The gold (Peter Rosegger)

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Peter Rosegger around 1905

The gold is a story by the Austrian writer Peter Rosegger that appeared in August (issue 11) 1904 in the Graz monthly Heimgarten .

content

The trip to Italy of the 50-year-old first-person narrator, an Austrian landowner, from Venice to Naples was a failure. In mid-June back at his castle above the Kaal valley, a delegation from all seven villages in the community called on the lord of the castle. The Strehlhöfinger promises the gentleman a spectacle for the coming evening in a sedate speech.

From a window of his castle the narrator overlooks the country. Below is the valley of the Kaal with its seven villages and above the cone, the highest mountain in the area - probably of volcanic origin, still has its snow cap towards the end of June. That spectacle takes place on the solstice night on the old volcanic cone. It is organized for the lord of the castle by lumberjacks and farm boys from the community. With pitch torches, the Kaal youth whiz down the mountain on their sledges.

The next day, the narrator does not have to search long to find out why the devoted Kaaler offered their master this nocturnal spectacle. The Lord leased the hunt, his only joy, for a full seven years. The farmers ask for termination of the contract because of the damage caused by game. Nothing there! As a wealthy person, the narrator has never seriously cared about the worries and needs of the mountain dwellers. He is also not a local. The castle - an old robber's castle in the forgotten mountain valley - has bought the bachelor of a broken count family.

Three days after the solstice, the streams dry up after an avalanche from Kegelberg. The farmers of the seven villages in the valley drive the cattle from the stables to the mountain pastures. The following day, a mudslide destroyed most of the farms in the Kaal valley. The Strehlhöfinger asks the lord of the castle for help. He does not think of assistance. On the contrary, while looking at the stream of mud and rock flowing down the valley, he had felt a sense of well-being.

In the course of the inspection of the immense damage - also above the castle towards the Kegelberg - the chief forester accompanying the castle owner discovered grains of gold in the brook sand. The narrator immediately buys the land around the Kegelberg from the village, hires miners and allegedly lets dig for quartz and hard coal. When the miners have finished work, the lord of the castle searches for gold on his own in the tunnel. What a miracle - the tunnel walls sparkle golden in the light of the miner's lamp. The next avalanche thunders down from the Kegelberg and buried the tunnel entrance. In the darkness that has fallen, the buried man thinks about it. What a wretched no-good he had been all his life! Why did he forget to be human?

After 64 hours of restless digging, the villagers save their master. He realizes - the gold was actually quartz. From now on, the Lord actively helps to rebuild the devastated farms and sums it up, real gold is mostly not found in the minerals, but in the hearts of people.

reception

According to Rieken, Rosegger wanted to contrast the “egoism of the lord of the castle” with the “unselfishness of the population”. The lord of the castle, initially a model of “ individualization ”, eventually developed “community awareness”.

Rieken observes the motif of being devoured, known from the fairy tale - here from a mountain. The old pagan gods took revenge on the wicked ride of the village youth at the solstice down the mountain. The boys probably ride their sledges with flammable material more for their pleasure than to entertain the lord of the castle. The Strehlhöfinger only interprets the spectacle according to his intention and Rosegger glorifies the nocturnal events.

expenditure

  • How I found the gold . From the writings of a landowner. Communicated by Peter Rosegger In: Heimgarten . tape 28 . Leykam, Graz 1904, p. 797-809 ( archive.org ).
  • The gold . From the writings of a landowner In: Peter Rosegger: The book of novels. Third volume, L. Staackmann. Leipzig 1916, pp. 239-258.
  • How he found the gold . In: Peter Rosegger: Nixnutzig Volk. A gang of passless people . Tredition publisher. Hamburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-8424-1930-8

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Rieken 2016, pp. 100–106