Under Mercurialwasser or Mercury the ways is meant a universal resolution agent in the Alchemy , could be resolved with the supposedly all matter. The Mercurial Water is the main pillar in alchemy. Without the exact knowledge of this substance it was not possible to make the so-called philosopher's stone . Other names for the milky-cloudy preparation, which is also used as a medicine, were water of life, azot, virgin milk, virgin milk, lac virginis, (aqua) mercurius, fiery water or watery fire, ash majim and others

The production of “virgin milk” ^[1] by Johannes de Rupescissa , an alchemist of the 14th century, was carried out by mixing “distilled” mercury (Latin mercurius ) with “vitriol” . ^[2] Similar named preparations, which were used in medicine in the manufacture of ointments, were also made without the use of mercury, for example by adding saline or soda solution to lead (II) acetate made from litharge and vinegar , whereby Lead (II) chloride and / or white lead was created. ^{[3] [4]}

In folk poetry, the water of life allows the dead to be raised, the healing of serious illnesses, eternal health, or gives the blinded new eyesight .

The water of life plays a role in the following fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm : The water of life , The king's son who was afraid of nothing , note on The faithful John , variants of The faithful John , The girl without hands , Ferenand trü and Ferenand unmistakable and the trained hunter . It also appears indirectly in Der Herr Gevatter , De Drei Vügelkens , The Crows , The Two Wanderers , The Devil with the Three Golden Hairs and The Iron Man .

The tree of life and the herb of life also occur.

literature

• Claude Lecouteux: Water of Life. In: Kurt Ranke (abbreviation): Encyclopedia of fairy tales . Concise dictionary for historical and comparative narrative research. Edited by Rolf Wilhelm Brednich . Volume 8: Clergy - Maggio. de Gruyter, Berlin et al. 1996, ISBN 3-11-014339-9 , pp. 838-841.
• Clemens Zerling : Water of Life. In the eternal flow of death and becoming. In: Wolfgang Bauer , Sergius Golowin , Clemens Zerling: Heilige Quellen, Heilende Brunnen. Neue Erde, Saarbrücken 2009, ISBN 978-3-89060-275-2 , pp. 6-17.

Weblinks

• The water of life in fairy tales ( memento of October 17, 2008 in the Internet Archive ), treatise by August Wünsche

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Jörg Barke: The language of the Chymie: using the example of four prints from the time between [sic!] 1574–1761. Tübingen 1991 (= German Linguistics, 111), p. 272 ​​("Jungfrawmilch": "lac virginis, is aqua Mercur")
2. ↑ Wet Benzenhöfer : Johannes de Rupescissa de consideration of the fifth essence of all things German. Studien medical alchemy des 15. bis 17. The prints mit kritischer Editions des textes. Stuttgart 1989, S. 187
3. ↑ Karl Garbers and Jost Weyer (eds.): Source history reading book on the chemistry and alchemy of the Arabs in the Middle Ages. Hamburg 1980, pp. 14 and 79
4. ↑ Dieter Lehmann: Two medical prescription books of the 15th century from the Upper Rhine. Part I: Text and Glossary. Pattensen / Hanover (now at Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg) 1985 (= Würzburg medical-historical research, 34), p. 21 f. and 210.