The fourth king

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The fourth king is the hero of a pious legend . In the Christian, especially in the Catholic tradition, the “ Three Wise Men ” usually appear in threes. A “fourth king” first left his literary mark in the short story The Story of the Other Wise Man (1892) by the American theologian and writer Henry van Dyke . The version of the legend that the writer Edzard Schaper embedded in his novel The Fourth King in 1961 has become known in the German-speaking world .

action

In the two literary versions of this legend, the van Dykes and the Schapers, the fourth king - like the three kings of the Catholic tradition - sets out at the time of the birth of the Savior to pay homage to him. However, he only reached his goal after three decades, giving up the gifts he had originally brought with him for the newborn king for works of mercy. He comes just in time to see the crucified one on Golgotha.

Edzard Schaper's novel and legend of the fourth king

Edzard Schaper was sentenced to death by Hitler and Stalin . When he and his family fled to Sweden via Finland in 1944, the Swedish State Immigration Commission suspected him of being a double agent, whereupon he was interned in a camp by the secret Swedish state police, the SÄPO (Säkerhetspolisen). The novel is based on these borderline experiences of displacement, flight and imprisonment and reflects them in the symbol of the fourth king. “The legend of the fourth king” describes - in the words of the Schaper biographer Uwe Wolff - “an experience of the passion”: A young Russian king sets off with his horse Vanjka on the long journey to Bethlehem to worship the divine child in the manger. On the way he suffers many strokes of fate and only reaches his destination after 30 years of detour.

The first edition of Schaper's novel The Fourth King was published by Jakob Hegner in 1961 ; the last edition so far was printed in 1977. The "Legend of the Fourth King" contained therein was printed separately in 1964 with illustrations by Celestino Piatti and developed into a long-seller .

Motif story

The motif of persistently pursuing a lofty goal, who finally arrives in time despite years of delay, is also found in Michael Ende's parable of the turtle " Tranquilla Trampeltreu ", which is not the coronation of the king of animals, but that of the successor appears. The motif of the unsuspecting, who gives away his wealth for apparently inferior possessions, but instead wins the salvation of the soul in freedom, which is connected with the lack of property, can also be found in folk tales, for example in “ Hans im Glück ” in Grimm's fairy tales . The references of this legend to the Christ legends by Selma Lagerlöf were made soon after the publication of Schaper's version, as reference is also made to similarities to Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's story The Little Prince .

analysis

The Swiss columnist Manfred Papst calls the story of the fourth king "a timeless legend (...) That it is regularly settled in the depths of Russian tradition says enough." Whether Edzard Schaper actually used an old Russian template is by no means secured, even if the textbook author and religious educator Hubertus Halbfas claims: "The legend of the fourth king is of Russian origin." It is probably not, as Uwe Wolff thinks, Schaper's "own creation" According to the sources, it is more likely that Schaper the little story The Story of the Other Wise Man (German: The fourth sage ) by Henry van Dyke (1852-1933) knew. For Schaper, however, this legend gains the weight of an encrypted autobiography, as Wolff points out.

Despite the unmistakable similarities to van Dyke's version of the story, Schaper's legend takes on a new quality. Van Dyke's fourth magician finds forgiveness, comfort and redemption at the end of hearing Jesus say, "Verily I say unto thee, inasmuch as thou hast done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, thou hast done it unto me." (Matthew 25:40). Not so Schaper, who does not end the life and story of his hero with a pious, treatise-like ending, but with a question and a request for forgiveness, which is neither answered nor granted in the legend as in the novel: The fourth king is dying on Golgotha ​​under the cross of Christ and whispers the words: "But my heart, Lord, my heart ... and your heart ... Our hearts, do you accept them?"

Adaptations of Schaper's legend

"The legend will live on in school books when everything about me has long been forgotten," wrote Edzard Schaper while writing it. The reception confirms this self-assessment. The “Legend of the Fourth King” can be found in the widespread school books by Hubertus Halbfas, and it was illustrated as a children's book by Ivan Gantschev and used by Ulrich Gasser as a template for an oratorio (world premiere in 1991). Peter von Gunten filmed it while the author was still alive. The playwright and lyric poet Manfred Grüttgen wrote a stage adaptation under the title The 5th King. Solo for an actor . Here the story of the Fourth King is told from the point of view of his servant and confidante, who in the course of the journey underwent an (inner) change to the “5th König “learns. In Michel Tournier's novel "The kings of the east" is four kings mentioned, of which the fourth comes too late to Bethlehem.

Book editions

  • Henry van Dyke: The fourth sage . German from Tilde von Eiff. Ogham, Stuttgart 1984, ISBN 3-88455-020-9 .
  • Edzard Schaper: The fourth king. A novel . Hegner, Cologne 1961; Artemis and Winkler, Zurich, 8 August 1977, ISBN 3-7608-0964-2 .
  • Edzard Schaper: The legend of the fourth king . With drawings by Celestino Piatti . Hegner, Cologne 1964; Bibliographisches Institut, Mannheim 2012, ISBN 978-3-411-16012-9 .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Uwe Wolff: The fourth king is alive! , P. 220 ff.
  2. ↑ a b Manfred Papst: The fourth king. Notes on a pious legend . In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung on Sunday, December 19, 2010.
  3. ↑ See E. Lieb on amazon.de: customer reviews
  4. ↑ Hubertus Halbfas. The fourth king . In: Religious Education in Primary School. Teacher's Manual Volume 3. Patmos, Düsseldorf 1985, p. 448.
  5. ↑ Uwe Wolff: The fourth king is alive! , Basel 2012, p. 378.
  6. ↑ Uwe Wolff: The fourth king is alive! , P. 348
  7. ↑ quoted from Henry Van Dyke: The Story of the Other Wise Man in Project Gutenberg ( currently usually not available for users from Germany )
  8. ^ Edzard Schaper, letter of April 6, 1961 to Albert Carlen. Quoted from: Uwe Wolff: The fourth king is alive! , P. 350
  9. ^ Hubertus Halbfas: Religious book for the 3rd school year . Patmos, Düsseldorf 1985, pp. 73f.
  10. ↑ Edzard Schaper / Ivan Gantschev: The legend of the fourth king . 22nd edition: Patmos, Düsseldorf 2001.
  11. ↑ Ulrich Gasser: The fourth king . Oratorio based on the legend by Edzard Schaper. Thurgauer Tagblatt, Weinfelden 1991.
  12. ↑ Peter von Gunten / Edzard Schaper: The fourth king . Original version: colored, 16 mm, 53 minutes. Distribution Zoom, 1983, The Fourth King in the Internet Movie Database .
  13. ↑ a b Manfred Grüttgen: The 5th King and other theater texts. Make a book publisher, Neukirchen 2007.