The Bear Prince and the Singing Ringing Tree

The Bear Prince and the Singing Ringing Tree (German: Hurleburlebutz) (ATU Index 425A) is a fairy tale. It appears as the 66th tale the Grimms' Fairy Tales (Children's and Household Tales) of the Brothers Grimm published in 1843.

Story (Hurleburlebutz version)

A king promises his youngest daughter to a little white man so that she can show him the way out of the forest. After eight days a fox comes to the castle, but they disguise him as a cowherd's daughter and the second time as a gooseherd's daughter. He carries her into the forest "Hurleburlebutz!" but notices the deception in her words when he lets himself be cleaned of lice. He threatens the king, gets the princess, and lives with her in his hut as the little white man. One day he has to leave, only to return as the middle of three white doves, whose head the princess cuts off at his request. He is a redeemed young prince and they inherit the kingdom.

Story (The Bear Prince and the Singing Ringing Tree version)

A beautiful but selfish and haughty princess rejects the proposal of a wealthy prince.^[1] She scorns the gifts he offers her, and says that she will marry him only if he brings her the mythical "singing ringing tree". The prince locates the tree in the territory of an evil dwarf, who offers to give him the enchanted tree, on the understanding that, if the princess still rejects him, he will be in the dwarf's power and will be turned into a bear. Because the tree will only sing and ring when the princess falls in love with the prince, she is disappointed in it and continues to reject the prince. The prince is forced to return to the dwarf's lair and is turned into a bear.

The princess sends her father to find the singing ringing tree for her, but he is met by the prince, in the guise of a bear, who gives him the tree on condition that the king returns with the first thing the king sees on his return. This turns out to be the princess, who is now delivered into the hands of the dwarf. The dwarf, seeing the princess's self-centred behaviour, casts a spell to make her ugly. The bear tells her that she will regain her beauty only if she changes her ways. Gradually she is won over by the bear and becomes beautiful again. Despite the dwarf's attempts to keep her and the prince apart, she eventually falls in love with him and the singing ringing tree finally lives up to its name.

Origin

The fairy tale of magic or redemption comes from Johanna Hassenpflug. It later appears only in the note to the similar 127th fairy tale The Iron Stove. The fox, see also appears in the 57th The Golden Bird.

Publications

In some editions of Children's and Household Tales, this fairy tale, as well as other fairy tales that are no longer published, can be found in the appendix. See Bechstein's The White Wolf.

The fairy tale has been distributed several times as a radio play ( audio book ) in a performance by the Detmold theater ensemble.

Media adaptations

The German film The Singing Ringing Tree (2016) featured in the 9th season of the ARD series Six in One Go.

References

^ The Chestnut: The Singing Ringing Tree

External links

Works related to Hurleburlebutz at Wikisource

[1] The Chestnut: The Singing Ringing Tree

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