Goethe's Fairy Tale of the Green Serpent and the Beautiful Lily

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The Ferryman and the Two Will-o'-the-Wisps; Illustration of Goethe's Fairy Tale by Gustav Wolf (1922)

Goethe's Fairy Tale of the Green Snake and the Beautiful Lily is the last story in the cycle of novellas «Unterhaltungen deutscher Ausgewanderten», which was first published in 1795 in the journal «Die Horen» edited by Friedrich Schiller. The fairy tale shows in pictorial form how man can enter into a conscious, free relationship with the supersensible world in a form appropriate to the age of the consciousness soul. Goethe's secret revelation, as Rudolf Steiner also called the fairy tale, formed the starting point for the development of anthroposophy (see below); Steiner's detailed reflections on this can be found, for example, in GA 53, p. 329ff and GA 57, p. 23ff. Rudolf Steiner's mystery dramas were also based on the fairy tale (Lit.:GA 14).

Characters

  • The Ferryman
  • Two Will-o'-the-Wisps
  • The Green Snake
  • The Giant
  • The Old Man with the Lamp
  • His Wife
  • The Pug
  • The Golden King
  • The Silver King
  • The Brazen King
  • The Mixed King
  • The Youth
  • The Beautiful Lily
  • Her Three Servants
  • Her Canary
  • The Hawk

Content

In the middle of the night, the old ferryman is asked by two will-o'-the-wisps to ferry them across the river, which has been swollen by heavy rain. He does so and in return the two wisps want to pay him with gold pieces, which they effortlessly shake off. But horrified, the old man rejects this dangerous reward. If only one of the gold pieces had fallen into the river, which does not like this metal, the waves would have risen violently. The old ferryman demands a completely different reward. He wants to be compensated with fruits of the earth, with three cabbages, three artichokes and three onions. When the wisps ignore this demand and want to slip away quickly, joking, they realise that they are tied to the ground. Only when they firmly promise to fulfil the demand soon are they released.

Meanwhile, the old ferryman sets out to sink the dangerous gold into the ground. He throws it into a huge crevice between high rocks and then returns home to his hut.

The beautiful green snake also lives in this crevice, which is awakened by the jingling of the gold pieces and now eagerly devours the gold, whereupon it begins to glow in the most wonderful way from within in the most beautiful emerald green. She happily leaves the depths of the earth and finally meets the two will-o'-the-wisps, who supply her with more gold, much to her delight. She would therefore like to fulfil the will-o'-the-wisps' request to take her to the beautiful lily, but unfortunately the lily lives on the other shore from which the will-o'-the-wisps have just crossed. The serpent tells them that the ferryman cannot bring them back, because he is allowed to take someone across, but not anyone back. But there are two other ways. One could only be taken at noon, when the green snake itself would form a bridge over the river. The second way, on the other hand, only appears at dawn or dusk, when the great giant who lives not far from here casts his shadow over the river. One could glide across on this shadow.

After the will-o'-the-wisps had departed with a slight bow, the snake continued to crawl through the rock to find the place where she had made a strange discovery earlier. Although she had not seen it, she had already felt that this underground place was artificial and she had also been able to distinguish various strange objects, but now she also wanted to illuminate all this with her newly acquired light and see it with her own eyes. The green snake soon reaches the place, but its light is not enough to illuminate the whole sanctuary - for that is what it is. But at least she recognises three seated kings as she glides past. One is made of pure gold, the second of silver and the third of bronze. In a far corner she thinks she sees a fourth king, but she can only make him out vaguely. As she crawls past the golden king, he speaks to her:

"Where did you come from? - From the crevices, the serpent said, where gold dwells. - What is more glorious than gold? asked the king. - Light, replied the serpent. - What is more refreshing than light? asked the other. - Conversation, replied the latter."

Then suddenly a peasant-dressed old man enters with a small lamp, which lights up the whole underground cathedral at one stroke. This lamp had the strange property that it could only spread light where there was already some:

"Why have you come when we have light?" asked the golden king. - You know that I must not illuminate the dark. - Is my kingdom coming to an end? asked the silver king. - Late or never, the old man replied."

With a strong voice the former king began to ask: "When will I rise? - Soon, replied the old man. - With whom shall I join? asked the king. - With your elder brothers, said the old man. - What will become of the youngest? asked the king. - He will sit down, said the old man.

I am not tired, cried the fourth king in a rough stammering voice."

By the light of the lamp the serpent could now see that the fourth was formed of a mixture of all three metals and appeared very ponderous.

"Meanwhile the golden king said to the man: How many secrets do you know? - Three, the old man replied. - Which is the most important? asked the silver king. - The old man replied, 'The one that is revealed. - Do you want to reveal it to us too? asked the brazen one. - As soon as I know the fourth, said the old man. - What do I care! muttered the composite king to himself.

I know the fourth, said the serpent, approaching the old man and hissing something in his ear. - It is time! the old man shouted in a mighty voice. The temple resounded, the metal image pillars rang, and at that moment the old man sank to the west and the serpent to the east, and each passed through the crevices of the rocks with great speed."

While the old man was thus walking through the underground passages, they immediately filled with gold, for his lamp had another wonderful characteristic. It could not illuminate the darkness, but in the darkness it turned all rock into gold, all wood into silver and dead animals into beautiful gems.

When the old man finally reached his hut attached to the mountain, his wife came to meet him, sad and crying. She had been visited by the two will-o'-the-wisps. In her good-naturedness, she had promised to pay the debt they had owed the ferryman for them with the desired fruits of the earth. But the will-o'-the-wisps had licked all the gold off the walls of the hut with the greatest eagerness, whereupon they had grown much taller, broader and shinier, and had shaken off a myriad of gold pieces from themselves. And worse still, their faithful pug would have eaten some of the gold pieces and died as a result.

The old man consoles his wife and with the help of his lamp he immediately covers the walls with the most beautiful gold and transforms the pug into a beautiful onyx. Then he asks his wife to pay the debt of the will-o'-the-wisps, because they could be of use to them later. She should put the fruit and the pug transformed into an onyx in a basket and take it to the ferryman and cross over the bridge formed by the snake into the realm of the beautiful lily at noon.

"Bring her the onyx, she will make it alive by her touch, as she kills all living things by her touch; she will have a faithful companion in it. Tell her not to grieve, her redemption is near, the greatest misfortune she may regard as the greatest happiness, for it is time."

So the old woman went on her way. The onyx carried itself easily, but the fruits of the earth weighed her down. Suddenly the mighty giant, who had just bathed in the river, approached and stole a cabbage, an artichoke and an onion from the basket and made off.

When the ferryman finally appeared, who had just put a strangely unhappy young, noble, handsome man across the riverbank, the old woman wanted to pay him with the remaining fruit, which had already become a heavy burden for her, but he refused. It would have to be three fruits of each kind, that did not depend on him at all, for "what is due to me I must leave together for nine hours, and I must not accept anything until I have handed over a third to the river." Only if she vouches to the river for her debt can he take the six remaining fruits for the time being, with the condition that he will receive the remaining two in time. As a sign of the oath, the old woman must now dip her hand into the river, and as she pulls it out again, she realises to her horror that it has turned completely black and seems to be gradually fading away.

"It only seems that way now, said the old man; but if you don't keep your word, it may come true. The hand will gradually fade and at last disappear completely, without you being deprived of the use of it. You will be able to do everything with it, except that no one will see it. - I would rather not need it and it wouldn't show, said the old woman; but that doesn't mean anything, I will keep my word to soon be rid of this black skin and this worry."

The old woman leaves in a hurry, but not without first talking to the sad young man to find out the cause of his sorrow. He reaches for the dead pug, transformed into a beautiful onyx, which lies in the old woman's basket, and finally laments his sorrow:

"Happy animal!" he exclaimed, "you will be touched by her hands, you will be animated by her, instead of living ones fleeing from her, lest you meet a sad fate. But what do I say sad! is it not much more grievous and anxious to be paralysed by her presence than it would be to die by her hand! Look at me, he said to the old woman; in my years, what a miserable condition I must endure. This armour, which I wore with honour in war, this purple, which I sought to earn by wise government, fate has left me, the former as an unnecessary burden, the latter as an insignificant adornment. Crown, sceptre, and sword are gone; I am, moreover, as naked and needy as any other son of earth, for so miserable do their beautiful blue eyes work, that they deprive all living creatures of their power, and that those whom their touching hand does not kill feel themselves reduced to the state of living walking shadows."

Together with the old woman he now strides across the bridge formed by the serpent back into the realm of the lily. The bridge now looks quite different from what it did in the past and appears to be made of transparent emerald and beryl. As soon as they were across, the snake sank down and slithered after the wanderers. A strange hissing can now be heard. These are the will-o'-the-wisps that join the train and can only be heard but not seen during the day.

The old woman leaves in a hurry, but not without first talking to the sad young man to find out the cause of his sorrow. He reaches for the dead pug, transformed into a beautiful onyx, which lies in the old woman's basket, and finally laments his sorrow:

"Happy animal!" he exclaimed, "you will be touched by her hands, you will be animated by her, instead of living ones fleeing from her, lest you meet a sad fate. But what do I say sad! is it not much more grievous and anxious to be paralysed by her presence than it would be to die by her hand! Look at me, he said to the old woman; in my years, what a miserable condition I must endure. This armour, which I wore with honour in war, this purple, which I sought to earn by wise government, fate has left me, the former as an unnecessary burden, the latter as an insignificant adornment. Crown, sceptre, and sword are gone; I am, moreover, as naked and needy as any other son of earth, for so miserable do their beautiful blue eyes work, that they deprive all living creatures of their power, and that those whom their touching hand does not kill feel themselves reduced to the state of living walking shadows."

Together with the old woman he now strides across the bridge formed by the serpent back into the realm of the lily. The bridge now looks quite different from what it did in the past and appears to be made of transparent emerald and beryl. As soon as they were across, the snake sank down and slithered after the wanderers. A strange hissing can now be heard. These are the will-o'-the-wisps that join the train and can only be heard but not seen during the day.

What do the many good signs help me?
The bird's death, the friend's black hand?
The pug of precious stone, has he no equal?
And did not the lamp send him to me?

Far from the sweet pleasures of man,
I am but acquainted with misery.
Alas! why is not the temple by the river!
Alas! why is the bridge not built!

Then the snake speaks up:

"The prophecy of the bridge is fulfilled! she exclaimed; just ask this good woman how glorious the arch appears at present. What was otherwise opaque japsis, what was only a prasem through which the light shone at most on the edges, has now become transparent gemstone. No beryl is so clear and no emerald so beautifully coloured.

I wish you luck, said the lily, but forgive me if I do not yet believe the prophecy fulfilled. Only pedestrians can cross the high arch of your bridge, and we are promised that horses and wagons and travellers of all kinds will pass over and over the bridge at the same time. Is it not prophesied of the great pillars that shall rise out of the river itself?"

Then the beautiful lily asks the old woman to bring the dead canary to her husband before sunset, so that he can transform it with the lamp into a beautiful topaz, which she will awaken again to be her companion. In the meantime, she wanted to take the pug as a playmate. The old woman hurriedly packed the canary into her basket and hurried away. In the meantime, the snake comes back:

Be that as it may, said the serpent, continuing the agreed conversation, the temple is built.

But it is still standing in the river, the beautiful one added.

It still rests in the depths of the earth, said the serpent; I have seen the kings and spoken.

But when will they rise? asked Lily.

The serpent replied: I heard the great words sounding in the temple: it is time.

A pleasant serenity spread over the face of the beautiful one. Hear, she said, the happy words for the second time today; when will the day come when I hear them three times?"

Then three beautiful girls appeared, the servants of the lily. The first took the harp from her. She was followed by another, who folded up the ivory carved field chair on which the beauty had been sitting and took the silver cushion under her arm. A third, carrying a large parasol embroidered with pearls, showed herself on it, waiting to see if Lily needed her on a walk.

Then the beautiful Lily touched the pug, who immediately began to jump around, which pleased Lily very much.

Only now does the handsome youth enter, carrying the hawk calmly on his arm, much to Lily's chagrin.

Don't scold the unhappy bird, said the youth; rather accuse yourself and fate, and allow me to do business with the companion of my misery.

The young man is so enraged that the lily is so fond of the pug that he quickly wants to tear him from her side, but in doing so he falls unawares into the lily's arms and instantly falls to the ground dead. The heart in the Lily's bosom seems to stop and she looks around desperately for help. In the meantime, the snake had quickly started to move and now formed a circle around the corpse of the young man, grasping the end of its tail with its teeth.

Soon the three servants of the lily appeared again. One of them brought her the ivory field chair, the second a fire-coloured veil, which she placed over the head of the Lily, and the third the harp. The lily elicited a few notes from the harp, and the pain increased her beauty, the veil her charms, the harp her grace, and as much as one hoped to see her sad situation changed, one wished to hold her image eternally as it presently appeared. The first servant quickly fetched a round mirror with which she caught the eyes of the lily.

Now only the old woman with the lamp could help, the snake hissed. Just then the old woman, whose hand had become very small, came back crying. Neither the giant nor the ferryman had taken her across the river, whose debtor she still was. She had offered a hundred cabbages and onions in vain, but the artichoke that the ferryman demanded was not to be found in this region.

The serpent now advises the old woman to look for the will-o'-the-wisps. They could glide over the shadow of the giant in the twilight and inform the old woman. She hurries away and soon dusk falls, only the hawk, which now rises, catches the last rays of the sun with its feathers and shortly afterwards the old man actually appears with the lamp. The sun had already set and the old man had the dead canary placed in the circle. Midnight was already approaching and the three servants of the lily had long since fallen asleep. Then the old man looked up at the stars and said:

"We are together at the happy hour, each do his office, each do his duty, and a general happiness will dissolve individual pains into itself, as a general misfortune consumes individual joys."

The old man now instructed the hawk to use the mirror to direct the first rays of the soon-to-rise sun down on the sleeping girls. Meanwhile, the snake broke its circle and moved towards the river. The old woman and her husband pulled at the basket until it was big enough to hold the youngster. The canary was placed on his chest, the lily took the pug in her arms, and they all went down to the river in a strange procession. When they reached the bottom, the old man asked the snake what it had decided to do. "To sacrifice myself before I am sacrificed," the snake replied. At the old man's command, the lily touched the snake with its left hand and grasped the young man's hand with its right. Immediately, new life seems to flow through him and soon he straightens up and the canary flutters onto his shoulder. Life is now in him again, but not yet the spirit. Meanwhile, the snake's body has disintegrated into thousands of green gems, which are now quickly collected by the old woman and the old man and all thrown into the river, so that not a single one remains on land. Then the old man instructs the will-o'-the-wisps to lead everyone to the underground temple and open its gates. They also quickly lick away the golden lock, the gates spring open, one enters and all greet the great kings reverently. After a pause, the golden king asks:

Where do you come from? - From the world, replied the old man. Where are you going? asked the silver king. - To the world, said the old woman. - What do you want with us? asked the bronze king. - To accompany you, said the old man.

Meanwhile, the wisps sneak up to the mixed king to lick the gold out of him.

Who will rule the world? he shouted in a stammering voice. - He who stands on his feet, replied the old man. - That is I! said the mixed king. - It will be revealed, said the old man, for it is time.

Then the lily fell happily around the old man's neck, for for the third time the meaningful word had now sounded. The whole temple now began to move, rising through the earth and finally emerging from the river. The debris from the ferryman's small wooden hut, which the temple had grazed, fell in through the dome opening and covered the youth and the old man. The light of his lamp immediately turned the wood to silver and suddenly a magnificent little temple stood in the midst of the great one. The old man came out over a staircase with the youth, the ferryman followed them with a silver oar in his hand and the beautiful lily hurried to meet them over the stairs. From below, the old woman called out: "Shall I still be unhappy?", for her hand was now almost completely gone. But the old man instructed her: Go and bathe in the river. All debts are paid off!", whereupon she hurriedly disappeared. Just as the first rays of sunlight illuminated the dome, the old man stepped between the youth and the maiden and spoke in a mighty voice:

"Three are the ones who rule on earth: wisdom, appearance and power. At the first word the golden king stood up, at the second the silver one, and at the third the bronze one had slowly risen, when the composite king suddenly sat down clumsily."

The old man now led the young man, who was always looking stiff and stiff-eyed, to the three kings in turn. The brazen king gave the youth his sword and said in a mighty voice: "The sword on the left, the right free!" The silver king handed him his sceptre and said in a pleasing tone, "Feed the sheep!" The golden king finally pressed his oak wreath on his head and said, "Know the highest!" Then the youth awoke and his eye shone with ineffable spirit, and the first word of his mouth was "Lily", and then continued to speak to the old man:

"Glorious and sure is the kingdom of our fathers, but thou hast forgotten the fourth power, which rules the world still further, more generally, more surely, the power of love."

Then he fell around the beautiful girl's neck; she had thrown away her veil and her cheeks were coloured with the most beautiful, everlasting blush. But the old man said with a smile: Love does not rule, but it educates, and that is more.

Outside, however, a wide bridge spanned the river, resting on mighty pillars, which had formed itself from the precious stones into which the serpent had crumbled through its sacrificial act. The bridge was very busy and people and carts crossed it in great numbers.

In the meantime, the giant had also awakened and was staggering, drunk with sleep and devastating everything, across the bridge and into the forecourt of the temple. The new king was about to reach for his sword to prevent further damage, when he froze in the middle of the courtyard into a huge statue and his shadow showed the hours inscribed in a circle on the ground around him, not in numbers, but in noble and significant images.

At that moment, the hawk with the mirror soared high above the cathedral, catching the light of the sun and casting it over the group standing on the altar. The king, queen and their attendants appeared in the dim vault of the temple, illuminated by a heavenly radiance, and the people fell on their faces. Then pieces of gold also fell from the air, probably from the will-o'-the-wisps.

Finally, the people dispersed little by little, but till this day the bridge teems with wanderers, and the temple is the most visited in all the earth.

Goethe's Fairy Tale and Anthroposophy

Rudolf Steiner consistently continued along the path marked out by Goethe's fairy tale and not only wrote his Mystery Dramas on the basis of the fairy tale, but, according to Steiner's own words, the whole of Anthroposophy emerged from the "original cell" of that lecture on Goethe's secret revelation which he gave at the Theosophical Library in Berlin on 29 September 1900 (Lit.: Lindenberg, p. 298). The basis of this lecture was the essay of the same name which Steiner had published on August 26, 1899 on the occasion of Goethe's 150th birthday about his fairy tales (Lit.:GA 30, p. 86ff). In " The Story of My Life" Steiner writes:

„The will to bring the esoteric that lived in me to public display urged me to write an essay on Goethe's fairy tale of the "green snake and the beautiful lily" under the title "Goethe's secret revelation" in the "Magazin" on 28 August 1899, Goethe's one hundred and fiftieth birthday. - This essay, however, is still not very esoteric. But I could not expect my audience to give more than I did. - The content of the fairy tale lived in my soul as a thoroughly esoteric one. And the explanations are written from an esoteric mood.

Since the eighties, I have been preoccupied with imaginings that have attached themselves to this fairy tale. I saw Goethe's path from the contemplation of outer nature to the interior of the human soul, as he presented it to his mind not in concepts but in images, depicted in the fairy tale. To Goethe, concepts seemed far too poor, too dead, to be able to depict the life and work of the soul's forces.

Now, in Schiller's "Letters on Aesthetic Education", he was confronted with an attempt to capture this life and work in terms. Schiller tried to show how man's life was subject to the necessity of nature through his corporeality and to the necessity of spirit through his reason. And he believes that the soul must establish an inner balance between the two. In this balance, man would then live a truly humane existence in freedom.

This is ingenious, but far too simple for the real life of the soul. The soul lets its powers, which are rooted in the depths, shine forth in consciousness; but in shining forth, after they have influenced other equally fleeting ones, they disappear again. These are processes that already pass away as they come into being; abstract concepts, however, can only be linked to things that remain more or less long.

Goethe knew all this through feeling; he contrasted his pictorial knowledge in the fairy tale with Schiller's conceptual knowledge.

One is in the forecourt of esotericism with an experience of this Goethean creation.

This was the time when I was invited by Countess and Count Brockdorff to give a lecture at one of their weekly events. Visitors from all circles gathered at these events. The lectures that were given belonged to all areas of life and knowledge. I knew nothing of all this until I was invited to a lecture, and I did not know the Brockdorffs, but was hearing about them for the first time. They suggested a lecture on Nietzsche as a topic. I gave this lecture. Now I noticed that among the audience were personalities with a great interest in the spiritual world. So when I was asked to give a second lecture, I suggested the subject: "Goethe's Secret Revelation". And in this lecture I became quite esoteric in connection with the fairy tale. It was an important experience for me to be able to speak in words that were shaped out of the spiritual world, after I had hitherto been forced by circumstances in my Berlin time to let the spiritual shine through only through my representations.“ (Lit.:GA 28, p. 292f)

In fact, as Rudolf Steiner later explained, Goethe's fairy tale is closely connected with the karma of the Anthroposophical Society and with the celestial cultus established by Michael in the spiritual world at the end of the 18th century and into the first half of the 19th century. This celestial cultus was a result of that Michael School founded in the spiritual world in the 15th century, with which the Michael Age beginning in 1879 was to be prepared.

„What is taking place here on earth in the 20th century as the coming together of a number of personalities to form the Anthroposophical Society was prepared in the first half of the 19th century by the fact that the souls of these embodied human beings, who are coming together in large numbers today, were united in the spiritual when they had not yet descended into the physical-sensuous world. And at that time, in the spiritual worlds, a number of souls, working together, cultivated a kind of cultus, a cultus which was the preparation for those longings which have arisen in the souls who are now streaming together in bodies to form the Anthroposophical Society. And he who has the gift of recognising the souls in their bodies recognises them, as they worked together with him in the first half of the nineteenth century, as powerful cosmic imaginings which have been set up in the supersensible world and which represent what I could call: the new Christianity.“ (Lit.:GA 240, p. 145)

The powerful cosmic imaginations in which the celestial cultus of Michael lived, and which were later to become the very content of anthroposophy, are reflected in muted form in Goethe's fairy tales.

„Some of this seeped through. Up in the spiritual world, in powerful cosmic imaginings, the preparation for that intelligent but thoroughly spiritual creation was taking place, which was then to appear as Anthroposophy. What transpired there: it made a certain impression on Goethe. I would like to say it came through to him in miniature images. Goethe did not know the great, mighty pictures that took place up there; he processed these miniature pictures in his "Fairy Tale of the Green Serpent and the Beautiful Lily". A wonderful phenomenon! We have all the currents that I have described continuing in such a way that they lead to those powerful imaginings that take place above in the spiritual world under the guidance of Alanus ab Insulis and the others; we have the powerful thing that things seep through and inspire Goethe at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries to his spiritual fairy tale "Of the Green Serpent and the Beautiful Lily". It was, so to speak, a first emergence of that which first took place in powerful imaginations in the spiritual world at the beginning of the 19th, even at the end of the 18th century. You will therefore not find it surprising that in view of this supersensible cultus which took place in the first half of the 19th century, my first mystery drama, "The Gate of Initiation", which in a certain way wanted to reproduce in dramatic form what was happening there in the beginning of the 19th century, became outwardly somewhat similar in structure to what Goethe depicted in his fairy tale "Of the Green Serpent and the Beautiful Lily". For Anthroposophy was to descend from the way it had lived imaginatively in the first times in supernatural regions to the earthly region.“ (Lit.:GA 240, p. 178)

Literature
References to the work of Rudolf Steiner follow Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works (CW or GA), Rudolf Steiner Verlag, Dornach/Switzerland, unless otherwise stated.
Email: verlag@steinerverlag.com URL: www.steinerverlag.com.
Index to the Complete Works of Rudolf Steiner - Aelzina Books
A complete list by Volume Number and a full list of known English translations you may also find at Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works
Rudolf Steiner Archive - The largest online collection of Rudolf Steiner's books, lectures and articles in English.
Rudolf Steiner Audio - Recorded and Read by Dale Brunsvold
steinerbooks.org - Anthroposophic Press Inc. (USA)
Rudolf Steiner Handbook - Christian Karl's proven standard work for orientation in Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works for free download as PDF.

Musical settings

  • Wolfgang Krause Zwieback speaks "Das Märchen" by J.W. von Goethe, CD, HÖRSTURZ Vertrieb online
  • Lutz Görner: The Fairy Tale. Cassette. With accompanying book, vgs-Verlag 1998
  • Stefanie König reads "The Fairy Tale" by J.W. von Goethe YouTube

Weblinks

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