Doris Vella Camilleri’s study, The Good, the Bad and the Miraculous in Folktale, published by the Edward de Bono Foundation, includes a new version of the Maltese Rapunzel (Fenchelchen). Here, she offers interpretations of this fairytale and analyses a number of other classical fairytales.

“Analysing a tale finds a different meaning from that of the storyteller. And the more widespread the folktale the more universal is the theme.”

This is how Lulz Rohrich analysed and interpreted many Grimm fairytales. Max Luthi tells us the Grimm Brothers managed to translate this 17th-century fairy tale into the style of the fairy folktale.

Further research into the miraculous in folktale, I come across the new Mediterranean long-haired girl story from Malta. The famous folklorist Luthi tells us “the home of this new German version of Rapunzel is the Mediterranean. The versions are imbued with droll and nonesensical humour as a true folktale usually is”. In  the Maltese tale, the child is called Fenchelchen (fennel) and in another variation of the tale, Petersilchen (parsley). The Maltese version of Rapunzel has a totally different and longer ending from the Grimm’s tale.

The Maltese version was collected in 1909 by Bertha Ilg, a German lady who lived in Malta at the same time that the local pioneer folklorist, the Jesuit priest Manuel Magri was in the process of collecting local lore by word of mouth. She was able to learn the Maltese language in a very short time and when she returned to Germany to marry, she left behind a wonderful heritage of the impromptu verses as sung by the troubadours in the villages as well as tales told by word of mouth of the people. The present version has been discovered in the archives in Leipzig by the author of this new version.

Rapunzel’s tower

In the Maltese version of Rapunzel, there are still the traces of the emotion portrayed in a love tangle as reflected in a typical southern Mediterranean society. Pregnant women are known to have cravings for certain foods. In the Mediterranean countries it was usual to pamper to this. In the Maltese tale, the mother, more than once descends into the garden of the fairy to eat her fill of fennel (parsley).

At one time, the role of godmother was played by an older woman of the tribe. Her role was to teach the young mother not only how to care for herself but also for her newborn baby. Later, her role was to sustain the religious beliefs of the youngster in the absence of the parents. So that the wish of the fairy neighbour to have care of the new born does not seem so far-fetched.

The Rapunzel story is symbolic of the rites of passage by which a girl and a boy gradually become mature. The mother’s longing for a herb may not seem significant but to obtain it, she has to resort to thieving. “Human weakness is expressed in the behaviour of the woman or her husband: the unborn child is abandoned to a sinister stranger.”

In the Maltese version the child, once carried away and locked in the tower, calls the witch Nanna Ula, which means ghostly grandmother. There are echoes here of the witch in Vasilisa, the Russian girl, who was made to fetch the light from the witch Baba Yaga. Baba Yaga is a relation of her step family.

The witch in this version of Rapunzel may be viewed as Baba Yaga – a cross between a fairy and a white witch. The Baba Yaga has also been described as the earth mother, the keeper of the earth’s gifts. It is not so long ago that women who had special powers were easily condemned as practising witchcraft. The fairies save the child from an oppresssive mother and  a father who pampers her. Stealing a precious herb is an unlawful act but the mother ignores the possible retribution and when she gives birth, she totally forgets her promise and when questioned by her child, answers nonchalantly.

We are told in all the versions of the tale, that the girl is made to feel at home in the tower and actually forgets all about her mother thus bonding with the witch at the tower.

Fenchelchen recoils when at first she  she meets the prince. She shows no guilt although knowing the prince is hiding under her magic. She strikes up a relationship with the young prince right under the nose of the witch without getting into trouble and by doing so, shows her ingenuity.

Fenchelchen undergoes an incubation period and both she and the young prince who is also brought to the tower have to face a period of trial. The fact that the witch does not dispose of the prince, who is attracted to Fenchelchen, shows that she has grandiose plans for her. Puberty is the time when young people try their wings. It is a crucial time which accounts for the witch’s anxiety when she forbids the girl to look downstairs.

Rumpilstiltskin

The witch is determined to preserve the girl’s virginity but realises she must be aware of the existence of the other sex. Eventually she relises that Rapunzel has learnt all that is required of her, because she has taught her, her craft.

The Maltese story is steeped in the social milieu of Malta and there is religious symbolism when the white ball becomes a church. The ritual of churchgoing occupies a large part of the day and it is not accidental that one of the balls the young Rapunzel throws is a white one. This suggests that the wedding ceremony is uppermost in her mind. White is the symbol of purity and usually worn by the bride on her wedding day. By confronting the witch with the church, Rapunzel shows her intentions. She is not simply running away from home.

The Jungian terms ‘the symbol of a ball would represent more the capacity of the Self to effect movement out of itself. For the primitive mind the ball was obviously that object with an amazing propensity for moving along of its own volition’. And ‘... it keeps moving through all the difficulties of the material world’. It stands for ‘the unconscious psyche which has a capacity for creating movement born out of itself.

The Grimm Rapunzel has a child by the prince and has to face the reality of finding her way alone with a child. Fenchelchen has more sagacity. She adapts quickly to her new way of life and learns not only witchcraft, but later in the story she is able to embroider a cushion fit for a prince.

Not so long ago in the Mediterranean countries needlework was an asset required of women in the home. Karen in The Red Shoes was taught the art as part of her education in the rich household of the old lady.

After the third attempt the witch has to give up. She has done all in her power to keep Rapunzel chaste until the time is right for her to marry the prince.

Analysing a tale finds a different meaning from that of the storyteller. The more widespread the folktale the more universal is the theme

Rosemary Haughton explores the attributes of the witch thus: “In the beginning the witch appears as a witch, but later in the story, her powers are used for the benefit of the protagonist.”

The Swiss Scholar, Luthi, interprets the tale in a combination of ways – sociological, psychological and structural to explore the meanings and social function of tales and of illuminating their symbolism and structural dynamics. He describes the true folktale as having three stages of development. The development in the second stage of the story, is full of symbolism: Fenchelchen is the flower in the wind, suggesting her vulnerability but on a green and productive earth.

There are two men, the gardener and the sexton who are the helpers who hinder the witch in her efforts to stop the runaways – as she calls them. The sexton actually tells her off about her lack of  faith in God – so typical of that society where religious adherence and attendance at services was a way of life of the village people to the present day.

The green ball of yarn is the emblem of the green earth, while the red yarn is the symbol of passionate life which always is tried and tested. Fenchelchen becomes the one and only lily growing among thorns which sting the witch and render her helpless to pursue the couple.

The Hut on Chicken Legs

Fenchelchen is in a precious position, perched in a dangling lamplight – and another time, changed into the church bell, so synonymous with wedding banns, which are usually announced by church bells ringing for seven weeks before each wedding.

Finally, there is the tree, which symbolises life and under which the prince shelters his Fenchelchen. She is secure on his father’s cornerstone that points the way to his father’s palace and marriage.

The witch’s last effort to save Fenchelchen were her curses – in witches’ language  meant only for the ears of Fenchelchen, (the prince doesn’t hear her curses) and a last desperate effort on her part to warn her of possible pitfalls before she is accepted at the palace.

Bertha Ilg’s story is unique for the way Fenchelchen uses magic, at first the ultimate kind that is used by the witch herself; later, when she has used up all the yarn from the magic balls she tries a higher power – the dove – that is the symbol of the Holy Spirit who in turn is love itself; this time embroidered with the anguish of rejected love. Only the white dove could work the miracle she needed to restore her lover’s memory of her love for him.

Haughton describes the princess’s love of another with great wisdom thus: “Because the princess remains a permanent part of the hero prince’s life, he who has no wisdom of his own... when he forgets the princess who has helped him, he is immediately in danger of losing all he has gained, because he is then open to the persuasion of the false princess who wants him in order to make herself great and has no interest in his mission.”

These words ring so truly in this tale! As soon as the prince finds himself back home being feted, hugged and kissed by one and all, it would be so easy to forget his loved one as is foretold by the witch. These words of warning are passed on to the prince and shows Fenchelchen’s maturity in believing this would happen. His mother proves to be the stumbling block (she it was who kissed him first) on his returning to Fenchelchen.

The false princess in this case would be the other princess who might be chosen by the Queen or even the king as was the custom in those days. She may not be in love with him or he with her. She might marry him under false pretences... simply because he represents position, wealth or for any other ulterior motive.