Syncretism or Superimposition: An Analysis of the Devil in The Original Folk and Fairy Tales
of the Brothers Grimm
Tiffany Stachnik
Honors 498: Directed Study, Grimm’s Fairy Tales
April 8, 2018 1
Abstract
Since their first full publication in 1815, the folk and fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm have provided a means of studying the rich oral traditions of Germany. The Grimm brothers indicated time and time again in their personal notes that the oral traditions found in their folk and fairy tales included symbols, characters, and themes belonging to pre-Christian Germanic culture, as well as to the firmly Christian German states from which they collected their folk and fairy tales. The blending of pre-Christian Germanic culture with Christian, German traditions is particularly salient in the figure of the devil, despite the fact that the devil is arguably one of the most popular Christian figures to date. Through an exploration of the phylogenetic analyses of the Grimm’s tales featuring the devil, connections between the devil in the Grimm’s tales and other German or Germanic tales, and Christian and Germanic symbolism, this study demonstrates that the devil in the Grimm’s tales is an embodiment of syncretism between Christian and pre-Christian traditions. This syncretic devil is not only consistent with the history of religious transformation in Germany, which involved the slow blending of elements of Germanic paganism and Christianity, but also points to a greater theme of syncretism between the cultural traditions of Germany and other nations worldwide. 2
Table of Contents
Introduction 3
Definitions of Key Terms 4
Part One: Phylogenetically Dated Tales 5
Volume 1, Number 29: “The Devil with the Three Golden Hairs” 5
Volume 1, Number 81: “The Blacksmith and the Devil” 8
Volume 2, Number 14: “The Devil’s Sooty Brother” 10
Volume 2, Number 15: “The Devil in the Green Coat” 12
Part Two: Tales without Phylogenetic Dates 14
Volume 1, Number 31: “Maiden without Hands” 14
Volume 2, Number 34: “The Three Journeymen” 17
Volume 2, Number 39: “The Devil and his Grandmother” 20
Volume 2, Number 62: “The Animals of the Lord and the Devil” 23
Discussion: The Syncretic Devil 25
Bibliography 30 3
Introduction
After many years of traveling around German-speaking states in Europe and compiling folktales from the oral traditions of various German families and the oral traditions recorded by scholars, the well-known philologists and students of literature, Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm, published the first complete edition of their Children’s and Household Tales in 1815 CE (Zipes
2002). The Brothers Grimm hoped primarily to preserve the culture and language of the German states through their folktales, and published seven increasingly popular editions of the
Children’s and Household Tales during their lifetime (Zipes 2002). Unfortunately, the first edition, containing the original 156 tales collected by the Brothers Grimm in two volumes, fell to the wayside, and was never published in English until folklorist Jack Zipes’ 2014 translation, titled The Original Folk and Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm (Grimm and Grimm 2014).
These 156 tales are less verbose and sophisticated than those tales featured in subsequent editions of the Children’s and Household Tales, but for this reason have an arguably greater degree of folkloristic integrity—namely, they likely are less edited from their original versions that stem from old German oral and written traditions (Grimm and Grimm 2014).
When reading the original, unrefined 156 tales, any Germanist will notice a great deal of
Germanic symbols, characters, and themes intertwined with those belonging to German culture.
That is, the pre-Christian, pagan culture of the Germanic tribes blends with the Christian,
German culture of their descendants to create a product that is a combination of the two cultures: in other words, a syncretic product. The Brothers Grimm themselves noticed this trend, and made note of it time and time again in their extended studies of German folklore (Thompson
1977). 4
What is most curious about this syncretic trend in The Original Folk and Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm is that it is particularly salient in the tales featuring the devil, a character normally regarded in Europe as Christian. This raises the question of whether the devil in The
Original Folk and Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm can, in fact, be regarded as a Christian figure. Through an exploration of the eight tales featuring the devil in The Original Folk and
Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm, focusing on the phylogenetic analyses available for four of the tales, connections between the devil in the Grimm’s tales and other German or Germanic tales, and Christian and Germanic symbolism, this paper aims to explore the origin and characterization of the devil in The Original Folk and Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm, hypothesizing that the devil in the Grimm’s tales is an embodiment of syncretism between
Christian and pre-Christian traditions.
Definitions of Key Terms
This investigation spells the word “devil” with the lowercase ‘d’ for two reasons. First, whether the devil in The Original Folk and Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm is the Christian devil is the principal question this study aims to explore. Thus, spelling the word “devil” with an uppercase ‘d’ would be inappropriate, as spelling “devil” with an uppercase ‘d’ refers almost exclusively to the Christian devil. Secondly, the English translation of The Original Folk and
Fairy Tales used in this paper always spells the word “devil” with the lowercase ‘d’; for the sake of consistency with the translation, it is imperative that this paper also spells the word “devil” with the lowercase ‘d’.
In order to investigate the origin and characterization of the devil in The Original Folk and Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm, this paper relies heavily on both phylogenetic analysis and the Aarne-Thompson Uther Index. Simply defined, phylogenetic analysis is a method of 5 analyzing the relationships between linguistic, spatial, and genetic patterns using a combination of evolutionary science and mathematics (da Silva and Tehrani 2016). Phylogenetic analysis is used most extensively in evolutionary biology, but recently has also been used to discover dates of origin for various folk tales by calculating the probability that linguistic patterns found in folktales exist in certain known, dated language families (da Silva and Tehrani 2016).1
The phylogenetic analysis of folktales relies heavily on the Aarne-Thompson Uther Index for organizing the tales being analyzed. The Aarne-Thompson Uther Index is a numbered catalogue of over two thousand types of folktales, meticulously organized by common theme and applied internationally and cross-culturally (da Silva and Tehrani 2016). For example, a tale in which a boy steals treasure from an ogre or giant, no matter where it originates geographically, would be categorized as Aarne-Thompson type 328, “Boy Steals Ogre’s Treasure” (Thompson
1977).
Part One: Phylogenetically Dated Tales
Volume 1, Number 29: “The Devil with the Three Golden Hairs”
“The Devil with the Three Golden Hairs” provides perhaps the most thought-provoking evidence that the Grimm’s devil originates in part in pre-Christian traditions. In this tale, a lowly woodcutter must embark on a journey to hell to collect three golden hairs from the head of the devil to achieve his goal of winning the hand of the princess whom he loves. On his way to the devil, the woodcutter encounters three towns with seemingly unsolvable problems, and promises to remedy each of them after returning from his journey. Upon arriving at the devil’s dark, filthy home, the woodcutter meets the devil’s wife, who takes pity on the woodcutter because he is so young and decides to help him gain the three hairs and solve the three problems from his
1 For a more detailed description of phylogenetic analysis as it is related to folktales, see da Silva and Tehrani’s 2016 study, Comparative Phylogenetic Analyses Uncover the Ancient Roots of Indo-European Folktales. 6 journey. She waits for the devil to return to hell, ensures he falls asleep despite his protests that he smells the flesh of men, and pulls out the three hairs herself, risking personal injury. The devil’s wife also manages to glean the solutions to the three problems from the devil before sending the woodcutter on his merry way. Of course, everything ends happily, with the woodcutter handsomely rewarded for finding the solutions to the towns’ problems and winning the hand of the princess for successfully collecting the three golden hairs.
Similarities between “The Devil with the Three Golden Hairs” and pre-Christian
Germanic lore are immediately evident, which the Grimm brothers themselves admitted to. In their notes to the second edition of Children’s and Household Tales, the Grimm brothers wrote that elements of “The Devil with the Three Golden Hairs” were similar to both “Jack and the
Beanstalk” and the tales of Thorkill at Utgard in Saxo Grammaticus’ The History of the Danes
(Grimm and Grimm 1884b). The kindness of the devil’s wife towards the woodcutter is similar to the kindness Jack experiences from the giant’s wife in “Jack and the Beanstalk,” and both the giant in “Jack and the Beanstalk” and the devil in “The Devil with the Three Golden Hairs” complain of the smell of man-flesh in their homes as their wives attempt to calm them down
(Anonymous 1807).
Furthermore, in “Book Eight” of Saxo Grammaticus’ The History of the Danes, which recounts tales from Norse mythology, the hero Thorkill encounters Utgard-Loki, a fearsome giant, on his journey within the realm Utgard, which Saxo Grammaticus describes as a shadowy place filled with a variety of monstrous beings. As a testament to his own greatness and to prove that he traveled to Utgard and back relatively unscathed, Thorkill plucks a hair from the chin of
Utgard-Loki to take back to Denmark with him, which ends up emitting such a foul stench that it kills many of Thorkill’s crew and disfigures Thorkill himself (Saxo 1980). Foul stenches aside, 7
“The Devil with the Three Golden Hairs” and the story of Thorkill contain some fascinating similarities, particularly that Utgard is described in much the same way that hell is, and that both the woodcutter and Thorkill take a hair as proof of meeting a supernatural being.
The similarities between “The Devil with the Three Golden Hairs,” “Jack and the
Beanstalk,” and the story of Thorkill at Utgard may suggest that the devil in “The Devil with the
Three Golden Hairs” was in fact a giant in an older version of the tale. Folklorist Maria Tatar of
Harvard University has drawn a similar conclusion, stating that the devil in “The Devil with the
Three Golden Hairs” fills the same narrative function as a giant, and that “the Grimm’s tale probably featured a giant in its earlier versions, and only in a later age did that giant take on the name of the devil” (Grimm and Grimm 2004). Giants serve as popular antagonists in pre-
Christian, Germanic lore, and the terms “giant,” “ogre,” “demon,” and “devil” in pre-Christian,
Germanic lore are often synonymous and interchangeable, with no particular religious connotation connected to any of the four terms, with the exception of the term “devil” used in
English lore, which is explicitly connected to the Christian conception of Satan (Thompson
1977).
The idea of the devil in “The Devil with the Three Golden Hairs” being distinctly like a giant in characterization and therefore unrelated to the Christian devil becomes even more compelling once a phylogenetic analysis of “The Devil with the Three Golden Hairs” is considered. In a 2016 study, Jamshid Tehrani of Durham University and Sara Graça da Silva of the New University of Lisbon analyzed seventy-six of the most phylogenetically conserved tales and estimated their language of origin based on that analysis. Folktales of the Aarne-Thompson type 461, to which “The Devil with the Three Golden Hairs” belongs, originated in the Proto-
Germanic and Proto-Balto-Slavic languages, whereas folktales of the Aarne-Thompson type 328, 8 to which “Jack and the Beanstalk” belongs, originated in the Proto-Indo-European language (da
Silva and Tehrani 2016; Thompson 1977). Given that the Proto-Germanic, Proto-Balto-Slavic, and Proto-Indo-European languages all predate Christianity, the possibility that the devil was not originally intended as the Christian devil in “The Devil with the Three Golden Hairs” becomes even more likely (Andersen 2003; Gray, Atkinson, and Greenhill 2011; Lehmann and Slocum
2005). As further evidence to the aforementioned possibility, the Assyrian myth of Izdubar shares Aarne-Thompson type 461 with “The Devil with the Three Golden Hairs”, and has been recovered from cuneiform fragments that date to circa 2000 BCE, representing a likely pre-
Christian origin for “The Devil with the Three Golden Hairs” and other tales of the same Aarne-
Thompson classification (da Silva and Tehrani 2016).
Volume 1, Number 81: “The Blacksmith and the Devil”
“The Blacksmith and the Devil” provides abundant evidence for the pre-Christian nature of the devil in The Original Folk and Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm. In this tale, a suicidal blacksmith down on his luck agrees to make a deal: in exchange for extreme wealth and luck, the devil can have his soul after a period of ten years runs its course. At one point during the ten- year period, the devil visits the blacksmith and gives him a sack that will only empty upon the blacksmith’s command, meaning the blacksmith can put anything into it without it escaping.
Predictably, when the ten years are up and the devil comes for him, the blacksmith traps the devil in the sack and viciously beats him with a stick until the devil agrees to allow the blacksmith to live in peace. The blacksmith lives a long and happy life, but upon his death, he discovers he cannot get into heaven because he had been in league with the devil, but also cannot get into hell because the devil still harbors a grudge against him for his trickery. In order to ensure he gets into heaven, the blacksmith lures small demons out of hell and nails them by their snouts and 9 ears to the gates of hell, causing the devil to beg God to let the blacksmith into heaven, since the blacksmith is usurping his power over hell. God agrees, and the blacksmith spends eternity in heaven.
Current phylogenetic analysis points to Proto-Indo-European, a language spoken during the Bronze Age in the Pontic Steppes and the Anatolian Peninsula, as the linguistic origin of
“The Blacksmith and the Devil” (da Silva and Tehrani 2016). Given that the Bronze Age predates the birth of Christ by thousands of years, this suggests that the devil in “The Blacksmith and the Devil” is not the Christian devil. Obviously, “The Blacksmith and the Devil” should not be classified as Germanic, either. The Aarne-Thompson type for “The Blacksmith and the
Devil,” 330, is found in a variety of oral traditions ranging geographically from modern-day
India to Scandinavia, with the antagonist of the story shifting from devil to djinn to spirit based on the culture in which it is being told (da Silva and Tehrani 2016). This occurrence also likely explains the presence of God in the Grimm’s version of “The Blacksmith and the Devil.” Since the antagonist of the story shifts based on culture, his counterpart would as well: indeed,
Christianized versions of “The Blacksmith and the Devil” have existed in Europe since the sixteenth century (da Silva and Tehrani 2016). Understandably, by the second edition of their
Children’s and Household Tales, the Brothers Grimm had removed “The Blacksmith and the
Devil” from what they had advertised as a collection of German folk and fairy tales (Grimm and
Grimm 1884a).
Volume 2, Number 14: “The Devil’s Sooty Brother”
In “The Devil’s Sooty Brother,” a discharged soldier with no food or money to his name encounters the devil in the forest. The devil assures him he will have all he needs for the rest of 10 his life if he serves him for seven years without washing himself, trimming his beard, combing his hair, or wiping his eyes. The soldier agrees to this bargain and goes to hell with the devil.
The soldier’s main task as the devil’s servant is to sweep the floors and tend to the kettles in which damned souls are boiling, which the soldier completes in full. At the end of the seven years, the devil releases the soldier from service, instructing him to take all the dirt he swept up over the seven years in a sack on his back and to continue to forgo all hygienic practices. He also instructs the soldier to go out in the world and tell everyone who asks that he is the devil’s sooty brother. The soldier agrees, leaves hell, and discovers that the sack of dirt he is carrying transformed into an enormous sack of gold.
The soldier soon encounters an inn and asks the innkeeper to rest there for the night. The innkeeper asks who the soldier is, to which the soldier replies that he is the devil’s sooty brother.
The innkeeper is reluctant to let the soldier inside until the soldier shows him the sack of gold; the greedy innkeeper agrees to let the soldier stay the night, plotting to steal the gold as soon as the soldier falls asleep. Upon waking up and discovering that the gold is gone, the soldier travels back to hell, gripes to the devil about what happened, and implores him to help. The devil washes the soldier, combs his hair, trims his beard, and cleans out his eyes, then tells the soldier to threaten the innkeeper with tending the kettles of hell if he does not repay the soldier in full.
Naturally, the innkeeper is terrified by the prospect of spending eternity in hell and gives the soldier all the gold back and more.
The soldier then travels to faraway kingdoms playing music, which he learned while in hell. One king is so moved by his music that he offers the soldier one of his daughters as a bride.
The oldest daughter scoffs at the idea of being with a commoner, and refuses to marry the soldier; however, the youngest daughter offers to marry the soldier out of love for her father. 11
The soldier has a happy marriage with the youngest daughter, and upon the king’s death inherits his kingdom and all his wealth.
Phylogenetic analysis places the date of origin of “The Devil’s Sooty Brother” and other tales of Aarne-Thompson type 475 at 1450 BCE or earlier, when the Proto-Balto-Slavic language from which the tale originated was last spoken (Thompson 1977; da Silva and Tehrani 2016;
Andersen 2003). The devil in “The Devil’s Sooty Brother” is therefore pre-Christian in origin.
Moreover, this tale type is extremely popular in the Baltic States, particularly in Latvia and
Lithuania, and also appears in folktale traditions from Russia and France, indicating that “The
Devil’s Sooty Brother” is not wholly Germanic (Thompson 1977; da Silva and Tehrani 2016).
As a further point of interest, the Grimm’s version of “The Devil’s Sooty Brother” bears some remarkable similarities to Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen’s “Vom Ursprung des Namens Bärnhäuter” in his seventeenth century work, Simplicianische Schriften. Though an early version of “The Devil in the Green Coat,” a tale discussed later in this analysis, the beginning of “Vom Ursprung des Namens Bärnhäuter” is nearly identical to the beginning of
“The Devil’s Sooty Brother.” Von Grimmelshausen recounts the tale of a hungry soldier hiding in the woods who is suddenly approached by a malicious Geist—in English, ghost or spirit—and is offered everything he needs in life if he serves the Geist for seven years (von Grimmelshausen
1877). Though “Vom Ursprung des Namens Bärnhäuter” follows the narrative structure of “The
Devil in the Green Coat” more closely for the remainder of the tale, the fact that the beginning matches up so closely to “The Devil’s Sooty Brother” indicates that “The Devil’s Sooty Brother” may have had similar pre-Christian origins.
Volume 2, Number 15: “The Devil in the Green Coat” 12
As was previously suggested, “The Devil in the Green Coat” is remarkably similar to
“The Devil’s Sooty Brother” in narrative structure, featuring the devil approaching the protagonist in the woods, a seven-year deal, the forgoing of hygienic practices, a reluctant bride, a faithful youngest daughter, and ultimate wealth for the protagonist. At the onset of “The Devil in the Green Coat,” a young man is abandoned by his brothers in the woods and soon encounters the devil, who offers the desperate young man a deal: if he wears the devil’s green coat for seven years and during that time and does not wash, cut his hair, or pray, the devil will ensure he always has money during that seven-year period. If the young man succeeds, he will be rich for life at the end of the seven years; if he fails, the devil will have his soul. The young man accepts the devil’s offer, and for four years wanders from town to town, bribing people to let him stay in inns and asking others to pray for him with his endless stream of wealth.
One night in an inn, the young man hears weeping, and discovers an old man hard on his luck. He owes the innkeeper a vast sum of money and is going to be incarcerated if he does not pay it back by the next day. The young man pays the old man’s debts out of the goodness of his heart, and as a reward, the old man offers the young man one of his three daughters as a bride.
The two oldest daughters are taken aback by the young man’s bear-like hygiene and appearance, but the youngest daughter agrees to marry the young man out of duty to her father. The young man gives her half of a ring, insisting that she keep it safe and pray for him. He also instructs her to assume he is dead if he does not return in three years’ time, at which point she should proceed with her life as she wishes.
The young man wanders the earth for another three years, giving away wealth in exchange for prayers and buying beautiful gifts to take home to his bride. Because of the young man’s generosity, he survives the three years abroad and returns to the woods where he met the 13 devil originally. Enraged, the devil shows up and reluctantly grants the young man endless wealth. The young man then washes, cuts his hair, and claims his now-delighted bride, proving he is the dirty young man she was promised to by matching up his half of the ring to the half he gave her. Her two unkind sisters kill themselves out of despair at losing out on such a suitor, and the devil shows up to visit the young man once more, proclaiming that he has gained two souls instead of just the soul of the young man.
Much like the case of “The Blacksmith and the Devil” and “The Devil’s Sooty Brother,” phylogenetic analysis reveals the pre-Christian origins of “The Devil in the Green Coat.” Its
Aarne-Thompson type, 361, has its roots in the Proto-Germanic and Proto-Balto-Slavic languages, which predate Christianity: Proto-Balto-Slavic was no longer spoken by approximately 1450 BCE, whereas Proto-Germanic was spoken between 2500 BCE and 0 CE
(Thompson 1977; Andersen 2003; Lehmann and Slocum 2005). However, “The Devil in the
Green Coat” also has the added benefit of being recorded in German-speaking regions before the
Brothers Grimm began to collect their Children’s and Household Tales. Perhaps the most notable example of this phenomenon can be found in the previously discussed seventeenth- century work by Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen, Simplicianische Schriften. Von
Grimmelshausen calls “The Devil in the Green Coat” by its more popular German moniker,
“Vom Ursprung des Namens Bärnhäuter,” but the basic structure of the story mirrors “The Devil in the Green Coat,” with a crucial exception. In his version of the story, which predates the
Children’s and Household Tales by nearly two centuries, von Grimmelshausen refers to the entity that accosts the protagonist as a Geist, a word which means “spirit” or “ghost,” as was previously noted (von Grimmelshausen 1877). In the Grimm’s later version of the story, the malignant entity is the devil (Grimm and Grimm 2014). Whether this change occurred because 14 of an attempt on the part of the Brothers Grimm to Christianize the story or the change from spirit to devil is simply because “spirit” and “devil” could be interchanged in Germanic tales without any real effect on the narrative structure remains unclear (Thompson 1977). However, the combination of phylogenetic analysis and the early version of “The Devil with the Green
Coat” with a ghost or spirit as the principle antagonist point to a clear, pre-Christian origin for the tale.
Part Two: Tales without Phylogenetic Dates
Volume 1, Number 31: “Maiden without Hands”
The first tale with an uncertain date of origination, “Maiden without Hands,” begins with the devil offering a poor miller riches, on the condition that the miller gives the devil what is behind his house in three years’ time. Foolishly, the miller believes the devil was referring to his apple tree, when in fact the devil was referring to his daughter. Three years later, the devil returns to the miller’s residence and demands the daughter be handed over, but the clever daughter purifies her body with water and draws a circle around herself so the devil cannot take her away. Angrily, the devil commands the miller to get rid of all the water nearby so the daughter cannot clean herself, but the daughter washes herself with her tears so she stays purified. The devil becomes furious and demands that the daughter’s hands be cut off so he can take hold of her. The miller obliges, fearing for his own soul, but the daughter again cries herself clean. Enraged, the devil leaves the miller and his family, knowing he has lost claim of the daughter.
The daughter then has her maimed arms bound to her back and sets off on a journey, relying on others to help her endure the hardships of life. She stumbles upon a king’s garden, eats apples for some time in order to survive, and is soon tasked with looking after the chickens 15 in the king’s courtyard. The king’s son soon falls in love with the daughter and marries her; the king dies soon afterwards. The newlywed couple live happily for some time, until the newly crowned king must leave to fight in a war. Once the king is away at battle, the devil tricks a messenger into reporting to the king that the daughter, his queen, gave birth to a changeling. The king becomes distressed and sends a letter to his court urging them to protect the queen and the child at all costs, but the devil tampers with the letter, and makes it state that the queen and the child should be banished at once.
The queen, with her child bound to her back, sets off into the woods, and encounters an old man sitting by a fountain. She asks him to help her nurse her child. The old man obliges and advises her to wrap her arms around a nearby tree; when she does, her hands grow back. He then directs the queen to a nearby house, warning her to wait there and not open the door unless someone implores her to three times in the name of God. Meanwhile, the king discovers his wife and child had been banished, and frantically begins to search for them. He encounters the house, asks for the door to be opened three times in the name of God, and the king, queen, and their child are united once more. The house vanishes, and the family lives happily ever after.
A version of “Maiden without Hands” was first written down in the early thirteenth century in southern England, making a Christian origin for the devil within the tale possible, especially considering the word “devil” used in English lore is explicitly connected to the
Christian conception of Satan (Thompson 1977). However, an English origin for “Maiden without Hands” is not definite, as its tale type, 706, has found its way into written and oral folklore throughout Asia, the Americas, and Europe (Thompson 1977). Furthermore, tale type
706 is closely related to tale type 710, “Our Lady’s Child,” as both tale types share key motifs, namely slandered wives and angering beings of power, and as a result have been intermixed in 16 folkloristic traditions worldwide (Thompson 1977). This connection between types 706 and 710 is crucial in the investigation of whether or not “Maiden without Hands” is pre-Christian in origin, because type 710, “Our Lady’s Child,” has been phylogenetically dated to the pre-
Christian Proto-Balto-Slavic language (da Silva and Tehrani 2016).
Finding a date of origin for “Maiden without Hands” is further complicated by inconsistencies found between different versions of the tale. Depending on the folklore tradition, the role of the devil as antagonist sometimes went instead to an incestuous father, which the
Brothers Grimm fully recognized (Tatar 2003). In their second edition of Children’s and
Household Tales, the Brothers Grimm, usually extremely concerned with the folkloristic integrity of their tales, grafted the introduction of the earlier variant of “Maiden without Hands” that has the devil as the antagonist to a later variant with an incestuous father as the antagonist
(Tatar 2003). This superimposition of a Christian character—in this case, the devil—over another folktale is not unheard of for the Brothers Grimm, who regularly favored Christian characters over pre-Christian characters in their tales (Tatar 2003). However, this superimposition certainly compromises the integrity of “Maiden without Hands,” and may make it difficult to determine if the tale is pre-Christian. Arguably, the ease with which the Brothers
Grimm were able to alter the villains in different versions of “Maiden without Hands” without altering the narrative structure of the tale could provide evidence to how Christian and pre-
Christian traditions could easily intermix, creating an overall syncretic product in a given folktale.
Along these same lines, “Maiden without Hands” contains multiple symbols, motifs, and practices that demonstrate the inclusion of both Christian and pre-Christian traditions in the
Grimm’s tales featuring the devil. For example, a changeling, or a fairy child replacing a human 17 child, is incorporated into “Maiden without Hands,” a concept that is common in pre-Christian
Germanic folklore and other folklore traditions worldwide (Grimm 1966; Thompson 1977).
“Maiden without Hands” also references the distinctly pre-Christian practice of drawing a circle to ward off evil spirits, a common step in conjuring and magical ceremonies (Biedermann 1994).
Distinctly Christian symbols and practices come into play in “Maiden without Hands” through the daughter using water to ward off the devil, a practice common in Christian medieval witches’ ordeals, and additionally through the repeated appearance of apple trees (Biedermann
1994). Apples often symbolize the Christian concept of temptation and manipulation by the devil, a motif which is seen throughout the tale via the devil’s attempts to doom the queen
(Biedermann 1994). This suggests the devil in “Maiden without Hands” may be intended as a
Christian devil, though the inclusion of pre-Christian traditions in the tale and the previously discussed similarity between tale types 706 and 710 makes a syncretic background for “Maiden without Hands” far more likely than either a solely Christian or pre-Christian background.
Volume 2, Number 34: “The Three Journeymen”
The second tale without a phylogenetic date featuring the devil begins with three young journeymen unable to find work. The three journeymen, concerned for their livelihoods, decide it is in their best collective interest to part ways, with each journeyman going in a different direction in the hopes of increasing the chances that at least one of them stumbles across work.
Just as they reach this consensus, the devil appears. Dressed as a rich gentleman, he informs the three journeymen that if they follow his directions carefully, he will ensure they have both enough work and money without endangering their chances at eternal salvation. In fact, the devil is not at all interested in their souls, and is instead after the soul of another man, which the devil reveals is already half his. The three journeymen agree to the deal without reservation and 18 receive the following instructions from the devil: until further notice, they must answer every question they are asked with “all three of us,” “for money,” or “that’s all right.”
The terms of the deal work out swimmingly for the three journeymen until an evil innkeeper frames them for murdering a rich man who had been staying at his inn. The innkeeper, in an attempt to convince others of his own innocence, asks the three journeymen if they had murdered the man. They, of course, reply with “all three of us,” “for money,” and
“that’s all right,” and are immediately thrown in jail. On the day of their trial, a judge asks the three journeymen if they were responsible for the murder, to which they reply with the same three phrases. The judge, horrified by their apparent confession and by the fact that they do not seem repentant, sentences them to death by beheading.
Fortunately, as the three journeymen are standing at the scaffold about to be executed in front of a crowd, the devil shows up in a carriage pulled by red foxes, again dressed as a rich man, and yells for them to be pardoned. He then implores the three journeymen to argue for their innocence. The three journeymen explain that it was actually the innkeeper who murdered the rich man, and that he has the bodies of other murdered men in his cellar, which a short investigation proves to be true. The innkeeper is then beheaded for his crimes, and the devil gives the three journeymen endless amounts of money, saying that he is satisfied, as he now has the soul he wanted.
Though “The Three Journeymen” has not been phylogenetically dated as of yet, it seems to be loosely related to two tales that have been phylogenetically dated to pre-Christian time periods, “The Devil in the Green Coat” and “The Devil’s Sooty Brother.” Not only do these three tales originate in the region stretching from Germany into the Baltic States and Russia, these tales all contain the motif of a helpful devil, in which the devil appears, offers a deal 19 involving a vast monetary sum as reward, then leaves at the end of the tale (Thompson 1977).
What is especially curious about the helpful devil motif in these stories, especially from a
Christian standpoint, is that there are no negative repercussions for the protagonist or protagonists for making a deal with the devil, because the devil stays true to his word.
The Brothers Grimm were staunch Calvinists, and were known to have promoted
Protestant morals and ethics within their folk and fairy tales, as Protestantism, particularly
Lutheranism, was especially popular in their part of Germany during the nineteenth century, when the Brothers Grimm were compiling their collection of folk and fairy tales (Zipes 2002;
Hope 1995). Protestantism viewed the devil not only as the “father of lies,” but as incapable of telling the truth because of his nature: as both the Lutheran and Calvinist Bibles state, no truths exist within the devil (Luther 1884; Torrance and Torrance 1995). The devil in “The Three
Journeymen,” as well as in “The Devil in the Green Coat” and “The Devil’s Sooty Brother,” is therefore fundamentally different from the Christian devil. Nowhere in any of the three aforementioned stories does he try to trick or lie to the protagonists. In fact, the devil remains a wholly transparent character throughout all three stories, to the point where it is only the devil keeping his word that saves the lives of the three journeymen in “The Three Journeymen.” The devil in these three stories, all of which feature the helpful devil motif, thus seems highly unlikely to be Christian in origin.
However, “The Three Journeymen” contains Christian elements despite the seemingly pre-Christian origin for the devil, indicating that a syncretic origin for the tale is likely. For example, the criminal trial and expected method of punishment of the three journeymen is befitting of Christian tradition in Europe. According to Mitchell Merback’s work, The Thief, the
Cross, and the Wheel: Pain and Spectacle of Punishment in Medieval and Renaissance Europe, 20 expecting repentance for sins from criminals, as well as public executions on scaffolds, was typical of capital punishment proceedings in Christian Europe during the Middle Ages and into the Renaissance period (Merback 1998). Furthermore, the concept of pardoning featured in “The
Three Journeymen” was familiar to Christians during the aforementioned time period, although pardoning could only be carried out via the Church or by members of the ruling class (Minnis
2003).
Finally, the association between the devil and foxes featured in “The Three Journeymen” was common in Medieval Christianity. Due to their coloration, foxes, along with other red animals, were believed to be associated with fire and hell (Biedermann 1994). Furthermore, the devil and foxes were thought to be similar due to the fact that both were believed to be tricksters, as well as extremely cunning (Biedermann 1994).
Volume 2, Number 39: “The Devil and His Grandmother”
“The Devil and His Grandmother” opens with three soldiers, all deserters, hiding in a wheat field from their commanding officers. Suddenly, a dragon flies overhead, offering the soldiers refuge and money if they serve him for seven years. Feeling as though they have no better option, the soldiers agree and fly in the dragon’s claws to a safe location, only to discover that the dragon is the devil in disguise. He gives them a whip that produces money every time it is cracked, then informs the soldiers that after seven years they will be his unless they are able to solve a riddle of his choosing. He then leaves the soldiers to their own devices.
Once the seven years are almost up, the three soldiers grow perplexed, wondering how they will avoid spending eternity in the devil’s possession. Without warning, an elderly woman crosses their path, and offers some advice: if they find a caved-in cliff in the forest and enter it, they will find the answer to their problem. The most optimistic soldier agrees to journey into the 21 forest and finds everything as the old woman promised. Upon entering the cave, he finds a wizened woman, who introduces herself as the devil’s grandmother, and asks what the soldier wants. The soldier explains his and his companions’ predicament, and because she finds him appealing, she agrees to help, ordering the soldier to hide under a rock in her cave.
The devil soon comes over for dinner, and he boasts to his grandmother about capturing the souls of the three soldiers, as they will surely not solve his riddle. When the devil’s grandmother expresses her doubt about the devil’s ability to obtain their souls, the devil reveals to her the answer to his riddle, which he claims no living man could solve. He will offer the three soldiers a meal, and they must tell him what the roast, the spoon, and the wine glass will be: a dead monkey, a whale’s rib, and a horse’s hoof, respectively. Of course, the soldier hears all of this, and rushes back to his companions after the devil leaves, disclosing everything he heard while in the company of the devil’s grandmother. Predictably, when the devil comes to the three soldiers once the seven years have lapsed, they solve the riddle, and the devil must let them go free. The soldiers keep the whip that produces money and live happily to the end of their days.
The Brothers Grimm noted that “The Devil and his Grandmother” has a distinctly Norse quality, particularly in its similarity with “Hymiskviða: the Song of Hymir” (Grimm and Grimm
1884c). In both tales, a sympathetic female hides the protagonist from a supernatural being. In the case of “Hymiskviða: The Song of Hymir,” the sympathetic female is the giant Hymir’s wife, who wishes to hide some visitors from her ill-tempered husband, whereas in “The Devil and his
Grandmother,” the grandmother fills the role of sympathetic female (Orchard 2011a). As was previously discussed, the motif of the sympathetic female is also featured in “The Devil with the
Three Golden Hairs” and “Jack and the Beanstalk.” The shared motif of the sympathetic female 22 between “The Devil and his Grandmother” and the three aforementioned tales may therefore indicate that “The Devil and his Grandmother” is pre-Christian in origin, as “Hymiskviða: the
Song of Hymir” originates in Norse mythology, and “The Devil with the Three Golden Hairs” and “Jack and the Beanstalk” both pre-date Christianity (Orchard 2011b; da Silva and Tehrani
2016).
Outside of the Brothers Grimm’s observation of the similarity between “Hymiskviða:
The Song of Hymir” and “The Devil and his Grandmother,” the devil in “The Devil and his
Grandmother” also seems to have the Norse quality of shape shifting. In Norse lore, supernatural beings often shift into other forms, with one giant in particular, Fáfnir, changing into a great dragon, just as the devil in “The Devil and his Grandmother” does (Orchard 2011c).
However, the Christian devil also shape-shifts into a variety of forms in Christian lore, appearing as a red dragon in John’s vision of Armageddon in the book of Revelations (Kelly 2006). Thus, it remains unclear whether the shape-shifting devil is due to Christian or Norse tradition, or perhaps both.
On a different note, unlike the devil in “The Three Journeymen,” the devil in “The Devil and his Grandmother” does appear to be Christian in character. This devil is helpful only for his own benefit, as he rescues the three soldiers solely for the purpose of eventually gaining their souls. Furthermore, the devil attempts to trick the soldiers out of winning their freedom by asking them a riddle that would have been impossible to solve, if not for the intervention of the devil’s grandmother. Overall, this manipulative behavior on the part of the devil in “The Devil and his Grandmother” is much more suitable for a supernatural entity bearing the title “the father of all lies” than the kindness displayed in “The Three Journeymen” is. This clearly Christian 23 characterization of the devil gives “The Devil and his Grandmother” a distinctly syncretic flair, considering that the tale also has a noticeably Norse quality to it, as was previously discussed.
Volume 2, Number 62: “The Animals of the Lord and the Devil”
The final tale examined in this paper, “The Animals of the Lord and the Devil,” is the only etiological tale out of the eight tales featuring the devil in The Original Folk and Fairy
Tales of the Brothers Grimm. Simply put, “The Animals of the Lord and the Devil” explains why goats are associated with the devil, as well as why goats look and act peculiarly when compared with other animals. The tale explains that shortly after the Lord creates all the animals and selects wolves to be his dogs, he realizes he has forgotten to create the goat. The devil, who also realizes this, creates the goat himself, except these goats have slender, long tails, and thus always get stuck in bushes as they graze. The devil ultimately becomes fed up with untangling the hapless goats from various plants, and goes out into the world, biting off the tail of every goat along the way.
However, without any barriers to their ability to roam about the Earth, the goats soon begin to annihilate every kind of vegetation. The Lord then sends his wolves out to tear the goats apart, which enrages the devil. He appears before the Lord, accusing him of killing the goats. The Lord then asks the devil why he would create creatures that only had an inclination towards destruction, to which the devil replies that he could not help it: after all, he, too, has the same propensity to obliterate everything in his path.
The devil then foolishly demands compensation for the death of the goats. The Lord replies he will grant the devil some money once all the oak leaves fall. The devil waits patiently until the oak trees are bare, then demands his money. The Lord refuses to give him any, stating that there is an oak tree at a church in Constantinople that still has all its leaves. The devil then 24 sets out to find the tree, only to discover that once it sheds its leaves, all the other oak trees have foliage again. Enraged, the devil pokes out the eyes of the remaining goats and replaces them with his own. The tale then explains that this is why goats have bitten-off tails, eyes like the devil, and why the devil enjoys appearing in the form of a goat.
A version of “The Animals of the Lord and the Devil” was first written down in 1557 CE by Hans Sachs, who is best described as a “garrulous rhymester of all that was most petty and trivial in his age” (Lloyd and Newton 1875). The date of origin for “The Animals of the Lord and the Devil,” however, remains unclear, as it is uncertain whether Sachs created this tale, or if
Sachs got the content of this tale from another source; furthermore, this tale has not been phylogenetically dated. The Brothers Grimm did, however, note that “The Animals of the Lord and the Devil” seemed to have a “primeval foundation” (Grimm and Grimm 1884c). Notably, the Brothers Grimm believed the association between the Lord and wolves was reflective of the association between the Norse god Óðinn and wolves; in Norse mythology, Óðinn has two wolves, Geri and Freki (Grimm and Grimm 1884c; Sturluson 2005). The importance of oak trees within “The Animals of the Lord and the Devil” may also be indicative of the ancient roots of the tale, as oak trees were sacred to the Germanic peoples, who revered them for their power and strength (Biedermann 1994).
Despite its apparent pre-Christian elements, “The Animals of the Lord and the Devil” does characterize the devil in an exceedingly Christian way, making for an overall syncretic tale.
The Christian devil has long-been seen as a Destroying Angel— the one who is believed to bring about the pestilence in the book of Daniel in the Old Testament, and is a key contributor to the battle of Armageddon in John’s vision of the end of times in the book of Revelations (Kelly
2006). Thus, the devil’s nature in “The Animals of the Lord and the Devil” as one who is 25 destructive by nature is consistent with Christian theology. Furthermore, the association between the devil and goats was common in Christian tradition in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance period in Europe and seemed to serve the purpose of connecting the devil with goats featured in pagan traditions, thereby connecting paganism with the devil (Kelly 2006). In particular, goats used in the worship of magic practitioners; the pagan concept of half-men, half-goat creatures called satyrs; and Pan, the Greek satyr-God of nature became associated with the devil (Kelly
2006).
Discussion: The Syncretic Devil
The problem of whether the devil in The Original Folk and Fairy Tales of the Brothers
Grimm is Christian or pre-Christian is not one that is easily solved. In the four tales that feature the devil that have been phylogenetically dated, “The Devil with the Three Golden Hairs,” “The
Blacksmith and the Devil,” “The Devil’s Sooty Brother,” and “The Devil in the Green Coat,” the devil acts like a Germanic giant, is too kindly to be the Christian devil, or in earlier versions of the tales is not described as a devil at all. This, combined with the pre-Christian dates of origin for all four of the aforementioned tales, indicates that the devil in these tales is not intended to be the Christian devil, but rather is intended as a generalized malignant entity. As was previously stated, the terms “devil,” “demon,” “ghost,” “giant,” and “spirit” were often interchangeable in
Germanic folklore, and using one term over another had no effect on the narrative structure of folktales (Thompson 1977).
In the four tales featuring the devil in The Original Folk and Fairy Tales of the Brothers
Grimm without phylogenetic dates, “Maiden without Hands,” “The Three Journeymen,” “The
Devil and His Grandmother,” and “The Animals of the Lord and the Devil,” the figure of the devil grows even more complex. In these tales, one of two situations arise: pre-Christian 26 traditions, practices, or motifs accompany a devil who is decidedly Christian in characterization, or Christian traditions, practices, or motifs majorly influence a devil who is decidedly un-
Christian in nature and action. As a further complication, none of the aforementioned tales have been phylogenetically dated, yet three of them share motifs with tales that have.
Given how four of the eight tales featuring the devil in The Original Folk and Fairy
Tales of the Brothers Grimm are pre-Christian in origin and the other four tales contain both
Christian and pre-Christian elements within the tales and in the character of the devil himself, the most logical word to describe the characterization and origin of the devil in The Original Folk and Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm is syncretism. That is, the blending of pre-Christian traditions originating in Germanic culture and Christian traditions originating in German culture is particularly salient in the figure of the devil, despite the fact that the devil is arguably one of the most popular Christian figures to date. Though this may seem strange, this syncretic devil is consistent with the history of religious transformation in Germany, the country in which the
Brothers Grimm collected all the tales featured in The Original Folk and Fairy Tales of the
Brothers Grimm.
Before and during the Early Medieval Period, which lasted from the early sixth century to the early tenth century CE, some of what is now modern Germany consisted of various tribes of pagan peoples (Russell 1994). During this time, Christian missionaries, in an attempt to make
Christianity more appealing to these Germanic tribes, temporarily accommodated Germanic pagan practices, allowing them to intermix with Christian practices in what historian James
Russell describes as “a deliberate misrepresentation of Christianity in Germanic terms” (Russell
1994). This practice was unique to the regions in which Germanic peoples lived, particularly 27 modern-day Germany and Scandinavia, and resulted in a distinctly “Germanized” form of
Christianity that persisted past the tenth century CE (Filotas 2005).
“Germanized” Christianity involved a blend of both pagan and Christian traditions, and though “Germanized” Christianity eventually lost popularity in what is now Scandinavia and
Germany, elements of pagan culture persisted in the culture of the descendants of Germanic peoples, and therefore also in their oral and eventually written traditions (Filotas 2005). A syncretic devil is therefore not only plausible based on the evidence found in The Original Folk and Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm, but is also plausible given that early Christianity in
Germany and Scandinavia involved a purposeful blend of pre-Christian and Christian cultures that managed to survive even past the Medieval Period. Logically, the character of the devil and the stories surrounding him would show both Christian and pre-Christian elements, simply because literature and Christianity itself in Germany did. This syncretism found within German
Christianity and the supposed Christian figure of the devil may also indicate that all presumably
Christian characters in The Original Folk and Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm display the same level of syncretism, which begs further investigation.
It is important to note that research into the phylogenetic dates of the four undated tales featuring the devil is necessary before any conclusions can be drawn regarding the origin and characterization of the devil in The Original Folk and Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm. Only phylogenetic dating could determine whether the four remaining tales show true syncretism between Christianity and pre-Christian traditions in the figure of the devil, as would be the case if the tales were revealed to have an origin date after the onset of Christianity in Europe. Since the four tales without phylogenetic dates display clear Christian and pre-Christian traditions in the figure of the devil and the tales surrounding him, syncretism between pre-Christian and 28
Christian traditions would be the most likely explanation for both traditions appearing in a tale and a devil that originates after the onset of Christianity in Europe. If, however, the dates of the tales are pre-Christian, the superimposition of Christian traditions over pre-Christian traditions in the character of the devil and the tales involving him would be the most likely explanation for the appearance of both pre-Christian and Christian traditions in the devil and in the four tales in question.
The tales featuring the devil in The Original Folk and Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm also raise the question of whether these tales can be classified as wholly “German.” Many of the tales featuring the devil that have been phylogenetically dated do not originate in what is geographically considered Germany today, nor in a region where the predecessors to the
Germans, the Germanic peoples, lived. The Brothers Grimm, however, had an explanation for phenomena such as this. As Wilhelm Grimm stated,
the resemblance existing between the stories not only of nations widely removed from
each other by time and distance, but also between those which lie near together, consists
partly in the underlying idea and the delineation of particular characters and partly in the
weaving together and unraveling of incidents. There are, however, some situations which
are so simple and natural that they reappear everywhere, just as there are thoughts which
seem to present themselves of their own accord, so that it is quite possible that the same
or very similar stories may have sprung up in the most different countries quite
independently of each other… Fragments of a belief dating back to the most ancient
times, in which spiritual things are expressed in a figurative manner, are common to all
stories. The mythic element resembles small pieces of a shattered jewel which are lying 29
strewn on the ground all overgrown with grass and flowers, and can only be discovered by the most far-seeing eye. (Thompson 1977)
The fact that these non-German or non-Germanic tales featuring the devil appear in a collection of German folktales points not to a lesser degree of folkloristic authenticity for tales that are classified as German or Germanic. Instead, the organic transmission of folklore from one culture to another, from non-German(ic) to German(ic), or from pre-Christian to Christian, indicates ancient cultural similarities between Germany and nations worldwide, as well as similarities between Christianity and other religious traditions. This suggests that cultures and traditions on a global scale may be more deeply intertwined than previously suspected; that a greater theme of global cultural syncretism has existed long before the advent of modern technology allowed for globalization. 30
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