An Analysis of a Fairytale
An Analysis of a Fairy Tale: The White Snake
By
Roland Matthews
Winter 2016
The White Snake
This is one of the many household stories collected by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm in the very early nineteenth century from the many different states of an area that is now collectively known as Germany. This particular tale comes from the city of Hanau and the state of Hessen and is number 17 of the collected works.
The story goes something like this: There was once a very wise King who was known for eating a very mysterious covered dish while completely alone every day. The servant who was responsible for removing the dish was finally overcome with curiosity one day and took it to his own quarters. To his surprise, he found under the lid a white snake and took a bite. Suddenly he realizes that he has the ability to understand the speech of birds and other animals. On the very same day, the Queen reports that her ring is missing and the servant is accused of being the thief. While out in the courtyard and worrying over what he is to do, he overheard some ducks discussing their daily activities. One of them says that in her haste while eating she has swallowed a ring. The servant quickly grabs her up and takes her to the kitchen to be butchered and is found to be innocent. As a reward the King grants him his only request: to have a horse with which to travel and see the lands. On his travels he encounters 3 fishes who were trapped and sets them free, an Ant King who is complaining that his people are being trampled by human steeds which prompts him to change paths, and finally 3 young ravens who are starving because they have been thrown out of their nest and cannot fly, whom he feeds by slaying his own horse. Then he walks to a different kingdom and hears about an offer of marriage to the Princess for anyone who can beat the King’s test. He sees the beautiful Princess, falls in love with her and volunteers to be tested. The King tosses a gold ring out into the ocean and tells him that he must retrieve it and every time that he comes up without it he will be beaten. With the threat of death now looming over his head, he wanders the shore wondering what to do when the same three fishes arrive with a mussel shell that contains the ring. The King is astonished and agrees to give him the Princess, but she is offended because the servant is not of royal birth and gives him another challenge. She spills 10 sacks of millet seed in their courtyard and tells him that he has to return every single grain before sunrise. He sits on a rock in discouragement but to his surprise the Ant King arrives with thousands of his people and they complete the task on his behalf. Amazed, but still not satisfied, the proud Princess sends him on a final quest. He must find the Tree of Life and return with one of its apples. Not knowing where to find this tree he wanders through 3 kingdoms and collapses in exhaustion beneath a tree at the edge of a forest to sleep. But he is awakened by being hit in the head with a golden apple that is dropped from above by the three ravens that are now grown and have flown across the ocean to the edge of the world. The servant returns with the golden apple, splits it with the Princess who then marries him, and they live together in undisturbed happiness to a great age.
This tale has many significant symbols that could potentially be interpreted on many different levels. The first of which is the one that the title is based upon, the White Snake. There is an unspoken mystery in the story because it does not say where the snake comes from, how it is captured, or who prepares it. Nor does the tale describe how much of the snake the King eats or if he has a new one prepared each day. It does hint that it must somehow replenish itself because no one other than the King knows what is under the cover and after the servant saw it, he does not mention that it had already been partially eaten. This leads the reader to conclude that this serpent must be none other than the legendary Ouroboros. This ancient symbol exists in many cultures and has many meanings. It was even described in Plato’s Timaeus. It usually depicts the infinite renewal and perpetual death / birth cycles of nature. It is prominent in the study and practice of alchemy as the symbol of immortality. Another clue of its alchemical significance is when the story tells us that after eating the white snake, the servant is able to understand the language of birds. This is a veiled metaphor of being able to understand the coded messages and information found in ancient alchemical texts and magical grimoires. The wise King could symbolize the higher self or superego, while the servant is none other than the proxy of the reader, a persona, the self, or the ego. The snake could be the superconscious, collective unconscious, the quantum field, or just a taste of wisdom itself.
Next we have the 3 ducks. Ducks are interesting, if not comical, creatures because they are able to traverse three types of terrain: water, land, and air. As we will see this is a foreshadowing of events to come. It is sad but understandable, that the duck had to be killed because otherwise the servant would have either been executed himself or appeared to be mad if he had attempted to explain that he knew that the duck had accidentally eaten it, not to mention possibly exposing himself as betraying the King’s trust by eating the secret snake. So the duck, which could represent the servant’s foolish and selfish nature, has to be sacrificed.
The 3 fishes are an allusion to the watery nature of the subconscious. They were trapped and not able to breathe, which could suggest that the servant had become too logical / conscious driven and had lost his mental and emotional balance.
The Ant King is quite an interesting character from a symbolic point of view. Is this an allegorical reminder that we should never forget or step upon the so-called “unimportant” people on our life’s journey? That could be one way to see it; but it so happens that there are several other myths about ants, one of which comes from Zosimos of Panopolis the 3rd century alchemist who instructs that when Ethiopian ants bring up gold from the earth, to put it with the wife or woman of vapor until the divine bitter water comes out. This has been described by Von Franz as the conjunction or union of opposites which sometimes results in the often bitter and hard to swallow truth. But being ants they could also represent the practical, earthly nature of physical work.
Then he meets the 3 young flightless ravens. The nigredo stage of alchemy is often depicted as a crow or raven because as the name suggests, it is the black stage of the work. They are immature and therefore not yet able to be self-sufficient. This could reflect his own condition as only the shadow can, or it could also indicate a level of depression so severe that any sort of levity is impossible, also known as the dark night of the soul. The slaying of his horse to selflessly provide for them is emblematical of sacrificing one’s own ambitions for the betterment of others. So it would seem to indicate that the best cure for depression is to recognize the suffering of others and to do something to alleviate it.
The Princess that the servant falls in love with could represent the Anima. The gold ring being thrown into the sea would be similar to the conscious diving down into the subconscious, as a gold ring can be a symbol of the sun, which in turn represents the conscious. But because of the previous relationship made with the fishes, or parts of the subconscious, the ego is retrieved safely which is enough to satisfy the King or higher self, but the anima requires more proof.
The 10 sacks of millet could possibly be a reference to the 10 sephiroth of the Kabbalistic Tree of Life, which coincide with ten parts of the body, the soul, and the mind along with the planets of astrology and metals of alchemy. The seeds of millet could possibly represent anything from the number of days in one’s life, the number of little tasks that must be accomplished in a lifetime, the Taoist ten thousand things, lives of reincarnation, products of our karma, memories and experiences, or even potential future outcomes. But the Ant King and his tribe come to the rescue of our hero in exchange for his willingness to change paths. Changing one’s path is not an easy thing to do and shows an ability to be flexible, adaptable, and willing to compromise. Thus the unseen reward of being willing to change course comes to him at a later time and bears fruit after patience like a seed.
Then the Princess gives him the most impossible quest of all, to find the fruit of the Tree of Life. In the Bible the book of Genesis tells us that there were two trees in the Garden of Eden. The first was the Tree of Knowledge and the second was the Tree of Life. After Adam and Eve ate from the Tree of Knowledge, they were thrown out of the Garden for fear that they would also eat the fruit of the Tree of Life and obtain immortality. This is a completely different story that has its own set of symbols that would require another paper to discuss, but let it suffice to say that somewhere deep down inside of each and every one of us is the desire to have eternal life. In the Greek myth of Heracles, one of his twelve labors required him to obtain a golden apple from the garden of the Hesperides which was also known to provide immortality. Both of these stories have special trees bearing immortality granting fruit guarded by serpents. Our servant, not knowing where to locate this Tree of Life wanders through 3 kingdoms. In alchemy, there are also 3 kingdoms: mineral, plant, and animal. There are also 3 divisions of every thing into: Sulphur, Mercury, or Salt and this could explain why each of the animals encountered appear in threes. In our fairy tale, the 3 ravens obtain the golden apple and bring it to the servant as he is about to sleep at the edge of a forest. The ravens are now mature and able to soar high into the superconscious to obtain the golden purity of the individualized self, which is symbolized by the marriage of the servant to the Princess and their living in happiness to a great age.
References:
1. Grimm, J. & Grimm, W. (2011). Grimm’s fairy tales (trans. by Hunt, M.). San Diego, CA; Canterbury Classics / Baker & Taylor Publishing Group.
2. Von Franz, M-L. (1980). Alchemy: An introduction to the symbolism and the psychology. Toronto, Canada; Inner City Books.
3. Wikipedia (February 18, 2016). Ouroboros retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ouroboros
