Märchen von Hexen und weisen Frauen

by Sigrid Früh

Rare Book

Genres: Fairy Tales, Feminism

190 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1996

Reviews

[Manybooks · Rating 5 out of 5]

A both engaging and enlightening, often even thought provoking collection of European folk and fairy tales (featuring witches, enchantresses and so-called wise women), I very much appreciate the fact that editor/collector Sigrid Früh has in her Märchen von Hexen und weisen Frauen included both positive and negative tales, has included stories of both good and evil witchcraft, of both white and black magic. And delightfully, appreciatively, from the seventeen presented tales of Märchen von Hexen und weisen Frauen, there are actually only about four where the witches and sorceresses are in fact entirely negative and demonic, as more often than not, they are featured as ambivalent, with both positive and negative, both destructive and helping/healing attributes (and I have to admit that the tales of white magic are my favourites, and the ones I do tend to reread occasionally). An informative afterword (which placement at the back of the book I also very much do appreciate, as often, such analyses seem to appear as forewords or introductions and tend to include spoilers) as well as detailed bibliographies increase the academic and folkloric value of Märchen von Hexen und weisen Frauen (and while I certainly think that at least some of the stories featured in this collection could easily and with little concern be read with and to children, Märchen von Hexen und weisen Frauen 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 has been penned entirely in German, a decent level of fluency is definitely an asset, if not even rather a requirement.

[Stohelit · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very nice collection of fairy-tales, many lesser known and quite beautiful!