The Royal Bride (ETA Hoffmann)
The King's Bride is an art fairy tale by ETA Hoffmann , which appeared in the eighth section of the fourth volume as the last text in the collection The Serapion Brothers in 1821 by G. Reimer in Berlin.
Résumé
Actually, Miss Ännchen - more precisely: Anna von Zabelthau - has a steady bridegroom; the student Amandus von Nebelstern. Amandus, the only son of a neighboring landowner, is a miserable poet. When Mr. Baron Porphyrio of Ockerodastes aka Daucus Carota the first alias Corduan pointed - that's a "little gnome king" - spoken for, the land lady would still be rather Gnome Queen and gives the students their marching orders. Just in time for the gnome wedding, Ännchen's father - the brilliant Kabbalist Dapsul von Zabelthau - determined what a "deceitful vegetable genom of the lowest sex" Corduanspitz is. King Daucus Carota the First can be relegated to the vegetable patch with a racket and Ännchen gets a well-grown man - her student Amandus.
action
The narrator Vinzenz ( David Ferdinand Koreff ) drew the story from the chronicle of the small village of Dapsulheim. The half-orphan Ännchen cultivates her vegetable patches with devotion on her father's poor property. During such work, the girl takes off a wedding ring from a carrot , puts on the piece of jewelry and temporarily feels a sharp pain in her ring finger. It is strange - the beet slips back into the ground on its own. The beautiful ring cannot be pulled off. That stabbing pain then resurrected prevents that.
The father asks the stars astrologically in his “astronomical tower” . He confides in his daughter that he has been loved by the shy, shy Sylphide Nehahilah (ETA Hoffmann explains: “ Syrian , so much as a pointed nose”) for twelve years . Mr. Papa approves of Ännchen's choice of partner Amandus and plans a double wedding with the daughter. However - this is how the father, who is well versed in dealing with elementals, relativizes - the daughter is missing out on a good match. Judging by the precious ring, a rich, distinguished, finely educated gnome had given her his favor. Ännchen wants to be freed from the magic ring. An attempt by the father in this regard with the mystical file fails.
The gnome Baron Porphyrio - small, yellow and ugly - appears and regards Ännchen as his bride. The baron consists mainly of a head. The limbs are underdeveloped. He doesn't walk like that, but hops back and forth, falls over and flings himself up again. In his entourage there are elegant vegetables with Pan Kapustowicz , Herr von Schwarzrettig , Signor di Broccoli and Monsieur de Roccambolle at the head. The carrot guard follows along with lettuce princes, bean princesses, cucumber farmers, melon princes, cabbage ministers, fennelage and the onion and beet generality. The “chosen bride” sends her Amandus a cry for help in his university town: the student should duel with the rival.
The baron understated. In reality, he is the vegetable king Daucus Carota the first. Ännchen has always had a soft spot for vegetables. Now the royal bride revises her request for help in another letter - marked with "future queen". That's wrong again. The father finds out the truth about the king (see above under "Summary"). A treacherous, malicious and cruel nome king should not get the Ännchen. Dapsul von Zabelthau with his magic arts and the resolute daughter Anna fight unsuccessfully against the royal vegetables. But Amandus steps in. He would like to be court poet of the vegetable king. Daucus Carota demands a test of poetic skills on the spot. Amandus accompanies himself on the guitar during his lecture. The king cannot stand the singing. When the nasty little carrot guy Corduanspitz has to retreat into his soil - Ännchen's vegetable patch - the bride can literally take off the ring at the last moment and slip the carrot over it. Practically by magic, the landlady Ännchen - in between turned yellow and unsightly shrunk - is "pretty as before, well-proportioned and so white"; in a word, Anna becomes desirable again for her Amandus. Anna digs up her bed with the usual verve and accidentally hits Amandus with a spade on the head. From the second magic stroke, the bridegroom finally becomes sensible: He throws all his "confused verbiage" into the fire and is cured of his "poetitis". The couple are getting married. Vincent did not find anything in the Dapsulheimer Chronik about the marriage of Dapsul von Zabelthaus with the Sylphide Nehahilah.
reception
- In 1821 and 1823 Friedrich Gottlob Wetzel and Konrad Schwenck expressed their approval.
- In 1863 Gautier wrote the story "Le Club des hachichins". In it Daucus Carota rises again.
- Georg Ellinger praises the text in 1894.
- In 1906, Hans von Müller claims that this fairy tale is "unpopular".
- Segebrecht, Safranski and von Matt highlight the ironic ending. A bad German poet drives the vegetable king away with a taste of his “skills”.
- Kaiser calls the text enigmatic and counts it among the humorous works of the author. Baudelaire appreciated the comic in the "royal bride". Kafka , Beckett and Dürrenmatt have followed in ETA Hoffmann's footsteps with regard to the grotesque and arabesque . In “ Zettel's Dream ”, Arno Schmidt plays with the sexual symbolism from the story. Paul Gavarni and Bertall created caricatures based on the fairy tale. The subtitle “A fairy tale designed from nature” is meant ironically. Kaiser names works by Alfred Behrmann (Göttingen 1978) and Gisela Vitt-Maucher (1984).
- Kilcher and Burkhard comment on ETA Hoffmann's term “Kabbalist”. This is based less on Paracelsus , but rather on Abbé Montfaucon de Villars '"Le comte de Gabalis ou Entretiens sur les sciences secrètes" (1670) and on Marquis d'Argens' "Lettres cabalistiques" (The Hague 1737–1738) [Translator Friedrich Nicolai : "Kabbalistic letters, or philosophical, historical and critical correspondence from between two Kabbalists different elemental spirits and the hellish Astaroth" (Danzig 1773-1777)], Peter Friederich Arpes "history of Talismannischen Art" (Gotha 1792), Schiller's " visionaries " (1769), Jacques Cazottes “ Le diable amoureux ” (1772), August Grosses “Der Genius” (Halle 1790–1794), Friedrich de la Motte Fouqués “ A Story of the Hangman ” (1810) and “ Undine ” (1811).
See also
- 1872 Jacques Offenbach : Opera: Le roi Carotte . Libretto: Victorien Sardou based on ETA Hoffmann
- 1889 Robert Fuchs : Opera: The royal bride
- 1923 Wilhelm Matthießen : musical fairy tale: The royal bride
- 1987 Reiner Bredemeyer : Radio play music for The King's Bride based on ETA Hoffmann. Director: Karlheinz Liefers .
literature
The first edition in the Serapion Brothers
- The royal bride in: The Serapion Brothers. Collected stories and fairy tales. Published by ETA Hoffmann. Fourth volume. Berlin 1821. Printed and published by G. Reimer. 587 pp.
Used edition
- ETA Hoffmann: The royal bride. A fairy tale designed from nature. S. 1138–1199 in: Wulf Segebrecht (Ed.): ETA Hoffmann: The Serapions Brothers. German classic publisher in paperback. Vol. 28. Frankfurt am Main 2008, ISBN 978-3-618-68028-4 (corresponds to: Vol. 4 in: Wulf Segebrecht (Ed.): "ETA Hoffmann: Complete Works in Seven Volumes", Frankfurt am Main 2001)
Secondary literature
- Peter von Matt : The eyes of the machines. ETA Hoffmann's theory of imagination as a principle of his storytelling . Max Niemeyer Verlag, Tübingen 1971, ISBN 3-484-18018-8 .
- Rüdiger Safranski : ETA Hoffmann. The life of a skeptical fantasist. 2nd Edition. Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2001 (1st edition 1984), ISBN 3-596-14301-2 .
- Gerhard R. Kaiser: ETA Hoffmann. Metzler, Stuttgart 1988, ISBN 3-476-10243-2 . (Metzler Collection; 243; realities on literature)
- Andreas B. Kilcher and Myriam Burkhard: The royal bride. Pp. 325–331 in: Detlef Kremer (Ed.): ETA Hoffmann. Life - work - effect. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-11-018382-5
- Andreas B. Kilcher and Myriam Burkhard: The Elemental Spirit (1821). P. 371–377 in: Detlef Kremer (Ed.): ETA Hoffmann. Life - work - effect. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-11-018382-5
annotation
- ↑ According to Kilcher and Burkhard ( Der Elementargeist (1821). P. 372, 15. Zvu) ETA Hoffmann with the term “Kabbalist” follows the “ Paracelsian Kabbalah” from the book “Liber de nymphis, sylphis, pygmaeis et salamandris et de caeteris spiritibus ”(Basel 1590), known today as the four-element doctrine .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Segebrecht in the edition used, p. 1221, 4. Zvo and p. 1682 above
- ↑ Segebrecht, p. 1643, 1. Zvo
- ↑ French Le Club des hachichins (see also in a slightly different context Club of Hashish Eaters )
- ^ Segebrecht, p. 1643, 14. Zvo
- ^ Kaiser, p. 197 above and p. 9, entry Ellinger
- ^ Kaiser, p. 81, 3rd Zvo and 15th Zvu
- ↑ Segebrecht, p. 1645.
- ↑ Safranski, p. 404, 18. Zvo
- ↑ by Matt, p. 111, 11. Zvo
- ^ Kaiser, p. 133, 15. Zvu
- ^ Kaiser, p. 161, 7th Zvu
- ^ Kaiser, p. 182 middle
- ^ Kaiser, p. 138, 10. Zvo
- ^ Kaiser, p. 174, 6th Zvu
- ^ Kaiser, p. 195, 13. Zvo
- ^ Kaiser, p. 81, 7. Zvo
- ^ Kaiser, p. 86 middle
- ↑ Kilcher and Burkhard, pp. 325, 326
- ^ French Abbé Montfaucon de Villars
- ↑ eng. Comte de Gabalis
- ↑ Segebrecht in the edition used, p. 1221 above
Web links
- The royal bride at Zeno.org .
- The royal bride in the Gutenberg-DE project
- Online audio text in German: free audiobook at LibriVox