The first brandy burner

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Lev Tolstoy
portrayed by Ilya Repin in 1887

The first brandy burner , also How the devil earned the bread slices , How the devil earned a chunk of bread and How the devil earned the bread roll ( Russian Как чертенок краюшку выкупал , Kak chertenok kraiuschku wykupal , that in Tolstoy ) It was written in the late winter of 1886 and was published in the same year by the St. Petersburg book publisher Posrednik . The author took the motif from the legends of the Belarusians and the Nizhny Novgorod Tatars . In 1982 the text in Vol. 10 Powesti and Stories 1872–1886 of the 22-volume Tolstoy edition was published by the publishing house for artistic literature in Moscow .

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The first brandy burner was the devil. He once had the order from the devil to coax strong curses from someone. So the devil stole breakfast bread from a plowing farmer, but ended up at the wrong address. When the farmer wanted to have breakfast and could not find the piece of bread under his caftan, he was satisfied with the saying that the thief “must have needed it”, contented himself with fresh water and plowed on. The devil was very angry about this, but gave the subordinate devil a second attempt on the new topic before the obligatory punishment - sprinkling with holy water -: People should sin with bread.

Said and done. The devil costumed himself as a do- gooder and taught the poor peasants to sow and harvest grain in the swamp in a dry year. In the following summer - it got rainy - the devil taught the farmers how to grow grain on the mountain. After both successful harvests, bread grain was in abundance. Then the devil taught the careless peasants how to make brandy from grain. Lo and behold - the high devil was extremely satisfied with the devil's work of his subject. After the third glass of brandy, the drunken peasants grunted like pigs.

German-language editions

  • The first brandy burner . Pp. 67–71 in Leo N. Tolstoi: Ein Verbbander. Stories. Translated from the Russian by Wilhelm Goldschmidt Reclam, Leipzig 1960 ( RUB 8110, edition used)
  • How the devil deserved the sandwiches. German by Arthur Luther . Pp. 164–167 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)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Russian Посредник (издательство), translated: Mediator
  2. ↑ History of the edition (Russian, Примечания)
  3. ↑ Russian Л.Н. Толстой. Собрание сочинений в 22 томах, Vol. 10
  4. ↑ Edition used, p. 68, 6. Zvo