The fight with the dragon

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Musenalmanach 1799 page 151

The fight with the dragon is a ballad by Friedrich Schiller with the subtitle "Romance". It was created in the summer of 1798 at the same time as The Guarantee and, like this, was first published in the Muses Almanac in 1799.

construction

The ballad consists of 25 stanzas with 12 verses each in quadruped iambs with the rhyme scheme [aabbccddefef].

content

A knight of the Order of St. John on Rhodes considered it his “knight duty” to seek a fight with a dragon that lives in the mountains and makes the path unsafe there. After he has killed him, he has to answer to the Grand Master of the order . He had forbidden such a fight after gradually costing the lives of five knights. The dragon slayer now describes in detail his motives, his careful preparation and the course of the fight. The Grand Master recognizes the valor of the knight, alone

"Mameluk also shows courage,
Obedience is a Christian's jewelry "

Worse than the dragon is

“The stubborn spirit
Who is insolent against discipline,
The sacred bond of order tears,
Because he is the one who destroys the world. "

There is no place in the order for someone who does not restrain his “own will”, but rather “vain glory”. While the people rebelled and the religious beg for mercy, the dragon slayer accepts this saying shamefully and wordlessly.

“He quietly puts the robe away from himself
And kisses the master's stern hand
And goes. He follows him with his look
Then he lovingly calls him back
And says: Embrace me, my son!
You succeeded in the harder fight.
Take this cross: it's the reward
The humility that conquers itself. "

Emergence

The ballad takes up the story of the dragon slayer Dieudonné de Gozon , which Schiller knew from the "Histoire des chevaliers de l'ordre de Malte" (1722) by Abbé Réné-Aubert Vertot. Schiller had contributed a preface to the German-language edition, edited by Friedrich Immanuel Niethammer , “History of the Order of Malta after Vertot” from 1792.

In a letter dated August 21, 98 he reported to Goethe :

"... in the meantime I have made a few dozen rhymes and am currently working on the ballad, whereby I get the entertainment to deal with a certain plastic prudence that the sight of the engravings aroused in me."

On September 4, 1798 he sent Goethe the fight with the dragon together with the guarantee and wrote:

“It should be dear to me if I had hit the Christian-monk-chivalrous spirit of the plot correctly, and united the disparate moments of it in a harmonious whole. The knight's story turned out to be a bit long, but the detail was necessary and it could not be separated.
Would you have the goodness to remind me if you wish something different and send me the manuscript with the messenger girl back. "

Goethe replied on September 5, 1798:

“In the hope of seeing you tomorrow, I write very little. The ballads follow, they both turned out very well. I can't find anything to remember about the Christian dragon, it's very beautiful and functional. "

Web links

Wikisource: Fighting the Dragon  - Sources and full texts