Speaker 1: School of Humans.
Speaker 2: This episode discusses sensitive topics. Please listen with care. My
Speaker 2: name is Miranda Hawkins. Welcome to the Deep Dark Woods.
Speaker 2: Today's episode is ATU nine fifty five or the Robber Bridegroom.
Speaker 3: Once upon a time there was a miller who had
Speaker 3: a beautiful daughter. When she came of age, he wished
Speaker 3: that she was provided for and well married. He thought,
Speaker 3: if a respectable suitor comes and asks for her hand
Speaker 3: in marriage, I will give her to him. Not long afterwards,
Speaker 3: a suitor came who appeared to be very rich. And
Speaker 3: because the girl, however, did not like him as much
Speaker 3: as a bride should like her bride, she did not
Speaker 3: trust him, and whenever she saw him or thought about him,
Speaker 3: she felt within her heart a sense of horror. One
Speaker 3: time he said to her, you are engaged to marry me,
Speaker 3: but you have never once paid me a visit. The
Speaker 3: girl replied, I don't know where your house is. Then
Speaker 3: the bridegroom said, my house is out in the dark woods.
Speaker 3: Looking for an excuse, she said she would not be
Speaker 3: able to find the way there. The bridegroom said, next
Speaker 3: Sunday you must come out to me. I have already
Speaker 3: invited guests. I will make a trail of ashes so
Speaker 3: that you can find your way through the woods. When
Speaker 3: Sunday came and it was time for the girl to
Speaker 3: start on her way, she became frightened, although she herself
Speaker 3: did not know exactly why. In order to mark the path,
Speaker 3: she filled both her pockets full of peas and lentils.
Speaker 3: At the entrance of the forest, there was a trail
Speaker 3: of ashes, which she followed, but at every step she
Speaker 3: threw a couple of peas on to the ground to
Speaker 3: the right and to the left. She walked almost the
Speaker 3: whole day until she came to the middle of the woods,
Speaker 3: where it was the darkest, and there stood a solitary house.
Speaker 3: She did not like it because it looked so dark
Speaker 3: and sinister. She went inside, but no one was there.
Speaker 3: It was totally quiet. Suddenly a voice called out, turn back,
Speaker 3: turn back, you, young bride. You are in a murderer's house.
Speaker 3: The girl looked up and saw that the voice came
Speaker 3: from the bird, which was hanging in a cage on
Speaker 3: the wall. It cried out again, turn back, turn back, you,
Speaker 3: young bride, You are in a murderer's house. The beautiful
Speaker 3: bride went from one room to another, walking through the
Speaker 3: whole house, but it was empty, not a human soul
Speaker 3: to be found. Finally she came to a cellar. A
Speaker 3: very old woman was sitting there, shaking her head. Could
Speaker 3: you tell me, said the girl, if my bridegroom lives here?
Speaker 3: Oh you poor child, replied the old woman, Where did
Speaker 3: you come from?
Speaker 4: You are in a murderer's den.
Speaker 3: You think you are a bride soon to be married,
Speaker 3: but it is death that you will be marrying. Look,
Speaker 3: they made me put a large kettle of water on
Speaker 3: the fire. When they have captured you, they will chop
Speaker 3: you to pieces without mercy, cook you and eat you,
Speaker 3: for they are cannibals. If I do not show you
Speaker 3: compassion and save you, you are doomed with this. The
Speaker 3: old woman led her behind a large barrel where she
Speaker 3: could not be seen. Be quiet as a mouse, she said,
Speaker 3: do not make a sound or move, or all will
Speaker 3: be over for you. Tonight, when the robbers are asleep,
Speaker 3: we will escape. I have long waited for an opportunity.
Speaker 3: This had scarcely happened. When the godless band came home,
Speaker 3: they were dragging with them another maiden. They were drunk
Speaker 3: and paid no attention to her screams and sobs. They
Speaker 3: gave her wine to drink, three glasses full, one glass
Speaker 3: of white, one glass of red, and one glass of yellow,
Speaker 3: which caused her heart to break. Then they ripped off
Speaker 3: her fine clothes, laid her on the table, chopped her
Speaker 3: beautiful body in pieces, and sprinkled salt on it. The
Speaker 3: poor bride behind the barrel trembled and shook, for she
Speaker 3: saw well what fate the robbers had planned for her.
Speaker 3: One of them noticed a gold ring on the murdered
Speaker 3: girl's little finger. Because it did not come off, he
Speaker 3: took an axe and chopped the finger off, but it
Speaker 3: flew into the air and over the barrel, falling right
Speaker 3: into bride's lap. The robber took a light and looked
Speaker 3: for it, but could not find it. Then another one said,
Speaker 3: did you look behind the large barrel, But the old
Speaker 3: woman cried out, come and eat. You can continue looking
Speaker 3: in the morning. That finger won't run away from you.
Speaker 3: Then the robbers said the old woman's right. They gave
Speaker 3: up their search and they sat down to eat. The
Speaker 3: old woman poured a sleeping potion into their wine, so
Speaker 3: that they soon lay down in the cellar and fell
Speaker 3: asleep snoring. When the bride heard them snoring, she came
Speaker 3: out from behind the barrel and had to step over
Speaker 3: the sleepers, for they lay all in rows on the ground.
Speaker 3: She was afraid that she might awaken one of them,
Speaker 3: but God helped her and she got through safely. The
Speaker 3: old woman went upstairs with her, opened the door, and
Speaker 3: they hurried out of the murderers down as fast as
Speaker 3: they could. The wind had blown away the trail of ashes,
Speaker 3: but the peas and lentils had sprouted and grown up
Speaker 3: and showed them the way in the moonlight. They walked
Speaker 3: all night, arriving at the mill the next morning. Then
Speaker 3: the girl told her father everything just as it had happened.
Speaker 3: When the wedding day came, the bridegroom appeared. The miller
Speaker 3: had invited all his relatives and acquaintances. As they sat
Speaker 3: at the table, each one was asked to tell something.
Speaker 3: The bride sat still and said nothing. Then the bridegroom
Speaker 3: said to the bride, come, sweetheart, don't you know anything?
Speaker 3: Tell us something like the others have done. She answered,
Speaker 3: then I will tell about a dream. I was walking
Speaker 3: alone through the woods when finally I came to a
Speaker 3: house inside there was not a single human soul. But
Speaker 3: on the wall there was a bird in a cage.
Speaker 3: It cried out, turn back, turn back, you young bride,
Speaker 3: You are in a murderer's house. Then it cried out
Speaker 3: the same thing again, Darling, it was only a dream.
Speaker 3: Then I went through all the rooms. They were all empty,
Speaker 3: and there was something so eerie in there. Finally I
Speaker 3: went down into the cellar, and there sat a very
Speaker 3: old woman, shaking her head. She answered, alas, poor child,
Speaker 3: you have gotten into a murderer's den. Your bridegroom does
Speaker 3: live here, but he intends to chop you to pieces
Speaker 3: and kill you. And then he intends to cook you
Speaker 3: and eat you. Darling, it was only a dream. After that,
Speaker 3: the old woman hid me behind a large barrel. I
Speaker 3: had scarcely hidden myself there. When the robbers came home,
Speaker 3: dragging a girl with them. They gave her three kinds
Speaker 3: of wine to drink, white, red, and yellow, which caused
Speaker 3: her heart to stop beating. Darling, it was only a dream.
Speaker 3: After that, they took off her fine clothes and chopped
Speaker 3: her beautiful body to pieces on a table, then sprinkled
Speaker 3: salt on it. Darling, it was only a dream. Then
Speaker 3: one of the robbers saw that there was still a
Speaker 3: ring on her finger. Because it was hard to get
Speaker 3: the ring off, he took an axe and chopped off
Speaker 3: the finger. The finger flew through the air behind the
Speaker 3: large barrel and fell into my lap. And here is
Speaker 3: the finger with the ring. With these words, she pulled
Speaker 3: out the finger and showed it to every one who
Speaker 3: was there. The robber, who had during this story become
Speaker 3: white as chalk, jumped up and tried to escape, but
Speaker 3: the guests held him fast and turned him over to
Speaker 3: the ports. Then he and his whole band were executed
Speaker 3: for their shameful deeds.
Speaker 2: The Robber Bridegroom isn't as well known as the other
Speaker 2: tales we've talked about in the show. It was never
Speaker 2: picked up by Walt Disney or rewritten for a younger audience.
Speaker 2: In fact, it wasn't even popular during the Grimm's time.
Speaker 2: This story wasn't included in their eighteen twenty five collection
Speaker 2: that was the year their tales began to gain popularity,
Speaker 2: and this story hasn't been found in collections targeted at
Speaker 2: children past nineteen sixty. Although the underlying theme is about marriage,
Speaker 2: some folklorists don't view The Robber Bridegroom as a fairy tale,
Speaker 2: but rather as a horror story. The Robber Bridegroom is
Speaker 2: one of the most violent tales by the Grim Brothers,
Speaker 2: which is impressive considering all of the violence we've already
Speaker 2: encountered from Cinderella's stepsisters cutting off their feet, Rumpelstilskin splitting
Speaker 2: in half, Little Red and her grandmother getting devoured by
Speaker 2: a wolf.
Speaker 4: And if you are.
Speaker 2: Reading this grim story in a book, it becomes even
Speaker 2: more horrific with the illustrations.
Speaker 1: Fairy tales come with illustrations, and we often see that
Speaker 1: moment where all the characters are together being chosen as
Speaker 1: an illustrative moment, the moment to illustrate in a story.
Speaker 4: This is folklorist doctor Len McNeil.
Speaker 1: And when we think about this scene in the house
Speaker 1: in the middle of the woods, our young heroine is
Speaker 1: hiding behind some boxes and there is just straight up
Speaker 1: butchery and debauchery happening in the same room as her.
Speaker 1: A woman is being murdered, she's being chopped up. Body
Speaker 1: parts are literally flying around the room. We can picture
Speaker 1: the bloody scene and the moment they go looking and
Speaker 1: the old woman comes in and says no, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: Come and eat like everyone's there together, right, and we
Speaker 1: have it all encapsulated, the violence, these bad people, the victim,
Speaker 1: the girl hiding, the tension, woman trying to distract them.
Speaker 1: Like that moment just brings all of these things together,
Speaker 1: and it's really visceral.
Speaker 2: Clearly, the robber bridegroom is incredibly violent, with a gruesome
Speaker 2: murder and cannibalism, and doctor McNeil says there's a specific
Speaker 2: reason why the Grims did that. It was to make
Speaker 2: it extremely obvious that these men, including the future husband,
Speaker 2: are evil.
Speaker 1: Fairy tales, by definition, are understood to be fairly simplistic structurally.
Speaker 1: These are some of the defining characteristics of these tales
Speaker 1: is that they don't have long, ornate passages that describe
Speaker 1: in detail various things. So if you want something to
Speaker 1: have an impact, you have to make it pretty stark.
Speaker 1: We need our readers or listeners to know that these
Speaker 1: bad guys are bad, like they are not oh ambiguously bad,
Speaker 1: They're not just sort of selfish and mean. These are
Speaker 1: the worst of the worst. That story has been being
Speaker 1: told for literal thousands of years about whoever it is
Speaker 1: that we want to be able to hate without nuance,
Speaker 1: and it's really interesting to see that motif crop up,
Speaker 1: so that we don't have to think, we don't have
Speaker 1: to complicate these people, we can just hate them.
Speaker 2: Another element that increases the suspense and horror of the
Speaker 2: story is that the merchant's daughter has to march into
Speaker 2: her fate, despite the feeling of an ease she has.
Speaker 2: She has to marry this man her father found for her,
Speaker 2: and she has to go see her future husband's house.
Speaker 2: Similarly to how she couldn't escape without the old woman's help,
Speaker 2: she can't escape the will of the men in her life.
Speaker 1: One of the tropes that we see here is how
Speaker 1: powerless women are at the hands of men. So her
Speaker 1: father encouraging her towards this marriage that she just does
Speaker 1: not feel good about, and then her husband to be
Speaker 1: encouraging her to make choices that her gut tells her
Speaker 1: do not feel good. Yeah, my house is in the
Speaker 1: middle of the woods. You should see it before we
Speaker 1: get married. Walk there alone at night through the forest.
Speaker 1: It'll be fine. All of these things are going against instinct.
Speaker 1: I think that we know historically that men making deals
Speaker 1: with other men about marriage is an incredibly common practice
Speaker 1: around the world, so a woman's father and a woman's
Speaker 1: future husband would often negotiate the terms of her marriage
Speaker 1: without her involvement at all, so that's not particularly surprising.
Speaker 1: Here we do have the fairy tale elements of come
Speaker 1: into the woods, go against your instinct, put yourself in danger,
Speaker 1: and clearly he has no good intent here at all.
Speaker 1: We get sort of that tension of a woman ostensibly
Speaker 1: behaving in a societally appropriate way, but knowing something is wrong.
Speaker 2: The Robbert Bridegroom is a disturbing indeed, and some people
Speaker 2: even consider it a Gothic story instead of a simple
Speaker 2: fairy tale. In the time of Mary Shelley and Edgar
Speaker 2: Allan Poe, the word German evoked feelings of darkness and ominousness,
Speaker 2: and that's when the Robber Bridegroom entered the world. But
Speaker 2: let's look at the fairy tales. The Robber Bridegroom is
Speaker 2: one of many stories that features a murderous husband, and
Speaker 2: in one tale type, he's a serial killer. As with
Speaker 2: their other stories. The brothers Grim heard the Robber Bridegroom
Speaker 2: from Marie Hasenflug, one of the sisters who was a
Speaker 2: descendant of French Huguenots.
Speaker 4: One tale that.
Speaker 2: Is closely related to the Robber Bridegroom is Bluebeard. It's
Speaker 2: a different tale type ATU three twelve, but it could
Speaker 2: have possibly better the inspiration for the Robber Bridegroom. The
Speaker 2: Grims wrote their own version of blue Beard and included
Speaker 2: it in their first edition, but then they decided that
Speaker 2: the tale was too French and not authentically German enough
Speaker 2: for them to include in future editions. It was very
Speaker 2: similar to the tale by Charles Perraut, which was published
Speaker 2: in sixteen ninety seven. There's a rich man who is
Speaker 2: unlucky to have a blue beard, which makes him so
Speaker 2: ugly that.
Speaker 4: All the ladies run from him.
Speaker 2: But one of his neighbors has two beautiful daughters, and
Speaker 2: he asks to have one of them as his bride.
Speaker 2: The two sisters sent him back and forth between the two,
Speaker 2: neither one wanting him for his ugliness. Another reason neither
Speaker 2: sister wants to marry him is they know he has
Speaker 2: been previously married several times, but no one knows what's
Speaker 2: happened to those wives.
Speaker 4: To win their.
Speaker 2: Affection, Bluebeard decides to host the mother daughters and some
Speaker 2: of their friends and other neighbors at one of his
Speaker 2: country homes. The time is filled with parties, hunting, fishing, dancing, mirth,
Speaker 2: and feasting.
Speaker 4: Everything goes so well.
Speaker 2: The youngest daughter decides a blue Beard isn't so bad
Speaker 2: after all.
Speaker 4: And that he is quite the gentleman.
Speaker 2: When everyone returns home, blue Beard and the youngest daughter
Speaker 2: are married. A month later, blue Beard announces he has
Speaker 2: to leave for six weeks to attend to important business.
Speaker 2: He tells her to keep herself entertained while he's gone
Speaker 2: by inviting her friends to the country house. He hands
Speaker 2: her a.
Speaker 4: Set of keys.
Speaker 2: One key unlocks great wardrobes where he keeps his best furniture,
Speaker 2: Another unlocks where he keeps his gold and silver plates,
Speaker 2: another to his gold, silver, and jewels, and finally the
Speaker 2: smallest key, which opens a little closet on the ground floor.
Speaker 2: He tells her she can open anything she wants except
Speaker 2: for the small closet. If she does, she should expect
Speaker 2: his just anger. She promises to do as he says.
Speaker 2: Then he gets into his coach and leaves.
Speaker 1: Her.
Speaker 2: Neighbors and friends didn't wait for an invite to go
Speaker 2: to the country.
Speaker 4: House with the new wife.
Speaker 2: They had been waiting for her husband to leave before
Speaker 2: visiting because they were still.
Speaker 4: Frightened of his beard.
Speaker 2: As a new wife begins unlocking everything, everyone is beside
Speaker 2: themselves with the treasures for each finery surpasses the one
Speaker 2: before it, but the new bride can't wait and heads
Speaker 2: to the little door before the rest of the party.
Speaker 2: She thinks a moment about her husband's warning, but the
Speaker 2: temptation is too strong. She opens the door. It takes
Speaker 2: a minute because all the windows are shut, but after
Speaker 2: a few moments she realizes the floors are covered in
Speaker 2: clotted blood. The room is filled with the bodies of
Speaker 2: Bluebeard's previous wives. Terrified, she drops the key. After somewhat recovering,
Speaker 2: she picks the key back up and locks the door again.
Speaker 2: The new wife notices there is blood on the key,
Speaker 2: but no matter how much she tries to wipe it off,
Speaker 2: the blood remains, for it's a magical key. Bluebeard returns
Speaker 2: from his journey that same evening. He had received letters
Speaker 2: while on the road informing him his business matters were
Speaker 2: concluded to his advantage. His new wife does all she
Speaker 2: can to convince him she's happy of his early return.
Speaker 2: The next morning, he asks for the keys, her hands
Speaker 2: tremble so much he already knows she didn't obey. He
Speaker 2: asks why the small key isn't among the rest. She
Speaker 2: replies she does not know. He then pushes her to
Speaker 2: retrieve the key.
Speaker 4: Which she does.
Speaker 2: When he asks why there's blood on the key, she cries,
Speaker 2: paler than death. I do not know, you do not know,
Speaker 2: replies blue Beard. I very well know you went into
Speaker 2: the closet, did you not?
Speaker 4: Very well? Madam?
Speaker 2: You shall go back and take your place among the
Speaker 2: ladies you saw there. The new wife begs blue Beard
Speaker 2: to spare her, but he refuses. Pirot writes, she would
Speaker 2: have melted a rock, so beautiful and sorrowful was she,
Speaker 2: But blue Beard had a heart harder.
Speaker 4: Than any rock.
Speaker 2: The new wife convinces blue Beard to give her time
Speaker 2: to pray before he kills her. He concedes and gives
Speaker 2: her half a quarter of an hour. The new wife
Speaker 2: calls up to her sister Anne, who is still at
Speaker 2: the country house. She asks Anne to climb to the
Speaker 2: top of the tower to see if her brothers are coming.
Speaker 2: They had made plans to arrive that day, and if
Speaker 2: Anne does see them, to give them a sign to
Speaker 2: make haste. Three times is Anne and see a cloud
Speaker 2: of dust, and three times it's not her brother's. On
Speaker 2: the fourth look, Anne sees two horsemen, but there's still a.
Speaker 4: Great way off.
Speaker 2: Blue Beard has no more patience and balls so loudly
Speaker 2: that his distressed wife comes down and throws herself at
Speaker 2: his feet. He uses one hand to grab her hair
Speaker 2: and hold her head back, while the other hand holds
Speaker 2: a sword poise to strike her head off. As he's
Speaker 2: about to kill her, there's such a loud knocking at
Speaker 2: the gate that Bluebeard stops. The gate opens and the
Speaker 2: two horsemen enter. Blue Beard recognizes it's his wife's two brothers,
Speaker 2: one who is a dragoon and the other a musketeer,
Speaker 2: and so he turns to flee to safe himself. But
Speaker 2: do two brothers catch him and run their swords through him,
Speaker 2: leaving his body where he dies. Since blue Beard has
Speaker 2: no heirs or mistress, all his fortune goes to his
Speaker 2: new wife. She uses part of it to marry her
Speaker 2: sister Anne to a young gentleman who has been in
Speaker 2: love with Anne for a while now. She uses another
Speaker 2: part to buy captain's commissions for her brothers, and the
Speaker 2: rest she uses to marry herself to a worthy gentleman,
Speaker 2: who in time makes her forget blue Beard. Perrot's morals
Speaker 2: are a bit heavy handed in this tale. He writes, curiosity,
Speaker 2: in spite of its appeal, often leads to deep regret,
Speaker 2: to the displeasure of many a maiden, Its enjoyment.
Speaker 4: Is short lived.
Speaker 2: Once satisfied, it ceases to exist, and always costs dearly.
Speaker 2: Apply logic to this grim story, and you will ascertain
Speaker 2: that it took place many years ago. No husband of
Speaker 2: our age would be so terrible as to demand the
Speaker 2: impossible for his wife, nor would he be such a
Speaker 2: jealous malcontent. For whatever the color of her husband's beard,
Speaker 2: the wife of today will let.
Speaker 4: Him know who the master is.
Speaker 2: On one hand, Perrot scolds women for their curiosity. On
Speaker 2: the other hand, he warns against controlling jealous husbands. Robbers
Speaker 2: with colorful beards aren't unusual, though, and appear in several
Speaker 2: other tales. Switching back to at U nine fifty five,
Speaker 2: there's a Lithuanian tale published in eighteen fifty seven titled
Speaker 2: green Beard in the City. There is a wealthy merchant
Speaker 2: with a beautiful daughter. The girl says she will only
Speaker 2: marry a man with a green beard. In the woods
Speaker 2: surrounding the city, twenty four robbers live together. The handsome
Speaker 2: captain says he wants to marry this girl, so he
Speaker 2: finds the dye to turn his beard green. After coloring
Speaker 2: his beard, the captain rides into the city and courts
Speaker 2: the merchant's daughter. She likes him so much that he
Speaker 2: spends the night. The next day, plans are made for
Speaker 2: her to visit him at his large mansion in the woods.
Speaker 2: He gives her directions, which she follows on horseback. The
Speaker 2: path becomes too narrow, so she dismounts her horse and
Speaker 2: continues on foot. Soon she comes upon a small house
Speaker 2: with two lions chained.
Speaker 4: Near the door. When she realizes.
Speaker 2: They're not doing anything, she goes inside.
Speaker 4: She enters her.
Speaker 2: Room with beds and flint locks hanging on the walls.
Speaker 2: Flintlocks are guns that use the striking of flint to fire.
Speaker 2: In the next room is a table with a bird
Speaker 2: in a cage hanging from the rafter. The little bird
Speaker 2: asks how she got in and tells her that robbers
Speaker 2: live there. The bird also warns if she tries to
Speaker 2: leave now, the lions will eat her, so she needs
Speaker 2: to hide under the bed until the robbers get drunk
Speaker 2: and pass out. Then as she leaves, she can throw
Speaker 2: a piece of cake to each.
Speaker 4: Lion and run away.
Speaker 2: The girl follows the bird's advice and crawls under the bed.
Speaker 2: When the robbers come home, one says it smells of
Speaker 2: human flesh, but the bird makes excuses and the robbers
Speaker 2: stop asking questions. The robbers have brought home a girl
Speaker 2: with them. First they eat dinner, then they chop the
Speaker 2: other girl into pieces, starting with her fingers. The finger
Speaker 2: with the ring flies out of the carnage and lands
Speaker 2: beside the girl hiding under the bed. She puts it
Speaker 2: in her pocket. After the robbers drink themselves to sleep,
Speaker 2: the girl comes out from under the bed, feeds the
Speaker 2: bird some sugar, then feeds the lions the cake as
Speaker 2: she flees. But no sooner had she started running than
Speaker 2: the lions begin to roar, waking up the robbers. Knowing
Speaker 2: it's the merchant's daughter, they take after her, but she's
Speaker 2: already reached her horse and is riding safely home. Green
Speaker 2: Beard cuts off his beard and devises the plan. He
Speaker 2: orders large wagons with large barrels for his men to
Speaker 2: hide in. He tells his men to stay they hidden
Speaker 2: until he gives them a sign. Green Beard goes to
Speaker 2: the merchant's house, pretending to be someone else. While the
Speaker 2: two are talking, one of the servants overhears the men
Speaker 2: whispering and the barrels and goes to tell the merchant.
Speaker 2: The merchant then forces green Beard to sit with the
Speaker 2: guard on each side while other men prepare to catch
Speaker 2: the hidden robbers. The merchant's daughter calms down and shows
Speaker 2: her father and green Beard the dead girl's finger with
Speaker 2: the ring. Green Beard, knowing he's been caught, tries to run,
Speaker 2: but the guards hold him down. He and all his
Speaker 2: men are caught. The girl then leads people to the
Speaker 2: robber's house. She keeps the little bird, the merchant keeps
Speaker 2: the lions. The rest is divided among the poor, and
Speaker 2: the house is burnt down. The robbers all die in prison,
Speaker 2: and the merchant's daughter no longer has a desire to
Speaker 2: marry a man with a green beard. One of the
Speaker 2: morals is to warn women to not be so picky
Speaker 2: about who they marry, But not all of these tales
Speaker 2: are about marriage.
Speaker 4: One of my favorites, and.
Speaker 2: Perhaps the Saddest Story Ran Across from this tell type
Speaker 2: is a Romanian story written by Moses Gastor published in
Speaker 2: nineteen fifteen. A poor orphan girl works as a servant
Speaker 2: for a rich man. Her dearest companions a little dog
Speaker 2: her parents had given her before they died. One day,
Speaker 2: the head of a robber band disguises himself as a
Speaker 2: servant and asks her to marry him. Feeling something sinister
Speaker 2: about the man, the girl refuses. The chieftain has his
Speaker 2: fellow robbers kidnapped the girl and her dog, but although
Speaker 2: she is trapped in his home, the girl still refuses
Speaker 2: to marry him. Fed Up, the head of the robbers
Speaker 2: sells her to an innkeeper. This innkeeper robs and kills
Speaker 2: travelers and then serves their flesh to his other customers.
Speaker 2: Terrorizes the girl by showing her the stolen valuables, the
Speaker 2: room where he murders people, and the weapons he uses
Speaker 2: for his violent crimes. Later, he brings her a little
Speaker 2: boy who he has captured. He cuts the little boy's
Speaker 2: head off before cutting the rest of him to pieces.
Speaker 2: The innkeeper then forces the girl to cook the boy's
Speaker 2: flesh and serve it to the guests. Sometime later, an old, wrinkled,
Speaker 2: ugly woman shows up. She's nothing but skin and bones,
Speaker 2: maybe wanting to fatten her up to eat, The innkeeper
Speaker 2: locks her in the room with the girl. Turns out
Speaker 2: it's the innkeeper's mother who has come to punish him
Speaker 2: for his wickedness. She tells a girl that to escape,
Speaker 2: she has to eat a piece of her dog's heart,
Speaker 2: which the girl does. Then the woman rubs ointment all
Speaker 2: over the girl's body, which transforms her into a duck.
Speaker 2: A little later, when the man opens the door, the
Speaker 2: girl flies out to safety. The innkeeper runs from room
Speaker 2: to room looking for the girl. Meanwhile, his mother mutters
Speaker 2: a magic curse that causes the end to collapse, killing
Speaker 2: the man at once. The girl turns around and sees
Speaker 2: the ruins. She's free, but since the witch never told
Speaker 2: her how to become human again, the story says, she
Speaker 2: remains a duck to this very day. While each story
Speaker 2: has commonalities, there are different levels of violence to them.
Speaker 2: But what about the brother's grim story? As it turns out,
Speaker 2: they didn't shy away from the darkness. The version of
Speaker 2: the robber bridegroom you heard at the beginning of the
Speaker 2: episode was from eighteen nineteen, but that's not the first
Speaker 2: time they published the story. The first one, published in
Speaker 2: eighteen twelve, is very different, and while most of the
Speaker 2: time the Grim Brothers sanitize their stories to be more
Speaker 2: appropriate for children, they didn't do that for the robber
Speaker 2: bridegroom in the eighteen twelve version. Instead of a merchant's daughter,
Speaker 2: there's a princess and she is set to marry a prince.
Speaker 2: The prince tells her to visit him in the castle
Speaker 2: in the woods. The princess says she was afraid of
Speaker 2: losing her way, but the prince says he would tie
Speaker 2: a ribbon to the trees to help her find her way.
Speaker 2: When she runs out of excuses, the princess agrees. The
Speaker 2: princess comes upon a large house the evening. She goes
Speaker 2: to visit the prince and an old woman sits outside.
Speaker 2: The woman says it is a good thing the princess
Speaker 2: has arrived while no one else is home, because the
Speaker 2: prince and his robber gang are planning on eating her.
Speaker 2: The old woman tells the princess to go hide behind
Speaker 2: the large barrel in the cellar. Just then, the prince
Speaker 2: and robbers arrive with another old woman. This woman is
Speaker 2: the princess's grandmother. The murder her. After the grandmother is dead,
Speaker 2: they take off her rings, but the ring on her
Speaker 2: ring finger refuses to come off, so they take a
Speaker 2: knife and hack it off. The finger flies behind the
Speaker 2: barrel into the princess's lap. The prince and robbers decide
Speaker 2: to look for it. The next morning, after everyone falls asleep,
Speaker 2: the princess sneaks out of the prince's castle and uses
Speaker 2: the ribbons to find her way home in the dark.
Speaker 2: She then tells her father everything. He immediately orders an
Speaker 2: entire regiment to surround the castle. The prince comes to
Speaker 2: visit the next day to ask the princess why she
Speaker 2: didn't come to visit like she promised. Like the eighteen
Speaker 2: nineteen version, she tells him about her bad dream, reveals
Speaker 2: a finger, and then he and his band of.
Speaker 4: Robbers are put to death.
Speaker 2: Unlike other stories such as Little Red, Riding Hood and
Speaker 2: Sleeping Beauty, the Brother's Graham did something a bit different
Speaker 2: with this tale. They actually leaned into the elements that
Speaker 2: made the robber bridegroom more horrific. That's according to a
Speaker 2: paper written by a late German Studies professor in folklorist
Speaker 2: Linda Krause Warley. For example, Warley argued, it's awful to
Speaker 2: see your own flesh and blood be murdered, like when
Speaker 2: the bride's grandmother was killed in the earlier version of
Speaker 2: the story. But then when the young woman sees another
Speaker 2: young woman, it's worse in the sense that it's like
Speaker 2: looking into a mirror. She's seeing her own fate. Another
Speaker 2: argument would be the omens of death, like the suitor
Speaker 2: using ash to mark the path through the woods, and
Speaker 2: even another argument is that the change from princess to
Speaker 2: Miller's daughter is significant because in folk tales, Miller's were
Speaker 2: usually perceived as devious and distrustful. The Robber Bridegroom has
Speaker 2: been adapted numerous times since the brother's grum. Two of
Speaker 2: the most well known versions are a novella by e
Speaker 2: Dora Wealthy and a novel by Margaret Atwood. Eudora Welty's
Speaker 2: novella The Robber Bridegroom was also adapted into a Broadway play,
Speaker 2: which was staged for the first time in nineteen seventy five.
Speaker 2: Margaret Atwood's nineteen ninety three novel The Robber Bride turns
Speaker 2: the tail on its head. She asks the question, is
Speaker 2: a bad marriage better than not being married? Doctor McNeil
Speaker 2: says this theme has carried its way through time.
Speaker 1: A woman has been intentionally luring three other women's husbands
Speaker 1: away from them, and the implication is that she's motivated
Speaker 1: by thinking maybe she's sparing them from bad marriages. The
Speaker 1: fact that these men could be lured away shows that
Speaker 1: their bad husbands are bad partners, and she's doing these
Speaker 1: women a favor by dispatching these men from their lives.
Speaker 4: And so we.
Speaker 1: Start to get fairly deep questions that really do stem
Speaker 1: from this original tail type nine fifty five. What is
Speaker 1: the value of a bad marriage in a time when
Speaker 1: women could not own property? Widows could, but women unmarried can't.
Speaker 1: So I don't know. Maybe a bad marriage where you
Speaker 1: managed to work some poisonous mushrooms into a soup, maybe
Speaker 1: that's better. I don't know. I'm not advocating that as
Speaker 1: a plan of action in any way. But the ways
Speaker 1: that we see women extracting power from these systems that
Speaker 1: disempower them are often in the background, with the help
Speaker 1: of other women, and sometimes with the help of the supernatural, which,
Speaker 1: of course was often an accusation turned against women in turn.
Speaker 2: When I talked to doctor McNeil about this tale, another
Speaker 2: way to look at the change from princess to merchant's
Speaker 2: daughter is perhaps less significant.
Speaker 1: Sometimes it's a merchant's daughter, which maybe changes the class
Speaker 1: nature of this, because sometimes it's a princess, and a
Speaker 1: princess who might be clever and able to save herself,
Speaker 1: still has more resources than a merchant's daughter. But a
Speaker 1: merchant's daughter still has more resources than someone living in poverty.
Speaker 1: And this seems to be a story that we tell
Speaker 1: about people above the poverty line. And that's somewhat interesting
Speaker 1: that the majority of the versions would set it in
Speaker 1: those two settings, either among royalty or among the merchant class,
Speaker 1: because it's getting at a particular type of womanhood where
Speaker 1: it's not just hey, take what you can get. You
Speaker 1: are at the mercy of everyone. There is this sense
Speaker 1: of choice, there is this sense of agency, there is
Speaker 1: this sense of negotiation. Right there's her father wants to
Speaker 1: make her a good match. He believes that this guy,
Speaker 1: whether he's a prince or a bandit or another merchant
Speaker 1: or whatever, is going to be a good match. And
Speaker 1: then suddenly we get the battle between culture and personal emotion,
Speaker 1: gut instinct, all of that stuff. So we're really hearing
Speaker 1: something about a level of society that has the luxury
Speaker 1: of making this negotiation. If this woman were slightly lower
Speaker 1: on the socioeconomic scale, the bandits would have done to
Speaker 1: her what they did to their first victim, whose finger
Speaker 1: flies off with the ring on it.
Speaker 2: What is also different about the Robert bridegroom story from
Speaker 2: other Graham tales is that it shows women looking out
Speaker 2: for other women. We talked about a safety net and
Speaker 2: little red riding hood when the brothers Grim added the huntsmen.
Speaker 2: I think the old woman could also be viewed as
Speaker 2: that same societal safety net.
Speaker 1: What I love about this story is that we have
Speaker 1: an equally strong theme of clever and intelligent women looking
Speaker 1: out for women. The old woman in the house who
Speaker 1: encourages the young girl to hide, helps her stay hidden.
Speaker 1: When the men go looking for the body part that
Speaker 1: flies off, she calls them back to the table and
Speaker 1: is like, but don't worry about it, you can get
Speaker 1: it later. Come eat dinners ready, And we see them
Speaker 1: believing her, and we see the way that works out.
Speaker 1: Sometimes that old woman's role is filled by a bird,
Speaker 1: which I think is also really interesting. We see a
Speaker 1: strong tie between women and birds as messengers of goodness
Speaker 1: and things like that. And the young woman succeeds her,
Speaker 1: they allow her to tell the story of her dream,
Speaker 1: dismissing whatever she might be saying as meaningless until it's
Speaker 1: too late for it to be meaningless. So we have
Speaker 1: two opposing messages about the power of women in the story,
Speaker 1: and I think that's one of the things that has
Speaker 1: made it stick around so long despite being so bizarre.
Speaker 2: The Robber Bridegroom a horror story or a fairy tale
Speaker 2: in the end, maybe it's a little bit of both.
Speaker 2: Next time, the end is in sight as we visit
Speaker 2: the absolute darkest tale of the Brother's grim in the
Speaker 2: final The Deep Dark Woods is a production of School
Speaker 2: of Humans and iHeart Podcasts. It was created, written, and
Speaker 2: hosted by me Miranda Hawkins. This episode was produced by
Speaker 2: mikeyl June with senior producer Gabby Watts. Executive producers are
Speaker 2: Virginia Prescott, Brandon Barr, el C Crowley, and Maya Howard.
Speaker 2: Stories were voiced by Julia Christgau. Theme song was composed
Speaker 2: by Jesse Niswanger, This episode was sound designed and mixed.
Speaker 4: By Chris Childs.
Speaker 2: You can follow the show on Instagram at School of
Speaker 2: Humans and don't forget to subscribe and leave a review.