The Maid of Brakel (Grimm)
Division into chapters is editorial.
The girls prayer at Saint Annes Chapel
In this brief tale from the Brothers Grimm collection, a young woman from the town of Brakel embarked on a pilgrimage to seek divine intervention in matters of the heart. Her destination was the chapel dedicated to Saint Anne, located at the foot of the Hinnenberg mountain. The chapel served as a place of worship and prayer for the local community, where people came to seek blessings and guidance from the holy saints.
The young woman had come to the chapel with a specific purpose in mind - she desperately wanted to find a husband and believed that Saint Anne could help her achieve this goal. Looking around the sacred space, she convinced herself that she was completely alone in the chapel, with no other worshippers present to overhear her private petition to the saint.
A girl from Brakel once went to St. Anne's Chapel at the foot of the Hinnenberg, and as she wanted to have a husband, and thought there was no one else in the chapel
Feeling secure in her solitude, the maiden began to sing her heartfelt prayer aloud. Her song was not a general request for any suitable partner, but rather a very specific plea about a particular man she had already noticed and admired. The prayer revealed intimate details about this man's appearance and residence, suggesting she had been observing him for some time.
In her melodic petition, the maiden addressed Saint Anne directly, asking for help in winning the affections of a specific man. She described him as having golden hair and living by the Suttmer gate, indicating her detailed knowledge of his appearance and whereabouts. The prayer suggested a familiarity between the saint and this golden-haired man, as if Saint Anne would immediately know whom the maiden meant.
Oh, holy Saint Anne!
Help me soon to a man.
Thou know'st him right well,
By Suttmer gate does he dwell,
His hair it is golden,
Thou know'st him right well.
Unknown to the praying maiden, her assumption about being alone in the chapel was completely incorrect. Hidden from her view behind the altar stood a church official who had been present throughout her entire prayer.
The clerks response and the girls confusion
The church clerk had been positioned behind the altar throughout the maiden's prayer, listening to every word of her intimate request. Whether he was there for official duties or had been hiding intentionally remained unclear, but his presence transformed what the maiden believed to be a private moment into an overheard conversation.
Upon hearing the maiden's specific request for the golden-haired man, the clerk decided to intervene dramatically. Speaking in a deliberately harsh and intimidating voice, he shouted a firm denial of her request, repeating his rejection emphatically to ensure his message was clearly understood.
The clerk, however, was standing behind the altar and heard that, so he cried in a very gruff voice, 'Thou shalt not have him! Thou shalt not have him!'
The sudden, gruff voice startling her from behind caused the maiden to completely misunderstand the source of the rejection. Instead of realizing that a human church official had been eavesdropping on her prayer, she looked toward the religious statues and artwork in the chapel. Her eyes fell upon the representation of the child Mary, who was depicted standing beside her mother Saint Anne.
Convinced that the child Mary had somehow spoken and rudely interrupted her prayer to Saint Anne, the maiden became indignant and angry. She scolded what she believed to be the presumptuous child, telling her to be quiet and allow her mother to respond instead, completely unaware that the voice had actually come from the hidden clerk behind the altar.
hold your tongue, and let your mother speak!