A VIOLIN fairytale I can't remember... HELP!

[Marce82]

I figured I would ask on this forum, since many of you guys seem to know a lot about fairy tales (in the hopes Disney some day might make a film out of them).
When I was a kid, I had a book of collected stories (one of the stories in such book was The Little Mermaid, but I dont think it was book ONLY about Andersen stories), and one of my favorite ones was about a violin maker. I have lost the book, but I was hoping that by writing the plot, you guys might know the story and who wrote it (I THINK the name was "the magic violin", but I cant find it anywhere)
So here is the plot (what I remember of it):

The son of a violin maker had become orphaned, and decided to go to the big city to make his fortune. On his way, he came across a fairy, who gave him a magic violin, that when he played it, everybody would start dancing.
The boy made it to the city, and got a job at a violin shop, making violins for the owner, who was a very greedy man. The boy was a good worker, and his violins sold very well. At the end of the month, when it was time to get paid, the owner didnt pay him what he had promised, claiming that the boy was lazy and his violins sub-standard.
I THINK the boy at this point got his violin, and started playing it. The shop owner started dancing, and coins started falling out of his pockets. When the money on the floor was what the boy was due, his stopped playing, picked up the money, and left. The shop owner then called the police and accused the boy of stealing. He was arrested, and was about to be hung in the square, with all the town watching. So before he was executed, they asked him if he had a last wish. He said he would like to play his violin one last time. And when he did, everyone started dancing. And he played and played, and everyone danced and danced, no matter how exhausted they were. So people started begging him to stop, but he wouldnt... until the shop owner confessed that the accusation had been false, and then he stopped playing.
Something bad happened to the owner after, and something good happened to the boy. The End.

Does this story ring any bells to anyone? Anyone know the name and author?? Or origin of some kind?

HELP!

[Khonnor]

"The Boy And The Violin" perhaps?

[Mooky]

I did a Google search for "boy, violin, coins, fairytale" and this thing came up in the results:

http://www.german-latin-english.com/introduction.htm

Prejudice against Jews may underlie two of the Grimms' tales, neither printed in this book. In "Der gute Handel," a Jew, thinking he can make a profit, is tricked by a peasant into receiving 300 of the 500 lashes that had been imposed by the king on the peasant. A soldier had been tricked into taking the other 200 lashes. The latter takes the blows bravely, but the Jew whines and wails. The peasant, on the other hand, is rewarded handsomely by the king. Later, the Jew, hoping to earn a reward by reporting the peasant's disrespectful speech, is again tricked by the peasant, who appropriates the Jew's coat. In the other tale, "Der Jude im Dorn," a Jew accuses a servant of stealing a bag of money from him (which the servant had done, claiming that the Jew had himself stolen the money). Granted his last request before execution, the servant obtains release from his sentence by playing his magic violin that compels all listeners, including the judge and the Jew, to dance. The Jew, exhausted and threatened with more dancing, confesses that he stole the bag of money, whereupon he is executed. In two other Grimm tales not in this collection, one finds the unambiguous implication that black skin is inferior to white skin. "Der Königssohn, der sich vor nichts fürchtet" tells of a princess who has been placed under a spell and turned black. To make her white again, a prince has to endure three nights of torture by devils. In "Die weiße und die schwarze Braut," God punishes a mother and her daughter by turning them black.

So naturally, I did a search for "Der Jude im Dorn" (or "The Jew in the Thorn", as it is apparently known in English) and voilà:

http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/grimm110.html

(though, to be fair, this version substitutes violin for a fiddle, so it's not EXACTLY the same version you were looking for)

It's sad and depressing that fairytales were used as means of propaganda and persecution of people even back then. I guess it's that whole "indoctrinate kids while they're still young" thing.

[Wonderlicious]

Just to say, Mooky, that a violin and a fiddle are the same thing. Fiddle is a more colloquial, somewhat archaic, way of saying a stringed bow instrument, in 99.9% cases denoting a violin.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiddle

As for "The Jew in the Thorns", I've got to admit that the title itself is cringe-worthy enough to make me not want to read the story at all. It seems that the story Marce is talking about is indeed an adaptation of the more savoury aspects of that story, or a cultural variant of it.

[Mooky]

Just to say, Mooky, that a violin and a fiddle are the same thing. Fiddle is a more colloquial, somewhat archaic, way of saying a stringed bow instrument, in 99.9% cases denoting a violin.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiddle

Well, duh, "Fiddler on the Roof", of course! I can't believe it slipped my mind. I guess I had a mental block or something - I was actually thinking of a fife :S. Thanks for correcting me!

[Marce82]

Thanks Mooky!!
I believe Wonderlicious is right: what I read was another (more sanitized) version of this tale. The version I read the kid was a violin maker, and his master was the same guy who ripped him off later.
In all fairness, the Grimm's stories had often been published before in other lands and by other authors. How many versions/authors of Cinderella are there?!!?

Thanks again for the help!

[Mooky]

You're welcome, I'm very glad I could help, especially since I too have been looking for a fairytale that I read as a child and so far haven't had luck in tracking down, so I know how frustrating searches like that can be.

To my best recollection, it was about a young man (a poet, maybe) who falls in love with a wealthy girl, but her father and brothers disapprove of their relationship, so they kill him by decapitating him. To conceal the murder, they put his head in a flower pot and a rose bush grows out of it... or something like that. I can't remember what happens afterwards. It was strikingly similar in style to something Hans Christian Andersen or Oscar Wilde would have written (particularly to Wilde's "The Nightingale and the Rose"), but I couldn't find it on any list of their work. It's also similar to "The Juniper/Rose Tree", but it's not that either. I don't know, maybe you've stumbled upon it during your search for the other one?

[Marce82]

Doesn't ring a bell at all! Sorry... I just did a search in english and in spanish (just in case)...nothing :-(

[Mooky]

You're welcome, I'm very glad I could help, especially since I too have been looking for a fairytale that I read as a child and so far haven't had luck in tracking down, so I know how frustrating searches like that can be.

To my best recollection, it was about a young man (a poet, maybe) who falls in love with a wealthy girl, but her father and brothers disapprove of their relationship, so they kill him by decapitating him. To conceal the murder, they put his head in a flower pot and a rose bush grows out of it... or something like that. I can't remember what happens afterwards. It was strikingly similar in style to something Hans Christian Andersen or Oscar Wilde would have written (particularly to Wilde's "The Nightingale and the Rose"), but I couldn't find it on any list of their work. It's also similar to "The Juniper/Rose Tree", but it's not that either. I don't know, maybe you've stumbled upon it during your search for the other one?

It probably doesn't matter to anyone else, but I just found this fairytale! Some of the details I remembered about it were off, but it actually is by Hans Christian Andersen! It's called The Rose-Elf or The Elf of the Rose. You can read it here.