Read "Faithful Johannes" this afternoon, from Volume I of The Complete Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm, translated by Jack Zipes.
Synopsis: A dying king entrusts his son to his faithful servant, Johannes. After the king dies Johannes shows the young king all of the rooms in the castle, except for one room that the old king bade Johannes never to show his son. The young king, however, insists on entering the room, and Johannes has no choice but to let him in. The room contains a portrait of the Princess of the Golden Roof. The young king is smitten by it and swoons. When he revives, all he can think of is to find the princess and make her his bride.
Johannes suggests that they take all of the gold in the castle and have the smiths fashion them into exquisite items, since the princess is always surrounded with and is obsessed with gold. They sail to the land where the princess lives. Johannes shows the princess some items of gold and lures her to their ship, where Johannes greets her and shows her everything that they brought on board. Unbeknownst to the princess, Johannes orders the crew to set sail. In the middle of the sea the young king proposes to the princess, and she agrees to be his bride.
During the trip to the young king's home, Johannes overhears ravens foretell the doom that the young king and the princess are headed for:
1) Upon reaching land a horse as red as a fox will trot up to the young king, who will be tempted to ride off on it and will never see the princess again unless someone jumps up the saddle, takes the gun from it, and shoots the horse dead.
2) Upon reaching the castle the young king will find a bridal outfit in a basin. It is made, however, of sulfur and pitch, and the young king can be saved only if someone puts on gloves and hurls the outfit into the fire.
3) During a ball inside the castle, the princess will be stricken as though dead and can be brought back to life only if someone pricks her breast, draws three drops of blood from the puncture wound, and spits them out.
4) Anyone who reveals these to the young king, however, will immediately be turned to stone.
Everything happens as the ravens predict. Johannes shoots the horse with the gun, puts on gloves and hurls the bridal outfit into the fire, and draws three drops of blood from the princess's breast and spits them out. The young king forgives Johannes for the first two but not for the third, upon which he condemns Johannes to burn at the stake.
Once tied to the stake Johannes begs to give a final word before dying. The young king grants it. Johannes discloses everything he overheard from the ravens. Upon doing this, he turns to stone. The young king and the princess grieve over Johannes's fate. They eventually have two young sons. One afternoon, while the boys are playing, the young king wonders aloud how Johannes can be brought back to life. The stone statue says that the only way is for the young king to behead his sons and smear their blood on the stone. Due to the injustice he did Johannes, the young king does this. Johannes not only comes back to life, he reattaches the boys' heads to their bodies and they come back to life again. The royal family lives the rest of their lives in happiness.
My Commentary: Though written long before the birth of psycho-anthropologist Carl Gustav Jung, this fairy tale illustrates the first two stages of the psyche's development from Warrior to Lover to Magician to King. The dying king prohibits the prince from entering the forbidden room because the prince must first successfully complete his journey through the stage of Warrior. No one, after all, can enter the stage of Lover too soon without suffering its psychological consequences.
The motif of gold corresponds to purity and truth. Johannes must destroy the horse because it will take the young king forever into the Warrior stage and be hopelessly fixated in it. The bridal outfit comes too much, too soon before the Lover's maturity and will only lead to disaster. The princess falling comatose during the ball is an indication that she, too, will not benefit from an early entry into the Lover stage.
Beheading one's sons may come across as an act of violence unless we understand that the young king, the two boys, and Johannes are all parts of one, whole Ego. The Ego must learn to make sacrifices in service of the psyche in order to be integrated--perhaps pretty much as we find, frankly, in the story of Abraham and Isaac.
Synopsis: A dying king entrusts his son to his faithful servant, Johannes. After the king dies Johannes shows the young king all of the rooms in the castle, except for one room that the old king bade Johannes never to show his son. The young king, however, insists on entering the room, and Johannes has no choice but to let him in. The room contains a portrait of the Princess of the Golden Roof. The young king is smitten by it and swoons. When he revives, all he can think of is to find the princess and make her his bride.
Johannes suggests that they take all of the gold in the castle and have the smiths fashion them into exquisite items, since the princess is always surrounded with and is obsessed with gold. They sail to the land where the princess lives. Johannes shows the princess some items of gold and lures her to their ship, where Johannes greets her and shows her everything that they brought on board. Unbeknownst to the princess, Johannes orders the crew to set sail. In the middle of the sea the young king proposes to the princess, and she agrees to be his bride.
During the trip to the young king's home, Johannes overhears ravens foretell the doom that the young king and the princess are headed for:
1) Upon reaching land a horse as red as a fox will trot up to the young king, who will be tempted to ride off on it and will never see the princess again unless someone jumps up the saddle, takes the gun from it, and shoots the horse dead.
2) Upon reaching the castle the young king will find a bridal outfit in a basin. It is made, however, of sulfur and pitch, and the young king can be saved only if someone puts on gloves and hurls the outfit into the fire.
3) During a ball inside the castle, the princess will be stricken as though dead and can be brought back to life only if someone pricks her breast, draws three drops of blood from the puncture wound, and spits them out.
4) Anyone who reveals these to the young king, however, will immediately be turned to stone.
Everything happens as the ravens predict. Johannes shoots the horse with the gun, puts on gloves and hurls the bridal outfit into the fire, and draws three drops of blood from the princess's breast and spits them out. The young king forgives Johannes for the first two but not for the third, upon which he condemns Johannes to burn at the stake.
Once tied to the stake Johannes begs to give a final word before dying. The young king grants it. Johannes discloses everything he overheard from the ravens. Upon doing this, he turns to stone. The young king and the princess grieve over Johannes's fate. They eventually have two young sons. One afternoon, while the boys are playing, the young king wonders aloud how Johannes can be brought back to life. The stone statue says that the only way is for the young king to behead his sons and smear their blood on the stone. Due to the injustice he did Johannes, the young king does this. Johannes not only comes back to life, he reattaches the boys' heads to their bodies and they come back to life again. The royal family lives the rest of their lives in happiness.
My Commentary: Though written long before the birth of psycho-anthropologist Carl Gustav Jung, this fairy tale illustrates the first two stages of the psyche's development from Warrior to Lover to Magician to King. The dying king prohibits the prince from entering the forbidden room because the prince must first successfully complete his journey through the stage of Warrior. No one, after all, can enter the stage of Lover too soon without suffering its psychological consequences.
The motif of gold corresponds to purity and truth. Johannes must destroy the horse because it will take the young king forever into the Warrior stage and be hopelessly fixated in it. The bridal outfit comes too much, too soon before the Lover's maturity and will only lead to disaster. The princess falling comatose during the ball is an indication that she, too, will not benefit from an early entry into the Lover stage.
Beheading one's sons may come across as an act of violence unless we understand that the young king, the two boys, and Johannes are all parts of one, whole Ego. The Ego must learn to make sacrifices in service of the psyche in order to be integrated--perhaps pretty much as we find, frankly, in the story of Abraham and Isaac.
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