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Synergistic Interlude

“The Golden Key,” Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, #200

“Once in the wintertime when the snow was very deep, a poor boy had to go out and fetch wood on a sled. After he had gathered it together and loaded it, he did not want to go straight home, because he was so frozen, but instead to make a little fire and warm himself first. So he scraped the snow away, and while he was thus cleaning the ground he found a small golden key. Now he believed that where there was a key, there must also be a lock, so he dug in the ground and found a little iron chest. ‘If only the key fits!’ he thought. ‘Certainly there are valuable things in the chest.’ He looked, but there was no keyhole. Finally he found one, but so small that it could scarcely be seen. He tried the key and fortunately it fitted. Then he turned it once, and now we must wait until he has finished unlocking it and has opened the lid. Then we shall find out what kind of wonderful things there were in the little chest.”¹⁸

Questions to Ponder

1.What do you think the key is?

2.What are the combinations of opposites in this fairy tale?

3.What does this fairy tale have to say about spirituality and/or creativity?

4.What metaphor would you use instead of a key?

5.Of what other stories or fairy tales does this tale remind you?

18D.L. Ashliman, ed., Folklore and Mythology: Electronic Texts, accessed on April 3, 2014, http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/folkexts.html.