Grimm’s fairy tale collection begins with a story about a frog retrieving a golden ball at the bottom of a well. (1. The Frog King)
A few stories later, a dropped spindle leads a girl into another world through the well where, upon her return, she is doused with gold. (24. Mother Holle)
And this week we find a water nixie down there! (79. The Water Nixie)
I normally think wishing well when I think about fairy-tale wells. But I can’t think of any stories we’ve read so far about a wishing well. (We’re up to #80) I suppose the frog talking from the depths of the well was a first step in creating a wishing well.
A quick Internet search about the symbolism of wells in fairy tales didn’t turn up much:
- Water is symbolic of life.
- The surface of water is like a mirror, so it could also represent a portal (Mother Holle) or
- because of the reflective properties, symbolizes truth.
So what about our water nixie? I was excited by the title to find out what a water nixie was. And herein may lie the next step in the creation of the wishing well. A magical creature who lives at the bottom of the well (as opposed to a prince turned into a frog only temporarily living there.)
But in this case, the water nixie is NOT a creature you’d want to come across.
A brother and sister fall into a well and at the bottom is a delighted water nixie.
Given that May is also the MerMay challenge (for artists to draw a mermaid every day) I was happy to discover that a water nixie in German folklore is a river (freshwater) mermaid. The male form is called a nix.
And what do they look like? Well, apparently, the females have a tail like a mermaid, but are also a shape shifters.
This water nixie is delighted because now she has children she can force to work!
“Now I’ve got you, and now you shall work hard for me.”
The girl is made to spin flax (and was given a bottomless bucket to carry water in—curious!) And the boy has to chop down a tree with a blunt ax.
I’ve thought of the story location in two ways. One, it seems like there is another world or a portal at the bottom of this well. Or, if it’s not a different world at the bottom of the well the children must live in a world characterized by magic already. Perhaps the nixie has a power over them that keeps them near the well, doing her bidding (but then, where are their parents who would presumably come looking for them?)
In any case, it’s a world in which the water nixie goes off to church!? (Being a shapeshifter might explain how she can toddle off to church in human form. The giveaway to her true identity is her damp skirt.)
Meanwhile, the children escape while she is away and all sorts of magical things happen to help them escape their captor when she comes after them.
I’m looking forward to finding out what else Grimm has in store for us at the bottom of a well!
