A Glorious Berlin Sunset
Category Archives: Fairy Tales
Tale: Die sieben Raben
There was once a man who had seven sons, and still he had
no daughter, however much he wished for one. At length his
wife again gave him hope of a child, and when it came into
the world it was a girl. The joy was great, but the child was
sickly and small, and had to be privately baptized on account of
its weakness. The father sent one of the boys in haste to the
spring to fetch water for the baptism. The other six went with
him, and as each of them wanted to be first to fill it, the jug
fell into the well. There they stood and did not know what to do,
and none of them dared to go home. As they still did not return,
the father grew impatient, and said, they have certainly forgotten
it while playing some game, the wicked boys. He became afraid that
the girl would have to die without being baptized, and in his
anger cried, I wish the boys were all turned into ravens. Hardly
was the word spoken before he heard a whirring of wings over his
head, looked up and saw seven coal-black ravens flying away.
Urban Folklore: “Va, pensiero” and East Germany
As an opera fan, I listen to a great many pieces of music that I don’t necessarily know all the history behind. One of my favorites is “Va, pensiero” by Verdi. The piece is also known as “Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves”, wherein the Jewish exiles of Babylon mourn the loss of their homeland and their temple. It wasn’t until I arrived here in Germany that I learned that this piece has a specific, although possibly apocryphal, history here. Supposedly, whenever Nabucco was performed in East Germany, audiences would be so moved by “Va, pensiero”, they would rise to their feet and join the chorus. At first the Politburo was pleased, thinking this a rallying cry around their homeland of Soviet East Germany. Once they realized that the homeland the people were singing of was really the West, Nabucco was quickly stricken from the list of acceptable operas to be performed in the East. I have searched for confirmation of this tale and only found vague and unspecified references to it, but the story is still a compelling example of modern folklore. True or not, it depicts acts of defiance of a people divided that serve to crystallize the zeitgeist of a moment in history.
Continue reading Urban Folklore: “Va, pensiero” and East Germany
Tale: Schneewittchen
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Once upon a time in the middle of winter, when the flakes of
snow were falling like feathers from the sky, a queen sat at
a window sewing, and the frame of the window was made of black
ebony. And whilst she was sewing and looking out of the window
at the snow, she pricked her finger with the needle, and three
drops of blood fell upon the snow. And the red looked pretty
upon the white snow, and she thought to herself, would that I had
a child as white as snow, as red as blood, and as black as the
wood of the window-frame.
Plants: Schlüsselblumen/Cowslip (Primula veris)
Kingdom: Plantae
(unranked): Angiosperms
(unranked): Eudicots
(unranked): Asterids
Order: Ericales
Family: Primulaceae
Genus: Primula
Species: P. veris