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baleanoptera) wrote2007-03-21 08:17 pm
baleanoptera) wrote2007-03-21 08:17 pm
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Sleeping a hundred years...
....or The Brothers Grimm and the Politics of Sleeping Beauty
The prince sees the castle in the distance
Sometimes a story is just a story, and other times it is perceived as something else entirely. This is one of the latter times....
Once upon a time, in 1807 to be precise, the Brothers Grimm set out to collect and later publish the fairytales of Germany. In 1812 the first volume of Grimms Fairytales (Or Deutsche Kinder und Haus Märchen) was published and the rest, as they say, is history. But what about the context of that history? For the time in which the fairytales were collected was one of turmoil. Napoleon had recently conquered large parts of what would become Germany. French culture was dominant and among the opposition to the French rule the search was on for a German culture to counter culture-attack the French dominance. One of the cultural aspects that were, partially, pushed to the foreground because of this were the fairytales and old legends. The view of the fairytales as something particularly German continued long after Napoleon was gone.
Kinder und Haus Märchen, 1864 edition
Now it could be argued that this was simply a collection of fairytales and hardly something to pack a political punch. Yet, from a certain point of view, political was exactly what it was. In fact so political that when a large hall was decorated in Goslar, to commemorate the unification of Germany in 1871, a large cycle of fairytale paintings were included along side historical paintings. The fairytale selected? Sleeping Beauty.
The birth of Sleeping Beauty, a mural on the end wall in Goslar Imperial Palace, by Herman Wislicenus. Our girl can be seen as a baby in the window to the right.
The fairytales were seen as a vital part of the folk heritage. Inspired by the ideas of Johann Gottfried Herder the idea of a Volksgeist, or folk spirit, that defined the nation was all the rage. The Brothers Grimm were also deeply motivated but this way of thinking. In fact, in addition to fairytales they also collected legends, songs and other stories publishing "German Legends" (Deutsche Sagen) in 1816. Jacob Grimm was so convinced that the fairytales and legends contained the German volksgeist that he tried to combine them into a German mythology. The belief being that the volksgeist contained in the stories had also been a driving force behind such a mythology, and that traces of the mythology could be found in the fairytales because of the same volksgeist.
But what does all of this have to do with Sleeping Beauty? Well, this was considered by many to be the most German of all the fairytales. The most German here meaning the one that most clearly showed volksgeist,both in characters, contents and setting. In addition Sleeping Beauty served well as an allegory for the current political situation in Germany. To explain why that is, I need to delve into the political background a little more.
Detail of the Birth of Sleeping Beauty
For in large parts of the 19 th Century there was no Germany. The Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation had been disbanded in 1806 and what would become Germany considered of various sovereign states of which Prussia was the largest. So basically there was no Germany. However there was a distinct idea about a common German culture, a common German language (and the fairytales were considered to be and important part of both these groups) and also the notion that the creation of a German state would be a good idea.
As an inspiration for German unification a lot of people looked to the Middle Ages with its united empire, powerful emperors and magnificent castles – the remnants of the latter being still littered across he countryside.
Burg Eltz, on the Rhine - just another castle littered across the countryside
This is where Sleeping Beauty comes in. She, or Dornröschen (Briar Rose) as she is known in German, lived in a castle, was related to a king and in many ways could be seen as a posterchild for the Middle Ages – at least how the 19th Century like to perceive it.
In addition, and this is the part that makes Sleeping Beauty so spectacularly useful, she was bewitched and fell asleep only to be awoken by a handsome prince. Rather like Germany, people said while drawing parallels like crazy. Germany had also been conceived and grown during the Middle Ages. A captivating, beautiful nation, they said – just like the fairytale heroine. But just like Briar Rose they were bewitched and tricked – the title of emperor was snatched away from them by foreign houses and wars ravaged German soil leaving only wretchedness behind.
But also like Sleeping Beauty Germany wasn’t dead, only sleeping and when the right prince would come along the princess and the nation would wake once more. Hopefully to a happy ever after.
Sleeping Beauty awakes, also from Goslar. She can be seen to the left of the painting and to the right, in carriage, is the new German Emperor Wilhelm I
In the painting above the parallel between Germany's re-awakening and Sleeping Beauty's is drawn rather directly. In the same instance that Briar Rose awakes the new German Emperor comes sailing in indicating that just like Sleeping Beauty is being awoken by her true love, so he is revivalist for Germany. His name was Wilhelm I, and he originally he was the king of Prussia but after the German unification of 1871 he became emperor and his family reigned until the end of the First World War.
Detail of Sleeping Beauty sleeping no more
Another reason why Sleeping Beauty was thought so fitting was the predominant place of nature. She did after all sleep in a castle overgrown by rosebushes – a human encapsulated in the vastness of nature so to speak. This part of the story was a particularly appealing metaphor or allegory for the Romantic movement.
The Romantic movement was concerned with grand passions, deep felt emotions and man's relationship to the wild and nature. The latter is particularly visible in the paintings of the German Romantic movement.
Caspar David Friedrich for example preferred to depict nature as something sublime and infused with religious sentiment.
Friedrich: Ruin in Forest
Often, like here, he fused religious buildings with a forest to get his point across. Religion was to be found in nature and you experienced religion by being in nature. So for the Romanticists the whole image of the resurrected sleeping beauty awoken from her sacred nature dwelling had a whole, and deeper, dimension.
Now to consider Sleeping Beauty in this light – as a symbol of resurrected history, a connection to Medieval history and as a metaphor for man's connection with the sublime in nature – the fairytale stops being just a fairytale and becomes something else entirely. Based on this its perhaps not so surprising that painters in the late 19th Century felt inspired to include a fairytale in large, stately financed monuments. After all the symbolic power of the tale was quite impressive.
German stamp from 1964
Sometimes a story is just a story, and other times it is perceived as something else entirely. This is one of the latter times....
Once upon a time, in 1807 to be precise, the Brothers Grimm set out to collect and later publish the fairytales of Germany. In 1812 the first volume of Grimms Fairytales (Or Deutsche Kinder und Haus Märchen) was published and the rest, as they say, is history. But what about the context of that history? For the time in which the fairytales were collected was one of turmoil. Napoleon had recently conquered large parts of what would become Germany. French culture was dominant and among the opposition to the French rule the search was on for a German culture to counter culture-attack the French dominance. One of the cultural aspects that were, partially, pushed to the foreground because of this were the fairytales and old legends. The view of the fairytales as something particularly German continued long after Napoleon was gone.
Now it could be argued that this was simply a collection of fairytales and hardly something to pack a political punch. Yet, from a certain point of view, political was exactly what it was. In fact so political that when a large hall was decorated in Goslar, to commemorate the unification of Germany in 1871, a large cycle of fairytale paintings were included along side historical paintings. The fairytale selected? Sleeping Beauty.
The fairytales were seen as a vital part of the folk heritage. Inspired by the ideas of Johann Gottfried Herder the idea of a Volksgeist, or folk spirit, that defined the nation was all the rage. The Brothers Grimm were also deeply motivated but this way of thinking. In fact, in addition to fairytales they also collected legends, songs and other stories publishing "German Legends" (Deutsche Sagen) in 1816. Jacob Grimm was so convinced that the fairytales and legends contained the German volksgeist that he tried to combine them into a German mythology. The belief being that the volksgeist contained in the stories had also been a driving force behind such a mythology, and that traces of the mythology could be found in the fairytales because of the same volksgeist.
But what does all of this have to do with Sleeping Beauty? Well, this was considered by many to be the most German of all the fairytales. The most German here meaning the one that most clearly showed volksgeist,both in characters, contents and setting. In addition Sleeping Beauty served well as an allegory for the current political situation in Germany. To explain why that is, I need to delve into the political background a little more.
For in large parts of the 19 th Century there was no Germany. The Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation had been disbanded in 1806 and what would become Germany considered of various sovereign states of which Prussia was the largest. So basically there was no Germany. However there was a distinct idea about a common German culture, a common German language (and the fairytales were considered to be and important part of both these groups) and also the notion that the creation of a German state would be a good idea.
As an inspiration for German unification a lot of people looked to the Middle Ages with its united empire, powerful emperors and magnificent castles – the remnants of the latter being still littered across he countryside.
This is where Sleeping Beauty comes in. She, or Dornröschen (Briar Rose) as she is known in German, lived in a castle, was related to a king and in many ways could be seen as a posterchild for the Middle Ages – at least how the 19th Century like to perceive it.
In addition, and this is the part that makes Sleeping Beauty so spectacularly useful, she was bewitched and fell asleep only to be awoken by a handsome prince. Rather like Germany, people said while drawing parallels like crazy. Germany had also been conceived and grown during the Middle Ages. A captivating, beautiful nation, they said – just like the fairytale heroine. But just like Briar Rose they were bewitched and tricked – the title of emperor was snatched away from them by foreign houses and wars ravaged German soil leaving only wretchedness behind.
But also like Sleeping Beauty Germany wasn’t dead, only sleeping and when the right prince would come along the princess and the nation would wake once more. Hopefully to a happy ever after.
In the painting above the parallel between Germany's re-awakening and Sleeping Beauty's is drawn rather directly. In the same instance that Briar Rose awakes the new German Emperor comes sailing in indicating that just like Sleeping Beauty is being awoken by her true love, so he is revivalist for Germany. His name was Wilhelm I, and he originally he was the king of Prussia but after the German unification of 1871 he became emperor and his family reigned until the end of the First World War.
Another reason why Sleeping Beauty was thought so fitting was the predominant place of nature. She did after all sleep in a castle overgrown by rosebushes – a human encapsulated in the vastness of nature so to speak. This part of the story was a particularly appealing metaphor or allegory for the Romantic movement.
The Romantic movement was concerned with grand passions, deep felt emotions and man's relationship to the wild and nature. The latter is particularly visible in the paintings of the German Romantic movement.
Caspar David Friedrich for example preferred to depict nature as something sublime and infused with religious sentiment.
Often, like here, he fused religious buildings with a forest to get his point across. Religion was to be found in nature and you experienced religion by being in nature. So for the Romanticists the whole image of the resurrected sleeping beauty awoken from her sacred nature dwelling had a whole, and deeper, dimension.
Now to consider Sleeping Beauty in this light – as a symbol of resurrected history, a connection to Medieval history and as a metaphor for man's connection with the sublime in nature – the fairytale stops being just a fairytale and becomes something else entirely. Based on this its perhaps not so surprising that painters in the late 19th Century felt inspired to include a fairytale in large, stately financed monuments. After all the symbolic power of the tale was quite impressive.
no subject
no subject
You've see The Annotated Brothers Grimm, which came out a couple of years ago, right?
Oh yes! I've borrowed it from the university library and I might never return it!
There is also an Annotated Grimm's Legends which is REALLY good. It deals with all the other bits of folklore that were left out of the fairytales. So it has all these stories about witches, goblins, deep, dark mines and crossroads. Stuff that I love basically. ;D
no subject
I studied a lot of vampire folklore, and Greek and Roman mythology, plus an overview of American folklore, as courses, then did a lot of independent study of (mainly) urban legends.
You know Neil Jordan's In the Company of Wolves, right?
no subject
no subject
No link, but the name is "The German Legends of the Brothers Grimm", edited and translated by Donald ward. Philadelphia, 1981. It's in two volumes. I got mine in a shop that sold used books, but I think it's available on Amazon as well.
I studied a lot of vampire folklore, and Greek and Roman mythology, plus an overview of American folklore, as courses, then did a lot of independent study of (mainly) urban legends.
I think all of those subjects sounds great! I'm very fond of urban legends myself. There is something particularly sinister about them since they put a twist on the world you see every day.
You know Neil Jordan's In the Company of Wolves
Yup! I even own it. Werewolves are my favourite mythical monster. Probably something to do with the metamorphosis theme.
no subject
no subject
The Emperor Wilhelm I did, in addition to presenting himself as Briar Rose's prince, also establish parallels to the medieval emperor Fredrick Barbarossa. There is a myth called the Kyffhäuser myth which claims that Barbarossa did not die on his way to the Third Crusade, but is in fact sleeping in the mountain Kyffhäuser and will awake when the new, true emperor comes. So Wilhelm I, or basically his Minister of Church and Culture along with Chancellor Bismarck, made every effort to portray Wilhelm as that promised emperor.
The funny thing is that Fredrick Barbarossa did exactly the same thing in his day. He had an elaborate campaign on how he was the true heir to Charlemange's Empire, which he proved by, among other things, redecorating Charlemange's church in Aachen.
(and the fact the German history is one of my main subjects of interest has nothing what so ever with me rambling on in this comment. Oh no...not at all. Perish the thought! ;P )
no subject
The peace was also a major propaganda point: Charles also had a bust of himself as Augustus, and the court poets called him a new Augustus and made all sorts of comparisons to the Pax Romana. They got really into pastoral poetry, too. I'm pretty sure Charles II continued the Augustus/pastoral themes, but not positive. But anyway, comparing oneself to past emperors was apparently a popular strategy! Ramble about German history all you like :D (Also, I read that the first time as "Barbossa did not die," which cracked me up.)
no subject
Charles also had a bust of himself as Augustus,
Hee! I think every king of some stature has at one time tried to compare himself with Augustus. Didn't know Charles had jumped that train though, but that is so great!
The Holy Roman Emperor Fredrick II also compared himself with Augustus, called a new Pax Romana and order a sarcophagus in porphyr( the purple-ish stone only used by Roman emperors). Then again Fredrick II was also excommunicated by the Pope, bought Jerusalem (and subsequently regained the Pope's favour), wrote a book on Falconeering and claimed that the world had been duped by three impostors: Moses, Jesus and Muhammed.(and that quote was why he got excommunicated in the first place. ;P)
And all of this is especially cool when you consider that he lived in the 13th Century.
And yes, I'm rambling about German history again.
Barbossa did not die," which cracked me up.
LOL! I can understand that. Well, they both had very long beards.
no subject
Wow. People have been excommunicated for far less - Frederick just had to upstage them, didn't he? And what a way to get back into favor! I'm guessing this was not a guy who did things by halves.
Augustus wins for being the guy all the other emperors want to be :D
no subject
Yup - this was also the guy who had gold inscription in ARABIC sown onto his coronation robe. It contained a quote and the year in according to the Muslim. The court was highly shocked, but Fredrick, who spoke Arabic, didn't see the problem. I think he is probably one of my favourite historical characters.
Augustus wins for being the guy all the other emperors want to be :D
Lol! Absolutely!
Fredrick II
Re: Fredrick II
no subject
Well, at least part of that is because while lots of emperors wanted to be remembered for various magnificent deeds or lands conquered, Augustus (although he gave plenty of publicity to his deeds) most wanted to be remembered for being a good ruler.
(Also, he had Livia, and whatever else anyone may think of her, they pretty much all agree that she was TERRIFYINGLY competent.)
no subject
This is true, and a very good point. Also in the case of Frederick II it was a case of drawing parallels to the Roman Empire as well as the person of Augustus. And Augustus was also popular, at least in medieval times, for being the Emperor that was alive when Jesus was born.
Also, he had Livia, and whatever else anyone may think of her, they pretty much all agree that she was TERRIFYINGLY competent.
You will get no argument from me there.*g* I find Livia fascinating, whether she poisoned almost her entire family or not. ;) I don't know if you've watched HBO's Rome? At any rate their Livia is okay I guess, but I find her slightly lacking in competence and menace - and more just plain odd.
no subject
I don't get HBO and my backlog of things-I-want-to-rent will take me a year and a half at this point, so no.
Due to exposure at an impressionable age, I have trouble hearing Livia with any voice other than that of Sian Phillips. ^_^
no subject
*g* Yes - I know what you mean. "I, Claudius" is still one of my fondest tv-memories - and possibly also the source of my Livia fascination.
That said the HBO series is recommended should you get the chance. What it lacks in a proper Livia it makes up with other characters of which I would say the city of Rome itself is one.