Religious motifs : Overview. Search. About religious motifs

Keywords:

Cult, holy, myth, legend, history

Description of this motif: High places are places of worship or the goal of pilgrimage, a shrine. To such locations are often atttached stories: myths, legends, stories of miracles. The historic element is the core of Andersen's usual use of the motif; these places carry stories about something sacred – but now they are waste. The motif induces a feeling of the presence of past times and a combination of wonder and awe at the encounter with the sacred attached to a location.

Example :

Not a single leaf of that plant could be found; no one knew about the one leaf that lay in the coffin of the dead girl.

And the King himself, in his terrible depression, wandered out to the spot in the woods. "This is where the plant grew," he said. "It shall be a sacred place." Then he had it surrounded by a golden railing, and a sentry was posted there, by day and by night.

Comment on this quote: The leaf is in a bible in the coffin.