Page:Grimm's household tales, volume 2 (1884).djvu/396

382 Christmas and Easter, are asked for (Meinert, 1.95). The guarding and plucking the flowers recalls the dwarfs' rose-garden, which is trampled down by the mischievous heroes, for which the dwarfs demand heavy penalties.

89.—.

From Zwehrn. This beautiful story sets forth in incidents which are all the more impressive by reason of their simplicity, the nobility of royal birth which maintains itself even in servitude, By no fault of her own she has lost what her mother gave her for her protection. (Voices come from the drops of blood elsewhere; see Dearest Roland, No. 56. Compare also Clemens Brentano's Gründung Prags, p. 106, and notes, 45). The oath which has been extorted from her weighs her down, but she still knows magic words which have power over the wind, and she is filled with thoughts of proud humility every morning beneath the dark gate by her conversation with the horse, which has remained faithful to her even in death. Wise horses which can speak, appear in other stories (compare Ferenand Getrü, No. 126). The cut-off head (like Mimer's) retains the gift of speech. We may even quote Tacitus (Germ. 10) "proprium gentis equorum praesagia ac monitus experiri—hinnitus ac fremitus observant." It is remarkable that the old Norsemen were in the habit of fixing up the heads of sacrificed horses in the belief that they could thus injure their enemies (Saxo Gramm. 5.75). Compare Suhm's Fabelzeit, 1.317. A similar custom prevailed among the Wends. They believed they warded off epidemics by fixing up these heads, Prätorius (Weltbeschreibung, 2.163). It is also well known that human heads were set upon the battlements or on poles (Haupt's Zeifschrift, 3.51, notes). In the Eyrbyggia Sage, 219, there is the head of a dead man which sings. The incident of a beautiful woman having golden or silver hair occurs very often; it is a sign of royal lineage (No. 114); frequent mention is also made of the combing this hair, and of how light streamed from it just as if the sun were shining. Unfortunate princesses comb and spin just as often as they tend cattle. Kürdchen may be a contraction of Conrädchen, but we are also reminded of chorder, horder, a shepherd. The rhyme is rather halting, in gangest instead of gehest, we have the Norse ganga (as in hangest for hähest). We have also heard—

"Sich schnatzen," when applied to the hair, means flechten, to