Because Grimm’s fairy tales are short stories, they don’t have a lot of time to set the tone or mood of the story. One story that is a stand-out in setting the tone is The Fisherman and his Wife.
Vom Fischer und seiner Frau; Darstellung von Alexander Zick (1845–1907)
Quick summary: the fisherman and his wive live in a hovel near the sea. One day the fisherman catches a talking fish who tells him that he is not a fish, but an enchanted prince, so please, let him live. When the fisherman tells his wife of the encounter, she sends him back to the fish to ask for a better house…and once she gets that, she keeps sending her husband back to ask for more and more and more.
Each time the fisherman goes back to the sea, the environment has gotten worse. The water has changed and then the sky also begins to change. Look at the path this series of descriptions takes (quoted from the translation at http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/grimm019.html):
- Once he was sitting there fishing and looking into the clear water, and he sat, and he sat.
- …so he went back to the sea. When he arrived there it was no longer clear, but yellow and green.
- When he arrived at the sea the water was purple and dark blue and gray and dense…
- When he arrived at the sea it was dark gray, and the water heaved up from below and had a foul smell.
- The water was all black and dense and boiling up from within. A strong wind blew over him that curdled the water.
- the wind was blowing over the land, and clouds flew by as the darkness of evening fell. Leaves blew from the trees, and the water roared and boiled as it crashed onto the shore. In the distance he could see ships, shooting distress signals as they tossed and turned on the waves. There was a little blue in the middle of the sky, but on all sides it had turned red, as in a terrible lightning storm.
- Outside such a storm was raging that he could hardly stand on his feet. Houses and trees were blowing over. The mountains were shaking, and boulders were rolling from the cliffs into the sea. The sky was as black as pitch. There was thunder and lightning. In the sea there were great black waves as high as church towers and mountains, all capped with crowns of white foam.
From “clear water” to “great black waves as high as church towers and mountains, all capped with crowns of white foam.” (Not to mention the earthquakes and boulders rolling into the sea.)
Wow. The reader can see how the fisherman and his wife's wants are heading to a dark place and the story gets more and more ominous.
Now, the ending is rather abrupt. At the final request, the fisherman and his wife are back to living in the hovel by the sea, and there is no more mention of the condition of the sea. Should we assume that it also went back to clear water? Maybe.
This story could make for a dramatic read aloud since the intensity builds in such a visual way. Do you know of any other Grimm stories that are like this? I suppose as I work my way through Grimm this year, I’ll find out 🙂
