The Wonderful Musician

"The Wonderful Musician" or "The Strange Musician" or "The Marvellous Musician" (German: Der wunderliche Spielmann) is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm as tale number 8 in their Grimm's Fairy Tales. It is Aarne-Thompson type 151, music lessons for wild animals.

Andrew Lang included it in The Red Fairy Book.

Plot summary

A fiddler, wandering in the forest, gets bored and longs for company. He starts to play his fiddle, which draws to him a wolf, fox, and hare, none of which is the company he seeks. Using the animals' admiration for him and his playing, he tricks each of them into becoming ensnared or trapped so that he can continue on his way alone. He finds a companion that he seeks, a woodsman, but at that time the wolf has worked itself free, and frees the fox and hare on his way to pursue the musician.

Just as the animals come upon the musician with the goal of doing him mischief, the woodcutter steps in front and protects him with his axe. The animals leave, and the musician thanks the woodcutter with another song, and then leaves.

Adaptations

Literature

Anne Sexton wrote an adaptation as a poem called "The Wonderful Musician" in her collection Transformations (1971), a book in which she re-envisions sixteen of the Grimm's Fairy tales.[1]

References

"Transformations by Anne Sexton"

External links

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[1] "Transformations by Anne Sexton"

The Brothers Grimm
Jacob Grimm · Wilhelm Grimm
Works	Grimms' Fairy Tales Deutsche Sagen Deutsche Mythologie
Notable tales	"Bearskin" "The Brave Little Tailor" "Brother and Sister" "Cat and Mouse in Partnership" "Cinderella" "The Devil with the Three Golden Hairs" "Doctor Know-all" "The Dog and the Sparrow" "The Elves and the Shoemaker" "The Four Skillful Brothers" "The Frog Prince" "The Fisherman and His Wife" "Godfather Death" "The Golden Bird" "The Golden Goose" "The Goose Girl" "The Goose-Girl at the Well" "Hans My Hedgehog" "Hansel and Gretel" "The Hut in the Forest" "The Jew Among Thorns" "Jorinde and Joringel" "The Juniper Tree" "The King of the Golden Mountain" "King Thrushbeard" "Little Red Riding Hood" "Mary's Child" "Mother Holle" "Old Hildebrand" "Old Sultan" "The Queen Bee" "Rapunzel" "The Riddle" "Rumpelstiltskin" "The Seven Ravens" "The Six Servants" "The Six Swans" "Sleeping Beauty" "Snow White" "Snow-White and Rose-Red" "The Story of the Youth Who Went Forth to Learn What Fear Was" "The Three Little Men in the Wood" "The Three Spinners" "Thumbling" "Town Musicians of Bremen" "Trusty John" "The Turnip" "The Twelve Brothers" "The Twelve Dancing Princesses" "The White Snake" "The Wolf and the Seven Young Goats" "The Wonderful Musician"
Other	Grimm's law Göttingen Seven Grim Tales The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm Once Upon a Brothers Grimm Grimm's Fairy Tale Classics The Brothers Grimm Grimm Tales The Sisters Grimm Fairy tale American McGee's Grimm German Fairy Tale Route Grimm Once Upon a Time
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