The three trees
The three trees is a short story by Anna Seghers that was written in 1940 and appeared in the June issue of “Neues Deutschland” in Mexico in 1946 .
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- The knight's tree
Around 1940 lumberjacks found a knight in full armor in the hollow trunk of an ancient beech tree in the Argonne . As a fighter of Charles the Bold of Burgundy , he had fled from the fighters of King Louis XI. crawled into the tree. The beech had not released the knight. So he died miserably.
- The tree of Isaiah
For a lifetime the steadfast prophet Isaiah had fearlessly led his people into battle. So now too. Now after the final battle, his men are slain. Silence also comes from above. That higher being, whom he followed all his life, has nothing more to say. Isaiah is afraid and hides in a hollow cedar trunk from the captors . There is an opportunity to escape, but Isaiah remains in his hiding place out of sheer fear and the next day the forest workers saw up the trunk together with him.
- The tree of Odysseus
When Odysseus returns to his wife after a long journey, the woman is very insecure. Is the newcomer really her husband? She really doesn't know. How now? Out of embarrassment, she suggests that the man's bed should now be carried over to him. Not possible, replies Odysseus and tells of that time long ago, of that night in an immovable wedding bed. Odysseus then cut this bed out of the stump of a single strong tree. Suddenly the woman has security. According to his unique knowledge of their marriage history, the newcomer can really only be Odysseus.
Interpretation and reception
From tree to tree it goes back in the history of mankind. The knight wedges himself into the beech tree in the 15th century, whereas the prophet hid himself in the cedar trunk in the 8th century before the birth of Christ. Finally, Odysseus is said to have returned home around the 13th century BC . Schrade pointed out the connection between the three tree stories and stated that this was not an ostensibly politically motivated text. Rather, the existential questions of the refugee threatened with death in exile would be reflected. So tell Anna Seghers about her fears to death in France. Concerning the connection between the three little stories, the relationship between nature and man was also addressed over the times mentioned. First of all, nature is always indifferent to people. The beech is green and blooming as ever, no matter how heartbreaking the knight trapped in it may scream and finally whimper while dying in it. It is mainly about the change in the relationship between humans and nature. If time now runs through from the distant past, Odysseus still had a natural relationship with the tree. He could get up from his stump bed at any time and run away. Isaiah, on the other hand, cannot get out of the hollow cedar trunk out of sheer fear, although he could have done so. For the knight in the dawning modern age, however, nature in the form of the venerable, vigorous beech is literally overwhelming.
Neugebauer also thinks about the fate of emigrants. While in the first two stories the motives are obviously loss of personality due to flight and fear, the last one is about "alienation and loss of trust".
Hilzinger quotes Frank Quilitzsch's consideration of the “existential dimension” of the text: from the knight to Isaiah to Odysseus. Anna Seghers´ triptych "The Three Trees" and notes that Anna Seghers is said to have written a letter to her Soviet friend Steshinski in 1963 about writing.
literature
Text output
- Used edition
- The three trees . P. 273–276 in: Anna Seghers: Erzählungen 1926–1944. Volume IX of the collected works in separate editions . 367 pages. Aufbau-Verlag Berlin 1981 (2nd edition), without ISBN
Secondary literature
- Heinz Neugebauer: Anna Seghers. Life and work. With illustrations (research assistant: Irmgard Neugebauer, editorial deadline September 20, 1977). 238 pages. Series “Writers of the Present” (Ed. Kurt Böttcher). People and Knowledge, Berlin 1980, without ISBN
- Andreas Schrade: Anna Seghers . Metzler, Stuttgart 1993 (Metzler Collection, Vol. 275 (Authors)), ISBN 3-476-10275-0
- Sonja Hilzinger: Anna Seghers. With 12 illustrations. Series of Literature Studies. Reclam, Stuttgart 2000, RUB 17623, ISBN 3-15-017623-9