Fairy Tales and Palaces

Chris and I have been reading a new Oxford translation of eighty-two of Grimms' Tales. These old folktales predate the professor brothers, not to mention Walt Disney. In them, beautiful poor girls are rescued by kind kings and wickedness is always punished. Although it seems that Disney just recirculated these stories with happy endings, I've noticed some differences. There are the trivial storyline discrepancies; in the Grimm version, the seven dwarfs maintain a spotless home before Snow White's arrival! Broader historical norms stand out as well. There is nothing about finding true love in the German tales. Instead, I would describe the heroine's climactic marriage as a means of fleeing an evil stepmother's tyranny or curse and starting a comfortable, reasonable life, away from all that magic.

After living in Europe, another thing now becomes clear: royal residences once dotted this landscape like water towers in the Midwest. In America, imagining the prince riding by on his horse or the palace glimmering on a hilltop seems overly romantic and far-fetched. Here, practically every village had its prominent, horse-riding, sparkling royalty nearby, and it was quite reasonable to imagine catching the young prince's eye. Or, at least, the imagining could be forgiven.

One palace surviving near us is the pink Schloss Benrath. This was our local adventure last weekend.

This was a summer palace, set in the wilderness in order to hunt. Hippie themes like the four seasons and the four elements dominate the motifs.

It's not that especially significant of a palace: a scene is set here in one of Thomas Mann's works; Gorbachev and Queen Elizabeth II have been guests here; Napoleon stayed here during his conquest of this area; it was built by a famous Bavarian duke in the Wittelsbach line, who also established the Englischer Garten in Munich. The palace now houses three museums, each with a separate admission ticket. Shameless. We're saving those for a rainy day; the gardens were free and the sun was shining.


The gardens stretched out behind the palace. After rambling through a wilderness formerly providing a habitat to game, we strolled through a lovely double ring of perfectly arranged trees. How peaceful to stay awhile in architecturally transformed Nature!

We were enchanted by cozy planted beds with flowers, herbs, and organic vegetables for purchase.



Although we've visited a handful palaces, this was the first time that we've had the leisure to pack a picnic. Here's Daisy on maybe her 7th apricot. That girl and her summer fruit...
Nothing says "summer in Germany" like having a picnic at a palace.

Well, now I'm off to start Hansel and Gretel - perhaps my next post will be about candy. Or sweet children. Or both.