#FairytaleTuesday: Herr Korbes

It’s been awhile since I’ve posted so here’s a reminder: I’ve been going through the Grimm’s 1812 volume of fairytales, one after the other for a few years. I’ll finish eventually, I promise.

[CW: some Looney Tunes-level violence and shenanigans by animals and anthropomorphized household objects]

Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index type 210: The Traveling Animals and the Wicked Man

Hello. friends. Here we are again, to discuss another one of the Grimm’s more bizarre and nonsensical stories.

Now, the story starts out in a downright adorable place, with a rooster and a hen riding in a carriage drawn by four mice. They’re on their way to visit someone named Herr Korbes, though we are not given a reason for the visit. Along the way, they pick up a cat, and the rooster tells him:

Be sure you take good care, for I’ve got clean red wheels down there. Roll on, you wheels, high ho! Squeak, squeak, you mice, high ho! We’re going to see Herr Korbes today. We’re off without delay.”

After the cat, they are joined by a millstone, an egg, a duck, a pin, and a sewing needle.

It’s kind of giving “Bill and Ted’s packed phone booth” energy, right?

So this motley crew arrives at the home of Herr Korbes but Korbes isn’t home. The animals and objects split up and find places to rest while they wait. But… the places were carefully chosen so as to really mess with Herr Korbes’ day.

The little mice pulled the wagon into the barn. The little hen and the little rooster flew up on a perch. The cat settled down on the hearth. The duck took a place by the well sweep. The egg wrapped itself in a towel. The pin stuck itself in a chair cushion. The sewing needle jumped on the bed right into the pillow. And the millstone climbed to the top of the door.

If you’re especially concerned about that millstone hanging out on top of the door, you should be. Korbes came home and was immediately caught in a coordinated attack that was better planned than most military campaigns. It ends predictably, of course…

Just as he got through the front door, however, the millstone jumped down and killed him.

And that’s it, in the first edition. According to D.L. Ashliman, the story was updated in the 3rd edition to include this final line:

“Herr Korbes must have been a very wicked man.

But, again, no further explanation is given in the story as to what, exactly Herr Korbes did to incur such a cartoonish end. I couldn’t really find any analysis out there on the interwebz either. It seems to be another one of those “it is what it is, and what it is is a little weird” stories. and we just need to accept that.

Works Cited:

Ashliman, D.L. “Herr Korbes.” Grimm 041: Herr Korbes, 2002, sites.pitt.edu/~dash/grimm041.html.

Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm. The Original Folk and Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm: The Complete First Edition. Princeton University Press. Kindle Edition.