The ghosts at Mummelsee
Die Geister am Mummelsee is a ballad by Eduard Mörike from 1829, the object of which is observing the mermaids at Mummelsee .
Content and interpretation
The ballad begins with the following verses:
From the mountain, what comes down there
so splendidly at midnight with torches?
Is it still possible to dance or celebrate?
The songs sound so lively to me.
Oh no!
So say what can it be?
The ballad, located in the Black Forest , was in the first version of the fairy tale play "The Last King of Orplid". There it was a dialogue between two fairy children who share their observations and feelings. The dialogue turned into a self-talk, the questioner and the respondent are one person. In the course of the poem, the events and the observer are brought closer and closer together. This makes it clear that it is not really about the ghost train, but about the fascination it exerts on the observer, who thereby lets himself be fully drawn into the action. This is typical of the black side of romance . The danger does not come from outside, but one's own belief in the supernatural can lead to the observer completely falling for the demonic. This sinking into the ghostly is also made clear by the situation at the lake. In romanticism, water stands for depth, sinking, darkness and ultimately death.
Dubbing
The ballad was set to music by Hugo Wolf .
literature
- Lydia Girlinger: The ghosts at Mummelsee . In: Rupert Hirschenauer, Albrecht Weber (Ed.): Paths to the poem 2. Paths to the ballad. Munich and Zurich 1964, p. 289ff.
- Karl Moritz: German ballads. Analyzes for German lessons. Paderborn 1972, ISBN 3-506-72814-8
- Marianne Wünsch: Conceptions of the person and their psyche in literature from the Goethe era to early realism . In: Hans Krah: Realism. 1850-1890. Approaches to a literary epoch , Kiel 2007, p. 121ff.
- Eduard Möricke: The ghosts at Mummelsee . In: Badisches Sagen-Buch : A collection of the most beautiful sagas, stories, fairy tales and legends of the Badisches Land from written documents, the mouths of the people and the poets. Volume 2. pp. 99f. Published by August Schnezler, Creuzbauer and Kasper, Karlsruhe, 1848. Digital full-text edition on Wikisource