The mirror of Cyprianus
The Mirror of Cyprianus is an art fairy tale by Theodor Storm, completed in 1864 .
shape
The fairy tale consists of a frame narrative that includes an internal narrative. It is told like a fairy tale and contains a number of typical fairy tale elements: two brothers who are bound together for life and death, a magician, a magic mirror, an evil stepmother and a good and wise old woman, the wet nurse.
content
Kuno, the count's son , is sick in bed and is looked after by two women, his old nurse and his stepmother , a kind young woman. The nurse tells her that there are not only good stepmothers in this castle and she starts to tell:
A clever and good count once lived in this castle, whose wife was called by everyone "the good countess". She was distressed that she couldn't seem to have children. When the wise magician Cyprianus is wounded and nursed back to health by the countess, a friendship develops between the two. The countess tells the magician about her grief. After his departure, Cyprianus sends her a mirror, in which she should look again and again. But she should know that she cannot divert God's ways and that the mirror must never see a bloodshed, otherwise fate will be directed against the offspring.
From now on, the woman looks in the mirror every day, and one day she sees a fog in the mirror from which a child's face emerges. But only her husband notices that the portrait of child is crying in the mirror. Soon she gives birth to a boy named Kuno, like the stepson of the future countess. Soon after Kuno's birth, the mother dies of an epidemic. The grief is great. A few years later, the count decides to look for a new wife in Vienna.
The woman he brings from Vienna is beautiful, and everyone who sees her has fallen under her spell, except for Kuno and the clever caretaker. A strange colonel named Hager comes to court who pretends to be the cousin of the new countess's former husband. He stays at court and often goes hunting with the count. But one day the count has an accident while hunting wild boar and his widow remains the sole ruler of the castle. In the meantime she has given birth to a son named Wolf. The two half-brothers love each other dearly, even if the colonel tries again and again to drive a wedge between them, and the countess would rather see Kuno dead. She promises Hager that she will become master of the castle if he kills Kuno. By chance he kills Kuno in front of the mirror of Cyprianus, and when his younger brother looks in the mirror one day, the same red spot appears on his chest as his brother's, and he dies too. The old nurse's internal story ends here.
The young stepmother is shocked to discover that the evil countess from history is her own ancestor. Accordingly, her stepson Kuno is also doomed. But when the mirror is brought in as the wet nurse's last hope, the young count gets well again, and he sees the two boys Kuno and Wolf smiling as angels flying to heaven. But the young countess sees a new child's face appear in the fog and decides to name the child, if it turns out to be a boy, a wolf.
expenditure
- The fairy tale was first published in the magazine Der Bazar in 1865 , after the publication in Weber's Illustrirter Zeitung had been rejected in 1864. Shortly afterwards it appeared in its entirety together with Die Regentrude and Bulemanns Haus in the book Drei Märchen .
- Audio book version of the fairy tale, read by Eva Krautwig, with music by Joachim Bernhard Hagen for guitar in D minor, played by Robert Barto. Label Naxos, ISBN 978-3-89816190-9
Web links
Theodor Storm : The mirror of Cyprianus in the Gutenberg-DE project
Individual evidence
- ^ "The Mirror of Cyprianus" (1864). link.springer.com