Märchen von Treue und Freundschaft

by Hannelore Marzi (Editor)

Jeder wünscht sich gute Freunde, und jeder weiß, wie schrierig solche mitunter zu finden oder zu erkennen sind.
Die bekannte Märchenerzählerin Hannelore Marzi hat kostbare, bislang selten veröffentlichte Märchen zusammengestellt, die uns zu hoffen helfen: So "klappt es" mit der Freundschaft in guten wie in schlechten Zeiten.

192 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1994

Reviews

[Manybooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

Märchen von Treue und Freundschaft (fairy tales of loyalty and friendship) presents an intriguing German language collection of global fairy and folktales with an eclectic and varied mix of themes and plots (both tales of loyalty and disloyalty and tales of true and false friendship are featured by editor Hannelore Marzi, with true friendship and loyalty of course generally richly rewarded, while disloyalty and false friendship are as a rule and sometimes even violently, viciously, gruesomely punished). And yes, my own personal favourite of the collected tales is a sweet Lithuanian offering titled Der junge Bauer und die weiße Schwänin (the young farmer and the white swan maiden), in which the latter does revert back into a swan (her true form), but instead of the more usual melancholy ending of the lover/bridegroom being left abandoned and woefully despondent, the farmer asks to join his wife and as a swan happily flies away into the sunset with her. An informative afterword, as well as detailed bibliographies increase the academic and folkloric value of Märchen von Treue and Freundschaft (and while I certainly do think that at least some of the stories featured in this collection could be read with and to children, Märchen von Treue und Freundschaft is for all intents and purposes not really a children's book, but more a collection of thematic folk and fairy tales for interested adults). Highly recommended, but as this collection is penned in German, a decent and at least high intermediate level of language fluency is definitely an asset, if not a requirement.