Structure and Forces of The Story
This fairy tale also has the character of an aetiological myth (cf. Etiology)—a story devised to explain why things are as they are in the world. It is structured like an epic saga with each of the chapters closing on one solitary curiosity: Chapter One, the card identifying Southwest Wind, Esquire; Chapter Two, the mug becoming a released King of the Golden River; Chapter Three, Hans becoming a black stone; Chapter Four, Schwartz becoming a companion black stone; and Chapter Five, the black stones being known as the "Black Brothers."
Another view is that of Oliver Lodge, editor, of the Everyman's Library edition of the work: "The parable is in two halves, a sort of Paradise Lost and a Paradise Regained—lost by selfishness, regained by love."
Water is the force that makes and unmakes things. The Treasure Valley never fails to have the proper watering to be perpetually lush. It is then destroyed by the water of a torrential flood. It is restored through the water of the Golden River becoming for the kindhearted Gluck a river of gold. Water's power appears in the treacherous glacier, which frightens those who traverse it with its sounds of rushing water and cracking ice. Water as "holy water" causes the miraculous transformation of the Golden River into a "river of gold" at the behest of the king. The King of the Golden River has himself disappear through the process of evaporation, a "water" phenomenon.
In this fairy tale the environment responds positively or negatively to human good or evil. There is the interplay of personified forces of nature like winds and rivers.
Lodge also enlightens us as to the lesson learned by the Black Brothers becoming goldsmiths and Gluck's wish that the Golden River become a literal river of gold: "And the restoration of wealth to Treasure Valley, by restoring the fertility of its soil instead of by metalliferous undertakings, is entirely in harmony with the author's consistent teaching that all true material increase must come from the soil". Note that the King of the Golden River was imprisoned through "metalliferous undertakings."
Read more about this topic: The King Of The Golden River
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