It was yet another relationship ritual: where the friends of the individual became the friends of the couple. This meal together had been Fabel’s idea, and when he saw Otto, his oldest friend, sitting chatting with Susanne, the newest element in Fabel’s life, he felt surprisingly content. The usual initial awkwardness of greetings and introductions had evaporated almost instantly under Susanne’s natural Southern warmth and it was clear from the start that Otto and Else liked her. Approved of her. He wasn’t sure why, but that approval was very important to Fabel. Perhaps it was because Otto and Else had been there throughout Fabel’s marriage to Renate and they had sat around a restaurant table, just like this, so many times before.
He looked across at Susanne and smiled. Her raven hair was tied up, revealing her neck and shoulders. Susanne’s beauty was striking and natural and the subtlest application of make-up highlighted her stunning eyes under the high-arched eyebrows. She smiled back, knowingly. Fabel had reserved a table in an Italian restaurant down on Milchstrasse, only two minutes’ walk from his apartment. The disadvantage about his flat was that it didn’t lend itself to hosting dinner parties and Fabel had become a regular in this restaurant whenever he had guests. They were chatting idly about this and that, when Otto brought up the subject of the books that Fabel had bought.
‘How are you getting on with Weiss’s novel?’ he asked.
‘Fine . . . well, okay. I see what you mean about his overblown style. But it’s amazing how you get sucked into the world he describes. And how you start to associate Jacob Grimm with the fictional character rather than the historical personage. Which is what Weiss’s theory is all about, I suppose.’ Fabel paused for a moment. ‘I’ve been going through the works of the Brothers Grimm, too. I knew that they had collected a lot of folk tales, but I had no idea just how many. As well as all those myths and legends.’
Otto nodded his huge domed head. ‘They were very dedicated and talented individuals. And a powerful team. Their work on the German language, on linguistics generally, was, as you know, ground-breaking. And it is still influential. They defined the mechanics of language, of how languages evolved and how they borrow from one another. The irony is that they are remembered as the authors of tales they didn’t actually write. Well, actually, they did do a bit of editing and rewriting on the later versions – to make them more palatable.’
‘Mmm, I know . . .’ Susanne took a sip of wine, then put her glass down. ‘As a psychologist, I find fairy tales fascinating. There’s so much deep stuff in them. Sexual, a lot of it.’
‘Exactly.’ Otto beamed at Susanne. ‘The Grimm brothers weren’t writers, they were recorders – linguists and philologists who travelled remote parts of Hessen and elsewhere in northern and central Germany, collecting old folk tales and fables. To start with they didn’t rewrite or embellish the traditional tales they compiled. But most of the stories they collected were not as cosy as they appeared in later editions – or as nauseatingly saccharine as their retelling by Disney and others. When their collections turned out to be best-sellers, particularly when they compiled children’s tales, they found themselves removing or sanitising some of the darker and sexual elements.’
‘That’s why we all remain that little bit afraid of fairy tales,’ said Susanne. ‘We’re told them as bedtime stories when we’re children but they’re really warnings and instructions on how to avoid all types of danger and evil. But they’re also about the dangers within the known and trusted. The home. The threat from the known and familiar is as much part of these fables as the fear of the unknown. And it’s funny how one of the most common motifs in these tales is the wicked stepmother.’
‘Weiss claims that these folk tales are the fundamental truths behind our fears and prejudices. Like Susanne said, our psychology.’ Fabel paused to take a forkful of tagliatelle. ‘He claims that, whenever we sit down to read a novel or watch a movie, especially if they’re about things that threaten us, then it’s really just a retelling of these tales.’
Otto nodded vigorously and pointed to Fabel with his fork. ‘Yes, well . . . he really does have a point. What is it they say, there are only four basic stories you can tell – or is it six?’ He shrugged.
‘Anyway,’ said Fabel. ‘This is, in an odd sort of way, all related to a case I’m working on. And that means it’s shop talk, which is strictly forbidden.’
‘Okay,’ said Otto with a mischievous grin, ‘but my last word is that I can understand why Jan has an interest in fairy tales . . .’
Susanne raised a questioning eyebrow.
‘Beauty . . .’ Otto raised his glass to Susanne, then to Fabel ‘. . . and the Beast.’