The Nutcracker Part II: The Fairy Tale
The Tale-Hoffmann
Below is a summary of E.T.A’s Hoffmann’s tale-Nutcracker and Mouse King. I did my best to summarize it, but there is no way I can do the actual story justice. I encourage you to read it yourself. Of course, with different translations, you can get different versions even with the same tale. Especially since the original story was in very old German. I read the translation by Joachim Neugroschel, published by Penguin Books.
Christmas Eve
In E.TA. Hoffmann’s tale, called Nutcracker and Mouse King, we are immediately introduced to the Stahlbaum children. Fritz, and his seven-year-old sister, Marie on Christmas Eve. They are gathered into a large room with a giant table and Christmas tree on top. Underneath the tree are presents. As they enjoy the many gifts from their parents, the doorbell rings, and in comes Godfather Drosselmeier. He also has a table of gifts, and when the screen that was hiding the table is removed, we see the talent of Drosselmeier as “the toy maker” for on the table is a lavish miniature castle set inside a park. There are mechanical dolls within the park that dance and stroll about. Soon the children quickly get bored with Drosselmeier’s work, and just as Marie was just about to change into her new frock when she notices a little man, a nutcracker doll. Marie is immediately taken in by this doll and she feels a connection to him. She soon learns his purpose of cracking nuts and the children take turns cracking nuts in the Nutcracker mouth. But Fritz soon breaks the nutcracker’s jaw when he feeds a nut that is too big and too hard. This upsets Marie and she puts a ribbon on his broken jaw and teeth to patch him.
Later that evening the children are playing with their new toys in the “cabinet” which was built to shelve all the children’s toys. The top shelves were reserved for the delicate toys made by Drosselmeier. Marie kept her dolls housed in the bottom shelf, while Fritz kept his soldier toys above them. Marie was soon left alone, and she whispered words of encouragement to the poor broken Nutcracker. Soon she locks the cabinet and as she was leaving, she heard the Owl clock screech out. As she turns around, she sees Drosselmeier perched up on the clock, but that was just the start of it. Soon afterwards, little candlelight sticks start coming through the cracks of the floor. But the lights were not candles, rather, they were red eyes of mice. Hundreds of mice had made their way up from the floor. Marie, unlike some children, was not afraid of the mice, and giggles at them. But her laughter turns to terror as the Mouse King descends forth. With seven heads and seven crowns he commissions the army of mice into battle and starts marching toward Marie. Marie, frightened, staggers backward into the glass cabinet, breaking the glass, and cutting her arm.
The other toys, including the dolls and military toys, jump off the shelves preparing for battle. The Nutcracker comes to life, waving his sword, ready for battle. The toys in the toy cabinet join the brave commander Nutcracker as he goes to war with the army of mice and the Mouse King. A battle ensues, and Hoffmann goes into great detail of the battles that were fought between Fritzes toy soldiers and the mice that kept on multiplying. “Marie could scarcely see what was happening. Yes, so much was certain: Every corps fought with supreme vehemence, and for a long time victory swung back and forth.” (19). One thing to note, this mouse army was not cute. The mice were ruthless and hideous. Their cannons smelled and they kept multiplying in numbers, outnumbering, and taking out the toy troops. The toys were not all soldiers, the mice were fighting other brave toys, barbers, gardeners, harlequins, and all sorts of animals. The toy troops were retreating as the ruthless mice were overtaking the toys, and just as the seven headed Mouse King was about to overtake the nutcracker Marie throws her shoe at him. She then passes out from the pain in her arm.
Marie awoke in her bed the next day. A doctor is at her bedside. Poor Marie, muttering nonsense about the mice and The Nutcracker is not consoled by her mother but berated for causing them worry and anguish. Her mother describes finding her cut and bleeding next to the cabinet with toys scattered about her. She has a fever and stays in bed for several days. One day Drosselmeier shows up, and Marie scolds him for not saving her that night of battle. Then he pulls out the Nutcracker, with his teeth and jaw all fixed up. He then tells Marie a tale of Princess Pirlipat.
A Tale within a tale.
The Tale of the Hard Nut, is the tale within the tale of Nutcracker and the Mouse King. This tale is very important, for it helps explain to us, the dear readers, and listeners of the story, why the Mouse King and The Nutcracker were enemies and battled each other.
The tale starts with the birth of a beautiful princess. But first, let us go back several years. The King, showing off to his peers his great riches, invites all sorts of kings and princes to his for a royal feast. One of which was made of a huge slaughter of pigs. While his wife was cooking up the bacon for this feast, she is visited by Frau Mouserink who was the queen of land of Mousolia within the royal palace. Frau Mouserink begs the Queen for a nibble of the sausage, and the Queen, who is charitable, gives her a few bites. But alas, Frau Mouserink’s relatives and seven boorish sons storm The Queen and east all the bacon! When it was time to serve the sausage feast to the council, the king was profoundly upset with the lack of bacon. When he learned the reason why, he takes revenge against Frau Mouserink. He commissions the royal clockmaker (also named Drosselmeier) to take care of the matter. He indeed builds traps and with morsels of bacon traps and kills many of Frau Mouserink’s relatives including her seven sons. Frau Mouserink abandons the palace, but not without a warning to the queen-“my sons, my relatives have been killed. Be careful, Your Royal Highness, make sure that Mouse Queen doesn’t chew the little princes in half-make sure.”
After the princess is born, the queen, terrified that the mouse queen will enact her revenge, has the princess guarded with six ladies in waiting, sitting near the crib while each holding a tomcat. This was the advice that was given to her to protect the princess by the royal clockmaker, Drosselmeier. But alas, one night every guard, lady in waiting, and tomcat had fallen asleep and when awoken a huge mouse was seen on top of the baby princess Pirlipat. Everyone screamed and the mouse-Frau Mouserink herself escaped. The baby cried out, she had lived, but not without consequences, for now her beautiful looks had turned hideous. Her head was now deformed sitting on top of a teensy-weensy body. The King blamed the clockmaker and gave him four weeks to turn his daughter back to her former self or a measure to fix he. Drosselmeier, with the help of the royal astronomer, had managed to find a measure to cure the princess. This involved a man who could crack open a Krakatuk nut (impossibly hard nuts) with his teeth, hand it over to the princess and open his eyes only after taking seven steps back. Oh, and he must never have shaved and had never worn boots. Finding the nut and the nutcracker seemed to be an impossible task-yet the king spared his life if he were to find them.
For fifteen years Drosselmeier, the royal clockmaker and the royal astronomer searched for the nutcracker and the nut. Adventures ensued (you can read the tale for details) and they finally found the rare Krakatuk nut and the nutcracker, who was none other than his own cousins child!
Before the king, many princes tried to crack the nut, for gold and royalty would be awarded to the man who could restore the princess. Then the nutcracker boy stood before the princess. First, he cracked the shell of the nut, then he handed the nut over to the princess. As soon as she ate the nut, she began to transform into the beautiful princess she was meant to be, but alas. The sly Frau Mouserink rose out of the floor and as the nutcracker stepped back, he stepped on the queen mouse and stumbled. “In a blink of an eye, the boy had become as mishappen as the princess had been.” His body shrunk and his head had grown huge and misshapen, and a huge wooden cape hung behind his back controlling his jaw. Yes, you guessed it, he had turned into a wooden nutcracker! In horror Drosselmeier stabbed the mouse with his heel. In death Frau Mouserink spoke of the fate of the Nutcracker, exclaiming, “seven crowns for seven heads, mother will pronounce you dead, nutcracker fine will all be mine.”
The princess, seeing the Nutcracker boy’s deformity, refused to marry him and threw him out. The clockmaker and the astronomer also were banned from the palace. However, that is not the end of the tale, for the astronomer, looking at the heavens, could see that the young nutcracker could become a prince, despite his malfunction. But only after he defeated the seven headed Mouse King. For the Mouse King was the younger brother of the seven sons of Frau Mouserink. There was something more, he must find a lady to love him, despite his unfortunate defects.
“That children, is the tale of the hard nut. And now you know why people are apt to say: That was a hard nut to crack.” And now you know why Nutcrackers (today) are so hideous.”
Torment, sacrifice, and the final battle
With the background story of the tale in her heart, Marie was determined to help the Nutcracker defeat the Mouse King once and for all. One night, the Mouse King bore his hideous seven heads into Marie’s wall of her room. He then threatened her to leave marzipan and sweet peas for him, otherwise, he will chew up the Nutcracker. Marie obliged, but soon after the mouse king came tormenting her again with threats of death to the nutcracker if she did not leave all her sweet dolls. Her parents, upset when discovering her sweets chewed on by a large mouse, tried to set a trap, but to no avail, the Mouse King was too smart for traps and once again asked Marie for all her picture books and her new dress. Marie, in her state of desperation, cried to the Nutcracker that she soon may not have anything left to sacrifice. The Nutcracker came to life for a moment and told her to not worry, he just needed a sword. That night, she could hear the battle in the living room, yet she did not dare go downstairs. Then all was quiet. She then heard a knock on her door, she grabbed her coat and standing on the other side was the Nutcracker who had a bloody sword in one hand and a candle in another. He had defeated the Mouse King!
An invitation.
With that the Nutcracker asked Marie if she would go with him to be shown many splendid things. Down the hall they enter a wardrobe, and after pulling a tassel a set of stairs open in sleeve of a coat. This is where the story takes a journey to a sweet and magical world.
Through the rock candy meadow and almond and raison gate, Marie watches in awe as they enter Christmas Forest. I will not go into too much detail here, but somewhere on the Lemonade River between the gingerbread homes and Bonbonville, Marie gets her share of sweet fragrances and lovely characters. Soon they cross the lake of Roses to the beautiful and splendid capital city, Jamburg, and the Marzipan Castle. The people of Jamburg come from all parts of the world, and they embrace Marie as the prince (Nutcracker’s) savior. He recounts the tale of Marie saving his life as they prepare a feast for her. But then she falls asleep in the halls of the Marzipan castle and once again wakes up in her own bed.
Back Home
After recounting to her mother her latest adventures, Marie’s parents dismiss her and laugh at her, even showing her the nutcracker doll in the cabinet. She proves to her parents that her story is true and produces the seven tiny Mouse King crowns as proof. Her parents, although stumped by the crowns, still do not believe Marie, and start to scold her in revealing where she got the crowns. Soon, Drosselmeier walks in and proclaims that he had given her the crowns years ago (although no one remembers this event) and her parents soften. But then Drosselmeier starts to scold Marie and tells her that he will throw all her dolls away if she continues this fantasy.
So, after traveling through the magical realms of merriment, Marie had to sit with her thoughts of the fairyland that she had visited. One day, whilst Drosselmeier was visiting and working on their clocks, she proclaimed to the Nutcracker doll how she loved him for who he was and would never treat him as Princess Perlipat did. Soon afterwards, Drosselmeier’s nephew comes to visit. He was a young man, who was polite and very handsome, he also was great at cracking nuts for his hosts. When the moment arrived, he pulls Marie aside and reveals the truth, he was the Nutcracker, and her words of conviction changed him from his despicable state back to a handsome boy.
He then asks for her hand in marriage and a year later, calls for her in his golden carriage. The Tales ends with these words:
“Marie supposedly is still queen of a land where you can see sparkling Christmas Forests everywhere as well as translucent Marzipan Castles-in short, the most splendid and most wonderous things, if you only have the right eyes to see them with.”