Petzold's "Undine" To Be First In A Trio Of German Myths (& A Tour of Germanic Fairy Tale-Like Legends As Contenders for Films 2 & 3...)

During the conversation, the stranger had already occasionally heard a splash against the little low window, as if someone were sprinkling water against it. Every time the noise occurred, the old man knit how brow with displeasure; but at least when a whole shower was dashed against the panes, and bubbled into the room through the decayed casement, he rose angrily, and called threateningly from the window; "Undine; will you for once leave off these childish tricks? and to-day, besides, there is a stranger knight with us in the cottage." (Excerpt from Undine, Chapter 1: How the Knight Came to the Fisherman)

Production has just begun on a brand-new, mythic film trilogy, the first of which will be based on the fairy tale Undine, written by Friedrich de la Motte-Fouque. The story is well known in Germany and worldwide, largely thanks to Arthur Rackham's popular illustrations, and prima ballerina assoluta Margot Fonteyn's signature role as the titular Ondine with the Royal Ballet (with an 'O' instead of a 'U').

The director, Christian Petzold (of last year's acclaimed film Transit) has offered a few clues as to the direction he'll be taking:

"The next trilogy is about German myths. (The) first one (is) about Undine, a woman who comes in from the water, living in Berlin wanting to kill all the men. (And) yes, (it will be) very modern."

Petzold was interviewed recently, just after production started, and elaborated a little more on how the character of Undine will be portrayed. The article extract below includes information on the film's cast and crew for any who might be familiar with Petzold's work to date:

Director Christian Petzold has now embarked on his next film, the fairytale-inspired Undine, and it finds him reteaming with Transit stars Paula Beer and Franz Rogowski, Cineuropa reports. Also starring Jacob Matschenz and Maryam Zaree, see a synopsis below for the film that kicked off production last week. (Ed: Reported in July 2019)
Named after the water nymph that seduces men in a number of mythological tales, the German director’s new movie will portray Undine (Paula Beer) as a history graduate who works as a guide in Berlin in the present day. After her partner (Jacob Matschenz) leaves her for another woman, she is cursed and compelled to kill the man who betrayed her and return to the waters she was once summoned from. Yet unlike the mythological character, in the film, Undine tries to defy her fate. Immediately after the break-up, she meets Christoph (Franz Rogowski), an industrial diver, and falls in love with him. The two have a wonderful time together until he realises that she is running away from something and starts to feel betrayed.

So it will not have the fairy tale feel of Ondine, the 2010 romantic Irish-drama (with Colin Farrell and Alicja Bachleda), which was based on the same source. Ondine has few magical effects but very much taps into Wonder and has a very fairy tale feel. Petzold's Undine, however, will be worlds away from that and will be considering a very different aspect of the story.

Petzold is one of the few German film directors who consistently gets US distribution for his films. In an interview with The Film Experience, he was asked why he thought that might be. His answer is very interesting, both for German cinema and American:

"Americans need cinema like the Greeks needed theater. It’s where you learn about community and society. In Germany cinema had to be re-invented because Nazis infected it. So I learned from American cinema." 

We have to wonder, with his eye so firmly on the social and political dynamics of the world stage, particularly with regard to Germany and the US, what Petzold's commentary on current issues will be.  Clearly, he will be exploring the changing role - and perception - of women in his film Undine, but that's unlikely to be the only issue he'll be exploring.

In de la Motte-Fouque's original Undine, a strong contrast is drawn between the wild, (and soulless) Undine, who laughs inappropriately, is 'tricksy' and brazen (see excerpt at the beginning of the post for a taste), and her transformation to the woman she becomes (overnight) on getting married to a human and therefore gaining a soul. From then on, she is demure, quiet, modest and "well behaved". It is completely opposite to her essential nature, one which is surrounded by devilish spirits and creatures that accompany and pursue her, and frighten her knight and the priest that marries them. It is even implied in the Undine text at the beginning of the story, that the water nymph did away with (drowned) a couple's human child, in order to become the replacement foster child - a huge contrast to the meek and tragic figure she later becomes. (You can read the full book online HERE.) Petzold's Undine, rather than being mysterious and romantic, is set to start with quite a brazen edge too, and a very real threat, but also promises complexity as the story develops.

As for the other German myths that might be tapped for the trilogy, there are quite a few famous ones, and though we can't know how the director is considering tying the three films together, here are some possible subjects:

• The Pied Piper (not to be confused with the tragic Children's Crusade, another German legend)
• The Changeling (Or How To Protect Your Child - written by Jacob Grimm for German Mythology)
• The Hoofprint on the Rosstrappe, or Princess Brunhilde escaping the Giant Bodo (in which her stallion left a hoof print, still visible today, on Rosstrappe, in the Harz mountain range, as he leaped off a high cliff, carrying her to safety. This is from Legends and Tales of the Harz Mountains by Toofie Lauder 1881, but it can be seen that Germanic mythology has a lot of overlap with Norse mythology)
• The Morbach Monster (the location of the last werewolf kill in Germany, which has a shrine with an ever-burning candle, as legend has it that if the candle goes out, the monster will return)

The Lorelei legend (similar to a mermaid) is also one of the most popular German myths, but with Undine already being the basis of the first and sharing many of the motifs, it's unlikely Petzold will be using this one. There is a third water nymph legend that overlaps as well, loosely titled The King of Mummelsee (also known as the Singing Nymphs of the Black Forest), which takes place in the locale of the Black Forest (and a glacial lake) and includes mention of a monastery and nymphs-who-used-to-be-nuns; in some ways, a reversal of the Undine story. Other magical legends are based around Mummelsee (the lake) too, one in which a man in a rat fur coat, with an owl companion, takes a midwife with him to the lake, to help with the delivery of his baby. He paid her in straw, which turned to gold. Another legend says that deep down in the Mummelsee is a blue flower which can make someone invisible.

For the last of the major myth contenders, there is the notorious legend of the Watzmann mountain range, said to actually be a family of blood-thirsty people, who enjoyed hunting local peasants for sport, and were eventually cursed during a particularly cruel and bloody kill, and turned to stone, (each peak of the range a different family member) but it's a fairly simple story. There is a variant in which a little pocket-sized man helps the farmers defeat the wicked king and his family, and the community ends up stoning the entire awful family to death, using so many stones that the mountain range was created, but again it's a fairly straightforward tale. (An interesting local folkloric note: There is a tradition called "Kick the Royalty" in which, even today, locals encourage hikers to "kick the wicked royalty" with their shoes while "walking on their bodies".)

As one might imagine, The Black Forest has it's own unique set of legends (and fairy tales), many of which include a magical element; water nymphs, monks catching ghosts, a giant ditch-digging hen, disappearing night ladies, a headless horseman and a good witch who caused the local vineyards to produce the best wine in Europe. All of these legends are lesser-known, though, and unlikely to be a mythic source for the trilogy.

Veering slightly off the legend-as-complete-story' track, there are the popular legendary characters of German myth that could be considered as well. These include Godfather Death, Krampus (Santa's dark helper), the Erl King (German King of the Fairies), the Rübezahl (a trickster mountain spirit), Barbarossa (a famous king whose very long beard is linked with prophecy) and characters from The Nibelungenlied (knights, dwarves, and dragons).

Then there are many other collections of legends and folktales, beyond the Grimm brothers, any of which may also be in the running, as long as they have some popularity or legendary status in Germany. There are tales by Bechstein (whose work was apparently more popular in Germany than the contemporary Grimm's work, for about fifty years), Schönwerth's collected (and largely unedited) tales, and respected fairy tale scholar Jack Zipes also writes of many other German fairy and folktale collections, alerting us to many other tales and collections "more interesting" than Schönwerth's as well.

"...I can point to some brilliant German collections by Theodor Vernaleken, Johann Wilhelm Wolf, Ignaz and Joseph Zingerele, Heinrich Pröhle, Josef Haltrich, Christian Schneller, Karl Haupt, Hermann Knust, Carl and Theodor Colshorn, etc. "

There is certainly a wealth of possibilities for this new "mythic trilogy", but like Petzold's other trilogies, Undine is likely to be both a stand-alone film, and have a unique context within the trilogy, when it's complete. With Petzold's star shining so brightly at present, it's clear many critical eyes worldwide will be watching to see what he does.

For now, however, German fairy tales are front and center.

All illustrations in this post are by Frances Bassett Comstock.

Sources Referenced:

• Interview: Christian Petzold on 'Transit', melodramas and the influence of Fassbinder and Ackerman by Murtada Elfadl for The Film Experience
• Christian Petzold Begins Production on Fairytale-Inspired Film ‘Undine’ by Jordan Raup for The Film Stage 
• Full online text of Frederick La Motte-Fouque's "Undine"
• An Extraordinary New Find? Jack Zipes on the 500 New Fairy Tales by jwyg for the University of Chichester
• German Myths & Fairy Tales by Taylor Fisk Henning for the Illinois Library
• Myths, Legends & Folklore From Germany by Europe Diaries
• The Local List: German Myths & Legends by TheLocal.de
• Werewolf Legends from Germany - translated and edited by D. L. Ashliman University of Pittsburgh 
• The Nibelunglied - - translated and edited by D. L. Ashliman University of Pittsburgh 
• Undine 1911 English with illustrations by Frances Bassett Comstock - archive.org
• Various local articles on the Watzmann mountain range - including the Grosser Watzmann, the "Watzmann wife" and the seven "Watzmann children", located in Upper Bavaria
• German Changeling Legends  - translated and edited by D. L. Ashliman University of Pittsburgh 
• Barbarossa, the red-bearded hero, symbol of German unity by DW (Deutsche Welle) Culture
• Wikipedia entry for Rübezahl
• Legends of the Mummelsee in Germany's Black Forest by David Gutscher
• The Legend of the Rosstrappe from Uncommon Travel Germany, a transcribed tale from Legends and Tales of the Harz Mountains by Toofie Lauder in 1881
• The Pied Piper of Hameln (not a misspelling) and related legends of other towns - translated and edited by D. L. Ashliman University of Pittsburgh 
• Black Forest Legends by Websters
• The Erl King by Goethe - Encyclopedia Britannica.com

Maria Tatar Answered Questions on Schonwerth, Grimms & Fairy Tales at iO9 This Week (& it Was Awesome)

I'm sorry I didn't see this until about half an hour after the opportunity was over, and I didn't want to just add this to the round-up list, but yes: Maria Tatar was on the pop culture 'n' more news site iO9, answering every question, no matter how strange, with tact, aplomb and a solid dose of good humor.

Here's the announcement from Thursday:

Maria Tatar is the translator of the newly discovered trove of fairytales, lost for over a century, but just recently uncovered. Ask her all your questions about The Turnip Princess, the history of fairytales and folklore, and anything else you want to know!Tatar will be joining us today from noon - 1:00 p.m. (Pacific time), so start asking her all your questions now about the history of fairytales, where these new fairytales fit in with the tradition, and what these stories mean to us today.

Although I don't really have too many questions on Schonwerth yet as I have yet to do more than skim the book, I'm sure I would have thought of something! But it's great to be there live as regular people are asking questions on fairy tales. That doesn't happen too often!

Here are a few exchanges that I thought you guys might find interesting:

Isabelle Arsenault

Ria Misra: Also, one of the things that stood out to me when reading The Turnip Princess was the darkness of many of the stories that were told. Obviously, the original Grimm brothers tales had their own dark elements as well, but those have been considerably softened through the years. Do you suspect that a similar softening process will eventually happen with these new fairytales, or are they more likely to retain their darker threads?Tatar: I've touched on some of the differences between Grimm and Schönwerth already, so I'll focus on the question of the "softening process." When the Grimms published their collection, they came under much critical fire for publishing stories that were "crude" and "vulgar." One reviewer was outraged by the story of Hans Dumm, who makes women pregnant by looking at them. The Grimms quickly dropped that story from their collection in part because they found that by making the volume more appealing to parents, they sold more books. Schönwerth never refashioned his stories, and he gives us a story in which a fellow eats dumplings and then makes a mess outdoors. Then there is the king's bodyguard, who gets the king's daughter pregnant. I imagine that these stories will expand the folkloric canon, and in some cases they will be watered down, in other cases intensified and made even more explosive. Neil Gaiman once said that a fairy tale is like a "loaded gun"—and that's why I use the term "explosive." You can always blow up a fairy tale, blow it up in both senses of the term. 

Sketchnotes for "The Great Cauldron of Story" with Maria Tatar by On Being

The Homework Ogre: In terms of original fairy tales, the one thing that everybody seems to know is that they were once much more violent — wicked stepmother dances to death in red-hot iron shoes, kids waste away and die together under a tree, stepsisters mutilate themselves to fit the slipper, etc. etc. — and have since been "sanitized" for the consumption of kids. I'm sure the stories in this collection are no less grim (har har); how do you feel about the bowlderization of folk tales?Tatar: I'm completely irreverent when it comes to fairy tales. There's nothing sacred about these stories. No one really owns them, and we should be able make them our own in mash-ups, remixes, and adaptations. It's important to preserve the historical record, and that's why I am so deeply invested in the work of the Grimms, Charles Perrault, and Schönwerth. But why should we read stories from the early nineteenth-century to our children today? Especially when women dance to death in red-hot iron shoes? Or a stepmother decapitates her stepson in "The Juniper Tree"? There's no reason not to create our own zany versions, and, if you look at picture books about Little Red Riding Hood, you see that we do that all the time. We are constantly recycling "Cinderella," "Snow White," and "Sleeping Beauty" for adults—in ways obvious and not so obvious. I don't necessarily like every new version, but I do love to talk about it. What did the writer or filmmaker get right? Where did they go wrong? 

Silver Marmoset: In a class I'm currently taking on fairy tales, we've discussed where the Grimms' fairy tales came from geographically (apparently Italy). But have you any idea where the fairy tale motifs themselves came from? As in, what ideas or time periods gave rise to the idea of ogres, talking animals, and magic as story fodder?Thank you!Tatar: Great question, and I'd start with Vladimir Nabokov who tells us that fiction began on the day when a boy came home crying "Wolf Wolf" and there was no wolf. I love the idea of fairy tales as lies—true lies that exaggerate and bend reality in ways that enable us to flex our intellectual muscles and "think more." Where did these stories come from? I don't have much faith in the view put forth that the tales had literary origins in Italy. In fact, the Schönwerth collection has few literary fingerprints on it at all. His stories are not urban and urbane confections, but narratives rooted in popular culture—with all the rough edges, surreal qualities, and lack of closure you might expect from oral storytelling traditions. The more I study folklore, the more I realize that the tropes (lost slipper, cannibalistic ogre, predatory wolf) circulate globally. The stories are primal and take up cultural contradictions that are found everywhere—human vs. animal, predator vs. prey, bestiality vs. compassion, hostility and hospitality—and help us try to make sense of them. 

LucilleBallBuster: what do you think the modern equivalent of fairy tales are? do you think any of the stories current society creates have taken the place or fairytale? or do we still form these types of stories and pass them around?Tatar: Fairy tales have not gone away. They have just been re-mediated, and today we find them on screen, at the opera, on stage, in advertisements, even in paintings. Take Little Red Riding Hood: She's refashioned in films like Hanna, Hard Candy, Freeway, and The Company of Wolves. We see her in a Chanel ad, in a Pepsi commercial (where she becomes the wolf—I think it's Kim Cattrall howling in the soundtrack), or in a Volvo ad (with a red-hooded car driving through the woods and a kid in the back seat). Then suddenly Vogue has a fairy-tale fashion shoot, and presto she reappears. Visual culture loves the girl in red, and Kiki Smith has an eye-popping series of Little Red Riding Hood images (one in the series famously appeared as a perverse wedding gift in Gilmore Girls—could not stop myself on that one).

As you can see, there's a lot to chew on here! (I had to stop myself from adding more.) You can read the whole Q&A HERE, though you might want to make yourself a very large cup of tea. Once you start, it's hard to stop reading.

Release Day: Schönwerth's "The Turnip Princess and Other Newly Discovered Fairy Tales"

There are two books I have been extremely excited about the last few months. 

One of them is Jack Zipes' recent translation (and commentary) of The Original Folk and Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm, that is, the first edition they ever put together, in English, so we can finally read it in total for the first time (I'm using the present tense with regard to my excitement because I am still reading it and very much enjoying it). I plan on doing a special post just for that book when I'm done but I can tell you without doubt that if you're really interested in fairy tales, how they are told, recorded and the influence of the Grimms, then you need this book. Yes. Need.

The second is the one being released today: Franz Xaver Von Schönwerth's newly-translated-into-English collection, The Turnip Princess and Other Newly Discovered Fairy Tales. We've heard a lot about how "raw and unsanitized" they are, and how devoid of editing the transcription of these tales was in general but unless you've read a lot of old tales (and even if you have), you're probably in for more than a few surprises.

Thanks to an interview with Maria Tatar, care of Salon.com, I can give you an idea of what you'll be in for if you join me in adding it to your library (Thank you Kate for posting the link). I'm including just a few short excerpts, despite that the whole article is fascinating:

Tatar: What we have here are stories that are less mediated than most of the more familiar fairy tales and folktales. There’s a primary process of storytelling going on. They’re less heavily edited and they’re uncensored. The Grimms took great liberties with the stories they collected. The genius of the Grimms was to create this compact, standardized form of the fairy tale. They almost invented the genre of tale that is part of an oral storytelling tradition but also in the literary culture. Schönwerth, on the other hand, was not interested in readership as much as in just capturing the tales as they were told to him.

(Edit FTNH: Re the underlined portion above - which is my emphasis - I just wanted to mention here that I am a HUGE fan of the Grimm's work. Although I don't always agree with the details they left out and those they added or altered, they effectively popularized tales that were rapidly going the way of the dinosaur and difficult to find intact in people's memories - even those who practiced storytelling. Schönwerth's collections won't ever replace the Grimm's, nor should they, but they can add a lot to our understanding of tales - and of people and our own history too.)

One example in this book is a version of the well-known story of “The Valiant Little Tailor,” the guy who kills seven flies with one blow. The Grimms’ version has the flies hovering over a sandwich that the fellow has made. In Schönwerth, the flies are hovering over a dung heap. So that gives you a sense of the raw energy of the stories and the way that Schönwerth decided he was going to tell it straight up, tell it like it was. 

King Golden Hair

Salon: ... You mean that he’s interested in recording these as accurately as possible, not in creating a bestselling book, like (the Grimms)?Tatar: Or (creating) a standardized form for the fairy tale itself. I think you have it exactly right, that is, it’s more of an anthropological, folkloristic model. Schönwerth just refuses to homogenize the stories, and so you find that there’s a lot more gender bending in Schönwerth. There isn’t that strict division of gendered labor that you find in the Grimms. The Grimms don’t have a male Snow White, for example, whereas Schönwerth does. Schönwerth has a male Cinderella. He has a boy who wears out iron shoes while searching for the woman he loves, a figure who is a girl in “East of the Sun, West of the Moon.” He has a prince who gets under the bedcovers with a frog so she can be turned into a beautiful princess. You just don’t find that in the Grimms at all. 

And in summary regarding fairy tales in general, Tatar says:

What I really love about fairy tales is that they get us talking about matters that are just so vital to us. I think about the story of Little Red Riding Hood and how originally it was about the predator-prey relationship, and then it becomes a story about innocence and seduction for us. We use that story again and again to work out these very tough issues that we have to face. My hope is that this volume will get people talking about not just the stories and the plot but the underlying issues.

There is so much more in this article I'd love to point out and discuss - you can read the whole of it HERE -  but for now, let's just get our copies and read it first. Discuss later!

Prince Dung Beetle

There is also another Schönwerth  book recently printed I wanted to draw your attention to as well and I'll include it with a recent relevant comment left by Jungian Analyst, Lara Newton, since it hasn't had much attention at all:

For the past several months I have been working on interpretations of some tales from another translation of some of Schönwerth's collection. This volume is translated by M. Charlotte Wolf (Dover publication 2014) and is titled, "Original Bavarian Folktales: A Schönwerth Selection." There are 150 tales in this dual-language edition. In the recent hoopla about the translation coming out by Maria Tatar, this volume published last year seems to never be mentioned. I am happy to see that Tatar is translating more of the tales, and I do love reading and working with the stories from Schönwerth's collection, but I just want to say that the translations of Wolf are really finely done and deserve attention! In her introduction, she gives a very thorough account of the manuscripts ("thousands of handwritten pages in 30 ungainly boxes"), their discovery in 2010, the publication of "Prince Dung Beetle," etc. The volume is worth looking at, for those of you who want to have the whole story!
As for the rawness, I do find Schönwerth's collections to be very raw and exciting to work with. As a psychological interpreter, I find the archetypal images to be amazingly close to the bone, so to speak, and I have been gaining so much from the work I am doing with these tales! 

You can read her whole comment HERE.

Note: For additional reference, HERE is the link to an earlier article from The Guardian, focusing on Erika Eichenseer, (pictured below), who is largely responsible for the revival the Schönwerth collection. It's a good read too.

There's also the New Yorker article from 2012 HERE, focusing on the "rediscovery" of those lost "Cinderfellas" that's worth a re-read as well.

Erika Eichenseer, a retired teacher who has dedicated herself to exploring Franz Xaver von Schonwerth’s work since the 1990s, on fairytale trail in woodland outside Regensburg, in Bavaria (source: The Guardian)

Fairy tale bonus of the day:

I have been unsuccessfully attempting to track down information online, on the newly opened (September 2014) Schönwerth Fairytale Road (yes, Fairytale is apparently one word - perhaps because it's translated from German Märchen which only needs the single word?), in which contemporary artists have created works based on his collected tales. 

Here are some excerpts from the Schönwerth Society website, explaining the objectives and implementation of the Fairytale Road project (autotranslation used):

The Dwarf King

The largest project of our relatively young organization is the "localization" by Franz Xaver von Schönwerth in a "Schönwerth fairytale path"...  

In Schönwerth fairytale path... seven Schönwerth tales are presented on forests, nature and environmental focus. Here visitors will primarily come to rest and feel the forest as a place of silence, meditation, relaxation, inspiration and motivation, as well as teaching values ​​and philosophy of life, enjoy, experience, comprehend with all their senses. 

Playful, are given an insight into the myth of "Upper Palatinate fairy tales and legends" children and adults. The imagination should be encouraged, and still carry on emotional-mental recognizing, understanding, interpreting to own creative work, ie for self-telling yourself writing, DIY Painting, DIY-crafts, games etc. The practical application of from fairy tales won lessons to their own lives are more overarching objectives. Ultimately, should be expanded by Schönwerth Wonderland path of awareness and appreciation of Schönwerth and his work in the general population and sustainable deepened. 

One of Schoenberg Werth's most beautiful fairy tale prince Roßzwifl (dung beetle, Scarabaeus sacer, scarab). Since this beetle with his egg-ball also lives in the forest experience center, he stands at the entrance to the monumental tale path. The ball is security, home, Ward, safety, but also maturation, transformation, which wants to convey the Schönwerth Society with this device as well. Local artists exhibit the above tale is symbolic and artistic value, to improve the motivation to think and put the imagination of the individual no limits.

The Singing Tree

Sounds interesting doesn't it? And I'm curious about the children's aspect... we've been given reason to believe these tales are anything but child friendly (but that doesn't mean children can't be told them in the correct context, in a suitable manner). Perhaps it's because I don't read German well enough to be able to find the right links or perhaps there just isn't record of it and I need to contact The Schönwerth Society directly to find out more, but I'm especially curious about this: What do the works look like in context? What inspired the artists? How will it practically serve to help keep these "newly discovered" tales in people's consciousness?

In case you're as curious as I was, below is a summary of the installations, the tales they reference and the artists who created them.

Clicking on the tale titles will take you to a transcription of the tale, along with photos of the artist at work on the installations:

The artists of the objects for the eight forest fairy tales are:

	Prince Roßzwifl	Korbinian Huber, Duggendorf
	Devil and Besenbinder	Florian Zeitler, Teublitz
	The dwarf king   crystal dome on the dwarf Palace	Engelbert Sweet, Pfreimd
	Wild Hunt	Korbinian Huber, Duggendorf
	The Höydl	(Installation)
	Schönwerth and his work	(Text table) audio file of Franz Xaver Schönwerth
	The stupid woman (The cracking way) (The bare birch) (The floating bed)	Renate Christin, Sinzing Herta Wimmer-Knorr Helmut Wolf, Regensburg
	The Singing Tree	Heribert Schneider, Nittenau Jakob Zeitler, Teublitz

Prince Dung Beetle