Monecia Samuel
Storytelling
Story III -Young Adult
THE DEVIL and HIS THREE GOLDEN HAIRS
Story Cue Card
Title
(best version for telling): The Devil and His Three Golden
Hairs from Lore Segal’s The Juniper Tree and Other Tales from Grimm
Collector/Author:
Grimm/Translated by Lore Segal
Other
Bibliographic Information: pp.
80-93, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, NY.
Ethnic
Origin: Germany
Running
Time: 10 minutes
Power
Centers:
Disapproval of the King
Sympathy toward the good luck child
Victorious relief and happiness when the King is sent
away forever
Reason
for Teller’s chosen Power Centers:
The teller wants the audience to dislike the King for his selfish and evil ways since the King set
out to murder an innocent child, tried
to take the luck the boy was prophesied to have,
And tried to take his bride from him. The teller decided the audience should feel sympathy and victory. She doesn’t believe any adult should
deliberately try to harm a child or interrupt their course of happiness in
life. In addition, before the teller
was adopted, a loving couple found her too by chance when she was an infant,
and she also thinks she has been lucky.
Characters Secondary Characters
A baby boy/Young Man The queen
His adoptive parents
The robbers
The three men from the city
The devil's grandmother
The devil
The queen, the princess
Scenes:
Baby boy is born in the village
King leaves box in deep water
Miller apprentice finds box in weir
Boy finds the hut of the old woman and thieves after
being lost in the forest
The marriage at the King's Palace
King returns to the palace and confronts Queen and boy
In route to Devil's house encounters watchmen and
ferryman
The Devil's House
In route back to King's palace fulfills requests
The King's Palace
Synopsis:
A boy is born with a caul (piece of the fetal sack)
enveloping his head and predicted to be lucky because of it, was born to a poor
couple. The King learns that it was
predicted that this boy would marry the princess, his daughter at fourteen
years of age and becomes troubled by the thought of this occurrence. He disguises himself and promises to take
care of the boy and provide him a good life.
On his way out of the village he leaves him in the deep water to
drown. The box floats to safety and the
unharmed baby is adopted by a childless couple.
The boy grows up with good fortune and becomes admirable
and intelligent. At the age of fourteen
while outside of his home a man (the
King) runs to him for shelter. The king
notices the boy and asks the miller’s apprentice if the miller and his wife who
own the home are his parents. The man
informs him that the boy was adopted fourteen years earlier and tells him the
good luck child’s (not knowing he was a good luck child) history. Knowing this is the baby he tried to drown,
the King asks the boy’s parents if their son could deliver a letter to the
Queen. They nor the boy knew the letter had instructions to kill the messenger
upon arrival.
On his way to the King's palace the boy gets lost in the
forest finds a house to sleep in, and while asleep robbers check his pockets,
have compassion for him and change the text of the note to request that he
marry the King's daughter. When he
arrives this request is granted and a big wedding is held before the King
returns. The King is angry upon
arrival and declares the note was altered, and that the boy would have to
retrieve three gold hairs from the Devil to remain married to his
daughter. The boy retrieves the hairs
and while doing so grants favors of those he met along his way to the devil's
house. They reward him for these favors
in gold and donkeys. When he arrives,
the King asks where he found his treasure.
The boy leads the King to a fictitious spot across the river which traps
the King into an occupation of a ferryman for the rest of his days.
Special
Phrases:
"I know
everything."-Good Luck Child
"Then you can do
us/me a favor"-Watchmen and Ferryman
Audience:
Young Adult ages 13-21
Appropriateness
of story for audience:
Listeners in this age group are in what Erik Erikson
refers to as the Intimacy vs. Isolation stage. This is the sixth stage of man
in the 8 Stages of Man he declared in
his book Childhood and Society (1950) W. W. Norton, NY. In this stage a young adult is establishing
meaningful intimate relationships with others and feelings of
connectedness.
In this story the boy endangers himself to keep the wife
he just married, showing a willingness to maintain this intimate
relationship. He establishes a
connection with both old women he encounters-the woman he spends the night with
while lost in the forest and the devil’s grandmother who has pity on him and
helps him get the hairs and the answers he needs. In addition, he establishes connections with the three men who
need his assistance by fulfilling his promise to answer their questions.
According to Greene (1996) in Storytelling Art and
Technique (Ch. 9):
…teens like stories that
provide a bit more intellectual challenge, that are more psychologically
complicated, that contain characters who are not necessarily all good or all
evil, that pok fun at accepted values or authority figues, that provide a look
at some darker aspects of life and an opportunity to face fearful beings and
situations, that include family conflict…, that speak to feelings of
powerlessness.
Furthermore, loyalty, confidence and bravery are rewarded
while bad intentions or evil acts (like those displayed by the King) are
punished.
Bibliographic
Information on other versions/variants:
Babbit, N. (1998) Ouch!
Harper Collins, NY
Grimm (1993) The Devil's Three Golden Hairs in Grimm's
Complete Fairy
Tales. Pp. 190-196, Barnes and
Noble Books, NY
Comparison
of all versions/variants:
LANGUAGE
The language is simpler in Babbit’s version, making it
more suitable for children. The caul is
changed to a birthmark (to aid comprehension and visualization).
Example 1
There was a baby boy born
once with a birthmark shaped like a crown.
“No question about it, said the local fortune-teller. “When he grows up, he’s going to marry a
princess.”
…her son was
born with a caul enveloping his head.
This was supposed to bring good fortune, ad it was predicted that he
would marry the King’s daughter when he became nineteen.
..and because he was
wrapped in his good luck caul it was prophesied that in his fourteenth year he
would marry the daughter of the king.
Example 2
In Babbit- "Can you take me across?" he ased. "I'll take you," but not until you
tell me how I can stop this endless backing and forthing. It's boring me to death."
Grimms'-"you
can do me a favor and tell me how it is that I am obliged to go backward and
forward in my ferryboat every day, without a change of any kind."
Segal-
The ferryman wanted to know all about him, what trade he followed and what he
knew. " I know everything,"
he answered. "Then you can do me a
favor," said the ferryman, "and tell me why I must keep rowing to and
fro and nobody comes to relieve me.
FLAVOR
Babbit's
version, published as a retelling in 1998, has a modern flavor.
The story begins with the opening line, "There was a
baby born once with a birthmark shaped like a crown. It is the only version that doesn't start with "Once" or "Once upon a time."
In addition, there is no mention of gold as the boy's
reward but instead coins and jewels. It
seems more reasonable for the latter to be the reward in modern times.
-And he opened the chest of coins and jewels.
Segal’s -The chosen version,
has a British flavor.
-The King put it into a
box and rode until he came to a deep
water, threw the box in, and thought,
I have rid my daughter of one unexpected
suitor.
-They took good care of
the foundling and he grew up in
God’s grace.
-“Let come who may,” said the boy….
-“I wonder what could be the matter?” “Ah, if they only knew!” answered the
devil. “In the well, under a stone sits
a toad….
Grimms'
version has a formal flavor.
-Then the King knew that this must be the child of
fortune, and therefore the one which he had thrown in the water. He
hid his vexation, however, and presently said kindly, " I want to send
a letter to the Queen, my wife; if that young man will take it to her I will
give him two gold pieces for his trouble.
RHYTHM
Babbit's rhythm
is choppy since it lacks most of the decorative passages that the other
versions possess.
-"Well," said the King, "you'd
better give him to me. I'll raise him
properly so he'll know how to act when the time comes." This struck the baby's parents as sensible,
and anyway, the King gave them gold to seal the bargain.
Segal's rhythm
is conversational.
-He went to the child's parents, acted pleasant,
and said, "My poor people, let me have your child. I will provide for it." At first they refused but the stranger
offered a large sum of money and they thought, The child is born lucky, so this
can't help being for his own good. In
the end they agreed and gave him the child.
Grimms'
rhythm has a very smooth flow:
-At first they refused; but when the stranger
offered them a large amount of gold, and then mentioned that if their child was
born to be lucky everything must turn out for the best with him, they willingly
at last gave him up.
Segal's version is the most tellable of the three. The age the boy would be married, 14, is the
most realistic for a story that happened once upon a time or long ago. The Grimms' version notes the nineteenth
year and the Babbit version indicates "when he grows up," a phrase
often used and easily understood by children.
In addition, Segal’s and Grimms' version include the
additional characters (the watchmen-with their requests) which make the story
more complicated and interesting. However
the language in Grimms' may be considered overly formal for young adults
today. Segal's version is a good mix
between the more complex Grimms' version and the simplified version by Segal.