9. Interpretations of Fairy Tales

The first thing we must establish from the outset when we tell fairy tales, legends, or myths, and also when we want to explain them, is that we absolutely must know more than we are able to say, considerably more. And secondly, we must have the will to draw the means of explanation from anthroposophical wisdom. This does not mean that we should simply incorporate whatever comes to mind into the fairy tales, but rather that we must have the will to recognize anthroposophical wisdom as such and then, on the basis of everything we have learned in the anthroposophical worldview, try to imbue the fairy tales with it. It is not certain that this will work equally well for everyone. But even if you get it completely wrong at first, you will eventually find the right interpretation by yourself. Where something is built on solid ground, it will turn out right; but where it is not built on solid ground, it will turn out that all sorts of things can be interpreted into it. So what is said here is meant for both the storytellers and those being taught. We will use examples that are as vivid as possible to illustrate what we mean. The first fairy tale we will look at could perhaps be told as follows: