~Karl
Katz~
Jacob
and Wilhelm Grimm
(1785-1863
; 1786-1859)
GERMANY
W.H.
Auden, in his introduction to the tales of the Brothers Grimm states:
“The Grimm Brothers were the first men to attempt to record folk
tales exactly as they were told by the folk themselves,” stressing
the significance of the oral tradition being transformed into written
literature. What may be particularly fascinating for American
readers, however, is the continuation of a still expanding oral
tradition in much of the world where literature and literacy are
fairly new. In this collection of stories, for example, consider Amos
Tutuola's “The Complete Gentlemen” or Hyemeyohosts Storm's “The
Story of Jumping Mouse” – both contemporary transformations from
the oral tradition.
The
text of the story is given here:
NOTES
Meanings
of Difficult Words:
- Cleft: a split in rock or ground.
- Scrambling: racing, getting into position clumsily.
- Neigh: a characteristic high whinnying sound made by a horse.
- Manger: a long trough for feeding cattle or horses.
- Sedately: calmly, dully.
- Ninepins: nine wooden pins that people try to knock down with a ball, traditional form of a game of skittles.
- Draught: swallowing of liquid.
- Flagon: a large container for wine.
- Flagged: weakened.
- Turf: short grass.
- Totter: wobble.
- Chink: narrow opening.
- Wont: accustomed.
Important
Points:
Karl
Katz follows a typical human nature of curiosity. It is innate for a
human to be curious about unknown things and unfamiliar objects. It
is the fact that we are always led by our desires and
unconsciousness, we are not aware of it. It is this curiosity and
intrigue that we do the things we do daily, for example, when we seek
to create friendship with someone it is out of curiosity for them and
a desire to explore the personality for that person. It is mainly
because we have a thirst for knowledge deep inside of us and we want
to find out more and more. We always seek for the answers to our
questions, and our questions are limitless.
There
is magic attached to this folktale. The game of ninepins is symbolic,
it seems as if when the knights were knocking down pins the years of
Karl's life were passing by. Time is a relative entity. Five minutes
may be equal to years in the realm where Karl had gone to. Time
passed by quickly but for Karl it was slow and normal. Karl knew that
he had an experience of the supernatural and magic.
Fairy-tales
and folklore comes from an oral tradition. Their purpose was simple
and cheap entertainment or amusement. Story-telling was a form of art
in the olden times. This story is an example of folklore. We cannot
rationalize the ideas given in the story. According to Freud we have
the desire of the unknown. Karl's curiosity led him to a fantasy
place. It is our most primitive desire to know things that are
hidden. Superstitions are created in the same way, but there is no
logic to these ideas. Our belief in miracles and our unknown desires
cannot be put under the category of reason. Humans like to believe in
logic and truth, we seek to find answers and explanations that soothe
us. Humans fear the things they cannot explain and an explanation to
certain miraculous events can calm the human mind and abate the fear.
We simply like to rationalize things but we must admit there are some
things that cannot be explained by way of reason, yet they exist and
are very real.
There
are certain fairy-tale symbols in the story that are to be explained
and understood in context of the story. Such as, Emperor, goblins,
fairies, castle, narrow doorway, cavern, ivy-grown walls,
wide-branching trees and the forest, knights, magical drink, sleep,
village or cottage and old woman.
Questions:
- If traditional tales are often designed to teach a lesson or establish a moral what can be said of “Karl Katz”?
- What is the result of applying contemporary theoretical perspectives to “Karl Katz”, such as psychological, Freudian, or feminist?
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