The Water of Life - A Brother Grimm’s adaptation and commentary
A long time ago a King was very unwell as he laid on his bed, his voice was raspy, and he had difficulty in breathing. He had not very long to live and beside him were his three sons. They were incapable of helping him. All the hopes of medicine failed them.
In the palace gardens they sat near a fountain and wept.
As they were sitting there, an old man, carrying a crooked walking stick, walked towards them. There was an occasional “kraak!” from a nearby raven. He looked at the three boys and asked what the matter was.
They told him about their sick father.
The old man responded and said:
“There is one thing that can help your father regain his health and his joy and that is the water of life, but to find the water of life takes courage.”
When the old man left, all three boys were thinking about what he had just said. The older brother in his heart thought that if he can find the water of life maybe then he could inherit the whole kingdom. He would be famous and he would be given much wealth. He decided to go and find the water of life and went up to his father and told him about his quest. His father did what all fathers tell their sons, he said it was much too dangerous to go to seek this water as many have tried but very few can ever find it or even return from such a quest. The older son pleaded until his father consented.
He saddled his horse, the drawbridge went down from the castle and away he galloped over valleys, mountains and forests. Then he arrived at an old bridge and there stood a dwarf, who asked: where are you going in such haste? The elder brother responded: “that is none of your business, move away you little dwarf before or I will ride you down!”
The dwarf heard those words and whispered runes and spells. The brother kept galloping across the land when suddenly the mountains themselves, although he could see them in the horizon at first, seemed to come closer and closer to him. Over time, they towered over him and he rode into a valley where could neither go backwards nor forwards, he could not even dismount his horse, he was imprisoned.
As the oldest brother never returned, the second brother thought to himself: “maybe if I go I will inherit the kingdom, I will gain lots of wealth? He asked his father if he could try and find the water of life. After much pleading again the father consented. His horse rode over the drawbridge and galloped over the nine lands as his oldest brother. He arrived at the bridge, where the dwarf asked again why he was in such a haste? The second brother looked at a dwarf and said: “you little shrimp! It’s none of your business where I'm going and what I'm doing.” The second brother almost rode the dwarf down.
Again, the dwarf whispered curses to the second brother. As the second brother was riding along, the mountains closed in, and he too was trapped.
Time passed without any tidings of the two brothers, the third brother thought about his own journey and quietly in his heart he thought about how this quest could help his father to regain his health and to regain his joy of living. He pleaded to his father.
His horse slowly made the way across the land looking for the water of life everywhere. He looked in the sky, under rocks, he swam, crawled and climbed. He asked villages where the water was, nobody could help him. But he persevered.
Finally, he also arrived face to face with the dwarf before the bridge: “where are you going?” Said the dwarf.
The third brother dismounted from his horse and bowed his head to the dwarf, “I am looking for the water of life to save my father from a terrible illness and if I don't find the water of life he may not survive, the Kingdom may not survive: do you know where it is?”
The dwarf answered: “Yes I do. The water of life is in a fountain within an enchanted Castle to the east from here. The door to this castle is closed for the outside world, to open the doors you need this black wand,” and the dwarf took out a iron rod to show him, “strike the door three times for it to open, behind the door are two large lions, and for them you will need a special bread,” he took at a warm banqueter from this inner coat pocket. This one has been baked with lots of honey, the lions will love that. Now, go towards the lion's roar, do not turn back but continue onwards and when they see you, give them your bread and try to go between them. If you are lucky, they will eat the bread, but they won’t eat you. “
He rode to the east and there in the distance stood the castle. The words of the dwarf were true, because soon enough he stood acting two large iron doors.
He knocked three times and the doors screamed from their hinges as they opened slowly. There were no guards to meet him. Then as he had taken a small step inside, a terrible loud roar was heard in the gloom in front of him, the lions had noticed him. But he kept going forward, he didn’t turn back. He walked towards the roar.
All the lions jumped at him to tear him to pieces, he threw the golden bread up in the air and their fanged mouths devoured the bread as they haven’t been eating for a thousand years. He had been lucky. He had time to find an open door that led into great halls inside the castle. There were torches lit on the walls. He arrived at the main hall where there was a table which held ever-fresh dishes of food, oil lamps were bu
rning, and there were goblets of the finest gold. Sitting around this long table were a dozen Princes, dressed up with royal garments with bejewelled swords, and rings on all their fingers, all their eyes were wide open, but none of them spoke and there as no clunking of cutlery or movement, they were all completely still as if stuck in a deep trance.
The only movement was the light that flickered from the walls. The youngest brother went to each Prince and pulled the rings from their fingers, he also took more bread.
There was a sword hanging within reach on the wall, on its blade were runes of power, he took the sword and slid it through his waist sash. He left the banquet hall to have a better look around, to see if there was anyone awake in this castle. He came upon a door which had the colour of a dark sapphire. He opened the door.
Nothing could have prepared him for what he saw.
In front of him stood a woman with such beauty that his heart trembled from the sparkle of her soulful eyes. The light in the room was between light and the dark. Mysterious lamps shone from the ceiling, making wavelets of shadows on the walls.
She was wide awake.
The young brother was trying to hold himself steady, his own Kingdom in his heart had received a sovereign queen.
He took a deep breath and said “I am here looking for the Water of Life; do you know where I can find it?”
“Beware,” she said, “you can take the Water of Life, but there is one condition: you must take the water before the clock bells strikes twelve. If you don’t, you will sleep for two thousand years and the sun-wheel is pointing to quarter to twelve.
“I am the Princess of this enchanted castle. I can see my own heart in your eyes. In a year's time, on the same day, I will be here waiting for you to return if you are willing.”
He made a pledge to return in a year's time.
He had to hurry. As he went further down the halls, again he saw another door. He opened it and found a wonderful bed full of warm downs; there he laid and fell asleep.
He woke up from the memory of what the Princess had told him about needing to leave before midday. He rushed towards the courtyard and towards the fountain, dipped his flask into the clear water and then charged as fast as he could towards the black door.
When the bells started to ring in the towers, the black door was closing, he ran and managed to get out, but as it closed behind him, he lost part of his heel. He now would limp for the rest of his life.
But he had found the water of life, he could save his father.
He travelled homewards and again he arrived at the same bridge where the dwarf met him.
The dwarf could see that he had been successful and he was happy for him.
The dwarf told him that the sword he carried can conquer any army and his bread can feed all the Kingdoms in the world.
“There is just one thing, have you seen my brothers, do you know where they are?
“Yes, I do, but they are false brothers, be careful, they do not wish you well.”
Please, tell me where they are, I want to see them again.”
The dwarf whispered another spell, and the brothers were freed from their traps.
When they were reunited, the youngest brother told them about everything, about his journey, about the sword and about the Princess he had met. How he could one day inherit a Kingdom of his own.
Together all three brothers travelled back home. But the journey was long. When they arrived in Kingdoms that needed help the youngest brother brought out his sword of victory and he helped all the Kings that he encountered against their foes, he distributed the bread which was always replenished to those in need of food. Then all three embarked on the great ship. That’s where the two oldest brothers spoke amongst themselves: “Our youngest brother is going to get all the Kingdom and all the wealth and we will gain nothing! He has gone through all the pain, but we will take all the gain.”
In the middle of the night the two brothers stepped into the cabin of the youngest brother and poured the Water of Life into their flask and replaced it with sea water in the goblet.
As soon as they arrived safely in the harbour the youngest brother ran to the bedside of his father and poured seawater into his mouth.
“What are you doing! Are you trying to kill him?” Shouted the other brothers.
Then the two older brothers poured the Water of Life into his mouth and their father drank deep from the flask. It was not long before his eyes shone with health, and he stood up with vitality in his body. The older brothers gained all the praises for what they had done.
A court was gathered, and people demanded the King put an end to his youngest son who had committed treason.
The King decided that the youngest brother would be executed in silence by the old huntsman.
The huntsman had known the young brother all his life and he felt remorse and guilt having to carry out these orders.
He put an arrow to the bow and pulled the bowstring back, he felt a sense of injustice as he was about to release the string, instead he shot the arrow right up into the sky. The youngest brother turned around and said: “what’s the matter?” The huntsman told him everything, he told the youngest brother that his father had ordered him to do the killing.
The youngest brother looked at the old huntsman and said, “why don't we do this, you take my royal garments and I take your simple cloth? You can go back to the castle, and I will live for the rest of my life out here alone in the forest? The huntsman agreed and the younger brother went to live alone in that great forest whilst his two older brothers feasted and took part of all the wealth and all the joy that the kingdom had to offer, and they had gained all the glory.
During this time, he lived in the forest. Wagons filled with treasures and gifts arriving for the King. All these wagons were gifts from the young Prince that had saved them.
When the King received this, he marvelled at the amount of wealth and asked himself, could it be that my youngest son is innocent?
Meanwhile, the Princess had laid out a road paved with gold for her suitor to come to her door. To her guardsmen she gave strict instructions: “if my suitor comes up towards the castle and rides to the right of the golden road then he's not the right one, turn him away. If another suitor rides to the left of the road, turn him away. If a suitor rides right through the middle of the golden pavement, the gates shall be open for him.
The first brother remembered the story about the Princess in the Kingdom. He took to his horse, and he rode towards the castle. When he saw the castle in the distance, the golden road shone and all the wealth in the world was laid out for him. He could not stop thinking about the pavement. He did not want his horse to touch the gold and instead he put his horse to the right of the road. The guard yelled out: “you are not the right suitor please turn away the Princess will not meet with you.”
Then the same thing happened with the second brother, who also remembered what the youngest brother had said. He rode out towards the castle. When he saw the gold in front of him, he gasped and did not stop looking, all the wealth almost blinded him. He commanded his horse to stay on the left of the golden pavement. As he rode up to the gate, the guards yelled: “please turn around the Princess will not have you through the gates.”
The heart of the third brother had been beating every day with the memory of looking into the soul-seeing eyes. When the day arrived, exactly one year later, he took his slow horse, which was not that slow anymore, and they rode towards the castle. His mind was flooded with the sheer possibility of seeing his beloved. He did not even look or see the gold that was laid out in front of him, all he could think about was to get to the Princess.
He rode right through the middle of that golden pavements all the way to the gate, the gates were flung open and he was received as a returning King.
As the wedding preparations were underway large, heralded flags were seen from a distance. There was his father, who was riding to be one of the honoured guests. He had learnt about the injustice and came for reconciliation.
A King and Queen were wed.
What happened to the two older brothers?
They went out to sea and never returned.
Looking for Inspiration and Coming of Age
The Water of Life story is an initiation story of entering the Kingdom of soul and spirit. The story lays out an esoteric frame work that we see in the fairytale tradition and also an initiatory pathway.
Central to this story is to save a King from dying, saving the Kingdom. Note that the Kingdom is not “out there” it is the inner Kingdom. To use a phrase from Marie Von Franz: “The Fairytale is the Anatomy of the Soul.”
The dying King is a common motif in many fairytales which points to a Kingdom in distress, something has to be rescued. The King symbolising a Self that needs to resurrect and through finding Waters of Life, inspiration and health can return.
Anyone who drinks from this water gains a sense of purpose, a strong feeling of inspiration and deep fulfilment. The water eases away all pain. The story asks: can we find the Water of Life today? When did you set out to seek for it? When we throw ourselves into fresh exciting and creative projects, careers, work, and inspired new ideas, we are drinking from this well. But once we find it, we have to protect it from the big brothers, our arrogance and our haughtiness can bring us trouble. For many, the loss of inspiration can come when we have to build an infrastructure around our muse; the musician becomes an accountant; the therapist a marketeer; the teacher a champion of health and safety applications; the eco-warrior transforms into a fundraiser; an inspired cook becomes a spreadsheet manager. Once we build these infrastructures to protect our original inspiration, what happens to the Water of Life? Has it been stolen from us? Are we happy to carry on working within the infrastructure that we have to create to keep our dreams alive? There comes a time, when you need to go and seek for the Water of Life again, when change comes knocking. A call to adventure. If we stay rigid, we risk of turning into stone and sleeping forever in the enchanted castle. Old fairy tales tell us that we have to seek the Water of Life when our viewpoints and perspectives no longer support or give us any meaning - when our inner sovereign has become ill.
To find the Water of Life we have to make the journey towards the enchanted castle, the underworld and our our inner emotional journey. Sorrow and grief is driving the story and motivation for the third brother. Power and money motivates the other brothers. Their path becomes cursed and they only receive a short term gain, but they cannot see their own soul in the end, the beloved, the anima, does not open the gates for them.
The third brother, he has to wander off the beating track and follow new voices. Note how his grief is not denied, he feels deeply for his father and goes through the underworld with the right spirit of intent. He is humble before the underworld journey into the enchanted castle - this is recognised by the Earth-Gnome (Dwarf, Black Elf). His brothers on the other hand are deeply stuck.
In the essay that Jung wrote called “The Phenomenology of Spirit in Fairytales” often the old man, or dwarf is presented as the “spirit” in the story and the spirit character is the one that can bring gifts and talismans to continue the journey.
In the Mythic world we are surrounded by the forces of chaos (Giants, Titans,) and cosmos (the Gods). What lies outside of the village or city, the large forests, steep cliffs, or oceans are in the domains of chaos, it also where the Waters of Life resides, it’s only there where the Mead can be found.
The Greek demi-God Herakles has to travel to the underworld, or to monstrous lands where he has to capture or kill a beast that stalks on the edges of the village. By killing the beasts that is surrounding the world (or village), the mythological hero makes order out of chaos. Thor faces the midgard serpent out in the grey waves, far off in the horizon. The journey of the hero is to an edge world, he travels where nobody has dared to go, to places where death and darkness reside. He is on a quest fighting for survival, but not only for himself, but for his people and community. Here is a distinction of what makes a “true” hero: a lesser hero fights for his own desires and wants (the two bothers), whilst the true hero fights for that which is larger than himself and the community that is being threatened by chaotic forces.
Today as we are looking through our excessive consumption, pandemics, overpopulation, climate change and resource depletion, we can see that the Kingdom is sick. A calling is being hears - we require another hero to emerge, someone who is willing to step aside from society again in order to find a new “Herculean club,” to defend our modern age.
The pattern is this: the hero makes a move away from his home, away from the people he loves, and decides to take on the quest. As the hero is willing to sacrifice himself for the cause, he is often sanctified and deified to the village. The independent, free man riding on his horse (the John Wayne mythos) still carries a strong mythic symbol in the US with a psychological impact that reverberates today in capitalist society, but this hero is the self-made man; he is not a community man. There is no banquet laid out for him at the end of his journey; the independent man rides into the sunset alone.
A homecoming hero results in the overthrowing of the old as he takes the seat of the King. The hero’s quest ends, in mythological terms, of him becoming semi-divine or rising to the God-head, in the myths of Jesus Christ or Buddha, both re-instate a new civilisation on their return from the dead or the enlightenment experience. One experience they all face is a great “call to action,” usually an impossible mission with impossible odds, which results in an arduous journey where they face their mortality and limitations, once they return, they bring new knowledge and a new symbol.
The origin of all these hero myths are enacted by the sun everyday, as the sun rises in the east after a long passage through the dark. The sun returns to us a blessing and a gift each dawn. The sunrise is the expression of light conquering the dark. The sun is our first hero. All heroes are solar in origin.
In the ancient world it was never a certainty that the sun would return after the dark descended and in many cultures the sun was always greeted with a gesture and ritual of thankfulness each morning. The story of the sun’s journey is a seasonal agricultural journey. The light returns and the plants grow again, but with each winter a new hero cycle begins - each era demands a new Herkules or a new young Prince. They work in the world of the present but also evolve with the zodiacs of their time.
The homecoming of the hero can be just as difficult as the outward journey. The hero stand to face the old King, and the old customs who have not yet recognised his newly found wisdom. This return journey is re-enacted each time young men return from their own personal travails and initiations, when through their experiences they have “earned” their right to become adults and now they can be part of the adult world. We see this in the DIY youth initiations of sex, drugs and rock'n roll.
When the return is antagonistic to the hero he has to use his new won wisdom to overcome the King or the people that stand in his way. Sadly, this homecoming can be destructive, we see this with the integration of soldiers or those who have had strong psychological or religious experiences which their society is openly hostile towards, those who have experienced an attraction to the same sex which they can't openly share, and much more. Looking at this from the mythic view, if the hero’s return is antagonistic, the hero then becomes an outlaw, a pirate, someone who is cast out. He has received the wisdom, he has done his quest, but the “gifts” he received or found, is not accepted back into the village, instead his knowledge becomes a burden, his gifts are not wanted. When generations are too far apart, the parents may not recognise their children’s initiations into adulthood and they will not see, nor behold the gifts they have attained. It will all be a blur of tattoos, noisy music and philosophies they don’t understand. Here the greatest danger lies when the parental adult declines to offer the feast of a homecoming and instead judges their teenager harshly. This can lead to an early depression and an over-bearing dependency on their peers, who are not elders.
The myths insist on the importance of a homecoming, and the importance of the wedding or a great feast where the family is invited. Most fairytales end in weddings, as the hero who is finally back from his adventures, meets his “bride” and is re-united with his village, now he is finally at home and he is whole again - the wedding ring on his finger closes the quest and binds him to his homeland, binds him to the life of the householder.
From the heroic adventures of Odysseus, we are quickly subject to the heroes one key attribute: his Metis (skill and craft). He succeeds in overcoming his obstacles through behaviours that correspond to a “trickster” figure. Trickster figures, such as Hermes, are morally ambiguous in their nature, they do not live by the courtly laws of Apollo or Zeus and come often in conflict with big questions of “moral virtue.” Similarly to what youth culture does today. For example, when Odysseus life is in danger, rather than using his strength to overcome his enemies, which we see in the figure of Herakles, Odysseus has to use his wits. Through his travels, which is also a “mercurial” activity, he has to learn to navigate in a world which is not black and white, instead he navigates in the multi-coloured world, the metis world, and for this he has to be adaptable. He needs to improvise brilliantly in the spur of the moment. A prime example being when he hides his men in the cave of Polyphemus, and outwits the monster by offering him wine and blinding him with an olive shaft when he is the most vulnerable and is asleep. This is not the open battle we would expect from a morally strong chivalric hero.
In the hero of Akhilles we have the opposite values, here the world is less metis and more black and white, we see the passion of a young warrior with a strong sense of chivalric code from the warrior class. One interesting point: Akhilles is forced to wear a woman’s clothing at the court of Lycomedes. In the Viking Myths, in order for Thor to one day gain his mighty hammer, he too has to first dress up as a bride to one of the giants.
Odysseus returns to face the old world and through cunning succeeds and is revealed as a “true” hero and transforms from soldier to the King of the Land, and finally meets his beloved Penelope. The beloved is never a spear-bride, nor is she “a possession”.
A mythical hero is a regenerative force for the community, the sun returning in the spring is a reflection and origin of this myth. When the sun finally rises out of the darkness and the difficult journey through darkness, his bride; the earth, chooses to witness him and she responds bringing new growth and fresh shoots.
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A good tale and thanks for the telling. I'm interested in the role of the Princess and how we can interpret the story through an ecofeminist lens as I am currently reading an English translation of Feminism or Death, the 1970s French ecofeminist book by Francoise D'Eaubonne. So hear goes:
This tale reveals the interconnectedness of life, the feminine principle, and the sacred waters. The dying King symbolizes a depleted land, a patriarchal system out of balance. The Water of Life, then, is not just a magical cure, but a metaphor for revitalizing feminine wisdom and restoring ecological harmony.
The Princess, often overlooked in traditional interpretations, emerges as a central figure. She is the guardian of the Water of Life, deeply connected to the rhythms of nature. Her warning about the clock striking twelve emphasizes the urgency of ecological action, mirroring the real-world consequences of ignoring environmental deadlines.
The youngest Prince's respect for the Princess and the natural world is key to his success. He understands the importance of reciprocity, promising to return in a year, mirroring the cyclical nature of life and the need for sustainable practices. This contrasts with his brothers' greed and disregard for the feminine principle, which leads to their downfall.
In an ecofeminist reading, the hero's journey is not about conquest but about connection and healing. The true hero is not the one who exploits resources but the one who nurtures them, understanding that the wellbeing of the land and its people are intertwined. The youngest Prince embodies this, using the gifts bestowed upon him to heal and restore balance.
The Princess is not a passive prize but an active agent in her own right. She sets the conditions for the Prince's return, highlighting the importance of feminine agency in environmental decision-making. The golden road symbolizes a path of ecological integrity, and only the Prince who respects this path is worthy of her hand.
The story, through its ecofeminist interpretation, calls for a shift away from patriarchal exploitation and towards a more balanced relationship with the Earth. The Water of Life represents the life-giving power of feminine wisdom and ecological harmony, urging us to protect and nurture these vital sources for a thriving future.