Tale Spinners: Submerged Voices in Grimms' Fairy Tales
Author(s): Ruth B. Bottigheimer
Source: New German Critique, No. 27, Women Writers and Critics (Autumn, 1982), pp. 141150
Published by: New German Critique
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TaleSpinners:
in
Voices
Submerged
Grimms'
FairyTales
by RuthB. Bottigheimer
Each generationapproachesold textswithnewquestions.One text
whichhas shownitselftobe a richsiteforshifting
readershipconcerns
is TheHousehold
collected
Tales(Kinder-und
byJacob and
Hansmiirchen*)
Wilhelm Grimm.The evocativepower of the collection has been
reflectedin the changingnatureof the assumptionsimplicitin the
criticismand interpretation
of these tales over the last 100 years.
Beyondtheirpowerto delighttheyoung,the taleswereperceivedin
the late 19thcenturyto performa normativefunctionforitsyoung
readers.A generationlatertheNationalSocialistsfoundthetalestobe
Germanic,and yetanothergenerationlater,the neoarchetypically
Freudian Bruno Bettelheim' and the Jungian Hedwig von Beit2
uneartheda different
archetype,that of the lineamentsof sexual
maturationand psychologicalworldview.In the last decade writers
and scholarsofa wide varietyof social and politicalpersuasionshave
undertakenrevisionsofthesetalesmorein accordancewiththeirview
ofsociety,a good overviewofwhichcan be foundinJackZipes' "Who's
AfraidoftheBrothersGrimm?Socializationand PolitizationThrough
FairyTales."'s
The tales can also be viewedas documentsin themselves.In conjunctionwithparallelmaterialwhichcan be foundabove all in thefirst
threevolumes ofJohannesBolte and Georg Polivka'scontinuation
and expansionoftheGrimms'originalnotestotheKHM,4thefolktales
- which appeared duringthe Grimms'lifetimein seven largeand
twelvesmalleditionsfrom1812 to 1856 - can be seenas a sourcebook
forthementality
notonlyofthe 19thcenturybutalso offormerages.
Investigatedin thislight,each talecan be seen to consistofinterpeneA further
levelis thatevokedin themindof
tratinglayersofnarrative.
' HereafterKHM.
1. TheUsesofEnchantment
(New York:AlfredKnopf,1976).
2. Die Symbolik
desMiirchens,
2nd ed. (Bern: FranckeVerlag,1956-1960).
3. TheLionand theUnicorn,
3 (Winter1979-1980),pp. 4-56.
4. Anmerkungen
zu denKinder-und Hausmiirchen
derBriiderGrimm,
(1913-32; rpt.
Hildesheim: G. Olms Verlag,1963).
141
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142
Grimms'
FairyTales
thereaderwhicharisesfromthereader'sown concerns,whichdiffer
againfromthoseofWilhelmGrimm,who editedthematerial,fromhis
informantsindividuallyand severally,and fromtheirinnumerable
tradition.I havechosento restrict
predecessorsin theoral and written
myanalysisto thedocumentitself,the talesas publishedin thefinal
editionof1856,drawingtoalimitedextenton variants,
wheredoingso
clarifiesthe thrustof the tale under consideration.
My particularinteresthere is the work ethic as expressed in a
delimitedcorpus,thespinningtales.I have definedspinningtalesas
thosein whicheithertheact or theimplementsof spinningformpart
ofthetale.Thisworkethicis expressedbyatleasttwovoices,thefirst
of
whichis thenarrative
voiceofWilhelmGrimm,whichpurportsto renderfaithfully
thefolkmaterialgatheredbyhimselforbyhisfriendsand
colleagues. The second voice mustbe teased out, since it appears to
have been overlaid - probably quite unintentionally- by the collat-
ing,editing,and refiningundertakenby WilhelmGrimm.Nonetheless,I believethatwe can discernfaintcriesofdistressand fatiguefrom
the spinning room -
Spinnstube-
in the centuries preceding the
Grimms'work.
The firstsignalperceivedbythereaderthatthespinningtalesdiffer
fromothertales in theKHM lies in the opening phrasesof the tales.
"Hard bya greatforestdwelta poor wood-cutter
withhiswife.""Thus
and in a likemannermanyother
beginsthe tale ofHanseland Gretel,
talesin theKHM. There was once a miller,a soldier,a farmer,a king.
These phrasesare onlystoryinitiators,
however,forthemillerdoes not
grind,nor does thesoldierbear arms,northefarmerplough,northe
kingrule. Each of theseinitiatorsidentifiesa characterin the tale to
follow.Sometimesthestoryinitiator
a queen, an old woman,
identifies
a poor woman,a girl.Yet,among the200 folktales,ofwhichapproxnot a single
imatelythirteenconcernspinningdirectlyor indirectly,
one begins: "There was once a spinner,"althoughSpinnerin
occasionallyappears in a title.The reasonappears to be thatthetalesgrow
out ofan age and a place in whichspinningwas yetanothertaskperformedby everywoman, the taskthatawaitedherwhen everyother
household taskhad been finished.In thiscontextone was nota spinner;one was a girl,a woman,a wifewho spun - or who didn'twantto
spin.And whetheror nota womanspun,and spunwell,markedherin
a particularway.
For the2,500 yearsbeforethe 19thcentury,hand spinninginWesternEurope - whetherwitha dropspindleorwitha spinningwheel-
5. All translationsot thetalesare takenfromTheComplete
Grimm's
FairyTales,trans.
MargaretFluntand James Stein(New York:Pantheon,1944).
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143
RuthB. Bottigheimer
had been carried on exclusivelyby women (with individual exceptions,such as isolated shepherds).Its appearance in association
and thevisualarts;yet,its
withwomenis constantinwesternliterature
specificassociationwithworkitselfin a collectionof talestakesa new
tackwithWilhelmGrimm.Forinstance,Boccaccio did notallowwork
as such to obtrude in the tales told by his ladies and gentlemenof
truebothofthe
The same thingis essentially
FlorenceintheDecameron.
PiacevoliNotti
byStraparola,wherespinningappears
early16th-century
chieflyas a markofthelowestsocial levelbut notas a formofemployproduced
mentperse,and of Basile'scollectionof tales,thePentamerone,
in 1634, but not published until 1675. This orientationmay only
of spinningin Italy,whichbegan to
reflecttheearlyindustrialization
takeplace in the 13thcentury,so thatone mayinferthatin generalin
Italyonlypoor ruralwomen spun,whereasnorthoftheAlps spinning
was widespreadamong both urban and ruralwomen.
In England,France,Switzerland,and theGermaniesin the18thand
traditionsobtained.Women ofboththe
early19thcenturiesdifferent
middle and lowereconomic classes appear to have spun in England
and Switzerland,whereasin Franceitwas an occupationfortheurban
poor and forcottagers,and in the Germaniesitappears to have been
practicedmainlyas a rural occupation. Beyond this differencein
geographicaland sociologicallocus, spinningin England,Franceand
Switzerlandappears to have been integratedinto general family
whereasspinningin theGermaniesappearsto havebeen
employment,
characterizedas an occupation carried on primarilyas a sexually
segregatedemployment.
Grimmassertedthat"the spindleis
In theGermantradition,Jacob
ofwisewomen."6The spindleis,as thetales
an essentialcharacteristic
markofwisewomen,
notonlytheidentifying
themselvesdemonstrate,
but ofall women,and especially- in theGermaniesfromtheMiddle
Ages to the 19thcentury- of diligent,well-orderedwomanhood.
ou
nouvelles
Unlikethetalesproducedforpolitesocietysuchas Contes
lesFgesd la modeby Madame d'Aulnoy(1698), Germanfolktaleswere
assumed to haveoriginatedinor to havepassed throughin manycases
foritwas therethatwomengatheredin theeveningand
theSpinnstube,
told talesto keep themselvesand theircompanyawake as theyspun.
And itwas frominformants
privyto thisoral traditionthatWilhelm
and Jacob Grimmgatheredmany of theirfolktales. Thus, we can
assume a personalrelationshipbetweenthetalesthatfollowand spinnersthemselves.
However,twovoicesseem to be present:one expressingdissatisfacfemale employment,with another
tion towardsthis archetypically
6. Bolte-Polivka,I, 440.
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144
Grimms'
FairyTales
voice appearingto affirmand extol spinningas a worthwhileenterprise.The lattervoice, I argue,belongs to WilhelmGrimm,through
whom a 19th-centuryvalue system and its vocabulary became
amalgamatedwiththe talesas we knowthemtoday.
TheThree
of
Spinners
exemplifiesmostcompletelythecharacteristics
thespinningtalestakenindividually
oras a group.Spinningitselfis the
subject of this tale, which is the German expressionof a tradition
documentedfromIrelandintheWesttoGreeceintheEastand withan
back to the 5th centuryB.C. Moreover,the conancestrystretching
tinuedsocial relevanceofthetalesis impliedbythemodernizationof
theancientspindleto theroughlycontemporary
spinningwheel,the
directagentof thegirl'sgrief.
The talecan be understoodas havingan ancientlineagefromitscast
of characters:mother, daughter,queen, three crones, and only
a prince.The prince,however,providesa further
moderperipherally
nizationin beingtheagentofthetypical18th-19thcenturyhappyending - poor girlmarriesprince.Such a cast comes straightfromthe
It is relatedto theoldest
predominantly
female-populatedSpinnstube.
level of the German folktale, in whichwomen were understoodas
intermediaries
betweenmen and naturalforces,a themewhichis evident in TheGoosegirl
and in thefigureofMother
Holle.The talefurther
concerns the spinningof flax,the fiberpreparedand worn by the
broadestsegmentof populationin Germany.
Specificfolk- and fairy- taleelementsarebasic tothistale.Deceit
steerstheplot,firstwhenthemotherlies to thequeen about whyher
daughteris crying,second when thedaughterlies to the queen, and
thirdwhen the crones imply to the prince that his bride will be
transformed
intotheircollectiveimage ifshe continuesto spin.
The numberthreeappearsprominently:
threechambersfullofflax
to be spun,threecroneswho help,threedaysoffutilecontemplation
of thejob, threequestions put to the threecrones at the wedding
feast.
And finallythereis a promise exacted fromthe poor girlby the
ofwhichprovidestheresolutionofthe
crones,theprecisesignificance
girl'sproblemat the climaxof the tale.
And what does this tale recount?Privatepreferencesand public
values.The formeris expressedin theopeningsentence:"Therewas a
girlwhowasidleand would notspin."The latter,directly
contravening
thisstatementoffact,is a lie; as themotherdeclaresto thequeen: "I
cannotget her to leave offspinning.She insistson spinningforever
and ever,and I am poor, and cannotprocuretheflax."
Even in hermother'sabsence thegirlcannotconfessthedeceitshe
- constrains
has been made partyto. No threat- as inRumpelstilzchen
the girl,forif she doesn't spin, she simplywon't marrythe prince
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RuthB. Bottigheimer145
must spin strawto
(whereasthe miller'sdaughterin Rumpelstilzchen
gold - or die).
Afterthe passage of threedays in the tale,deliveranceis magically
to spin in
provided.Three old women appear, benevolentlyoffering
to herweddingfeast,theiracceptanceofwhich
returnforan invitation
results in the bride's being released forever from the hated
spinning.
Thus, the privatepreferencesof the poor protagonistare recognized, validated,and incorporatedinto her futureby creatureswho
banishtheworkethicpubliclyespoused bythemother,thequeen, and
- by his use of the adjective,faul (lazy),in the opening sentenceWilhelmGrimmhimself.Faulheit
(laziness)has triumphedoverunverFrau
undfleissige
Fleiss(untiringindustry),and thegeschickte
drossener
(cleverand industriouswife)is an illusioncreatedby magicalforces
whichfreethebrideforeverfromdasbMse
(thehatefulflaxFlachsspinnen
spinning).
Garstig(hateful),which in other tales is applied eitherto a lazy
woman who won'tspin or to theflaxitselfhere modifiesFreundschaft
friends)in theprince'squestion:"Wie kpmmstdu zu der
(friendship,
garstigenFreundschaft?"Knowingthis,the readerfirstunderstands
thatthe prince's use of this adjectiveregistershis surprisethathis
beautifulbride should claim such ugly relatives.But we can also
understandthe survivalof thisadjectiveinto the last edition of the
oftheaunts'
KHM as an implicitcommentary
bytheeditoroftheeffect
actionson theentiretale:they'veprotectedand confirmedidlenessindeed!
garstig
Each of the tales I have definedas a spinningtale can be analyzed
usingvocabularyand plotanalysisin conjunctionwithmotif
similarly,
intothe
and theme.The first- vocabularyanalysis- leads us directly
mentalsetofthe 19thcenturyas exemplifiedbyWilhelmGrimm,who
became more and more identifiedwiththeKHM as Jacob followed
in hislaterlife.The second and thirddirections- plot
otherinterests
and motif- takeus intothe oral traditionwhichpreceded and produced and raw materialforthe folktale collection.
In manycasesWilhelmGrimmalteredthelanguageofthetalesfrom
fromedithesourceto itsfirstappearance in theKHM and thereafter
and young
tiontoedition.Vocabularycarriesitownnormativefreight,
readersofthesetalescould makeno mistakeabout thenatureofa girl
who took up the workappropriateto her and did it well: she was
geschickt
(diligent),sch'n(beautiful),treu(loyal),
(clever,skillful),fleissig
and lustig(jolly).She also tookon
(industrious),
flink(nimble),arbeitsam
and she
additionaltaskslikepuffing
up hermistress'down comforter,
was associatedwithrichesin theformof gold.
include young
and Rumpelstilzchen,
The two tales,KingThrushbeard
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146
Grimms'
FairyTales
womenwho would spin iftheycould, buteitherthetaskis impossible
different
constellaor theyhaven'tbeen bredtoit.In thiscase a slightly
tionofcharacteristics
appears,minglingthosewithpositiveand negativeconnotations:sch'n(beautiful),stolz(proud), iibermutig
(haughty)
and richesin the formof gold.
ofgirlswho don'twantto spinare
On theotherhand theattributes
an indictmentin themselves:faul,
(lazy,idleness,to
Faulheit,faulenzen
be lazy),garstig
(hateful),and bds(ugly).
In termsof plot foursub-groupscan be distinguishedamong the
spinningitselfis thesubjectofthetale.In the
spinningtales.In thefirst,
second, spinningfunctionsas an indicatorofthecharacteror characwhileinthethirdgroup,spinningas
ofthefemaleprotagonist;
teristics
an action servesonlyto advance theplot. In thelastgroup,spinning
symbolizesthe femalesex and/oronerous tasks.
Wherespinningitselfis thesubjectof the tale,thefemaleprotagonistis unequivocal in her detestationof spinning,resortingto trickery,deceit, or supernaturalpowers to avoid it. Parallel tales from
nearlyeveryEuropean countrywarn of the woefulconsequences of
spinning:hips thatbecome too wide to pass througha doorway,lips
lickedawayfromconstantlymoisteningthethread.7We are herein a
predominantlyfemalecirclecomposed of a motherwho wantsher
lazy daughterto spin; a queen who wantsan industriouswifeforher
son; a daughterwho hatesspinning;and threewisewomenwho help
herand whom she mustpubliclyacknowledgeas herrelatives(Basen)
fromthewoman's pointof
as partof the bargain.We see everything
view,and it declaresthatflax-spinningis evil,awful(bas)and thebest
one can do is be quit of it!
was one of the earliesttales
TheLazySpinner
Like TheThree
Spinners,
collectedbyWilhelmGrimm.No queen, no princeappearshere,justa
man and woman. Hard necessityrequiresthewoman to sustainher
partof the domesticeconomy,but she resists.When she claims she
can'twind heryarnbecause she has no reel,herhusband goes to the
woods to cut her one; but she climbs the treeand - hidden by the
foliage- chantsdown at him: He who cutswood forreelsshall die,
and deception are
And she who winds, shall perish. Such trickery
women's weapons in a generallyunyieldingenvironmentwhich is
ultimatelycontrolledby men because only they can promise the
whichnowhereappearsattainwhichmarriageoffers,
security
security
able outside of marriage.
Among those tales in which spinning functionsas a character
indicator,fourfemalesemergeas diligentand capable,whilethreeare
derBriider
7. Bolte-Polivka,
I, 109-114.Quoted fromDieMiirchen
(M iinchen:
Grimm,
Goldmann Verlag, 1957), whose text reproduces the last edition published by
WilhelmGrimmin 1856.
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RuthB. Bottigheimer
147
revealedto be eitherincompetentor lazy. Diligenceincarnatedoesn't
varymuchiniitsappearance,butidlenesscan taketheformofincapacity,sloth,or deceit.Forinstance,theproud princessinKingThrushbeard
is simplyincapableofspinningflax,forherfinehandscan'thandlethe
flaxfibers;and theindustriousmaid and herlazymistressin TheHurds
offera familiarstudyin contrasts.On the otherhand, the lazy, ugly
daughterinFrauHolletriestomakeitappear thatshe has spun so much
thatherfingershave bled, whereasin truthshe has simplythrusther
hand intoa thornhedge in thehope offoolingFrau Holle intobelieving that she, like her genuinelydiligentsister,is worthyof a rich
reward.That spinningitselfis peripheralto thistaleemergesin several
ways.AlthoughFrau Holle appears in othercontextsas the special
ofspinners,theoriginalversionofthistalein the 1812 ediprotectress
tion contains no referenceto a bloodied spindle, which derives
apparentlyfroma later informant.8In addition the main idea of
according to their merits also
rewardingstepsistersdifferentially
Little
MenintheWood,whichcontainsreferencenot
appears in TheThree
to spinning,but to each girl'swillingnessto share her food withthe
dwarfs.Functionally,spinningin FrauHollestandsforfemalevirtues,
Little
MenintheWoodas selflessnessand/
whichare outlinedin TheThree
traitswhichin women are also associatedwithpoverty.
or generosity,
This complex -
selflessness, generosity, women, poverty -
is
at the Well Derived fromKletke's
especially clear in The Goose-Girl
of 1840,9 itcontainsmanyfamiliarmotifsand is morehighly
Almanach
structuredthanthe talesrenderedbyWilhelmGrimmhimself.Here
spinningis thesymbolforand thevisibleattributeofthepenuryand
personal degradationinto which a princessis plunged when she is
deprivedof male protection.The same poverty-generosity-spinning
theShuttle
and theNeedlewithitsnaive
complex emergesin TheSpindle,
and ingenouslymoralisticpro-spinningethic. In thistale, the spinning,weaving,and sewingtools are depicted as operatingon their
own. "It seemed as iftheflaxin theroom increasedofitsown accord,
and whenevershe wovea piece ofclothor carpet,or had made a shirt,
she at once founda buyerwho paid heramplyforit,so thatshe was in
wantof nothing,and even had somethingto sharewithothers."This
bourgeois dream of picturesquecarefreecottagelabor rewardedby
richpatronsfirstappeared in Auerbacher'sBiichleinfiir
dieJugendin
intothenexteditionoftheKHM,whereit
183410and was takendirectly
remainedin subsequenteditionsas a sentimentalevocationofa past
8. Ibid.,I, p. 207.
9. Ibid.,I, p. 305.
10. Ibid.,III, p. 355.
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148
Grimms'
FairyTales
age symbolizedby thespinningmaiden. It is in starkcontrastto the
actual social conditionof spinnersin Prussia,whose veryoccupation
made them certifiablemendicants,or in Switzerlandand southern
Germany,wherea day'slaborwas paid forat a ratewhichdid noteven
coverthe costs of food.
In the next group of tales where spinningserves principallyto
advance the plot,it is also peripheralto thecentraltheme.A characfemaleoccupation- eitherspinningor sewing- is partof
teristically
in all its European and Near Eastern variants:in
LittleBriar-Rose
Catalonia a princesspricksherfingeron a flaxfiber;in thelateFrench
a tinysplinterin thefirstfiberpulled
medievalprose novel,Perceforest,
fromthedistaff
causes a deep sleep; whilein theArabianstoryofSitsendsherto sleep.
tukan,a flaxfilamentundertheheroine'sfingernail
In easternEuropeanvariantsfibersand spindlesas a sleepingagentare
replacedbya needle,whichcharacterizeswomen'soccupationsmuch
as the spindle does elsewhere.Here spinningrepresentsa neutral
value; it is merelya hingeon whichthe tale turns.
The other tale in this group, Rumpelstilzchen,
represents an
amalgamationof severaltraditionsin itshistoricaldevelopmentinto
theforminwhichwe knowit.Polivkaseesa relationshipbetweenitand
TheThree
Spinners:""He findstheoriginofboth(tales)amongtheGermanicpeoples,accordingtowhosebeliefs,elvesand dwarvesspinand
Swedishverweave,whichis fosteredby Frau Holde and Frikke...the
sion is theoriginalone, inwhichthegirlreceivesfromthedwarfa pair
ofgloveswithwhichshe can spin strawto gold."'2 IfPolivkais correct
in thisassumption,thenone mustposittheincorporationofanother
traditionwhichappears in manytales:offering
help and/orrichesin
returnforsomethingyoung(TheNixieoftheMill-Pond),
or forthefirst
husbandor father
thingthatgreetsthereturning
Hands),
(TheGirlWithout
or forsomethingcraved(Rapunzel).
This byno meansexhauststhelist,
but givesan indicationof the varietyand frequencywithwhichthis
themerecursintheKHM. Even ifthehistoricalbasisforRumpelstilzchen
is to be foundin theassociatesofa Frau Holle figure,theantagonistic
mien of Rumpelstilzchento the miller'sdaughterremovesthistale
from the traditionof the mild gracious Frau Holle. By the time
WilhelmGrimmcollecteditfromDortchenWildin 1811,theplothad
offeredhelptoenable
changedfromtheearlyone inwhichelvesfreely
a girltospinstrawintogold toa plotinwhicha girl'sfather'sfalsepride
precipitatesherintothegreedyhands ofa king,fromwhose threatof
death (ifshe does not spin a roomfulof strawinto gold) she can be
saved onlyby pledgingherfirstborn
to thedwarfwho saves her life.
11. Ibid.,I, p. 437.
12. Ibid.,I, p. 438.
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RuthB. Bottigheimer149
Frau Holle and relatedfiguresfunctionquite differently:
theyreward
demonstratedgoodwilland diligence,whereasthedwarf,as one ofthe
men who enteror shareherlife(herfather,hersovereign,thedwarf)
caststhemiller'sdaughterintoa perilousposition.It is preciselysuch
shiftsin traditionwhichenable us to makeinferences
about thewayin
which minds in anotherage made sense of theworld in whichthey
foundthemselves.The benevolentassistanceofa Frau Holle or ofthe
threecrones in the Spinnstube
in the older tale is here displaced by a
fearfultributary
relationshipto men in general.
In thelastgroupoftales,Allerleirauh,
TalesofthePadTheWater-Nixie,
Various
Eve's
and
The
the
Mill-Pond
Nixie of
dock,
Children,
spinning
occupies a clearlysymbolicposition representingeitherthe work
appropriateto thefemalein thetaleand/oroneroustoilofthecaptive
or poverty-stricken
female.
The importanceto WilhelmGrimm
tbrplot developof.spinning
mentemergesfroma comparisonof the
OlenbergMS. of 1810 with
thefirst
editionof 1812. In re-working
thematerialforpublication,he
added spinningas an indicationofhardshiptoseveraltales.Forinstanare increasedbytheadditionofspinningin
ce, theprincess'sufferings
Thrushbeard.
In
theidea oftwoimpossibletaskThe
Water-Nixie,
King
a
waterbucket
and
filling leaky
hewinga treewitha bluntaxe - are
in
the
amplifiedby
interpolation the 1812 editionof spinningflax.'"
Furthermore,
althoughspinningexistsin bothoftheearlyversionsof
WilhelmGrimmchangedtheentiremotivationforthe
Rumpelstilzchen,
talebetween1810 and 1812.The MS. versionbegins:"Therewas once
littlegirlwho was givena hankofflaxto spin,but everything
she spun
was golden threadand notflaxat all. She gotverysad and sat on the
rooftopand startedspinning,and forthreedaysshe spun nothingbut
gold.Then a dwarfcame alongand said: I willhelpyou."" The motivationfortheentiretale shiftsfromthegirl'sbeing releasedfromspinninggold (1810) to herbeingforcedto spingold at theriskof herlife
(1812): "Then thekinghad themiller'sdaughtercome and commanded herto changethewhole room fullofstrawintogold in one night,
and ifshe couldn'tdo it,thenshe'd have to die."'5
is characterizedonlyonce in theKHM, in The
Spinningas an activity
Three
where
Spinners,
spinningis describedas bds(ugly,awful).In other
talesthefibersthemselvesare representedas garstig
(hateful),and hart
(rough,hard).
13. Heinz R6llecke,DieAlteste
Grimm
MiirchensammlungderBriider
(Cologny-Geneve:
FondationMartinBodmer, 1975), pp. 118-119, 184-185.
14. Ibid.,p. 238-239.
15. Ibid.,p. 239.
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150
Grimms'
FairyTales
Throughoutthetalestheactofspinningemergesas highlyundesireable despitethesurfacemessagethatitwilllead to riches.It identifies
itis an occupationto be escaped
subjugatedwomanhoodinAllerleirauh;
in TheLazySpinner;
itis also a punishmentin TheWaterNixie,a deformMother
Holle,and King
ingor injuriousoccupationin TheThree
Spinners,
and at itsworstan agentofdeath or a curseinLittleBriarThrushbeard;
Rose.Althoughmanytalesdeclarethatspinningmediateswealthin the
associatedwithpovertyin TalesFromthePadformofgold,itisprimarily
dockand TheGoose-Girl
at theWell.Above all itis thearchetypalemploywomanhood in Eve's Various
mentof domesticatedpoverty-stricken
As Louise A. TillyandJoanW. Scottpointout in Women,
Children.
Work,
and Family,a poor widowwho remarriedintoan economic situation
considerablyworse than thatwhich her firsthusband offeredcould
expect to become an agriculturalfieldlaboreror a spinner.'6
As though to confirmthe mean station occupied by spinning
women in the Germanies,a Nfirnbergwoodcut of 1490 adjuring
women to stayin theirplace and spin rendersthe spinnersnot in
humanformatall butas swine."7And ina traditionalFrenchtalefairies
carrytwoimmenseboulders,one on theirhead and one in theirapron,
whilespinningwiththeirfreehand. Iftheydidn'thavetospin,theysay,
theycould carryfourboulders,thusequatingtheburdenofspinning
withcarryingtwo immenseboulders!'8
Despite thegood facethatWilhelmGrimmtriedto puton spinning
internalevidenceappears to tellus just
as a pursuit,incontrovertible
theopposite.We become awareofthedouble messageofthespinning
tales themselves.In plot the talesgenerallyconveythe conventional
moralityofthesocietywhichproducedthem,whileon thelexicaland
thematiclevelthesubjectsofthesetalesthemselvescommunicatewith
us the realityof theirexperience.
This mode of articulatingthe social relevanceof the Kinder-und
tool in thesearchfora clearer
offersanotherinterpretive
Hausmirchen
earlier folk material
understandingof the KHM. In reformulating
Wilhelm Grimm - perhaps unwittingly- buried a meassage within
these tales. Uncovering the manner and direction in which the
materialhas been bentrevealsnotonlythesocial interestand outlook
ofWilhelmGrimm,but also of his informants.
16. (New York:Holt, Rinehart,and Winston,1978), p. 52.
17. History
ed. Charles Singerand others(Oxford:Clarendon Press,
ofTechnology,
1954-58),II, p. 208.
18. Jacob Grimm,Deutsche
4thed. (rpt.Graz: AkademischeDruck-und
Mythologie,
Verlagsanstalt,1953), I, p. 342.
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