Tale by Numbers

The number seven pops up everywhere in Grimm’s Household Stories: characters come in sevens and events occur seven times, among other details. The prevalence of the number betray the stories’ origins in the oral tradition as well as the Christian backbone key to the Grimm versions. This can be demonstrated through an analysis of ‘Hans in Luck.’

The number seven plays a central role in ‘Hans in Luck:’ Hans works for seven years and loses his wages in seven steps. In the Old Testament seven is inextricably linked to labor and capital. In Genesis, God creates the universe in seven days – the last day of rest is deemed a sacred component of labor rather than dismissed. The sacred pattern of work and rest expands to include the Sabbath Year (whereby a year of rest is provided to the land and its workers after every six years) and the Jubilee Year (a year of rest after forty-nine years, or the square of seven).

These passages place value on sharing with those less fortuitous (your slaves) and eschewing material expansion (via producing greater crops) over making money and increasing material wealth. Not only does ‘Hans in Luck’ reference the pattern of seven by establishing Hans’ period of work as lasting seven years (in the first sentence, no less!) but the decisions Hans makes on his journey home stand in direct correlation to the values condoned by the relevant Biblical passages.

The seven steps it takes for Hans to lose his wages – aside from serving as a tragic mirror to his seven years of labor – also function as a storytelling device. As far back as ancient Greece, storytellers used repetition to better recall stories and to stick them in the audience’s mind – thus ensuring the stories’ longevity.¹ In a widely referenced clinical study, George A. Miller determined that working memory holds an average of seven items at a time, give or take two.² The seven steps in ‘Hans in Luck,’ thus, hint at the tale’s origins in the oral tradition.

Patterns of seven occur frequently in the Grimms’ collection of stories, as exemplified by ‘Hans in Luck.’ It evinces the narratives’ affinity with Christian tradition as well as its roots in oral storytelling. Other patterns, in numerals of three and six, are equally if not more apparent, and warrant an investigation of their own.