The three falcons

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The three falcons is a novella by Werner Bergengruen that appeared in Dresden in 1937.

Freedom is more valuable than goods and money .

time and place

Emperor Friedrich II has already written his falcon book. So the amendment is in the late Middle Ages and indeed in a central city of the Kingdom of Naples .

content

Members of the Brotherhood of Falconers - wealthy and noble people from the city and its rural surroundings - wear an artistically forged necklace as a sign of their chivalry and their senses. A falcon master leaves nothing more than three valuable falcons when he dies . The deceased has appointed the prior of the monastery to the Holy Spirit, the city caretaker Amerigo della Ripa and some relatives as heirs. Each of the three groups - the church, the poor, and the relatives - are to inherit the money raised by auctioning one of the hawks. The falcon master has only two relatives - an illegitimate son and the wife of the deceased legitimate son. Both should inherit in equal parts. However, the daughter-in-law remarried and found an enterprising silk merchant. Much space in the text is devoted to the description of the tricks of the silk merchant to take advantage of the illegitimate son - his name is Cecco the Hinker. The maiden Cecco earns his living as a puppeteer and unskilled worker. Now, as a potential heir, the limping Cecco suddenly rises in the respect of his fellow citizens. A greedy young widow joins the disabled man. Cecco, in whom no woman has been interested so far, is pleasantly touched by the unexpected appreciation. At the auction, which is led by the executor Albinelli, a great lover of the hawk hunt, the church and the poor get more than the hoped-for part of their money. The daughter-in-law of the falcon master and her husband, the silk merchant, get nothing. Because Cecco, who is repugnant to the days of haggling over the inheritance, lets the third falcon fly and leaves the auction. Albinelli has the limp brought back and puts his Falcon Brotherhood necklace on him. Because Cecco is a worthy successor to his father.

reception

  • Bourbeck highlights the deed of the young man with the lame leg : how Cecco lets the third hawk rise, as a parable of the freedom to which we humans are destined by God .
  • Bänziger accurately describes the essence of the unheard-of incident in this novel : The magic spark of love jumps from the heirloom to the heir , and Cecco's face miraculously takes on the features of her father .

literature

source
  • Werner Bergengruen: The three falcons. Novelle (= The Little Books of the Ark. 26, ZDB -ID 251917-3 ). Peter Schifferli Verlags AG "Die Arche", Zurich 1947.
Secondary literature
  • Christine Bourbeck: Creation and image of man in German poetry around 1940. Hausmann. Peters. Bergengruen (= religion and poetry. 1, ZDB -ID 846515-0 ). Christian Zeitschriftenverlag, Berlin-Dahlem 1947, pp. 114–116, (At the same time: Leipzig, University, dissertation, 1946; manuscript completed in March 1945).
  • Hans Bänziger: Werner Bergengruen. Way and work. 4th, modified edition. Francke, Bern et al. 1983, ISBN 3-7720-1710-X , pp. 61-71.
  • Frank-Lothar Kroll (ed.): Word and poetry as a place of refuge in difficult times. Gebr. Mann, Berlin 1996, ISBN 3-7861-1816-7 .
  • Gero von Wilpert : Lexicon of world literature. Biographical and bibliographical concise dictionary based on authors and anonymous works. German authors. A – Z. 4th, completely revised edition. Kröner, Stuttgart 2004, ISBN 3-520-83704-8 , p. 50.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Kroll (Ed.): Word and poetry as a place of refuge in difficult times. 1996, p. 65.
  2. ↑ see also under falconers
  3. ↑ Bergengruen p. 7.
  4. ↑ Bourbeck: creation and human image in German seal around 1940. 1947, p 114, 115th
  5. ↑ Goethe , in conversation with Eckermann on January 29, 1827.
  6. ^ Bänziger: Werner Bergengruen. Way and work. 4th, modified edition. 1983, p. 68.