Page:Grimm's household tales, volume 2 (1884).djvu/465

Rh but live in luxury and enjoyment (Höfer, 3. 92). On the other side the story has some affinity with many sagas about impossible things (No. 159), and the equally old story Der Finkenritter, which Fischart frequently mentions, and on which he himself was perhaps a fellow-labourer (for the popular book compare Koch's Grundriss, 2). In the Bienerkorb (St. 4, chap. 4), we find among other things, "At that time houses flew, beasts talked, streams were on fire, and people extinguished the flames with straw; peasants barked, and dogs ran about with spears in the time of the valiant Finkenritter." In the juxtaposition of these impossible things there is much that points to a mysterious affinity between them which has been lost sight of, and here as in the explanations of dreams, we ought to separate this array of words, so significant in their connection, from the rough, coarse lies. A Dutch popular song De droomende Reyziger, though modernized, has still many old strophes, and a considerable resemblance to the old German poem, compare the Toverlantarn Sammlung, pp. 91-92. To this group belong the Ditmars Tale of Wonders (No. 159). Walafried's Strabo Similitudo impossibilium (Canis. 2. 2. p. 241). Parts of the Tannhaüser, 2. 66; Marner, 2. 172; Boppo, 2. 236; Reinmar von Zweter, MS. Hag. 2. 206b; and Die Verkehrte Welt. in Görres' Meisterlieder, p. 221. We will add one more story which belongs to this group. It is from Paderborn. One day I went out walking and came to a great forest, and a great big thing met me that had a long long tail hanging quite ten ells behind him, and I was bold enough to lay hold of a thick tuft of his hair and let him drag me along after him. It was not long before we came to a great castle and the thing went inside it. I said nothing, and stayed where I was, and it went through a great number of rooms dragging me into every corner behind it, until I was covered with cobwebs. All at once I stuck fast in one of these corners, and when I looked I had a great tuft of hair in my hand which I had torn out of the creature; so I put it down beside me, and stayed where I was, and suddenly all the doors were shut, and I did not know what had become of the thing. Then all at once I saw a little dwarf standing before me, who said, "I wish you good evening;" so I said, "I am much obliged to you." "Why have you come here?" I said, "For my own pleasure." Then the dwarf said, "What have you done; you have taken away our master's strength?" "I!" said I, "and I will not give it back; I have torn out a bit of his tail." "That will cause a great misfortune, he is lying there struggling for life, and is perishing before one's very eyes!" "What do I care for that; all that I care for is to get out of this place again." Then the dwarf said, "I am king over sixteen dwarfs, what will you give me if I have you taken out again? They have all been at school, and have learnt everything."