Read "The Virgin Mary's Child" two nights ago, from Volume I of The Complete Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm, translated by Jack Zipes.
Synopsis:
The Virgin Mary appears to a poor woodcutter and offers to take his three-year-old child with her to heaven, where she can properly take care of her. The child grows up in heaven, wanting nothing. When she turns fourteen the Virgin Mary decides to go on a long journey. She entrusts the keys to the thirteen doors to the kingdom of heaven with her, informing her that she may open all the doors and explore within except for the thirteenth door, which she forbids her to open.
The maiden promises to be obedient, and the Virgin Mary departs. Every day she opens a door and is delighted by the splendor and glory within. Eventually she is tempted to open the thirteenth door just a crack, but the door flies wide open, she touches the golden light within, and one of her fingers turns golden. She tries her best to hide it when the Virgin Mary returns. The Virgin Mary asks her whether she opened the thirteenth door, but she denies it three times. For her disobedience the Virgin Mary exiles her to earth, where she must fend for herself until the king comes upon her during a hunt and takes her to his castle.
The king falls in love with and marries the maiden despite the fact that the Virgin Mary rendered her unable to speak. She gives birth to a son, after which the Virgin Mary visits her and asks her once again whether she opened the thirteenth door. She once again insists that she did not, and so the Virgin Mary takes her son away to heaven. She gives birth the following year to another son, after which the Virgin Mary visits her again and asks her once again whether she opened the thirteenth door. Again she insists that she did not. She gives birth a third time the following year to a daughter. The Virgin Mary takes the queen and her daughter to heaven and shows them the two little boys living in happiness. The Virgin Mary tells the queen that she will return all three children if only she would admit that she opened the thirteenth door. Still, the queen insists that she did not.
The Virgin Mary sends the queen back to earth, where the people accuse her of being an ogress due to the disappearance of her children. She is brought to trial and found guilty because she is unable to speak and defend herself. While burning at the stake the queen's pride melts. She is suddenly able to cry aloud, "Yes, Mary, I did it!" The Virgin Mary then descends from heaven with her three children, loosens her tongue, and bestows happiness of her for the rest of her life.
My Commentary:
In every fairy tale where the protagonist is female, usually a maiden, the arrival of a king into her life is not so much the arrival of a romantic partner and prospective husband as it is the emergence of the Animus, or Masculine Self, heralding the female's passage into maturity and psychological completion. This is the real message of the story: that the denial of truth prevents this maturity to happen. The female 's psyche, personified here as the Virgin Mary, must guide the female through a path of righteousness in order to deserve living a life of happiness.
It is possible that this story is one of the Grimm Brothers' notorious "Christianizations" of some fairy tales, and we can only wonder how the original was. Perhaps the Virgin Mary was some other goddess in the original. Many texts, such as the Tagalog Ibong Adarna, became victims to such unwarranted interventions as "Christianization", and it is up to scholars to try to return such texts to their original forms, pretty much in the same way that old paintings must be subjected to full and proper restoration.
Synopsis:
The Virgin Mary appears to a poor woodcutter and offers to take his three-year-old child with her to heaven, where she can properly take care of her. The child grows up in heaven, wanting nothing. When she turns fourteen the Virgin Mary decides to go on a long journey. She entrusts the keys to the thirteen doors to the kingdom of heaven with her, informing her that she may open all the doors and explore within except for the thirteenth door, which she forbids her to open.
The maiden promises to be obedient, and the Virgin Mary departs. Every day she opens a door and is delighted by the splendor and glory within. Eventually she is tempted to open the thirteenth door just a crack, but the door flies wide open, she touches the golden light within, and one of her fingers turns golden. She tries her best to hide it when the Virgin Mary returns. The Virgin Mary asks her whether she opened the thirteenth door, but she denies it three times. For her disobedience the Virgin Mary exiles her to earth, where she must fend for herself until the king comes upon her during a hunt and takes her to his castle.
The king falls in love with and marries the maiden despite the fact that the Virgin Mary rendered her unable to speak. She gives birth to a son, after which the Virgin Mary visits her and asks her once again whether she opened the thirteenth door. She once again insists that she did not, and so the Virgin Mary takes her son away to heaven. She gives birth the following year to another son, after which the Virgin Mary visits her again and asks her once again whether she opened the thirteenth door. Again she insists that she did not. She gives birth a third time the following year to a daughter. The Virgin Mary takes the queen and her daughter to heaven and shows them the two little boys living in happiness. The Virgin Mary tells the queen that she will return all three children if only she would admit that she opened the thirteenth door. Still, the queen insists that she did not.
The Virgin Mary sends the queen back to earth, where the people accuse her of being an ogress due to the disappearance of her children. She is brought to trial and found guilty because she is unable to speak and defend herself. While burning at the stake the queen's pride melts. She is suddenly able to cry aloud, "Yes, Mary, I did it!" The Virgin Mary then descends from heaven with her three children, loosens her tongue, and bestows happiness of her for the rest of her life.
My Commentary:
In every fairy tale where the protagonist is female, usually a maiden, the arrival of a king into her life is not so much the arrival of a romantic partner and prospective husband as it is the emergence of the Animus, or Masculine Self, heralding the female's passage into maturity and psychological completion. This is the real message of the story: that the denial of truth prevents this maturity to happen. The female 's psyche, personified here as the Virgin Mary, must guide the female through a path of righteousness in order to deserve living a life of happiness.
It is possible that this story is one of the Grimm Brothers' notorious "Christianizations" of some fairy tales, and we can only wonder how the original was. Perhaps the Virgin Mary was some other goddess in the original. Many texts, such as the Tagalog Ibong Adarna, became victims to such unwarranted interventions as "Christianization", and it is up to scholars to try to return such texts to their original forms, pretty much in the same way that old paintings must be subjected to full and proper restoration.
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