The Role of the Clergy in a Sample of Fairy Tales

Part of a comprehensivee report dealing with the Grimm Brothers Fairy Tales (H. Carsch, DIMENSIONS OF MEANING AND VALUE IN A SAMPLE OF FAIRY TALES, PhD dissertation, Princeton U, 1965). Here the role of the clergy is analyzed as it appears in the volume KINDERUND HAUSMAERCHEN (Children's and Family Fairytales) by Grimm Reutlingen, Germany: Robert Bardtenschlager Verlag, 1956. It is explained how the Grimm Brothers had begun to collect these fairytales from a number of informants & literary soucres in 1805 when Napoleon had invaded Germany & many Germans had become concerned with problems of nat'l as well as cultural autonomy. The 1st Ed of these tales was published in 1813. Members of the clergy (clergymen, sextons & `popes') were found to occur in 14 out of the total of 200 tales. Altogether, 17 individuals, ie approximately 0.1% of the total human pop occurring in the tales, are involved. These 14 tales can be divided into (a) those in which clergymen are presented as anthropomorphised animals or plants (2); (b) those which concern the `papacy' (2); & (c) a group in which the interaction of clergymen with their alters is central to the episodic theme & focuses on & discloses their possession of specific characterological attributes. 2 distinct patterns are discernible in the bulk of the tales dealing with the role of the clergy in society & the relative efficacy of their modus operandi: (1) the theme of vulnerability to deception & (2) the theme associating money with evil. 6 tales involving vulnerability to deception are described. Only in 1 is the clergy presented as being effective in giving a measure of guidance & protection from evil. In the other 5, parsons are shown as highly vulnerable to diverse forms of deception & mistakes & to evil forces which they are unable to resist. They are depicted as subscribiftto a naive eschatology. 1 Appendix: List of Tales in Which the Clergy are Presented. Modified HA.