Portal talk:Rübezahl

Other sources

Searching Google Books for "turnip counter" turns up several other stories/summaries/translations. --Yodin^T 13:03, 26 September 2023 (UTC)

• I've now gone through most of the usable results, and added the relevant stories/articles to the portal. --Yodin^T 11:24, 12 February 2024 (UTC)

Original stories/retellings or translations

• The "Legends of Number-Nip" in the Misses Corbett's The Odd Volume (1826) starts with an abridged summary of Musäus' first story, followed by two stories that seem to be invented by them. See the footnote on p. 137: "Should “The Odd Volume” fall into the hands of an eminent friend, now exalted in station, and not less so in intellect, perhaps he will smile to recognize amid our interpolations his own juvenile frolic in the foregoing story."
  • These two original stories are retold along with Musäus' five stories in Walter Grahame's Stories About Number Nip the Spirit of the Giant Mountains (1881)
• Mary Catherine Rowsell's The Spirit of the Giant Mountains (1864) is a translation of Rosalie Koch's first volume of Rübezahl (1845)
  • In the translated introduction Koch says: "The legends of Rubezahl, the spirit of the mountains, are still current among the villagers, and they are to be found scattered in different books. But in this book, my young readers, you will find them all collected together, and written out anew. [T]he authors from whom a great part is taken are Musaeus, Lehnert, and many others."
  • More work is needed to find the sources of the individual stories, and determine how close they are to the originals: whether they're retellings and should just have Koch as the author, and a link to the story they're based on, or if they are very close to the original text, and should have Kock either as editor, or not even that.
  • The book was republished in 1884 as Number Nip, or, The Spirit of the Giant Mountains, which seems to be very similar, but omits the Introduction, and one story: "How Rubezahl punishes Trespassers on his Dominions" (external scan)
• James Lee and James Thomas Carey's Silesian Folk Tales (The Book of Rübezahl) (1915) also seems to be a translation of some (but not all) of the stories from this version. Lee and Carey also state that they've retold the stories, so they're not literal translations.
  • More work is needed to identify each individual story, and see how close it is to Koch's version: can Koch be considered the author, joint author with Lee and Carey, or just Lee and Carey as authors, with a link to Koch's version in the header note.
  • Their introduction also quotes Johann Peter Lyser (1804–1870), who wrote Das Buch vom Rübezahl (1834). Definitely worth checking if he was one of Koch's sources.
• Elizabeth Fries Ellet's "Rübezahl" seems to be taken from the first five stories of Johann Peter Lyser's Das Buch vom Rübezahl (1834) via Lyser's reprint of these five stories in Abendländische Tausend und eine Nacht (1838). The evidence that it's via Abendländische Tausend und eine Nacht is by Ellet's introductory paragraph, describing the stories of Rübezahl, which says:
  • "The best known of these is that of Musäus, in his “Volksmährchen;” Wenzel has it also in his Legends of the Riesengebirge; and the “Book of Rübezahl,” and a dramatic tale founded on the same tradition…"
  • which mirrors Lyser's note on his sources in Abendländische Tausend und eine Nacht: "Die Mährchen von Rübezahl—Musäus Volksmährchen der Deutschen, Sagen aus dem Riesengebirge, W. Menzel: Rübezahl, ein dramatisches Mährchen. J. Lyser: „das Buch von Rübezahl“"
  • Either way, Lyser should probably be credited as author, and Musäus and the others noted as the inspiration of these stories in the story headers, with links between the related stories put in "See also" sections of their translations pages.
• The anonymous Rübezahl stories published in Reynolds's Miscellany (1851) are taken from Henrik Steffens:
  • "Rubezahl the Giant" p.37 – Story 1 (The Spring Root)
  • "Rubezahl, the Giant of the Mountains" p.58 – Introduction, and Stories 4 (The Bewitched Staff) and 5 (The Coach Wheel)
  • "Some More Tricks of Rubezahl" p.219 – Mini story at the end of Story 1 (The Hunter), Story 2, and Story 6 (The Treasure Seeker)

--Yodin^T 18:40, 11 February 2024 (UTC)