The servant Jemeljan and the empty drum

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Illustration to the story
The servant Jemeljan and the empty drum .
Illustrator: Michael Sevier (1916)

The servant Yemelyan and the empty drum , also the servant Yemelyan and the hollow drum ( Russian Работник Емельян и пустой барабан , Rabotnik Yemelyan i pustoi Baraban ) is an anti-war story in tale shape of Tolstoy , the 1886 - as processing of Dmitri Sadownikows 1884 in Saint Petersburg published Samara fairy tale The Empty Drum - was written and published in Geneva in 1891 and in England in 1899 . The Russian censorship allowed the anti-militarist text to be printed in 1906 by the St. Petersburg publishing house Posrednik . In 1982 the text in the 4th reader of the 10th volume Powesti und Erzählungen 1872–1886 came out in the 22-volume Tolstoy edition in the publishing house for artistic literature in Moscow .

content

The farmer Jemeljan works as a farmhand for another farmer in the field. There comes a virgin on the way. The beautiful asks the bachelor why he is not getting married. After the maiden has quite vigorously dispelled all of Jemeljan's excuses, they get married. The couple move into the young woman's house on the outskirts. The governor rides by and desires the beautiful woman. But this is satisfied with his farmer.

The governor does not give up. Some subordinates have to come up with work for Jemeljan that will kill him as quickly as possible. Then the lord would have the widowed beauty for himself. But Jemeljan cannot be killed. At the latest, when the servants come up with the first almost unsolvable work, it dawns on the reader - Jemeljan has married a good fairy. At least she can do magic. The solution to the very last task also comes down to magic, behind which the young woman is behind.

Jemeljan is supposed to get something from somewhere. Ingeniously thought out: no matter what Jemeljan brings - the governor can reject what is brought as undesirable, as agreed, have the bearer beheaded and has the young widow all to himself. But it turns out differently. When Jemeljan brings the governor a drum and this is the wrong item, the governor triumphs and takes Jemeljan's wife. Jemeljan says - well, if the drum isn't the right one, then I have to break it. At the first blow of Jemeljan, all of the governor's soldiers come and await the drummer's orders. But Emelyan throws the drum away after smashing the musical instrument. The soldiers diverge. The governor admits defeat and Jemeljan receives his wife back. From then on, the couple lived in their little house, undisturbed in happiness.

German-language editions

  • The servant Jemeljan and the empty drum. German by Arthur Luther . Pp. 105–114 in: Gisela Drohla (Ed.): Leo N. Tolstoj. All the stories. Fifth volume. Insel, Frankfurt am Main 1961 (2nd edition of the edition in eight volumes 1982, edition used)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Russian Посредник (издательство), translated: Mediator
  2. ↑ Lidija Opulskaja : comment on the text at RVB.ru; see also Drohla in vol. 8 of the edition used, p. 276, 3rd entry
  3. ↑ Russian Л.Н. Толстой. Собрание сочинений в 22 томах, Vol. 10
  4. ↑ see the fairy tale researcher Alexander Afanassjew : Go to I-don't-know-where, bring I- don't -know-what (212-215, V112), Russian Пойди туда, не знаю куда, принеси то, не знаю что - Poid tuda, ne snaiu kuda, prinessi to, ne snaiu tschto