The soul usually slips out of the sleeper in the form of a small animal when it goes on these dream journeys. He must not disturb it in this position for it would not be able to find its way back and then he would die.
With the idea of the dream-soul goes along also that of nightmare (Druckgeitser?).
"Out of the belief in the dream soul has grown the conviction that certain men possess the power to separate their souls from their bodies and take other forms."
"In the form of dangerous animals (wolf, bear, dragon) such men bring harm to others; therefore it is strongly punished by law. Here belong the witches and Völven" (volu = magic wand, volvur = sorceress). "They make bad weather, make men and beasts sick, are able to transfix people to a spot, and can take all possible animal forms."
In fairy stories they can, in the same way, wish men into other forms.
"In the belief on the changeableness of the human soul took root further the belief, widely spread over Germanic territory, of the werwolf (man wolf), that is a man who is able to take the form of a wolf." In fairy tales such werwolfs are sometimes enchanted men who only at special times can lay off the wolf skin.[1]
The lion in the "Singing, Jumping Lark" stands also as the hero, in a number of other similar tales, under such a curse. In this kind of tale the prince or the princess is in the beginning under a hostile power and the wish-fulfillment consists in the desire to avoid this influence in order to be united with the heroine of the story whom we have substituted in the wish-dream with the figure of the dreamer.
In the "Singing, Jumping Lark" the second part, which we did not follow above, deals with this theme.
The utilized mythological material indicates a new root out of which has developed the symbolism of the fairy stories in so far as it is mythological. It is the dream symbolism itself with
- ↑ Mogk, I. C. The night-mare root of mythology calls for special treatment. The "Traumdeutung" appeared first in 1900. Laistner's "Rätsel des Sphinx" (Berlin, W. Hertz, 1889) unfortunately is based on a not very complete knowledge of the dream.
