The Hexameron of Rosenhain

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The Hexameron von Rosenhain is a collection of stories by Christoph Martin Wieland . The stories were written between January 1802 and January 1803, were published in magazines in 1803/04 and in book form in 1805. The cycle consists of three fairy tales , a novella and two anecdotes . The common theme of the stories is friendship and love (true and false). All are characterized by the authorial and gently ironic narrative style typical of Wieland . As role models for the background story to Giovanni Boccaccio's Decameron , the Heptameron of Margaret of Navarre and Goethe's Conversations of German Emigrants apply.

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Preliminary report by an unnamed

In this preface, the narrator establishes an editor's fiction : He claims to have received the stories in a manuscript. In addition, the framework story is reproduced: A “select company of amiable and educated people of both sexes” lives together for several weeks in the castle of the fictional village of Rosenhain. To pass the time, they meet in the evening to tell each other stories in a previously drawn order. They agree to refrain from overly moralizing stories.

Narcissus and Narcissa

A young man and a girl, both equally spoiled and in love with themselves, should be cured of their bad qualities by their guardian spirits. The guardian spirits induce the youth to travel to the girl's homeland so that the two get to know each other and fall in love. At first both are reluctant to admit and confess their feelings, but ultimately love overcomes their pride.

Daphnidion. A Milesian fairy tale

The youth Phöbidas from Thessaly meets the beautiful nymph Daphnidion while hunting for birds, but she flees from him. He follows her into a grotto, where she disappears and the priestess Demonassa sits in her place. She tells Phöbidas that Daphnidion is her niece and is under her protection. He asks to be able to meet Daphnidion again. Demonassa offers him that he can either see her, or talk to her, or touch her, but not perceive her with several senses. He chooses the touch, but when he tries to grab her by the hip, it disappears and he has to leave the cave.

He turns to the magician Hippalector, who is planning a kidnapping: he and Phöbidas want to appear at a party in the form of a young girl and her mother. Phöbidas is supposed to steal a ring from Daphnidion while dancing, which protects her against sorcery. Demonassa, however, suspects the deception and exchanges the figure of her niece for that of a sturdy farmer's daughter, who now tries in vain to steal the ring from Phöbidas. In the fight for the ring, both transform themselves back into their real form, and Phoebidas is forever banned from the area ruled by Demonassa.

The disenchantment

The young Rosalie von Eschenbach has many admirers, including the knight Alberich, a womanizer who is after Rosalie's great inheritance and who believes he will have an easy time with the young, inexperienced Rosalie. Hulderich is also in love with her, the son of a farmer who lives on the lands of Rosalie's rich aunt. Rosalie is constantly reading knight and fairy stories and one day expresses the desire to enter the land of fairies herself. A fairy fulfills this wish, she comes to a paradisiacal land, where she also meets Alberich, for whom she has developed feelings by now. The fairy enchants Rosalie so that her beauty is disfigured by scars when she returns. On the same day, her aunt loses a large part of her fortune to the bankruptcy of a trading house. Alberich is no longer applying for Rosalie, since she is now neither beautiful nor rich, Hulderich, however, does not mind the scars.

During the night a fire breaks out in the castle, Alberich escapes, and Hulderich saves Rosalie's aunt at the risk of his own life. Rosalie now realizes that she was blinded by Alberich and that Hulderich is much more courageous and loyal. Because of his shyness, she just hasn't noticed him so far, and he's not “by birth”, that is, from nobility. The fairy now appears at Rosalie, her aunt, Hulderich and his father to explain that she caused Rosalie's scars and the loss of her fortune, because this was the only way she could bring Rosalie and Hulderich closer together. She undoes both, and Hulderich and Rosalie can be happy together.

The untitled novella

Don Lope Moscoso and his wife Dona Pelaja, two impoverished Spanish country nobles, have two children: Don Manuel and his twin sister Galora. A wealthy relative wants to appoint Don Manuel as his heir as soon as he is an adult. Should Don Manuel die without any descendants of his own, a distant relative named Don Antonio should receive the inheritance so that it can be passed on in the male line.

The twins get smallpox and Don Manuel dies. In order to retain the right to the inheritance, however, the parents claim that his sister Galora has died and henceforth raise Galora as a boy. In the eyes of the public, she is developing into a respected young man. After the death of his / her parents he / she wants to get a “man of upbringing, way of life and knowledge of the world” as a mentor, and ends up with Don Antonio, of all people, who comes to Don Manuel's / Galora's court under the false name Alonso. She falls in love with him.

Shortly afterwards, a young cousin Galora named Dona Rosa is taken to the court, who is to be brought up there. She initially hopes to become Don Manuel's wife, but then falls in love with Alonso / Antonio and realizes that Don Manuel is actually a woman. Don Manuel / Galora is increasingly hated their pretense. Since she also believes that she cannot hope for Alonso, she walks into his room at night, now in women's clothes for the first time, and confesses everything to him. Alonso then confesses to her that she is actually Antonio, her rival for the inheritance. The next day Galora leaves the court, goes to a monastery and leaves Antonio to her rival Dona Rosa.

At the end, the story returns to the main plot: The friends in Rosenhain discuss whether the rather harmless end of the story is plausible, or whether a tragic ending in which Galora would have killed Antonio and Dona Rosa, then himself, would have been more appropriate.

Friendship and love put to the test

The reckless, happy Selinde and the calm, clever Klarisse grow up as best friends. When they are old enough, their parents choose husbands for them, namely Mondor and Raimund, who are also close friends despite their differences. After Mondor with Selinde and Raimund with Klarisse have been married for a while and the first magic of being in love has evaporated, the men feel more and more drawn to the other's wife. Since the story takes place in a German province occupied by France shortly after the French Revolution, the divorce was legalized shortly before. The four friends decide to divorce and swap spouses. In the following year, however, they notice that they are happier with their original partners in the long term if they do not place too high demands on each other and adapt to the spouse's peculiarities. So there is a "return trade" and all four become happy with their original partners.

Love without passion

The next evening a new guest joins the company in Rosenhain, the Baron von Werdenberg. He tells the following story: The Count von Falkenberg comes on a trip through a small town where a fair is taking place. He meets a lady who buys an entire shop empty and distributes everything among the poor population. She can't get out of his head and a few days later he meets her again in another city. He learns that her name is Julie von Haldenstein and that she is very rich. She invites the count and tells him that she will probably never marry because she would never know whether she would be loved for her money or for her own sake. The count, on the other hand, is too proud to marry a woman who is richer than he is. The two realize that they think alike about many things and could be good friends.

In W., where Julie von Haldenstein lives with her old, sick uncle, a close friendship develops between her and the count. The count notes that he is becoming more and more in love with Julie, which he does not want to admit in order not to contradict his principle of not entering into a “money marriage”. Julie notices his passion, and after she learns that he has "knocked out one of the richest parties in the country", she is convinced of his integrity and wants to marry him - not out of passion, but out of trust in the deep spiritual harmony between the count and yourself.

In the end, the Baron von Werdenberg admits that he told his own story and that Nadine von Thalheim, who was also present and told a story the day before, is actually Julie von Haldenstein.

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