Epic foreknowledge
An epic foreshadowing is the term used to describe passages in a fictional representation in which indications of the further progress of the event are given. The term foreshadowing is often used for this .
On the one hand it serves to arouse interest in the further development, but on the other hand it also serves the coherence of the epic work, since in this way the different parts are placed in a unified context of interpretation.
However, such foreshadowing need not point to the actual conclusion, but can also mislead the reader's anticipations .
The cliffhanger is a special form of prediction .
Examples
One of the earliest and most famous in German literature can be found in the second stanza of the Nibelungenlied :
- Ez wuohs in Buregonden / a vil noble magedîn,
- daz in all countries / not nice mohte sîn,
- Kriemhilt heat: / you were a beautiful wîp.
- around that muosen degne / vil left the lîp.
in New High German:
- It grew up in Burgundy / a very noble girl,
- That in all countries / there couldn't be anything more beautiful
- Her name was Kriemhild: / She became a beautiful woman.
- Many warriors / lost their lives because of you.
Even older, but because it is not a clear example of prediction when presented verbatim, Hildebrand 's statement is from the older Hildebrand's song:
"Welaga nu, waltant got [quad Hiltibrant], wewurt skihit."
in New High German:
"'Well now, governing God,' [said Hildebrand], 'Disaster happens:'"
In view of the fragmentary transmission of this text, the prediction also plays an important role in the reconstruction of the likely outcome of the song.
Examples from New High German literature
Among the multitude of later predictions, those from Kleist's Die Marquise von O ... play a very special role in the structure of the narrative.
Theodor Fontane's novel Cécile offers examples of different but parallel predictions :
“... from the forest one could hear the woodpecker and now and then the cuckoo . But only slowly and sparsely, and when Gordon began to count, he called only once more. "
Cécile to the preacher: "Oh, my friend, let's not try to keep him, we don't keep him for his and my happiness."
The painter Rosa: " God grant that it will end well ."
Individual evidence
- ↑ This word with the meaning "premonition" expresses through the word component shadow (shadow) what the German idiom "great events throw their shadows ahead" says.