The fool on Manegg
The Fool on Manegg is a story by Gottfried Keller (1819–1890).
History of origin
The novellas Hadlaub , Der Narr auf Manegg and Der Landvogt von Greifensee were published between November 1876 and April 1877 as a preprint in five episodes in the Deutsche Rundschau and formed the first volume of the 1877 book edition of the Züricher Novellen . Unlike the stories in the second volume, they are held together by a framework story .
Table of contents
Frame narration : Jakob's godfather visits the young "Mr. Jacques". The nephew has decided to become an "original" - an unusual and important person - and to stand out from the ordinary people. The godfather suggested a walk to Manegg Castle , which is outside the city of Zurich above the village of Leimbach . On the ruins, the godfather tells the story of the fool of Manegg. Mr Jacques seems to have understood the moral of the story.
Internal narrative : Butz Falätscher believes perhaps rightly to be the distant descendant of an illegitimate daughter of the knightly family of Manesse . He is therefore determined to become a great person. For a while he plays the traveling chaplain. Then he became a soldier in the Italian wars . He is taken there as an entertaining babbler, but after being openly mocked, he returns to Zurich grumbling. On the way home he meets a woman whom he immediately marries. The two live in a mud hut below the abandoned Manegg Castle. Butz roams through town and country, instigates intrigues and acts out. In an argument, he knocks the woman down. She left him the following night.
He now moves into the castle and calls himself Ritter Manesse von Manegg. His boasting and obvious ridiculousness lead to the fool being tolerated at the gatherings of nobles in the city of Zurich. One evening Ital Manesse, the last legitimate descendant of the once wealthy family, brought the Manessian manuscript with her. Butz also becomes aware of it and can steal it without anyone noticing the theft. The book encourages him to fabricate poems himself, which he reads to everyone, even against his will. After all, that brings him under suspicion and on an Ash Wednesday evening a couple of young men go out to pay the fool a visit. The intimidation turns serious when a torch unintentionally sets the old walls on fire. The fool who is clutching the precious handwriting can first be rescued from the burning castle by Freiherr von Sax, but shortly afterwards dies of fright or weakness. Ital Manesse, who has no descendants, rejects the return of the manuscript and leaves it to Herr von Sax, in whose family it was to remain for over two hundred years.