Goethe's Fairy Tale of the Green Snake and the Beautiful Lily

Goethe’s Fairy Tale of the Green Snake and the Beautiful Lily

Introduction

The story “Goethe’s Fairy Tale of the Green Snake and the Beautiful Lily,” written by Goethe has captivated the minds and hearts of its audiences ever since it was first released. It is a story that largely dwells on the supernatural as well as mythology that existed at the time of the story’s publication. The purpose of this paper is to analyze this tale with respect to the significance of light and gold as used in the narrative by Goethe (1993). The tale presents this precious metal as a source of both wisdom/knowledge and death/destruction in the hands of humans as evidenced in the life of the snake and Mops.

Summary of the fairy tale

The story is set on a mythical land that is separated by a river. The first part of the story is in the night and it features two willow-the-whisps telling the ferryman to transport them across the river. When he takes them to the other end, they refuse to pay him in vegetables as is the norm. Instead they shake some gold coins from their body and offer it to him as payment. He declines to accept these because the river will reject them and instead burst its banks. The spirits only depart after they promise to bring back the three artichokes, three cabbages and three onions that the ferryman is demanding. As a result he goes to hide them on higher ground where they are later discovered by a snake who consumes them.

This action makes the snake become illuminated and this grants it an opportunity to explore some underground caverns that it had been curious about for a long time. Here the snakes finds that the temple is inhabited by four kings, one made of Gold, another Silver, another Bronze and the fourth one was made of a combination of Gold, Silver and Bronze. The first three were seated while the final one was standing. Meanwhile, back on land an old woman whose pug, Mops died, has med a prince who fell in love with beautiful Lily, a lady whose touch kills any living thing. Across the shore, Lily is crying at the fact that her condition has condemned her to a life of loneliness. The snake then offers to transform itself into a temporary bridge that facilitates their movement to Lily’s side of the river. On the land of the senses the young prince loses his reasoning and rushes towards lily and this instantly kills him. The old man had however instructed Lily on a way of bringing the young man back to life and for this to take place; another life had to be sacrificed. The snakes sacrifices its life as the young man’s conscious is awakened. At this time the temple with the four kings mysteriously surfaces and they come offering gifts at his side. This brings him back to life, reuniting him with Lily who no longer has the ability to kill by her touch.

The Value of Gold in Human hands and its significance.

This story has several instances where gold comes up. In contemporary times as well as in the past, gold has always been seen as the most precious of metals. This phenomenon is repeated severally in the fairy tale. An example of how this is manifested is the order in which the four kings are mentioned. They seem to be mentioned in order of their relative value and the mention of the golden king first seems to emphasize the emphasis of this hegemony. The characters in the fairy tale who interact with gold are the Willow-wisps, the green snake and mops. The willow-whisps seem to have an insatiable appetite for gold and this is what they consume at any given chance. At the same time it is this gold which they use in the payment of their debts. It should be noted that willow-whisps were believed to be spirits that provided people with guidance in the darkness. In the story they help the old man’s wife and the rest to navigate the land of the senses as well as the temple. This gold is representative of wisdom as one requires vast knowledge to navigate strange lands.

The gold that the ferryman hid is what the green snake swallowed and this gave it courage as well as knowledge which they would use in the navigation of the underground temple that it had got wind of in the past. This consumption of gold made the snake brighten or illuminated. Given the fact that this story was translated it is possible that the brightening of the snake refers to the fact that its intellect suddenly increased. This basically means that the gold had the same effect on the snake as it had on the willow the whisps thus conferring on the snake abilities of navigation, wisdom and courage. The gold in this context is therefore representative of the fact that knowledge is only useful once one has the courage to take it in. The gold was of no use to the ferryman since his main concern was how to stop it from swelling the river. The snake, unlike the ferryman became more useful to the people. While both played a key role in the transportation of people between the land of the ideal and the land of the real, the snake’s usefulness increased tremendously. He not only managed to move people across the river but also add value to the life of Lily through self-sacrifice. The increase in wisdom made the snake know that he would continue to be useful for eternity as he transformed into a permanent bridge.

In the case of Mops, he consumed the gold coins not knowing why the willow-whisps did the same. As a result he ended up dead and turned into onyx, a kind of precious stone and this caused a lot of misery to the owner who was the old man’s wife. It is clear that unlike the snake who had an objective with the knowledge, Mops had no such desire. As a result the gold did him harm by killing him. There was no incident of him becoming illuminated in any way. Instead he darkened and appeared to be the finest piece of onyx that had ever been seen at the time. Onyx has a shine but only reflects, it does not give any light on its own. The dead pug was more of a burden to the old lady and this is significant of those who squander their opportunities to get knowledge. When they do this they end up being burdensome and useless to those around them. The onyx that became of Mops was attractive to others yet useless to its owners. What this shows is that folly may at times appear to be attractive while in reality it is only burdensome to those who have to make up for the mistakes of one who lacks wisdom in his actions.

The fact that the old man’s light only shone when he came across another source of light emphasizes the fact that the value of wisdom can only be realized by another who is equally wise or knowledgeable. The old man’s wisdom is clearly seen when he devices a way for Lily to bring the prince back to life. This plan involved collusion between the snake and Lily, both of whom glowed after the sunset. For the plan to be executed as intended it was important for the snake and Lily to follow through the wise words of the man. In contemporary terms it is also clear that it takes wisdom or exposure to acknowledge more knowledge. This means that those who lack wisdom also lack the ability to take advantage of opportunities that come their way.

The act of the light banishing the destructive shadow of the giant is symbolic of the fact that knowledge empowers. The shadow represents the hopelessness that is experienced by people’s lack of wisdom and this greatly limits the things that they can do. This made the giant such a threat to the people.

From the above examples in the Goethe’s story it is evident that the connection between Gold and light are used to bring out their literal meanings and thus illustrate the significance of wisdom to people in the real world. Wisdom is something that greatly empowers an individual making him add value and at the same time increasing his value to society. Those who take it for granted tend to live miserable and self-destructive lives as seen in Mop’s case. The snake on the other hand illustrates the significance of proper application of wisdom.

References

Goethe, J. W. (1993). Goethe’s Fairy Tale of the Green Snake and the Beautiful Lily, Donald Maclean, translator.With a commentary by Adam McLean. Germany: Phanes Press