Nutcracker and the Mouse King
[some lore and history]
DEC 25, 2024
The Nutcracker and the Mouse King story has many layers of lore which includes the original story, the French adaptation and the ballet. I will mostly be focusing on the ballet version as I was inspired to write this after seeing a version of the ballet a few days ago. Also Merry Christmas for those who celebrate the holiday, may this be my gift unto you.
The original story was written in 1816 by the Prussian (German) author Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann as a fairy tale novella. As the original story goes, young Marie Stahlbaum discovers that her favorite Christmas toy, the Nutcracker, has come alive in her dream and must defeat the evil Mouse King along with his mice and rats. The story is much more focused on this battle as the mice drift from reality and into this distorted dream land, plaguing the castle that Marie finds herself within and that of the candy kingdom in the dream. A bite from a mouse rat turns one into a nutcracker. The battle is being fought because both the prince and princess in the dream castle have been turned into nutcracker dolls. After winning the battle The Nutcracker takes Marie to the magical kingdom made out of Christmas sweets and various candy cities. The story is actually quite haunting and much darker than the ballet version. It speaks of death, war and loyalty. It tells riddles and casts spells to enchant Marie to be able to pass through the physical reality and into this strange whimsical nightmare. It seems the only other human who knows of this dream world is Marie’s godfather, Drosselmeier and possibly the Clockmaker, for whatever reason the entire second part of the story follows the two of them as they try to find a cure for the princess who was turned into a nutcracker. The story was kind of hard to follow, although I did not read it in depth (I was also reading this super late at night so please correct me if I’m wrong lmao). The cure in itself was to defeat the Mouse King, but I do not think they knew that the candy princess had been bitten by the mouse.
The French adaptation was taken and written by Alexander Dumas and published it as ‘The History of a Nutcracker’ in 1845. This version was much more whimsical and is more commonly known as today’s ‘The Nutcracker.’
The ballet ‘The Nutcracker’ created by Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, with Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov (choreographers) is based on Dumas’ adaptation. The ballet premiered at the Imperial Theatre in 1892 to mixed reviews. However, this is the version most popular with mainstream media and the ballet today, despite its quite underwhelming premiere. Obviously, it is associated with the holiday season, most predominately Christmas, but this story also has largely to do with the Winter Solstice, Yuletide and the New Year. The subtitles of spell-casting in this strange dance of time speak to a wide range of viewers whether they celebrate any of the holiday cheer or not. It is hypnotizing, as any good ballet should be.
In German folklore nutcrackers that were painted as soldiers were believed to bring good fortune and protect the home with their strength and good energy. Some legends tell that they could also ward off evil spirits. This story did come from the early 17th century Germany, so I can only assume what kind of metaphor the Mouse King played to Krampus as this devilish half-witted beast that stole the Christmas cheer. Speaking of the Nutcracker lore as a protection charm, it is also fitting that he was the only one who could break the curse of the mouse bite.
The 22nd of December brings together a wide range of cultures, faiths and ethnic groups, to commemorate the Wintersonnenwende (winter solstice), the longest night of the solar year. Solstice is a new beginning, as the days get longer and the sun grows stronger, it brings new growth and warmth to the many places that have been previously covered in darkness. The celebration behind the winter solstice has been found throughout all cultures, faiths and times far into pre-history. Winter Solstice was celebrated over the span of many days through rituals celebrating Mother sun, with fire, light, warmth and life. This is now considered to be just a silly pagan celebration, but it is still celebrated today and it is still a transition that exists, whether you’re pagan or not, the Earth still moves. Other parts of this celebration has survived through Christmas and Christian traditions as a celebration of the birth of Christ, also signaling a new beginning, a light of life. The gift of presence and existence is celebrated in many ways and during many parts of the year, whether it be deliberate or not. The presence of dance and ballet has long been celebrated across the globe.
Further, ballet in America was challenged to take its root. Americans initially saw ballet as European and irrelevant to American values and tastes. Ironically, the Russian Revolution changed that notion. The first few attempts at restaging and reimagining the Nutcracker in the early 20th century were duds, but eventually it made its way, thus becoming a Christmas tradition. This also encouraged ballet to be considered as a more serious art in the states. The San Francisco Ballet staged the first full American version of the ballet on Christmas Eve in 1944 at the War Memorial Opera House. It was a great success. The director, William Christensen wanted to appeal to American audiences, and he did just that. The SF Ballet claims to have the first American Nutcracker performance. However, the New York City Ballet presented a version of The Nutcracker on February 2, 1954 by George Balanchine. This premier featured Maria Tallchief as the Sugar Plum Fairy, with tailored choreography for her, as Balanchine did with his chosen muse. Balanchine’s vision whispered notes of grandeur and danced into a lens accountable to his training in Russia at the Imperial Ballet. It was a success and became an annual tradition. This was also broadcasted on television on December 25, 1958 on CBS Playhouse 90 and proved itself to be The American Nutcracker, most likely because it was showed to such a large audience. This was the first time the ballet was televised, and it was also the first color broadcast of an episode of Playhouse 90. By the 60s most American ballet companies were staging this version of The Nutcracker.
Balanchine fled the Soviet Union with many other dancers during the Russian Revolution and positioned himself on the stage to be a weapon for the States during the Cold War. Ballet was a soft power, and Balanchine’s version of the Nutcracker was an homage to Imperial Russia. America wanted to be sophisticated and cultured like Europe and Balanchine and his School of American Ballet offered the US a distinctly American Ballet style with connections to the purest form of ballet. His vision of Imperial, Orthodox Christmas, before the Revolution is lavish, joyous, shamelessly aristocratic, and visibly consumptive with its exotic (and notably racist) dances that represented what an upper class Russian expected on the table at a holiday gathering. It appealed to America's desire for instant tradition, the hunger for sophistication, and the eagerness to best the Russians at their own game. It was a stiff cocktail, and the US has been drinking it every December since, racism included. There is a plethora of literature that speaks of these competitions among the arts and culture.
The Nutcracker ballet that I viewed with my own eyes when I was a child was certainly intoxicating and entertained a part of my childish delights. I have remembered it very well since then. I even still have the ornament I got after the show. However, seeing it again as an adult, I did indeed realize the notes of class blindness and innuendos of segregation. Shout out to the very few people of color that were on the stage! Despite this, I must say that the scores were nice to hear, even though it was apparently true that Tchaikovsky only wrote them to pay the bills and he cared very little for the actual story. This is probably why it was so distasteful to begin with.
The fundamentally old-fashioned Christmas story is an easy message to sell nowadays, especially to children. Sadly, this only contributes to the cement that is consumerism in America and the quite powerfully silent way so many of these mass produced stories and items contribute to inequality.
At the very least it is nice to see an ancient form of art still going strong today.
Dunning, Jennifer. “Staying on Their Toes for ‘the Nutcracker,’ Show after Show.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 26 Nov. 2004, www.nytimes.com/2004/11/26/arts/dance/staying-on-their-toes-for-the-nutcracker-show-after-show.html.
Hoffmann, E. T. A. “The Nutcracker and the Mouse-King.” Internet Archive, Chicago, A. Whitman & Co, 1 Jan. 1970, archive.org/details/nutcrackermousek00hoff_0/page/8/mode/2up.
R/Askhistorians on Reddit: How Is It That Tchaikovsky’s “The Nutcracker” Became so Deeply Associated with Christmas, Considering It Was Such a Failure When It Initially Premiered?, www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/kjrqwr/how_is_it_that_tchaikovskys_the_nutcracker_became/. Accessed 25 Dec. 2024.
Selig, Robert A. “Pagan Winter Solstice Feasts and Christian Christmas Celebrations:” German Life, 12 Nov. 2019, germanlife.com/2019/11/pagan-winter-solstice-feasts-and-christian-christmas-celebrations/.
