Märchen: The German Expression Of A Fairy Tale

Even though the tales have been translated into various languages, there is always some kind of language barrier. Not just do some words not exist in other languages, misinterpretations are always an issue as well. But let’s start at the beginning. A Märchen can be considered as the German equivalent of a fairy tale. Originally it was a mere rumour and not necessarily a believable story. It was a made up, fantasy story produced by ones imagination. When talking about fairy tales it is necessary to define what a fairy tale, or a Märchen, is though. The term Märchen went through several stages in it’s existence and also had to go through several developments.
Die deutschen Wörter >MärchenMärlein< (mhd. maerlîn) sind Verkleinerungsformen zu >Mär<

The literature consists of, more or less, made up stories that are trying to mirror something realistic. The French Feenmärchen was the precursor of today’s fairy tale. But, the Märchen was equaled with the Volksmärchen, even though there are several differences made between those in literature studies. There are even more subcategories when it comes to Märchen, part of that are the Kunst- und Wirklichkeitsmärchen. The major differences between these subcategories are basically only how they were told. Volksmärchen were typically just told orally, this made it rather easy leave out certain details or expand the whole story. Because of its oral tradition, the proper author of those stories are unnamed. These Volksmärchen have always been rather monotone, linguistically quite easy and as far as the setting is concerned, the time and place are unknown, according to Stefan Neuhaus . The characters in those tales are either Good or Evil and rather one dimensional. Typical characters are kings and queens as well as princes and witches. They are either categorized by their rank or by their family status. The protagonist of the typical Volksmärchen is focusing on a problem at first and somehow has to get rid of it. Most of the time, the hero or heroine receive help from either a talking animal or some other creature such as dwarfs, gnomes but also

Usually some kind of issue, which Neuhaus calls a “Mangelsituation”, and of course, this issue needs to be solved. This situation is followed by the compression as Kast calls it (Verdichtung). The development of the hero is described, a development he or she has to pass in order to solve the conflict. A milestone (Wendepunkt) appears as soon as the demeanor of the hero changes, as soon as he or she has undergone the full development. At the end, new circumstances have emerged, where, typically, the conflict from the beginning has been