Midsummer Eve

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Midsummer Eve , and St. John's Night and Midsummer Eve ( Russian Вечер накануне Ивана Купала , Wetscher Nakanune Iwana Kupala ), is the first story of the Russian writer Nikolai Gogol , which was written in 1830 and in February and the same in March years in issues 118 and 119 of Otetschestvennye Sapiski appeared in St. Petersburg without mentioning the author's name . The story was recorded in the first part of the evenings in the hamlet near Dikanka .

action

The first-person narrator from Dikanka tells a supposedly true story that he wants from his grandfather. More than a hundred years ago, the old man lived in a Ukrainian hamlet on the Oposchnyansky highway, not far from Dikanka. At that time people lived in holes in the ground. Huts were built in the hamlet much later.

The Cossack Terent Korsh lived in that settlement with his beautiful daughter Pidorka and their six-year-old son Iwas. Korsh's servant Pjetro Heimatlos and Pidorka fell in love. Some said that poor Pjetro was an orphan. The others wanted to know that Pjetro's parents lived behind the fast Dnieper .

When the lovers kissed, the servant was chased away by his master. It was only thanks to Iwas' pleading that nothing worse happened to Pjetro.

Korsh chose a Pole who had traveled there with a gold-braided skirt as Pidorka's groom.

In his need, poor Pjetro wanted to get gold from the Turks. But a certain Basavryuk talked him out of the long, dangerous journey. It met well. Tomorrow was Midsummer Day . Both wanted to meet at midnight in the Bear Gorge.

So it happened: Basavryuk, a fellow like a bull, appears to be in league with the devil. A witch helps him with his devil's work. When the bracken blooms in the gorge - as it does every year on Midsummer Night - Pjetro has to dig at the spot and actually finds an iron box. To get to the gold in the box, Pjetro first has to cut off the head of Iwas, who is suddenly also present in the gorge. The witch drinks the boy's blood. After two days of deep sleep, Pjetro has two sacks of gold and can now free Pidorka. The couple will not be happy. Pidorka finally finds a last resort against her husband's mental illness. A herb administered by that witch the next Midsummer Night promises healing. It turns out differently. Pjetro, who goes with him into Bear's Gorge, is taken to hell by the devil and Basavryuk, who disappeared for a year, suddenly appears again. Pjetros gold turns into shards. Little Iwas covered in blood, aged a year, appears. Pidorka cannot stand the picture and goes to the Kiev nunnery.

Everyone in the hamlet runs away from Basavryuk. His face bears unmistakable signs. He is not in league with the devil, but evidently the evil one personally.

Adaptations

Orchestral works

Film adaptations

  • 1940, Walt Disney : Fantasia - animated film directed by James Algar .
  • 1969, Ukraine: A film by Yuri Gerassimowitsch Ilyenko (1936–2010) with Larissa Walentinovna Kadotschnikowa (* 1936) and Boris Khmelnitsky .
  • 1979, Ukraine, Kijewnautschfilm (about: Scientific Film Studio Kiev): The Bracken Blossom by Alla Alexejewna Gratschowa (1924–2001).

Used edition

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Nikolai Leonidowitsch Stepanow (1902-1972) in the foreword of the edition used, p. 16 above
  2. ↑ Notes in FEB , pp. 521–528 (Russian)
  3. ↑ Russian Цветок папоротника, Zwetok paporotnika