Desarrollos nuevos relativos a aspectos tecnológicos

The Grimmsʼ fairy tales rarely use concrete units of distance (length), opting instead for more abstract and metaphorical types of expressions discussed above. Even the few (archaic77_{) units of distance that are mentioned – Meile (mile) and Elle (yard)}78

– are used metaphorically rather than literally. Thus, units of distance are typically preceded by vague quantifiers such as “a few” or “a couple”, or formulistic numbers such as seven, hundred, or thousand, which are often part of fixed formulae and/or used symbolically, to express “a totally abstract quantity” (Olrik 1965[1909]: 133). Therefore, phrases such as “thousand(s) (of) miles away” (“tausend Meilen weit weg”), featured in “The Brave Little Tailor” (the jealous soldiers wish the little tailor, who receives special treatment in court, would be “a thousand miles away”; Grimm

76 _{While the Grimmsʼ tales do not contain examples of these, it should be noted that some}

objects can in themselves “represent the syncretic notion of the trip’s distance and duration” (Ivleva 2009: 292). Specifically, the wearing off of items of clothing or footwear (e.g. iron shoes) during the protagonistʼs journey points to its extreme length and the large distance covered in the course of its duration.

77 _{Meile and Ellen became obsolete units of measurement following the introduction of}

the metric system to Germany in 1868, which became obligatory by law in 1872 (cf. Putnam 1877). For a full list of now obsolete German units of distance, see Treese (2018: 130–133).

78 _{Despite the lack of precise correspondence, mile (1.6 km) and yard (0.9 m) have}

become conventional translations for Meile (7.5 km on average) and Elle (0.6 m on average) respectively (cf. Treese 2018: 132–133).

2003[1857]: 76) and “The Raven” (the glass mountain is said to be “thousands of miles away”; ibid.: 317), should not be taken literally, but rather as expressions of unspecified large distances. Even expressions of smaller distances rely on this principle: “How Six Made Their Way in the World” (KHM 71, ATU 513A) features the phrase “two miles”, which is repeated several times: the huntsman is trying to shoot out the eye of a fly sitting on the branch of an oak tree two miles away. He then joins the discharged soldier and they come across seven windmills. After “about two miles” (ibid.: 253) they come across a man who is blowing the windmills through one of his nostrils. Given its repetitive use, it might be assumed that this expression is also meant to signify (smaller) distance in general – i.e. that the two locations are separate from each other – rather than the precise length of two miles. Considering the context in which it is mentioned (men trying to shoot an animal and move windmills by blowing), the seemingly smaller distance appears much larger given the tasks that are being performed.

The importance of perspective comes to the forefront in the case of steps (Schritten), which, although not an official unit of distance, are used to indicate distance which is either very large – in the case of giants and similar magical creatures which can cross impossible distances “in a couple of steps” (Grimm 2003[1857]: 438) – or very small (things which are very close may be “just a few steps” away; ibid.: 444). While the number of steps (paces) remains small (but unspecified), the distance covered in “a few” or “a couple” of steps changes radically depending on who is walking: a giant or an ordinary human character. Numerical quantifiers used with steps – specifically, a hundred (those who come “within a hundred steps of the castle” of the powerful sorceress in “Jorinda and Joringel” immediately fall under her spell; ibid.: 248) and seven (“for every seven steps” the heroine of “The Singing, Springing Lark” takes, the bird leaves a drop of red blood and a feather to show her the way; ibid.: 294) – are typically formulaic and pattern numbers (cf. Lüthi 1987[1975]: 44–45), which may be interpreted symbolically.

Despite the occasional mentioning of concrete units of distance/length, fairy tales are more likely to convert space into time by using temporal expressions to establish spatial relations (Nicolaisen 1980: 16–17). In cases like this, time metonymically stands for distance (Lakoff & Johnson 2003[1980:] 266) as the length between two points in space is not indicated through reference to the number of steps, miles, or yards that constitute it, but the amount of time it takes to cross it. Encompassing hours, days, and years, temporal references in the KHM fairy tales range from non- specific (“a few hours”; Grimm 2003[1857]: 58, 495) to specific. Little Red Capʼs grandmother, for instance, lives “out in the forest, half an hour from the village” (ibid.: 93), while the village in “The Six Servants” (KHM 134, ATU 513A, 900) is located “[h]alf an hour from the princeʼs castle” (ibid.: 439). “The Two Brothers” includes several instances of temporal expressions used to indicate distance: the

mountain on which the rejuvenating root grows is “two hundred hours” (ibid.: 219) away from the characters, the royal castle is “about a three-hour walk” from the enchanted forest (ibid.: 226), while its different gates are “an hourʼs walk apart” (ibid.: 227). The use of hours as a metonym for distance is perhaps not entirely unexpected as Wegstunde (an hour of travel) – the equal of half a mile – was for a long time an accepted unit of distance in Germany, often used to mark the length of roads (Treese 2018: 293). Fairy tales also use temporal references to express road length, as evidenced by “The Two Travelers”, which features two forest paths: one takes seven days to cross, the other only two.

References to days typically express distance by stating that characters walked the whole day (e.g. “The Twelve Brothers”, “The Maiden Without Hands”) or (less frequently) the entire night and the whole day (“The Six Swans”) before reaching their destination. They are also often used to establish the dimensions of space by expressing how many days it takes to cross it. For example, the forests in “The Two Brothers” and “The Expert Huntsman” are so huge that they are “impossible to cross in one day” (Grimm 2003[1857]: 214).

The most common year-based expression used in reference to space is seven years, which is how long the king in “The Maiden Without Hands” and the heroine of “The Singing, Springing Lark” wander around the world in search of their spouses. References to other temporal units, such as months, weeks, or minutes are used less frequently to indicate space. The latter appears only in connection to transference on horseback (as opposed to the majority of the above listed examples which refer to travelling on foot): the countʼs daughter in “The Glass Coffin”, for instance, reaches her destination “in a few minutes” because she is riding a horse (Grimm 2003[1857]: 485).