The boy in the moor
The boy in the moor is a ballad by Annette von Droste-Hülshoff , which deals with the relationship between man and nature.
Lore
The ballad Der Knabe im Moor first appeared on February 16, 1842 in Morgenblatt No. 40. Then it was printed as the last piece in the collection of poems by Annette von Droste-Hülshoff in the section Heidebilder in 1844 . This means that Der Knabe im Moor is not part of the other ballads in the volume, but rather, for thematic reasons, it is placed in a part of the book that deals with the interaction between man and nature. The manuscript has three different headings: In the Moor , The Child and finally The Boy in the Moor . It can also be seen from this that in the poem it is not the scene and also not the person that is in the center of consideration, but rather the person in his environment.
Form and structure
The ballad consists of six stanzas of eight verses each . The stanzas have the rhyme scheme throughout [ababccab]what shows the boy's restlessness and agitation. Many verses begin with "This is ..." or "There ...", which creates a feeling of immediacy and experience. Anaphorically used is also the "Voran ...", which also shows immediacy and the urge to move forward. The fact that the ballad, with the exception of the last two verses , is written in the present tense supports this impression.
Content and interpretation
In the ballad The boy in the bog is about a boy who in the dark through the mud moves while considering him appearing ghost figures in panic device. In the end, however, he sees light and has escaped the moor.
In the first stanza the situation is presented, the creepy moor with its ghostly fumes and ghostly noises. The first verse reads: “Oh, it's scary to walk over the moor” (v.1). Only the second stanza reveals who it is so gruesome for: A boy runs through the moor and the things he sees and hears lead him to believe all kinds of ghostly apparitions. So he believes z. B. to see a “digger” (v.13) or “the unfortunate spinner ” (v.22) and other things , and he hears a “ghostly melody” (v.29) with every step under his soles. The tension rises with every stanza, the boy runs faster and faster until the ballad reaches its climax in the fifth stanza: the child jumps away from the sheer shock of the lamentation of the "damned Margret" (v.35). But a misstep in the bog can be dangerous. According to the text, only a guardian angel can save a child from death. In the sixth stanza the tension drops again. The boy escapes happily from the moor, already sees a lamp flickering at home (v.43) and looks back, knowing full well that he has been saved. “Oh, it was gruesome in the heather ”, the text sums up.
Adaptations
- Der Knabe im Moor 2008 Computer animation in silhouette style by students at the Stuttgart Media University , duration: 4 minutes, loan from media centers in Baden-Württemberg.
- Michael Starke Der Knabe im Moor for mixed a-cappella choir (2011)
- Sturmpercht , The Boy in the Moor . Neofolk, appeared on the album Geister im Waldgebirg (2006).
- Illustration: Reinhard Michl : The boy in the moor . Berlin. 2010.
Source and literature
- Annette von Droste-Hülshoff: The boy in the moor, in: Deutsche Balladen, ed. v. Hartmut Laufhütte , Stuttgart 2000.
- Hermann Kunisch : Annette von Droste-Hülshoff. Der Knabe im Moor, in: Ways to the poem 2. Ways to the ballade, ed. v. Rupert Hirschenauer and Albrecht Weber, Munich and Zurich 1964.
