19 March, 2012

500 Fairy Tales Unearthed in Germany

A stash of previously unknown fairy tales collected in the 19th century have recently been uncovered.

A whole new world of magic animals, brave young princes and evil witches has come to light with the discovery of 500 new fairytales, which were locked away in an archive in Regensburg, Germany for over 150 years. The tales are part of a collection of myths, legends and fairytales, gathered by the local historian Franz Xaver von Schönwerth (1810–1886) in the Bavarian region of Oberpfalz at about the same time as the Grimm brothers were collecting the fairytales that have since charmed adults and children around the world.

No collection of fine Teutonic fairy tales is complete without some ultra-violence.

For example, there is the tale of a maiden who escapes a witch by transforming herself into a pond. The witch then lies on her stomach and drinks all the water, swallowing the young girl, who uses a knife to cut her way out of the witch.

You can read one of the tales, "The Turnip Princess", here.


("King Golden Hair")

6 comments:

nichole said...

Wow. This is so cool!

Now, had you posted it yesterday, JM and I would have gotten our nightly Qrank trivia question right.

Skip said...

What was the question? And what is "Qrank trivia"?

nichole said...

Qrank is an iOS app, delivering 20 trivia questions per day to our iPod. I think the one we lost was something like "what was recently discovered in Bayern."

Skip said...

Aha. Do you folks play trivia at any local taverns?

nichole said...

Not lately... JM's been involved in Dane101 pub trivia before. And we often go to Deerfield PL trivia at Doubleday's with my coworkers. Can you recommend a good trivia night?

Skip said...

I cannot. I have friends that go to the Brass Ring on Wednesdays but I've never been myself.