Do NOT Read This Post! Overinterpreting the Grimms' "Marienkind"

Today my son and I listened to the Grimm brothers fairy tale "Marienkind" (Kinder- und Hausmärchen, no. 3, 13 min.).* 

This is a very strange and disturbing story (par for the course with the Grimms, I suppose) that in some ways represents old-world Catholicism at its darkest: obey unquestioningly, or be not merely expelled from paradise, but burned at the stake! At the same time, the ending is a powerful statement on the total efficacy of the human will in accessing divine saving grace. It's popular Pelagianism. Though of course, the human excercises the will only in the face of the direst threat of violence, which scenario snatches back with the right hand the freedom extended with the left.

Whenever Mary asked the girl if she wants to admit opening the forbidden door, my son called out "Flunkerei!" ("That's a fib!"). Personally, I found there was something almost heroic in the little girl's resoluteness and told J so. Besides, much like with the forbidden fruit, there's the question of why Mary flaunted the door's forbiddenness if she didn't want it opened. 

There is a brilliant scene in Otfried Preußler's Räuber Hotzenplotz that can be read as a parodie of the forbidden door in "Marienkind." Kasperl, trapped in the castle of the evil magician Petrosilius Zwackelmann, finds a door with a sign on it saying "Admittance Strictly Forbidden!"

He goes through, only to find a second door with a sign saying "Very Strictly Forbidden!" 

and then a third door saying "Absolutely Forbidden!"

It's one of J's favorite scenes; we've read and heard it dozens of times. 

One of many things I love about Preußler is the way he subverts traditional fairy-tale motifs, often in a way that represents the empowerment of young subjects vis-a-vis some kind of authoritarianism. The parade example of this is Die kleine Hexe.   

Of course, all this freethinking education is probably going to come back to haunt my wife & me in about ten years—if not sooner!

J asked why the girl (das Mädchen) is always referred to as ihm (dative case), so he's really starting to hear the antiquatedness of the language.  

Age 5.1.7

*We skipped over no. 2 "Katz und Maus in Gesellschaft" at J's request. He has no problem with people being burned at the stake, but can't handle a cat eating a mouse!