Jinnistan

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“Alboflede” - illustration for Wieland's Dschinnistan , copper engraving from 1786

Dschinnistan or exquisite fairy and ghost tales, partly reinvented, partly translated and reworked is a collection of stories that was published from 1786 to 1789 by Christoph Martin Wieland .

content

The collection contains a total of 19 fairy tales , of which only twelve come from Wieland himself, namely Nadir and Nadine , Adis and Dahy , Neangir and his brothers, Argentine and her sisters , The Philosopher's Stone , Timander and Melissa , Himmelblau and Lupine , Der golden branch , the salamandrin and the statue , Alboflede , Pertharin and Ferrandine , the iron candelabrum and the griffin from the mountains of Kaf . Another four pieces come from Wieland's friend Friedrich Hildebrand von Einsiedel , namely The Duel , The Labyrinth , The Clever Boys and The Princess with the Long Nose . Wieland's son-in-law August Jacob Liebeskind contributed Der Korb as well as Lulu or the Magic Flute . Finally, the Palace of Truth is seen as a joint effort between Wieland and an unknown co-author, presumably Caroline von Wolzüge .

Arcadia

A motif that often appears in the stories is that of a fairy-tale , Arcadian traits, inhabited by fairy-like beings ( Pari ) (behind the mountains of Kāf ) called Jinnistan , which - in the tradition of the shepherd idylls so popular in the Rococo  - of simple, frugal ones , virtuous people is inhabited. Sometimes it is threatened by evil wizards and magicians ( Nadir and Nadine ; The Philosopher's Stone ), sometimes it appears as an idyllic alternative to court life, which is strikingly reminiscent of the contemporary royal courts of late absolutism ( Timander and Melissa ).

Elements of the wonderful

The stories are populated in great numbers by miraculous sorcerers , magicians and fairies of all kinds. Sometimes they bring ruin like the lustful and greedy Astramond in Nadir and Nadine or the false alchemist Misfragmutosorisis in The Philosopher's Stone , but sometimes also redemption like the fairy queen Sofronia in Timander and Melissa or the genius Alzindor, the one with the golden branch of alazine and marmot freed from their deformity. Often found are also wonderful objects such as the ring, by means of which King Siopas can read the less edifying thoughts of his corrupt courtiers, or the rose throne carried by pigeons through the air, which abducts Timander into a foreign realm.

A narrative technique that is sometimes encountered is that at the beginning of the story the reader is only presented with a small excerpt of the event, which ultimately turns out to be a detail of a large-scale process that began a long time ago and was set in motion by powerful magicians and fairies ( The Salamandrin and the statue ).

Separate lovers

Again and again, separated lovers are at the center of the story, who have to overcome all kinds of resistance before they are finally united (including sky blue and lupine , the golden branch , nadir and nadine ).

Shape and essence

Great attention is paid to the relationship between shape and essence , between being and appearance. The protagonists of the story Sky Blue and Lupine are beautiful but haughty, then again friendly but ugly - and can never find each other. Prince Alazin and Princess Marmotte in The Golden Branch , despite their greatest virtue, are marked by abnormal ugliness. In Timander and Melissa , the lovely princess Pasithea hides her monkey face under a veil - and pushes back Timander, who is devoted to her, as soon as she finally lifts it. Often there are also changes in shape of all kinds, so the gullible royal couple in the philosopher's stone becomes donkey and goat, the ungrateful lover Timander becomes a butterfly.

Oriental motifs

In the end, motifs from the oriental region were often used in the stories , such as the mysteries of ancient Egypt, which aroused great interest at the time ( The Philosopher's Stone ), but also Turkish fabrics ( The iron chandelier , The griffin from the mountains of Kaf , Adis and Dahy , Neangir and his brothers ).

History of origin

In terms of content and style, the stories tie in with the French fairy tales , which have become extremely popular across Europe since the Countess d'Aulnoy's collection Contes nouveaux ou les fées à la mode in 1698. The works of Pajon , François Pétis de la Croix , Mme de Lanton , Marie-Antoinette Fagnan , the Comte d'Hamilton , the Comte de Caylus and Félicité de Genlis should be mentioned as role models . In some cases ( sky blue and lupine ) the French template was only translated more or less true to the text, but mostly Wieland and his co-authors only borrowed motifs, usually processed them further and thus created quite independent works.

The title Jinnistan goes back to the Jinn , Arab spirit beings that can also be found many times in the Arabian Nights . The first edition appeared in three volumes in 1786, 1787 and 1789 in Winterthur , the title vignettes being made by the copper engraver Johann Rudolph Schellenberg .

Impact history

Despite the general public appeal of the fairy tales from Jinnistan , the reaction of the literary community was restrained. The entire fairy tale genre was basically considered discredited and not worthy of employment by a serious man.

Nonetheless, individual motifs from the collection were taken up in the period that followed. For example, Lulu or the Magic Flute inspired both Emanuel Schikaneder for the libretto for Mozart's opera Die Zauberflöte and Wenzel Müller for his Singspiele Kaspar, the bassoonist, or: Die Zauberzither and Das Sonnenfest der Braminen from 1790/1791, and in 1824 also the German-Danish one Composer Friedrich Kuhlau on his Singspiel Lulu . The Philosopher's Stone, on the other hand, was processed into an opera of the same name in a joint effort by Schack , Schikaneder , Mozart , Henneberg and Gerl .

Over 100 years later, the story Ardistan und Dschinnistan appeared as a late work by Karl May .

Adaptation

literature

Full text

Book editions

Audio book version

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Georg Friedrich Daumer : Hafis. A collection of Persian poems. Along with poetic additions from different peoples and countries. Hoffmann and Campe, Hamburg 1846, p. 315 ( Peris ).