ASHIEPATTLE: OR HANS SEEKS HIS LUCK 73 



We may now notice other features of woman's power, in 

 particular with regard to marriage and inheritance. 



The influence of the queen-mother over her son is 

 always great, and often extends to the choice or 

 displacement of his wife. Thus the queen chooses the 

 son's bride in Die drei Spinnerinnen, De beiden 

 Kunigeskinner (" Unnerdes hadde de Kiiniginne ene 

 Frugge fur ehren Suhn socht"), and Der Trommler. 

 This is, indeed, part of the essential primitive primacy 

 of the queen in the kingdom. In Der Rduber und 

 seine Sokne and Der Konig vom goldenen Serge we 

 find kingdoms ruled by queens. The latter tale is of 

 special significance, for the queen does not lose her 

 kingdom by discarding her husband, but, on the con- 

 trary, by marrying a second will obviously convey her 

 kingdom to him. 1 In Der arme Mullerbursch, Die 

 Erbsenprobe, and Die zwolf Jdger, we find princesses 

 apparently seized of their own kingdoms, 2 and seeking 

 husbands for themselves. In Das Mddchen ohne 

 Hdnde and Die seeks Schwdne the king lives with 

 his mother. In Der gute Handel, we see the king's 

 daughter sitting by her father in the place of justice ; 

 in Die weisse Schlange, Das Rdtlisel, Der Konigssohn 

 der sich vor nichts fUrchtet, and Die seeks Diener, it is 

 the princess herself who sets the task or propounds the 

 riddle which is to win her and her kingdom. Now all 

 this freedom and authority on the part of the woman 

 nay, the very existence of independent kingdom-con- 



1 One is again reminded of Clytemnestra. 



2 Note the importance which attaches to the illness of princesses. Such ill- 

 ness threatened the loss of the heiress apparent, e.g. in Bruder Lustig (twice) and 

 Der Vogel Gfreif. 



