The Hunter of Fall (novel)

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The Hunter of Fall is a novel by the German writer Ludwig Ganghofer published in 1883. The homeland novel about love and poaching takes place in the Isarwinkel .

content

In the prologue, the Meier farmer's farm in Lenggries burns down on a winter night. The young farmer's son Lenzl can only save his little sister Modei from the flames; the parents and the court are a victim of the flames.

About twenty years later, the hunter Friedl goes on a hunt with the summer holiday enthusiast Benno Harlander from the hamlet Fall , two hours up the Isar from Lenggries. On the way they talk about the Huisenblasi, a good-for-nothing who is suspected of being a poacher . They meet Hies, a hunting assistant who is on the trail of a notorious poacher whom the hunters have named Neunnägel because his shoe kicks show nine nails.

You reach the alpine hut , on the Modei, now a young, good-looking woman who works as a dairymaid. Friedl is very fond of her and offers her to bring her two-year-old child, whom she has to look after in the valley, to live with his mother. She hesitates. It is agreed that Benno should spend the night in Modei's haystack, while Friedl wants to stay in the hunting lodge located a little higher up. Modei's brother Lenzl helps her with the work on the alpine pasture, he is mentally deranged.

Friedl explains the tragic story of the siblings to Benno: After losing the parents and the farm, Modei was able to spend the first years of childhood with foster parents. When these died, she had to work as a cattle keeper and landlady at an early age. Lenzl was (by modern standards) severely traumatized by the night of the fire . Liesei, a girl from the village, had a lot of fun making eyes on the mentally retarded girl, who reacted with a foolish infatuation. But at the church fair she expelled him, her boyfriend beat Lenzl badly. The dance floor collapsed at the following church festival dance, and Liesei and her friend died. Lenzl then fell into its current state of derision and stayed with Modei as a guardian.

Before he leaves, Friedl researches Modei to see if she knows anything about the poacher Neunnägel. A dispute ensues in which Friedl curses the poachers and Modei protects them, since they are driven by a passion for hunting. As soon as Friedl has left, Huisenblasi enters the Alm. He has had a comfortable affair with Modei for years, which he comes to when he likes it. Lenzl notices that Blasi's shoes are studded with nine nails, which Blasi dismisses as a coincidence. Blasi explains to Modei that he must not confess to her and their child until his father has handed over the farm to him. Rather, he should now marry someone else and Modei must therefore confirm in writing that she has no paternity claims against him. Modei signs, but her Blasi is repugnant from then on.

The next morning Friedl picks Benno up to go hunting. They shoot a billy goat and while looking for the game they come across another hunter, Anderl, from whom Friedl unceremoniously buys his abused dog . Thanks to the dog's intuition, they find the ram that has been shot and take him to the hunting lodge. There Anderl reports on Blasi's planned wedding. Anderl and Benno bring the buck down into the valley while Friedl does his hunting duty and tries to cheer up Modei.

Friedl learns from Lenzl that Blasi must be the new nails he is looking for. Friedl proposes to Modei, which Modei refuses because she is not good enough for him and only brings him shame and misfortune with her child. But she agrees to take her child up with Friedl's mother; the stubborn Friedl hopes to change her mind in the long term.

Benno Harlander organizes a shooting in the case; the sight of the hated Huisenblasi causes Friedl to miss. He goes home, where Modei's child is already waiting for him. Suddenly he feels the need to see Modei and to carry the child to the mountain pasture for her. He climbs up, she reacts enthusiastically and Friedl sings Gstanzl and plays the zither for Modei and her guests. A shot rang out from the mountains; Friedl immediately understands that Blasi has used the favorable opportunity to know all the hunters and foresters at the price shooting to go poaching. Friedl finds a trail of blood and is hit in the cheek by another rifle shot in the forest without being able to recognize the shooter.

Modei hears the shots and becomes alarmed. Blasi flees from the hunter in the alpine hut and demands that Modei hide him. She barely manages to remove the cartridge from Blasi's rifle when Friedl reaches the hut. The hunter and poacher meet face to face: Blasi pulls the trigger, but in vain for lack of ammunition. Friedl says Modei is in league with Blasi and has carefully hidden him, and out of sheer horror, he cannot shoot. Blasi seeks the distance, while Friedl, resignedly, makes his way down to the valley with Modei's sleeping child.

On the way, he is surprisingly hit by falling boulders on a steep rocky spot, killing his dog and injuring his foot. But he manages to drag the child safely to his mother in the valley. Injured and depressed , Friedl lies in bed and confides in Benno. This convinces him that he did not act wrong and that Modei might not be in league with Blasi.

Modei on the Alm is also suffering from the situation. Her brother Lenzl tries to act as a mediator and sets out on the long journey to Friedl's supposed new location in order to get him to talk. On the way back he met Friedl in his mother's house in Fall and told him that Modei was seriously ill and that he had to get her medication from the doctor in Lenggries. Concerned about Modei, Friedl made his way to the Alm despite his injury - his swollen foot was only covered with a felt slipper. There Blasi appeared again, but was rejected by Modei. He casually admits to having thrown the boulder at Friedl and tries to rape her , but is stopped at the last moment by Lenzl returning home and tries to escape.

The siblings happily recognize that Lenzl has regained his sanity. The hunter Hies is on the trail of a deer , while Friedl limps to the Modeis alpine pasture. He realizes that she is healthy, Lenzl's cunning hint of Modei's supposed illness is cleared up, as is Modei's disarming of the Blasi - and Friedl and Modei finally come together.

While Hies meet on the trail of deer Blasi, device happens to be Lenzl to the in search of a lost Kuhschelle had gone off. Lenzl and Blasi meet on a steep path, unhappy both fall into the depths. Blasi dies immediately while Hies fetches Friedl to rescue the badly wounded Lenzl; together they take him to the valley, where he succumbs to his injuries, happy and grateful for his regained clarity and the happiness of his sister.

background

The story takes place in the early summer of 1881, shortly before the time of its creation. The area is located in the Isarwinkel above Lenggries near Fall (Lenggries) , i.e. in the mountains around today's Sylvenstein reservoir . The landscape is portrayed as it really exists.

Language and style

The work is written in written German. The dialogues of the dairy women, hunters and poachers are kept in a softened form of the Bavarian dialect:

"What is it, Gori?" Said Monika. “Don't pluck under the table at all times! Put it up, the guitars, and play a little ebbs! And you have to sing! It'll be fun afterwards! ""

- Chapter 8, page 150 of the Kindle version

The classic triangular story combines elements of romanticism (such as the traumatically caused and then abruptly cured mental illness or the horror story of the enchanted alpine pasture, which the dairymen tell each other in chapter 10) with realism , in which the living and working conditions of ordinary people are unsentimental are portrayed.

The thoroughly philanthropic and kind-hearted title character Friedl is one-dimensional in character and simply formed, thus promoting the allegation of triviality , which Ganghofer experienced during his lifetime. On the other hand, Friedl's unconditional love for Modei also requires a very liberal view of morals, if Friedl is not bothered by Modei's illegitimate relationship with Blasi, or by someone else's illegitimate child, to whom he willingly wants to be the father. This attitude is in contrast to the conservative moral concepts that prevailed in the conventional literature of that time and which are still in the genre of the homeland novel to this day. They point to Ganghofer's own liberal and tolerant attitude.

The comic secondary characters such as the overweight border policeman or the maddened old maid Punkl also contributed to the success of the work.

Origin and reception

The Hunter of Fall was Ganghofer's first novel and established his fame and prosperity as a writer.

The novel was filmed several times. The first film was made during Ganghofer's lifetime:

Some of the films deviate quite far from the content of the novel.

Work editions

Ludwig Ganghofer's works have not been protected under German copyright law since the 70th anniversary of his death in 1990. Therefore, several inexpensive print editions and electronic versions are offered.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ May 1881 is written on the victory table for hunting shooting in chapter 8.
  2. ^ Peter Nusser: Trivialliteratur, ISBN 978-3476102621 , Stuttgart: Metzler, 1991.
  3. ↑ Gerd Thumser: Ludwig Ganghofer - Alpenkönig and Kinofreund, ISBN 978-3931680466 , Munich: Bachmaier, 2005.