and young flesh
which can only watch. The girl, told to stay still behind the barrel, looks at
the Lustmord spectacle in a state of absolute motionlessness, close to a state
of paralysis. The tale comments briefly, «Da ward der Braut hinter dem Faß
Angst, als müßte sie nun auch sterben» (1: 208). The doubling effect of the
earlier versions whereby the girl sees her grandmother, her own flesh, killed,
has become an even more horrifying doubling. She witnesses, «als müßte sie
nun auch sterben [italics mine],» the nightmare mutilation of her mirror image, another Jungfrau, perhaps even another bride at a gruesome «wedding»
feast ending in a cannibalistic consummation.
Wilhelm made sure to add a double to this marriage feast of death when
the heroine tells her own tale in her own home. The expanded scenes recording the private feast of orgiastic death in the basement cellar are contrasted
with the public marriage feast celebrated within the safety of the bride’s endogamous family. The earlier scenes of horror are repeated, this time literally as narrative so that their violent power is contained by the semiotic act.
The refrain, «mein Schatz, das träumte mir nur» (1:209), serves several narrative functions. It mollifies the bridegroom and adds dramatic irony to the
tale within a tale. It emphasizes the border between dream and reality. The
fact that the bride repeats the refrain four times heightens its importance and
reminds the audience of the nightmare of the basement slaughter. The shift
from third-person narrator to first marks a shift of power. The young girl
is no longer fragmented; there is no more mention of the old woman of the
basement. The young girl now can speak. The telltale dismembered finger,
kept as a physical sign of the male violence, lust, and power which had ex-
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ploded in the dark of private desires, is now appropriated as a sign of female
power, perhaps even of castrated male power. Through this physical sign, the
nightmare is ended, the private horror pushed into the public realm of reason
and justice. There can be no suspicion that her tale is merely a dream of paranoid delusion.
Wilhelm continued to alter the text through the various later editions. In
some ways, the final version can be said to suffer from too much editing. During the 38 years which elapsed between the second and the final editions, Wilhelm worked to fill what he may have felt were narrative gaps. The following
passage is a good example. The old woman tells the girl,
Du meinst, du wärst eine Braut, die bald Hochzeit macht, aber du wirst die Hochzeit mit dem Tode halten. Siehst du, da hab ich einen großen Kessel mit Wasser
aufsetzen müssen, wenn sie dich in ihrer Gewalt haben, so zerhacken sie dich ohne
Barmherzigkeit, kochen dich und essen dich, denn es sind Menschenfresser. Wenn
ich nicht Mitleiden mit dir habe und dich rette, so bist du verloren» [italics signify
differences from the 1819 version].18
Wilhelm’s editorial changes over the course of time tend to slow the pace,
add the obvious, fill in «gaps» in motivation and move away from the distinct «folk» tone he and Jacob had themselves created. Some of these differences are certainly due to the changed literary climate of the 1850s, which
saw a move away from Romantic-era sensibilities fascinated with ambiguous tales hovering between the psychological and the supernatural such as
those penned by E.T.A. Hoffmann, to the more subdued context of the literary Nachmärz of Adalbert Stifter. That said, the Grimms never backed away
from the powerful tale created in 1819, despite their editing of other tales so
as to redirect the collection towards an audience of children. Their versions
of «Der Räuberbräutigam» are tales of increasing dread, paralyzed seeing in
a claustrophobic space, acts of horrific mutilation, woman as flesh and body
parts, and, finally, woman as the empowered and believed teller of the tale.
These elements became part of a Gothic repertoire. Seen in this light, the fact
that the tale can be read as part of the Gothic horror genre adds a new facet to
the scholarly disputes regarding whether the tale is a crime saga or supernatural Zaubermärchen in that the tale occupies the same type of liminal space
between the supernatural and psychological realism inhabited by the Gothic
novel. Over time the Grimms created out of the folkloric material of «Der
Räuberbräutigam» a Gothic fairy tale.
Scherf points out that the Grimms’ version has not been widely received. It
was not, for example, included in the Kleine Ausgabe of 1825 which spurred
the popularity of the tales; it is not to be found in any of the Grimms’ editions
published in the 1960s aimed at the children’s market. Nevertheless, Scherf
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posits that the tale has a life of its own and «taucht allenthalben in den nachgrimmschen Sammlungen aus selbständiger mündlicher Überlieferung auf»
(Herausforderung 233). There is an element in this tale that might account
for its continued life as folk tale and beyond. Its horror has an element of
immediacy which separates it from the Bluebeard tales: the heroine in «Der
Räuberbräutigam» does not just see corpses in a secret chamber; she is present
as the bodies are mutilated. Thus, this tale is not only part of the nineteenthcentury Gothic, but the immediacy of its horror lends itself to film and its
emphasis on the gaze. It is closely related to the slasher film as suggested in the
article on «Schauerliteratur» in the Enzyklopädie des Märchens. Carol Clover’s definition of the slasher-film genre could be a summary of «Der Räuberbräutigam»:
the killer is the psychotic product of a sick family, but still recognizably human; the
victim is a beautiful, sexually active woman; the location is not-home, at a Terrible
Place; the weapon is something other than a gun; the attack is registered from the
victim’s point of view and comes with shocking suddenness.19
Although the heroine of «Der Räuberbräutigam» is not sexually active, as a
bride she is about to become so. Slasher films are not as misogynistic as they
may seem, argues Clover, because a final girl survives using her wits.
Positioning «Der Räuberbräutigam» within the Gothic mode raises questions for further research. Why did the Grimms change the tale in this way?
Were they consciously trying to create a new sub-genre, a Gothic fairy tale?
What were the contemporaneous reader responses to this tale through its
various editions? Was the tale accepted by middle-class (male) readers? Was
it deemed dangerous for the «Volk» along with other works of fantasy, the
gruesome and sensationalistic, indeed, faërie and magic, as Rudolf Schenda so
forcefully argued decades ago in Volk ohne Buch? Was, in essence, this (folk)
tale deemed inappropriate for the folk? What was the status of women readers in this respect? Given this backdrop, research into the evolution of the
Gothic tale (and film) needs to look at parallel developments in the fairy-tale
genre. «Der Räuberbräutigam» as edited by the Grimms may well prove to
have cast a wider and deeper shadow than has been recognized.
Notes
1
2
See the introduction to this issue of Colloquia Germanica.
Using «German» as an adjective denoting horror fits Andersen’s tales well since, as Maria Tatar notes, «Cruelty and violence have often been seen as the trademark of German
fairy tales, but P.L. Traverse, the author of the Mary Poppins books, found the Grimms’
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3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
Linda Kraus Worley
tales downright tame by comparison to the stories composed by Hans Christian Andersen» (Classic Fairy Tales 212).
This play on words underlies the title of a recent collection, Grimm’s (sic) Grimmest,
which contains some of the most violent and ominous of the Grimms’ tales.
See Ballard; Barzilai; Clarke; Lee; McCombs; Tatar, Secrets beyond the Door.
«The abstract, isolating, diagrammatic style of the folktale embraces all motifs and transforms them. Objects as well as persons lose their individual characteristics and turn into
weightless, transparent figures» (Lüthi 66). All quotes are from John D. Niles’s translation.
The Grimms’ version of the Bluebeard tale, «Blaubart,» was included in the first edition
of the Kinder- und Hausmärchen (1812–1815), but excluded from subsequent editions
as the Grimms felt that the tale was based too closely on Perrault’s French version, «La
Barbe Bleue,» and thus not truly part of the German corpus of tales.
When referring to the Aarne-Thompson-Uther tale type, ATU 955, the term«Robber
Bridegroom» is used; when referring to any of the Grimms’ versions, «Der Räuberbräutigam» is used.
Underscoring the popularity of the tale is the fact that a line in Shakespeare’s Much Ado
about Nothing alludes to the refrain found in English variants. Benedick says, «Like the
old tale, my Lord, ‹It is not so, nor t’was not so, but, indeed, God forbid it should be so›»
(Act I, Scene I, Lines 218–20).
See also Scherf, «Vom Mädchenmörder geraubt Oder: Vaterbindung, Abspaltung,
Ichideal,» Herausforderung 217–25.
«Der Rauberbrautigam» has been examined within the field of its folkloric variants (see,
for example, Scherf, Herausforderung), but not in terms of the Grimms’ edits over time.
Rölleke 236. All references to the 1810 manuscript are to Rölleke’s edition. The manuscript version is the so-called Ölenberg version of 1810, so named since it reappeared in
the Ölenberg monastery in 1920.
«Contamination» is a term used by folklorists when variants are merged. The Grimms
would not have found this practice negative as they were not particularly interested in
the unique variations of a tale.
In the early stage of collecting the stories, the Grimms found most of their informants
among the educated young women of the middle class or aristocracy. They included
women of the Wild and the Hassenpflug families in Kassel in addition to young men
and women of the aristocracy in Westphalia, including Annette von Droste-Hülfshoff.
Dorothea Viehmann, a tailor’s wife, and Johann Friedrich Krause, a retired soldier, also
provided many tales (Zipes 28–29).
For an overview of the print tales at the disposal of the Grimms, see Bottigheimer, Fairy
Tales: A New History.
For an in-depth analysis of this element, see Barzilia.
Rölleke 235. All references to the 1812 edition are to Rölleke’s edition.
All references to the 1819 edition are to Uther’s edition.
1:219. All references to the 1857 edition are to the Reclam edition edited by Rölleke.
Clover 23–24. Tatar adds to Clover’s contention that the unsettling of gender conventions in modern horror films is a legacy of woman’s liberation by pointing out that
«modern horror may also be tapping into an earlier narrative tradition, one that included
folktales such as ‹Bluebeard,› ‹The Robber Bridegroom,› or ‹Fitcher’s Bird,› in which
women figure as investigative agents (uncovering crimes and outwitting villains), while
men function as the criminal guardians of dark secret places» (Secrets 57).
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