![]() ![]() Distribution Ī geographical analysis of variants by Stith Thompson led him to believe its origin lay in the East, since variants are found in India, in the Near East and in Scandinavia (in Denmark and in southern Sweden). ĭanish folklorist Axel Olrik also suggested that the origin of the story lay elsewhere than Scandinavia, since, etymologically speaking, the word lindworm appears in Germanic languages of medieval times, and may not hark back to an earlier period in Nordic history. Folklorist Stith Thompson was also of the opinion that the continuation of the narrative with the adventures of the bride/wife, may have originally formed in the Near East. Origins Īccording to scholar Christine Goldberg, an analysis of the tale type through the historic-geographic method by Anna Birgitta Waldmarson suggests that it has originated as simple legends in India and combined into a two-part tale in the Near East, migrating to Scandinavia in the 17th century. Illustration by Kay Nielsen for East of the Sun and West of the Moon: Old Tales from the North (1914). Variants The Lindworm Prince coils around his bride-to-be. In addition, researcher Birgit Olsen indicated that the combination with the second part of the story forms an East Mediterranean oikotype, popular in both Greece and Asia Minor. As for the nature of the second husband, he is a man cursed to be dead in the latter, while in the former region he is a prince in bird form or a man who has a contract with the Devil. Swedish scholar Waldemar Liungman noted that the heroine, in the second part of the tale, is torn between a first and second husbands, and chooses the first - a dilemma that occurs "both in the Nordic as well as in variants from Eastern and Southeastern Europe". Other motifs ĭanish folklorist Axel Olrik, in his study, noted that the flower as a birthing implement appears in Asian tales (from India, China and Annam), and suggested that it may have been the origin of the motif in the Scandinavian tale. Similarly, according to Birgit Olsen, "in most versions" the heroine is advised by her mother's spirit to wear many shifts for her wedding night with the lindworm prince. Scholar Jan-Öjvind Swahn, in his work about Cupid and Psyche and other Animal as Bridegroom tales, described that the King Lindworm tales are "usually characterized" by the motifs of "release by bathing" and "7 shifts and 7 skins". Motifs The lindworm's disenchantment Īccording to Svend Grundtvig's system of folktale classification, translated by Astrid Lunding in 1910, this type (King-Snake or Kong Lindorm) may also show the maiden whipping the prince in the bridal bed in order to disenchant him. The tale type can also be called King Wyvern, as per the studies of scholar Bengt Holbek. The boy is only disenchanted by a maiden after they both undress and enter a bath. In the first iteration of the international folktale classification, by folklorist Antti Aarne, he established that this tale type concerned about a childless queen who gives birth to a boy in snake form. The tale of Prince Lindworm is part of a multiverse of tales in which a maiden is betrothed or wooed by a prince enchanted to be a snake or other serpentine creature ( ATU 433B, "The Prince as Serpent" "King Lindworm"). The tale was published in a compilation of tales "from the North" with illustrations by artist Kay Nielsen, with the title Prince Lindworm. Some versions of the story omit the lindworm's twin, and the gender of the soothsayer varies. Eventually his human form is revealed beneath the last skin. The lindworm tells her to take off her dress, but she insists he shed a skin for each dress she removes. īecause none of the chosen maidens are pleased by him, he eats each until a shepherd's daughter who spoke to the same crone is brought to marry him, wearing every dress she owns. When he grows up and sets off to find a bride, the lindworm insists that a bride be found for him before his younger brother can marry. She forgot and ate both, causing the first twin to be a lindworm. In this tale from Scandinavian folklore, a "half-man, half-snake" lindworm is born, as one of twins, to a queen, who, in an effort to overcome her childless situation, has followed the advice of an old crone, who tells her to eat one of two roses, one red, one white, but not both. ![]() It is classified in the Aarne–Thompson–Uther Index as tale type ATU 433B, a type that deals with maidens disenchanting serpentine husbands. King Lindworm or Prince Lindworm ( Danish: Kong Lindorm) is a Danish fairy tale published in the 19th century by Danish folklorist Svend Grundtvig. Gamle danske minder i folkemunde, by Svend Grundtvig (1854) Illustration by Henry Justice Ford for Andrew Lang's The Pink Fairy Book (1897). ![]() The maiden amidst the Lindorm's shed skins. ![]()
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