The marriage smithy

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Achim von Arnim
(1781–1831)

The marriage smithy. Novella from the Memoirs of a Naturalist is the last story by Achim von Arnim , which appeared posthumously in Berlin in 1839.

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Scotland around 1804: The first-person narrator, a certain traveling beetle researcher Robinson from Braunschweig , gets "as a coincidental reporter into a world that is alien to him". In Scotland, the naturalist meets a compatriot, the émigré Martin Rennwagen. The Mechanikus racing car became a bitter opponent of Napoleon during the war in Germany . His parents were killed as a result of the events. In addition, racing cars became penniless in the course of the war. His inventions - a feather kite, a rocket launcher and a submersible - are intended to accelerate the fight against the French enemy. At the Scottish scene of the action, an enemy landing is feared.

Racing car had met his friend, the German Freiherr von Starkader, in Scotland. Von Starkader had been as good as engaged to Aura Luft, a German professor's daughter from G. Aura racing car had previously been relocated. Later, Aura had also separated from the baron and was up and away with a Scottish count. Aura's father encourages the new connection. He hopes the daughter will win over Scottish reviewers for his political writings. The seat of the duke is the place of action. The duke is the father of that handsome young count. The elderly Duke is extremely reluctant to receive gentlemen from Germany. He must fear that the future daughter-in-law Aura will fall head over heels in love with the next newcomer. Aura doesn't believe in marriage. The beautiful young lady articulates this bluntly - much to the chagrin of the ducal family, who would like to keep the future family member captive. But von Starkader does not give up. The baron makes a duel against the count. The Count's mother, that is the Duchess, wants to save her son's life and makes all available firearms unusable. She doesn't quite succeed in doing this, but the seconds expertly ensure that the duelists survive without a scratch.

Robinson only has his bugs in mind. In addition, the gullible stranger lets himself be hitched to the carts of all parties who are fighting their love feuds over Aura. The French do not land. Instead, a ship fails on the coast, and Robinson is very interested in its cargo washed ashore. This is a box with an exquisite collection of beetles that would make the Brunswick known among established naturalists - provided the rightful owner drowned in the shipwreck.

Finally, Arnim offers an extremely questionable happy ending. With one exception, the unmarried people unexpectedly find an acceptable spouse in the Gretna Green smithy during a collective wedding . In doing so, all those willing to marry come to a second, as it were the wrong, blacksmith. With his business acumen, however, he is the right man for forging these purpose marriages. But none of the five couples will be linked by a love marriage, as would actually correspond to the character of the real marriage smith Gretna Green. The natural scientist Lady Gurli, for example, an Indian king's daughter, in desperation after her shipwreck off the Scottish coast, had sworn to marry any man who would bring back the most precious item, the lost beetle collection, reasonably intact. Robinson becomes the happy bridegroom after giving Gurli the "insect stuff" back. A researcher does not marry a researcher out of love, but because of a careless vow. But by chance Gurli gets to the right person. Because the father wants a German son-in-law. Aura steps out of line. “Nothing will come of our marriage”, she gives the newest groom Heinrich Knatschbull a basket and hurries out of Gretna Green in her car. Aura had previously bought the indebted young Knatschbull out of the clutches of his old landlady. The extortionate old woman had dragged Knatschbull in front of the blacksmith.

reception

  • E. Meyen wrote on October 31, 1839 in the Hallische Jahrbücher für deutsche Wissenschaft und Kunst ( Arnold Ruge (Ed.), Ernst Theodor Echtermeyer (Ed.)) That the marriage smithy was one of the author's “weaker productions”.
  • Moering sums up that in the comic story Arnim dealt with the subject of war and suggested marriage as a solution to the conflict.
  • Andermatt examines the “ rogue novel” in detail. Andermatt emphasizes the comedy of the unbelievable “report” that the natural scientist Robinson wrote “ironically and recklessly” in disregard of good taste without any artistic claim. Robinson collects episodes of how he collects beetles, does not correct or evaluate, and includes uncritical narrators in his text. Andermatt calls racing cars “megalomaniac, crazy” and its inventions “slapstick”. But the Duke - also a fool - accepted the inventor into his army of volunteers against Napoleon. The "enigmatic moody" aura stands for the "changeability of the world". Andermatt also goes into details that only become visible on closer inspection. Examples of this are the role of the old duke as a rival to his son, the young count and comments on the bias of the first-person narrator and the racing car. In addition, Aura brings "all of their former admirers under the hood".

literature

  • Michael Andermatt: Stunted life, happiness and apotheosis . The order of the motifs in Achim von Arnim's narrative. 629 pages. Peter Lang, Bern 1996, ISBN 3-906756-15-7

expenditure

Quoted text edition

  • Renate Moering (Ed.): Achim von Arnim. All the stories 1802–1817. Vol. 4, The Forge . S. 882–946 in: Roswitha Burwick (Ed.), Jürgen Knaack (Ed.), Paul Michael Lützeler (Ed.), Renate Moering (Ed.), Ulfert Ricklefs (Ed.), Hermann F. Weiss (Ed.) ): Achim von Arnim. Works in six volumes. 1436 pages. Deutscher Klassiker Verlag Frankfurt am Main 1992 (1st edition), ISBN 3-618-60040-2

Web links

Individual evidence

Source means the quoted text edition

  1. ↑ Source, p. 1413, 11. Zvo
  2. ^ Andermatt, p. 387, 18. Zvo
  3. ^ Andermatt, p. 514, 20. Zvo
  4. ^ Andermatt, p. 389, 10. Zvo
  5. ↑ The father adores Kotzebue and named Gurli after the daughter of Nawab Kaberdar in the play " The Indians in England " .
  6. ^ Eduard Meyen : Achim von Arnim's all works. Published by Wilhelm Grimm. In: Hallisches Jahrbuch für Wissenschaft und Kunst . Digital collections of the University of Cologne , November 1, 1839, p. 2096 , accessed on February 14, 2014 .
  7. ^ Moering, p. 1409, 16. Zvo
  8. ^ Moering, p. 1409, 9. Zvu
  9. ↑ Andermatt, pp. 169, 216, 254, 289, 367, 455, 479, 492, 514, 527
  10. ^ Andermatt, p. 515, 6. Zvo
  11. ↑ Andermatt, p. 515, 8. Zvo and p. 516 above
  12. ↑ Andermatt, p. 389, 12. Zvo
  13. ^ Andermatt, p. 494, 1. Zvo
  14. ↑ Andermatt, p. 219ff.
  15. ↑ Andermatt, p. 220 below
  16. ^ Andermatt, p. 528, 14th Zvu