'Murderer's House' - University of Victoria

and springs into the lap of the hidden miller‟s daughter. The robber wants to look for the
finger, but the old woman dissuades him from doing so, and serves the robbers wine with
a sleeping potion in it. The two women then escape from the house to find that the ashes
which marked the path have blown away. However, the peas and lentils have sprouted,
and the two make their way in the moonlight back to the miller and tell him of the events.
The wedding festivities, already planned, take place. Each guest is asked to tell a
story. The miller‟s daughter tells of her journey into the woods, of the house of
murderers and the robber bridegroom, prefacing the tale with, “Mein Schatz, das träumte
mir nur” (Sanders-Brahms, Film-Erzählung 96). 60 This dissembling strategy enables the
miller‟s daughter to tell the whole story without awakening the bridegroom‟s suspicions.
When she tells of the golden ring and the dismemberment, she turns to the bridegroom to
announce, “Hier ist der Finger mit dem Ring” (Sanders-Brahms, Film-Erzählung 96). 61
The bridegroom turns “kreideweiß” (while the literal translation of this term is as pale as
chalk, Hyams claims that the expression can be translated as “as pale as ashes” (44)). He
is detained by the wedding party guests and, along with the rest of his band, brought to
trial and punished for his crimes.
The timing of the end of Lene‟s retelling within the filmic narrative is significant.
When Lene finishes the narrative of the tale with the line, “Hier ist der Finger mit dem
Ring” (Sanders-Brahms, Film-Erzählung 96), we see Lene and Anna travelling on a
freight train. In a medium shot, Lene embraces her daughter and her golden wedding
band is highlighted and made conspicuous through her gestures. At this point in the film,
the image of the golden ring connects Lene with the murdered maiden of the tale, who
60 “It was just a dream, my love” (Sanders-Brahms, Film-Erzählung 96).
61 “Here is the finger with the ring” (Sanders-Brahms, Film-Erzählung 96).
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