The Fairy Tales
Everything that a Folk needs is its myths, legends, and fairy tales. From these
roots comes its strength. Everything else is conditional of the time and
passing. The fundamental truths always stay the same. The folk songs and
fruits of accomplishments: culture, science, and discovery grow from them.
There was once a time without television, without picture magazines, without ice cream, without Lego’s, even without automobiles. Unbelievable! But there certainly was. There were even parents who did not fulfill every wish of their children; whether by shopping for birthdays or yet for Christmas. They did not love their children less than we do ours. They simply did not have more. They gave their children a pair of home-woven woolen stockings or a puppet made from spare materials. Nothing else was there. You ask yourself what the children did with themselves all day. If they were not busy with their own games, then they helped their parents: the girls helped the mother and the boys helped the father. That was simple enough. For children naturally want to do what grown-ups do and grow up themselves.
In the evenings stories were told; for light was scarce or expensive. People had time for each other. The parents and grandparents told what different experiences they had had or what had gone on in the neighborhood or town. They told about the great heroes of earlier times, of the forces around us such as tree and mountain spirits, about castles and mills that were enchanted. The children easily learned what was of their own sort and known to them and what they had best avoid. They grew up unknown to the society outside of which they belonged.
The meaning of myths, legends, and fairy tales all tell something similar. It is the knowledge- the telling, the news of the past. The creation of the world and appearance of life is described in myths, however not scientifically. In the legends there is a core element that is brought forth and held as important. The fairy tale is the knowledge of extraordinary experiences, the description of fantastic events full of wonder and deep wisdom. Myths, legends, and fairy tales report about the past, about the foundation of our experience. Whoever does not know where he comes from can also not know where he stands in the world. A folk that no longer knows where it comes from, where its roots are, ceases to be a folk. It is only an empty, wandering heap. The Brothers Grimm therefore have written down a Germanic Mythology and German Folk- and House Fairy Tales. We live from the past, but for the future. The mythology is the furtherance of study and strength of a folk.
The biblical mythology, that without doubt has to do with the Jews, says the first men were created from clay and completed from god's breath. In the Germanic vision, the first man came forth from an ash tree and the first woman from an elm tree. From that we get the fundamental relationship of the Germanics to the trees. Germanics are tree peoples to whom certain trees are holy. The oak is holy to Thor. The forest is our love. The great forest- an always repeating scene in our fairy tales and legends: the closeness with nature, the respect of it comes as an example. The Mediterranean folks have cut down their forests and given praise to the landscape of the scorched sun.
Our legends report of gods and heroes. In the fairy tales the small heroes of everyday are protected, the wisdom of life that we need in our daily life. The highest virtue that is prized is always courage, the fearlessness. Also arrogance and superiority were warned against. The arrogant did not succeed at what the humble or shrewd succeeded at. Simplicity or humility, to remain true to oneself but not to sell oneself for less than one's worth. Cinderella performed the lowest duties certainly, but is knowledgeable of her worth and took not anyone at all, but rather the prince. The battle for the most beautiful girl is a frequent motive. And only the best may win the best. Natural selection!
Many fairy tales give hope in that direction: even in apparently hopeless and impossible situations one should not doubt. Somehow there will be a shimmer of hope; a crack will open or unexpected spirits will come to one's aid.
Fairy tales can be interpreted by many wise men in either symbolic or esoteric renderings. However the most important is certainly to find the undeniable life's wisdom that is within every fairy tale.
Children request fairy tales because they sense the deep truths within instinctively. We, however, give them foolish modern stories or comic figures. For years people have condemned the fairy tales. They are too morbid for children. Stupid example! Brutalities on television are much more morbid and certain poison for the children's soul. But if the evil witch is thrown in the oven, if the evil stepmother must dance in glowing slippers until she falls down dead, then the uncorrupted children's soul celebrates because the evil one had to be punished. Then the good won and the child sleeps at peace.
Again and again the topic is being saved. Someone can become enchanted by an evil spell. He can only escape this evil magic from skilled tests or clever deeds of another in order to find his true path in life again. An entire folk can be enchanted through evil magic and be sent to foreign lands; then only through skilled trials of an individual can it be saved and set back to its proper way.
Snow White, as white as snow, as red as blood, as black as ebony wood {black-white-red) is from the evil stepmother, not her own mother, rather a foreign governess poisons her so that she lies as though dead. The wonderful beauty shines forth so that a prince sees her and falls in love and quite definitely had to have her. The coffin carriers stumbled over a tree root.
This was the root of our kind, the tree a holiness of our ancestors. Then the poisonous apple bit fell out and Snow White woke up to new life. Is that not as a needed advice to save our folk from the poisonous circumstance? Back to one's own kind! Back to nature! Back to simple life! And our Folk will once again be the master of destiny!
Manfred Roeder
Haus
Richberg
D-34639 Schwarzenborn Germany
www.die-kommenden.net/triskele
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