Read "The Wolf and the Seven Young Kids" two nights ago, from Volume I of The Complete Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm, translated by Jack Zipes.
Synopsis: Before leaving to find food in the forest, a mother goat cautions her seven kids to be on guard against the wolf, who will most certainly eat them up. Sure enough, as soon as the mother goat leaves, the wolf comes in disguise and asks the kids to let them in. The kids refuse him entrance because his voice is gruff, unlike their mother's. The wolf then eats a piece of chalk, goes back to the house, and calls to the kids in a sweet voice, but he makes the mistake of placing his paw on the window sill so that the kids see that it is black, unlike their mother's. The wolf next goes to a baker and bids him cover his paw with dough and sprinkle it with flour. When he goes back to the house the kids see that his paw is white, like their mother's, and they open the door to him, upon which he chases them round the house and swallows them whole except for the seventh kid, who hides inside the clock case.
When the mother goat returns she sees the devastation that occurred. The kid who hid inside the clock case tells her everything that happened. They go outside and eventually find the wolf sleeping soundly under a tree. The mother goat cuts open his belly and lets out the six kids inside. She then fills the wolf's belly with stones and sews his belly up again. The wolf soon wakes up in great thirst. He goes to the well to drink some water, but due to the weight of the stones inside his body he falls into it and drowns.
My Commentary:
In this fairy tale all characters are parts of one whole, the Self. The mother is the psyche, the seven kids the vulnerable Ego, and the wolf the Shadow Self. Note that, as in the story of Red Riding Hood, the vulnerable Ego is swallowed whole and does not die, it merely becomes part of the Shadow Self; should it stay there a long time it is said to have merged with the Shadow Self, causing a life of neurosis, negativity, and depression.
By the same token, the Shadow Self also never dies. Although the story ends with the wolf falling into the well and drowning, we know that it will soon rise and roam the psychological landscape once again, pretty much as in the midrash of the Temptation in the Wilderness, where Jesus is the Ego and the shaitan, or Tester, is the Shadow. They confront each other but do not "kill" or vanquish each other. Instead, at the end of the midrash, the Tester says that he will come "another time", which he later did, as Judas.
Synopsis: Before leaving to find food in the forest, a mother goat cautions her seven kids to be on guard against the wolf, who will most certainly eat them up. Sure enough, as soon as the mother goat leaves, the wolf comes in disguise and asks the kids to let them in. The kids refuse him entrance because his voice is gruff, unlike their mother's. The wolf then eats a piece of chalk, goes back to the house, and calls to the kids in a sweet voice, but he makes the mistake of placing his paw on the window sill so that the kids see that it is black, unlike their mother's. The wolf next goes to a baker and bids him cover his paw with dough and sprinkle it with flour. When he goes back to the house the kids see that his paw is white, like their mother's, and they open the door to him, upon which he chases them round the house and swallows them whole except for the seventh kid, who hides inside the clock case.
When the mother goat returns she sees the devastation that occurred. The kid who hid inside the clock case tells her everything that happened. They go outside and eventually find the wolf sleeping soundly under a tree. The mother goat cuts open his belly and lets out the six kids inside. She then fills the wolf's belly with stones and sews his belly up again. The wolf soon wakes up in great thirst. He goes to the well to drink some water, but due to the weight of the stones inside his body he falls into it and drowns.
My Commentary:
In this fairy tale all characters are parts of one whole, the Self. The mother is the psyche, the seven kids the vulnerable Ego, and the wolf the Shadow Self. Note that, as in the story of Red Riding Hood, the vulnerable Ego is swallowed whole and does not die, it merely becomes part of the Shadow Self; should it stay there a long time it is said to have merged with the Shadow Self, causing a life of neurosis, negativity, and depression.
By the same token, the Shadow Self also never dies. Although the story ends with the wolf falling into the well and drowning, we know that it will soon rise and roam the psychological landscape once again, pretty much as in the midrash of the Temptation in the Wilderness, where Jesus is the Ego and the shaitan, or Tester, is the Shadow. They confront each other but do not "kill" or vanquish each other. Instead, at the end of the midrash, the Tester says that he will come "another time", which he later did, as Judas.
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