The strangers

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The Stranger ( English. The Waif Woman ) is a horror story by the Scottish writer Robert Louis Stevenson , which was published posthumously in 1914 "in the tone of a saga " in Scribner's magazine .

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The fisherman Finnward Keelfarer lives with his wife Aud on the island of Frodis Water near Snowfellness . Aud loves Finnward very much. The couple have two children - the boy Eyolf and the girl Asdis. It is not for nothing that Aud is called the light-hearted. Because when she hears of the arrival of a stranger who is said to have brought splendid fabrics, clothes and jewelery in her chests, she immediately goes to the stranger and inspects the valuables. Thorgunna or the wind woman, as the stranger is called, has to disappoint Aud. She is not a trader. Aud does not give up: Since Thorgunna has come by ship from a foreign country, she invites the travelers to her house. When the stranger lives under Finnwards' roof and still doesn't want to give up any of her valuables, the landlady steals a glittering clasp from her at night.

Thorgunna has reached the end of her days. The dark woman shuddered violently when she called for Finnward. Thorgunna wants to be buried in Skalaholt . Asdis is to inherit the treasures from the chests, but the bedding is to be burned. Thorgunna hates Aud, but she also feels sorry for her. Therefore Aud should get the scarlet cloak with silver and the clasp. Finnward promises that everything should happen according to the will of the dying. Thorgunna calls Finnward a weakling, warns him about Aud and dies.

On the funeral procession to Skalaholt, you have to spend the night in Netherness en route. The stingy host there does not entertain the guests. Then the dead Thorgunna goes into the pantry and dines properly for the hungry participants at her funeral. The landlord sees the rebuke of the dead. Everyone eats their fill. On the way home after Thorgunna's burial in Skalaholt, Finnward is afraid of Thorgunna and Aud. Of course, the coward lets his wife talk to him and uses the valuable bedding at home. When Aud also appropriates the other treasures from the chests, the husband points out to her that this is Asdis' inheritance. Aud has no hearing, although she fears Thorgunna very much.

One morning Aud observes her husband from home on the way to his boat. Finnward is shaken by Thorgunna's shiver. While fishing, he gets caught in a storm and is thrown onto a cliff by a wave. Eyolf can only rescue his father dead at risk of death. Stevenson writes that this was Thorgunna's first revenge for Finnward's broken promise. The second will follow immediately.

Aud is in mourning, but the widow looks covetously at a younger man. She still does not want to give Asdis the treasures from the chests. The daughter accuses the mother of stealing the clasp at night.

In the following winter, the laughing Aud can be admired in the company of the Icelanders, hung with strange jewelry from the chests, until the laughter dies away and is replaced by that deadly shaking. Aud dies. Thorgunna appears, admonishes the dead sinner and disappears.

Eyolf and Asdis burn Thorgunna's treasures and chests on the beach.

German-language literature

expenditure

Secondary literature

Web links

English (London: Chatto & Windus , 1916)

annotation

  1. ↑ Edition used.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Reinbold, p. 153, 12. Zvu
  2. ↑ Edition used, p. 7, 2. Zvo
  3. ↑ engl. Scribner's Magazine
  4. ↑ engl. Frodis-water