Die halbe Decke A (>1300)
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Maere and Novellas
Die halbe Decke A (>1300)
von der Hagen, Fr. H.: Gesammtabenteuer. Hundert altdeutsche Erzählungen, 3 vols. Stuttgart/Tübingen 1850. Reprint Darmstadt 1961. Vol. 2, Nr. 48, p. 391–399.
HalDA-165:
A widowed citizen in his old age gives his possessions to his son. The son treats the father badly and makes him live with the pigs under the stairs. When the old man suffers from the cold in wintertime and his grandson asks for a blanket, the ungrateful son cuts it in two. The child sees the joy of the grandfather and asks for the second half to keep for his father when he is old. After these words, the father is ashamed and reinstalls his own father’s honor. He asks his son how he will treat him in his old age, and his son answers: I will honor you as you have honored your father in his old age. Epimythion: Father and mother are to be honored according to God’s commandment, and the children shall be taught likewise.
Motif References:
J 120 Wisdom learned from children
J 121 Ungrateful son reproved by naive action of his own son: preparing for old age – man gives his old father half a carpet to keep him warm – child keeps the other half and tells his father that he is keeping it for him when he grows old
W 154 Ingratitude
P 233 Father and son
P 236.1 Folly of father’s giving all property to children before his death
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