The monastery at Sendomir
The monastery at Sendomir is a framework novella by Franz Grillparzer . It first appeared in 1828 . The narrative, written in 1827/28 and based on a true story as stated in the subtitle, was completely forgotten shortly after its publication and only entered the canon of German narratives towards the beginning of the 20th century .
content
The story begins when two German knights - as messengers on their way "to the court of the warlike Johann Sobiesky " - find accommodation in the monastery of Sendomir to spend the night. There they ask a monk about the year of construction and learn that it has only been there for thirty years. When they ask about the founder of the monastery, they are told an interesting story.
This begins with Count Starschensky meeting Elga, a beautiful young woman, on a visit to Warsaw , who asks him to help her old, sick father. Both are impoverished nobles . Elga's brothers are exiled for an offense against the state. Starschensky helps the family regain a better standard of living and marries the young woman. But her brothers only take advantage of the count. The two then leave the family and move to his estate. Everything seems better that way. His happiness increases when his wife has a child who is just as beautiful as the mother. The way it looks puzzles him, but he doesn't really think about it. After a few years he learns from his manager that sometimes a secret guest visits his castle at night. The count investigates the matter and discovers that his wife has been cheating on him for years with her childhood friend and distant relative Oginsky, who only let her go so that she could have a better and, above all, financially secure life. Now he is sure that he is not the father of the child. The count confronts his wife. He wants to impose on her as a test to kill the child who has grown up through infidelity; then he would spare her. His wife is ready to do this, but the count is disappointed and angry at the same time and kills her. He brings the child to charcoal burners who are supposed to raise it. He himself sells all his goods and founds a monastery near his castle, where he retires as a monk and leads a simple life.
When the monk leaves the knights for a penance mass, it is clear that he himself is Count Starschensky and thus the founder of the monastery.
Captain's version
Gerhart Hauptmann dramatized the novella in 1896 and simply titled it Elga . He rewrote the story in a one-act play. The actual narrative here is a knight's nightmare in the monastery. The knight invites the monk Starschensky to drink wine together and shows him pictures of his family.
The following scenes are dream scenes in which Starschensky is already married to Elga and has a child named Klein Elga. Starschensky finds a picture of Oginsky (Elga's secret lover) in Elga's jewelry box and sees the similarity between Oginsky and Klein Elga. However, his wife denies the relationship with him. The Count brings Oginsky over from Warsaw. A conversation ensues between the count, Elga and Oginsky. For Starschensky, it has been proven that Oginsky is Little Elga's father, so he has the property manager lock him up in the tower and kill him there. Finally he also pulls Elga into the tower room.
Film adaptations
- D 1912: The Sendomir Monastery (Director: Friedrich Fehér )
- S 1920: The Secret of the Monastery (Klostret i Sendomir) (Director: Victor Sjöström )