A sea voyage

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Joseph von Eichendorff

A voyage to the sea is a novella by Joseph von Eichendorff , which - written around 1836 - appeared posthumously in 1864. Hermann von Eichendorff had published them in the third volume of the "Complete Works" from his father's estate.

content

Don Antonio, “a poor student from Salamanka ”, joins a trip to America in 1540. The crew of the "Fortuna" is driven westward by the greed for gold. Antonio, on the other hand, in the fairway of Columbus , wants to hear about the “fabulous wonderland” on the distant shores of the Atlantic Ocean. The young man also hopes to find his uncle Don Diego, who has been missing for thirty years.

At the end of their long journey, full of privation, the well-traveled Europeans discover land. On that island, the newcomers stride "under coconut palms" through "a wide blessed valley like in an immense spring". The crew cheerfully proclaims their captain as viceroy. During the reception by the islanders, the linguist "interpreter" Antonio doesn't understand a word of the island king in a feather coat. The head of the locals poured lumps of gold on his astonished guests. The royal, mocking smile doesn’t bode well.

When the Europeans roam the island, they lose Antonio. He have luck. The native Alma, a slender woman, finds him and speaks to him in broken Spanish. Antonio calls the girl "the woman Venus ". When the natives attack the group of Spaniards with overwhelming odds, Antonio is rescued by Alma on the Spanish ship. The beautiful girl wants to serve the beloved. When Alma is about to be abandoned by the fleeing Spaniards shortly before the anchor is lifted, Antonio protests. Alma accompanies the refugees on their way to a second, smaller island. There, a hermit entertains those tired from the struggle with bottles of wine and delicious fruit. The one who drinks the glory of ancient Spain is none other than Antonio's uncle Don Diego. After the worthy old man has told his fellow countrymen his life story, the Spanish ship - with Alma and Antonio on board - sets sail again. Don Diego remains on his island. He thinks his life is wonderfully reflected in the life of his nephew Antonio. Don Diego had no luck with his lover, once queen of the neighboring, larger island. How dazed by her confession

“I am a bright fire that burns
From the green wreath of rocks
Sea wind is my woo and demands
Me for a fun whirling dance,
Come and change inconsistently.
Rising wild,
Inclined mild,
I turn my slim tan,
Don't come close to me, I'll burn you! "

Don Diego wanted to Christianize the subjects of the "beautiful woman" decades ago and then rule over the island people together with her. Back then, only Don Diego and his "lieutenant" had survived the islanders' attack on the Spaniards. The queen blew herself up with the Spanish ship during the armed conflict.

That Queen's song quoted above had made Antonio pensive. Apparently Alma had already offered it to him. It turned out that Alma was the queen's niece and was shyly revered by the natives because of her resemblance to the deceased brave ruler.

Poetry

"O consolation of the world, you silent night,
The day made me so tired
The wide sea is already dark
Let me rest from lust and hardship,
Until the eternal dawn
Sparkles through the quiet forest. "

reception

  • Ulmer emphasizes the conflict between Christians and pagans.
  • Seidlin analyzes the narrative superimposition of the two thirty years apart times of the two sea voyages described, which allows a glimpse of an “over time”.
  • Gillespie also considers a design element. He goes into the process of mutual recognition of the two relatives from the point of view of the duplicity of the events towards the end of the novella.
  • According to Schulz, the allegory, presented here in the form of a “journey through life”, is hardly convincing. Schulz praises the "deep silence" in the first stanza of the opening song:
“I can see from the edge of the ship
Deep into the tide:
Mountains and green lands,
The old garden mine
The home in the seabed
As I often thought in dreams
It all dawns down there
As like a splendid night. "

Web links

literature

  • Oskar Seidlin : Experiments on Eichendorff. 303 pages. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1965
  • Ansgar Hillach, Klaus-Dieter Krabiel : Eichendorff comment. Volume I. On the seals. 230 pages. Winkler, Munich 1971
  • Gerhard Schulz : The German literature between the French Revolution and the restoration. Part 2. The Age of the Napoleonic Wars and the Restoration: 1806–1830. 912 pages. Munich 1989, ISBN 3-406-09399-X
  • Günther Schiwy : Eichendorff. The poet in his time. A biography. 734 pages. 54 illustrations. CH Beck, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-406-46673-7
  • Detlev Kremer: Romanticism. Textbook German Studies. 342 pages. Metzler Stuttgart 2007 (3rd edition), ISBN 978-3-476-02176-2
  • Otto Eberhardt: A trip to the sea. The end of more recent romantic poetry in the return to the end of romantic poetry of the Middle Ages . In: Otto Eberhardt: Figurae. Roles and names of the people in Eichendorff's narrative . Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-8260-4439-7 , pp. 319-367.

First edition

  • “A voyage to the sea” in the third volume “Novellas and narrative poems” . In: Joseph Freiherrn von Eichendorff's entire works. Second edition. 6 volumes. With the author's portrait and facsimile . Edited and introduced by H (Hermann von Eichendorff). Voigt & Günther, Leipzig 1864.

expenditure

Quoted text edition

  • A sea voyage. P. 355-419 in Brigitte Schillbach (Ed.), Hartwig Schultz (Ed.): Poets and their journeymen. Stories II. In Wolfgang Frühwald (Ed.), Brigitte Schillbach (Ed.), Hartwig Schultz (Ed.): Joseph von Eichendorff. Works in five volumes. Volume 3. 904 pages. Linen. Deutscher Klassiker Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1993 (1st edition), ISBN 3-618-60130-1

Individual evidence

Source means the quoted text edition

  1. ↑ Hillach and Krabiel, p. 157 above
  2. ↑ Hillach and Krabiel, p. 156, 2nd Zvu and p. 43, 6th Zvu
  3. ^ Source, pp. 408, 34. Zvo
  4. ↑ Alma had explained to the Spaniards: "At the time when we continued, my family also thought I was the deceased queen, otherwise they would surely have killed you." (Source, p. 416, 5th Zvo)
  5. ^ The hermit in the night: Source, p. 395, 22. Zvo
  6. ↑ Bernhard Ulmer (anno 1950) quoted in Hillach and Krabiel, p. 157, 8. Zvo (in English: see also )
  7. ↑ Seidlin, p. 99
  8. ↑ Hillach and Krabiel, S. 157, 21. ZVO
  9. ↑ Gerald Gillespie (anno 1965) cited in Hillach and Krabiel, p. 157, 25. Zvo ( see also )
  10. ↑ Schulz, p. 498
  11. ^ Kremer, p. 187, 3. Zvo
  12. ↑ Source, p. 358, 24. Zvo
  13. ^ Schiwy, p. 544, 3rd Zvu - p. 545, 18th Zvo