Brynhild the Valkyrie, Arthur Rackham
Fairy Tale Fridays: The Glass Mountain
The version of The Glass Mountain
posted here was collected by Hermann Kletke, and included in Andrew
Lang’s Yellow Fairy Book. Although the popular version of the tale is
Polish, there are several other versions from Germany and Austria, and
the general middle Europe.
To me, this story is particularly
interesting in its sparsity—details and motivations are left to the
imagination of the reader. As previously discussed, this is common
practice in fairy tales; plot-driven stories, they play to accepted
notions of the world and its people, with inevitable endings. The Glass Mountain,
however, takes this to extremes, sketching only the necessary and
leaving even seemingly important minutiae—such as the reason for the
princess’ enchantment and imprisonment—quite out of the story.
Why?
Commentary and analysis of The Glass Mountain
is also sparse (though it’s likely there’s at least some scholarship in
middle Europe). Personally, I think the terseness of the tale doesn’t
really offer much, and several of the ideas in the story are better
represented elsewhere.
Let us turn to the details of the tale:
First,
the princess. Sitting by her window, the princess follows the
misadventures of the knights attempting her rescue. She is presented as
an outsider, an object to be won almost, yet the story, so terse, still
finds time to tell us that, The sight of her always gave men fresh courage…
A
rather strange addition, isn’t it? Without this line, the princess
remains an outsider, and object. With it, the story begins to suggest
that the princess is unhappy with her lot. Is this an inkling of the
reason behind her imprisonment? Is she a Polish Maid Maleen[1],
entrapped for loving a man of whom her father did not approve? The
glass mountain on which she resides is certainly as impenetrable as
Maid Maleen’s tower. Or perhaps the princess is wishing to be a greater
part of the story; she appears to not just be inspired by the knights
but identify with them also, casting her in the role of would-be
heroine. Interestingly, the princess’ seat by the window suggests that
she may be day-dreaming or engaging in some other fantasy play, fitting
with either of the ideas just discussed.
Note that, at the end
of the story, the princess rushes forward to greet the youth as her
husband and master. Although such language is a sign of the time, it is
surprising wording given that the youth has gained the castle, riches
and princess, but in return lost his own freedom—with the eagle dead,
there is no safe way to return to the land below. And so one prisoner
has become two, but the couple seem unaware of this, content in a
lovers’ world. It seems a peculiar and interesting allegory about love.
This dual imprisonment, however, also seems akin to death.
The
story is also reminiscent of the rescue of Brunhild. Brunhild, also
Brynhildr and Bruühilde, is a shield maiden and valkyrie of Norse
mythology. The Völsung cycle tells us that when asked to decide a
battle between two kings, she angered Odin by choosing against his
will. Odin then condemned her to a life of mortality imprisoned in a
castle behind a wall of shields and atop Hindarfjall (Hind Mountain)
until a man would rescue and marry her.
The Golden Knight and the Youth…when a knight in golden armour and mounted on a spirited steed was seen making his way towards the fatal hill.
The
golden knight’s failure is inevitable. Like the older siblings in other
fairy tales, he sets out, makes it part way, then fails to complete the
task at hand. But the older siblings failure is usually the result of
some character flaw—they are rude or cruel to the person or animal who
can help them (as in the case of The Fool of the World and the Flying Ship), or they fail to follow directions (as in The Dancing Water, The Singing Apple, and the Speaking Bird). The Glass Mountain, however, skips these steps altogether; the only sins of which the golden knight may be guilty are pride and over-confidence.
Sticking
his spurs into his horse he made a rush at the mountain, and got up
half-way, then he calmly turned his horse's head and came down again
without a slip or stumble. The following day he started in the same way…
In her annotations to Beauty and the Beast, Heidi Anne Heiner says:Fairy
tales often contain multiple siblings in which the youngest becomes the
protagonist. Traditional folklore is primarily interested in only
children or youngest siblings. Either the youngest is the most
beautiful and worthy--often female protagonists--or the youngest is
stupid and lucky--often male protagonists. In either scenario, the
youngest achieves good fortune through an adventure and/or magical
helper.[2]
As discussed in the commentary on
Mother Holle, beautiful girls are princesses. But what about the
youngest male child, stupid and/or lucky? In the words of Maria Tatar: "It is the modest, the humble, and often the dispossessed who are elevated to noble rank…"[3]
For
me, the youngest male child is a fairy tale version of the everyman,
the person neither above average nor below, who plods through life
until opportunity arises. Is this why fairy tales remain popular
amongst adults? Maybe. In his Preface to Works, Hans Christian Andersen
wrote that “Every man's life is a fairy tale written by God's fingers”.
In
the posted version of this fairy tale, the hero is described as “a
merry-hearted schooboy” and “the youth”. Although other tellings don’t
specifically mention the age of the hero, he is represented as young.
The version posted here, in fact, suggests that the boy is somewhere
between seven and fifteen, probably marking a transition to adulthood.
Seven
may be on the young side, even for a fairy tale, but twelve is tending
toward manhood in certain cultures, and certainly in some eras. At
twelve, boys were apprenticed and sent out to work. That the story is
so specific in terms of time—noting that the boy had always known of
the princess, that the princess had been trapped seven years—seems a
little unusual, particularly as the time the princess has been
imprisoned and enchanted appears to have no bearing on her rescue. This
may indicate a sort of predestination; we know the golden knight has
failed, despite appearing as a hero, while the youth, lacking in
accoutrements, has the determination born of his age and his
familiarity with the princess’ story on his side.
The eagle
"The
blood of the eagle has restored all the people below to life. All those
who have perished on this mountain are awakening up to-day, as it were
from a sleep, and are mounting their horses, and the whole population
are gazing on this unheard-of wonder with joy and amazement."
Although
fairy tales often show the dead being waked by an elixir of sorts, this
mass resurrection via the blood of a fellow creature is somewhat
biblical. The eagle’s feet, hacked off, are even reminiscent of
Christ’s feet upon the crucifix.
Returning to an earlier note—if
we consider the youth and the princess atop the mountain as an allegory
for love, it is not implausible to consider this resurrection as a sort
of fairy tale way of saying “don’t worry, there are other fish in the
sea, you’ll get over it”.
The Dragon
Passing
a beast or obstacle to gain entry to the castle is a common element in
fairy tales; oftentimes the beast is not fought, but rather appeased by
a gift. The dragon (sometimes referred to only as ‘beast’), however, is
interesting in that a) it isn’t mentioned until the youth stumbles upon
it and b) the dragon is neither fierce nor docile. It does nothing when
the hero appears; it vanishes when the apple is thrown, as if it has
performed its function and there is no more. So, then, what is the
dragon’s function?
It seems that the dragon represents
something the youth must acknowledge—he is not to pass into the castle
unaware and unready. By throwing the apple at the dragon he shows
courage, quick-thinking and, most importantly, awareness. What if the
youth had ignored the dragon, or simply not seen it? The Glass Mountain
does not tell us, but other tales suggest his life would have ended
abruptly through enchantment or physical violence.
The Glass Mountain
And finally, we come to the glass mountain itself. In Cinderella: 345 Variants, Marian Roalfe Cox writes:In
Vernaleken's "The Maiden on the Crystal Mountain" (from Lower Austria),
the hero who keeps sliding backward when he attempts to climb the glass
mountain, changes himself into a bear (by means of the hair given him
by a grateful bear), and digs steps with his paws. When the splinters
of glass lame him he changes himself into a wolf, and holds fast with
his teeth. Finally he changes himself into a raven, and flies to the
top. The steep hill is called Anafielas by the Lithuanians, and
Szklanna gora (glass mountain) by the Poles.[4]
In
some cultures, glass is representative of the hymen and consummation of
marriage and mirrors (made of glass) have represented vanity, wisdom,
and spirituality. Considering the discussion above, it seems likely
that the glass mountain is either a sexual symbol—the transition of the
youth into manhood makes this particularly appropriate—or death.
Roalfe Cox continues:Compare
the belief that the soul in its wanderings has to climb a steep
hill-side, sometimes supposed to be made of iron, sometimes of glass,
on the summit of which is the heavenly Paradise. For this reason the
nails of a corpse must never be pared. The Russians still carry about
with them parings of an owl's claws, and of their own nails…
The
Lithuanians bury or burn with the dead the claws of a lynx or bear, in
the belief that the soul has to climb up a steep mountain..There is the Norse glerhiminn...a paradise to which old heroes ride.[5]
It
is important to note, however, that there is no clear linkage between
the glass mountain and death, and that much of this is inference and
supposition.
The Glass Mountain in popular culture
American
author Donald Barthelme prose poem, The Glass Mountain, details a trip
to the top. Cast in the voice of the youth, he says:…Everyone
in the city knows about the glass mountain/People who live here tell
stories about it/It is pointed out to visitors…
Throughout,
he explores the idea of the arduous journey, detractors, and reaching a
prize only to find it is not as valuable as once thought, using the
American market-economy as a backdrop.
At the top of
the mountain there is a castle of pure gold, and in a room in the
castle tower sits.../A heap of corpses both of horses and riders ringed
the bottom of the mountain, many dying men groaning there.[6]
Footnotes:
[1]
Maid Maleen is a fairy tale recorded by the Brothers Grimm. It tells
the story of a princess who falls in love with the prince of a
neighbouring kingdom; the princess’ father does not approve the match.
When the princess refuses to marry another, the king has her and her
maid locked in a tower for seven years, but when the kingdom falls at
the hand of a conquering king, the women escape early and sets out to
find her prince.
[2] http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/beautybeast/notes.html
[3] ibid.
[4] Cox, p. 338, 1893.
[5]ibid.
[6] Barthelme, p. 172, 2005
References:
Cox, Marian Roalfe, Cinderella: Three Hundred and Forty-five Variants of Cinderella, Catskin, and Cap O' Rushes, abstracted and tabulated.
London: David Nutt for the Folklore Society, 1893. (courtesy of
SurLaLune Fairy Tale Pages,
http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/cinderella/marianroalfecox/variants/338.html)
Heiner, Heidi Anne, The Annotated Beauty And The Beast, http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/beautybeast/notes.html
Barthelme, Donald, Sixty Stories, Penguin Classics, 2005.
Leeming, David, The Oxford Companion to World Mythology, Oxford University Press, 2005.