The forest battle
The forest battle is a novel by Werner Helwig . The theme is based on the Irish saga Macha Mong Ruad .
content
The beautiful orphan girl living with his stepfatherFiona, whom all men pursue and whom she always evades, penetrates the forest hiding place of three bachelors who have vowed never to admit a woman. She is being interrogated by them; At the same time, however, Fiona interrogates the three men who are looking for her father in a riddle. Finally, she conjures up the unknown father with strange rites. This appears as the ghost head. He was a notorious robber and tells his life story, where it turns out that Fiona is his daughter and the three men are their brothers. When the villagers want to bring back the Fiona they are courting, a battle breaks out between their brothers and them. This “forest battle”, which is fought like a duel with various means, is won by her brothers. The book ends with a lament by the village poet Dylan, who, along with the other persecutors, belongs to Fiona's worshipers and in this way takes comfort in the painful loss.
structure
The novel is divided into 4 chapters, the depictions of which correspond to the times of day and seasons; they are:
- The first chapter represents the evening and autumn
- The second chapter represents midnight and winter
- The third chapter depicts sunrise and spring
- The fourth chapter presents the realization of midday and summer
Language, interpretation, literary evaluation
Helwig's language in the 1959 novel The Forest Battle , published by Jakob Hegner Verlag, is very poetic and draws on the richness of images and language in Celtic mythology . The author creates “images in a language of incantations, formulas and aphorisms.” Johannes von Guenther thinks that the author succeeded in merging narrative and saga; it is an Irish hero song, "traced down to the finest ramifications of erotic pathology, and without any break in style". The writer Heinrich Böll dealt extensively in a review with the novel, which the publisher presented as his best book at the Frankfurt Book Fair in the survey conducted by the cultural magazine magnum . He wrote that the real theme of the Helwig saga was the relationship between the Irish and women, which is so strange for Central Europeans; and it is no coincidence that Helwig's saga resembles a text that could have been written for a ballet. In addition to praise, he also expressed concerns about the work:
“ The concise, highly poetic text is absolutely enchanting right down to the incantation of the father's head, and the question-and-answer game is particularly beautiful. After that, however, language no longer bears the horror of its object. [...] Perhaps these scenes could have succeeded in a German that was further away from contemporary German. [...] Helwig's boldness is to be admired; the fact that it has partially failed does little to harm it. "
literature
- Heinrich Böll : Partly questionable, partly enchanting . In: essays, reviews, speeches . Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 1967.
- Erik Martin : The forest battle . In: Special edition Werner Helwig . Mussel pile 26 A, Viersen 1991, ISSN 0085-3593 .
- Georg Rosenstock: Irish myth, Irish magic . In: The world .
- Sibylle Savoy : Irish and Basque . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung of February 6, 1960.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ About the saga Macha Mong Ruad Macha in the Engl. Wikipedia
- ^ Sibylle Wirsing: Irish and Basque
- ↑ Quoted here from: Muschelhaufen 26 A, special edition Werner Helwig
- ↑ magnum . Dumont Schauberg, Cologne. Issue 26, October 1959
- ↑ Heinrich Böll: Partly questionable, partly enchanting . P. 292
- ↑ Heinrich Böll: Partly questionable, partly enchanting . In: essays, reviews, speeches . Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 1967, pages 293/294