Jorinde and Joringel

4 March 2003 Jorinde and Joringel
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/fairytales_myths_fables_&legends/98926

Jorinde and Joringel
http://bjtanke.com/grimms/jorinde.htm

A simple story, Jorinde and Joringel, offers hope to the reader that which was lost shall be found. So close in spelling and sound, the reader assumes that the names represent two parts of a whole rather than independent entities. Consider a story presented by the master of comedy, Aristophanes in Plato's Symposium.

In the beginning man did not appear as he does now. Indeed, he was quite different. Round, he had four arms, and four legs, one head and came in three sexual forms. Some were male-male, female-female and a part, male-female. Born of the sun, earth and moon, man wanted to ascend into the heavens to dwell with the gods. With immense physical strength, he threatened to ursurp the gods, themselves. Zeus, worried about the situation, didn't dare to exterminate him from the earth, because the gods are dependent on humam sacrifices and his devotion. After a while, Zeus came up with a solution to relieve the gods of becoming an extinct species on Mt Olympus. Using his thunderbolt, he split the creature in half. This created the diversity of preferences that exist on earth today and explains why some people search for a partner which is a reflection of themselves, while others are attracted to opposites.

However, in splitting the people apart, Zeus created a new problem which had no easy solution. When the two parts were split, the halves miserably sought to re-unite. When they did not succeed, they succumbed to grief, desisted from eating and languished until they perished. Not only that, but the noise that they caused by their wailing was so loud that it impeded the gods' rest so that Zeus was compelled to scatter the parts over the earth. Therefore, it evolved that people seek their other half, and this we call "love."

Shakespeare, the Bard of all Seasons, succinctly writes:
The lunatic, the lover, and the poet
Are of an imagination all compact:
One sees more devils than vast hell can hold,
That is the madman; the lover, all as frantic
Sees Helen's beauty in the Brow of Egypt...
Midsummer Night's Dream, V.i.7

Indeed, in Midsummer Night's Dream, we come upon the pair of confused lovers who seem to be identical with each other. The confusion of identity and pairing also appears in Mozart's Cosi fan Tutti where the two women accept a bet that they can remain true to their lovers when they are sent off into the military. The opera infuriates many a feminist, but the two women are seduced into switching partners by a ruse from Mozart's clever librettist.

The story of Jorinde and Joringel seems to be a surreal dream that could appear on a Saturday morning cartoon show and disappear as quickly. Is it a warning regarding personal relationships? What is the witch who transforms into an owl or cat to prey on the unwary and what is the stone castle? Why is Joringel transformed to stone only to be freed when the moonlight falls upon him? Or Jorinde becomes a nightingale? A dreamscape, the story offers no easy answers in interpretation except that upon revival, Joringel realizes the terrible loss of Jorinde and pledges to recover her. In this sense, it is similar to the theme found in Cupid and Psyche, that the lover must endure physical hardship and search the universe for the beloved. Joringel becomes a shepherd in a strange village before starting on his quest to find the blood-red flower with the pearl in the center.

And although the witch transforms other maidens into beautiful exotic birds, Jorinde is only a plain nightingale. Pass by a nightingale sitting in a bush and you'll not recognize it.

It is nothing remarkable like an eagle or parrot. It wears drab feathers, but the voice outsings even the sparrow and the blackbird with a repertoire of some thirty different songs. Andersen uses the bird for his famous satire, The Nightingale, parodying the snobbishness of aristocracy and the futility of imitating natural ability.

Perhaps the story hints at things subliminal that we can only glimpse. Although beautiful, it was not her physical charms that caused Joringel's grief, but her hidden spirituality and creativity. Warned not to stray too near the castle in the evening, the two are caught in the woods as darkness falls. The symbols hint of legends long past, of Athena-Artemis with the moon and the owl. Or perhaps the woods connote unknown danger that can surround a person in daily life, similar to the woods in Robert Frost's, Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening. Yet the time element was crucial to Joringel's transformation into stone. Perhaps the warning is that he should not wait too long or he may lose the thing he loves most. Love comes easily when young, but when a couple dally, it also fades with the evening.

How often have you inquired about George to hear the reply, "Oh George? That was last year. I'm over it now," as lovers separate and follow different thorny paths. How often do you read about a reunion? Very seldom? A blood-red flower with a pearl in the middle endows Joringel to transform the situation. Blood-red must be his sacrifice and dedication to find the pearl that he treasures, and through the persistence of his efforts, eventually he is able to break down the stone walls of communication to recover the lost relationship. Perhaps, Jorinde only seems to be transformed from a beautiful girl to a bird as a result of vicious gossip and social animosity surrounding the pair. Similarly the dewdrop inside the flower appears to be a pearl. Nor should it be forgotton that a pearl is only formed from grit and friction. The things most cherished are often those that cause the greatest hidden pain, that demand the greatest sacrifice and risks. Surreal, the story seems dreamlike encouraging the reader to hope for re-union with the beloved.

An Enchanted World: Jorinde and Joringel
http://www.fanzone50.com/Tales/Jorinde.html

http://fanzone50.com/Tales/FaeryTales.html

Bird news: Nightingale Profile
http://www.birdcare.com/bin/showpage/portraits/ngportrait

Luscinia megarhynchos: nightingale, pic
http://www.biriwabeach.com.gh/birds/nightingale.htm
commonly found across Europe

Crocker Farm: Nightingale page
http://www.crockerfarm.org/ac/gr3/minstrel/nightingale.html
has photos, sound file and John Keats, Ode to a Nightingale
ou can see how small the bird actually is


Grimms Fairy Tales
http://www.familymanagement.com/literacy/grimms/grimms-toc.html
All Family Resources tales@familymanagement.com
full text based on Margeret Hunt's Grimm's household Tales but origin unknown
209 stories 1.4MB for complete download

20 June 2005 The Nightingale Art vs Artifice
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/16568/116546

18 June 2005 HCA The Nightingale
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/16568/116539