The knight and the maid

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The Knight and the Maid is a traditional German folk song , of which there are several text and song versions .

Text and melody of the song from: Ludwig Erk : The German folk songs with their singing modes , 1843

Clemens Brentano and Achim von Arnim included the text in the first edition in 1805/1808 of their collection of songs, Des Knaben Wunderhorn . Your source was a " flying sheet " printed before 1790 .

In 1855 Hoffmann von Fallersleben published the "Antwerp Songbook 1544 based on the only remaining copy", which contains a version of the song in Dutch. He discovered the book while studying in the Herzog August Library in Wolfenbüttel .

According to Hans Ostwald , journalist and song collector, the ballad has the "right of the first night" ( Jus primae noctis ) as its theme. A rich knight or count sleeps with his maid who accidentally becomes pregnant. She aborts the child and dies. In some versions of the text, the knight also dies a little later out of grief and is buried with his lover in the same grave.

reception

Goethe described the song as "dark, romantic, violent".

In 2012 David Philip Hefti composed “Wunderhorn-Musik. 7 sound images for violin and ensemble. ”The third movement No. 3 is entitled“ The knight and the girl ”.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ferdinand Rieser: Des Knaben Wunderhorn and its sources in the Google book search
  2. ↑ Keverling Busman (ed.): Verdrag en Tractaat van Venlo. Hilversum 1993. p. 236, footnote 3.
  3. ↑ Liederlexikon: A knight plays with his maid; Sheet music from: Schlesische Volkslieder (1841) , volksliederarchiv.de, accessed on June 29, 2020
  4. ↑ Johann Wolfgang Goethe, Review , Lyriktheorie, uniwuppertal.de, accessed on June 29, 2020
  5. ^ Goethe's works. Writings on art, writings on literature, maxims and reflections. Hamburg edition. Vol. 12, 1981
  6. ↑ David Philip Hefti: Wunderhorn-Musik. Naxos