This Gnostic reading of the Grimm tale The Three Apprentices construes the protagonists as ordinary mass-men: hungry, vulnerable, and willing to collaborate with the Devil simply to survive. Satan, portrayed as the figure of Power and the State, draws them into a dark stratagem that carries them all the way to the scaffold, only to save them at the last moment while demanding silence and obedience. The tale thus exposes a bitter truth: the governance of the world belongs to the Devil, while God remains absent. Human beings navigate life with small daily compromises without understanding the higher purposes at play, negotiating their survival within an opaque and inexorable order.
Guido Giacomo Preparata