Elsi, the strange maid

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Jeremias Gotthelf around 1844

Elsi, the strange maid is a historical story by Jeremias Gotthelf , which appeared in 1843 in the Neue Schweizerischer Unterhaltungsblatt for educated readers of all classes at C. Rätzer in Bern.

March 5, 1798: The Bernese fight against the French directory and lose. Gotthelf picks out an episode from the battle near Neuenegg . At the height of the linden tree at Fraubrunnen , the Bernese gunner Christians and his battery comrades hold their position against the overpowering French. Elsi, armed with her "two-pronged lap fork", penetrates - attacking the French - to her lover. She had refused to accept Christians and confessed her love to the fencer, even stabbing. The couple, "hit to death" by their opponents, die hand in hand.

prehistory

1796 in Bern : Elsi, the miller's daughter, leaves her father's house after the death of her dear mother and is taken in as a maid by a farmer in Heimiswyl . Everyone, except the farmer, thinks that Elsi could not be a maid because of her "certain aristocratic nature". Elsi proves the opposite. Through her careful, independent work in the house and yard, the tall, strong, beautiful girl wins the respect and then the affection of the initially biased “peasant woman”. Elsi rejects young boys, especially if they want to lead the girl to the dance floor. There is a reason. Elsi's father had thrown the sizeable fortune in inns and ruined the whole family.

The young farmer Christians is not so easily turned away by the beautiful woman. Elsi is too proud. She does not go to an inn for a pleasure with Christians, because while doing so she should always think of her reckless father. Nevertheless, Christians continue to strive for the beautiful girl. When Elsi refuses to meet him at all, he becomes angry and incites her jealousy. Christen takes a more willing girl from Heimiswyler. Elsi doesn't understand the farmer's wife. She really wants to pair the girl with Christians, the son of wealthy parents.

When the French march into Vaud and move towards Bern, things get serious for the gunner Christian. Again he turns to Elsi with the request that she promise him to become his wife. Because the proud girl is so ashamed of her family, she rejects him again. When Christians moved in, she regretted her behavior and worried for Christ's life. In this emergency, she reveals the secret of her origin to the farmer's wife. The farmer's wife has already heard of the reckless miller, this cheerful drinker. Everything with the father is not so bad, says the farmer's wife. The two women finally agree - Christians must be taught in the field: Elsi now finally wants to become his. The girl is on her way.

Quote

"When a woman is on the grain of a marriage, it is difficult to dissuade her."

style

In most cases the sentence can sense from the high Alemannic Bernese German be guessed.

The narrator stands above the material - Christ's unsuccessful courtship for Elsi: “It's strange with the women and men. As long as they are single ... “The reader is privy to Elsi's secret, but Christians and the peasant woman are not.

The defeat of the heroically fighting Swiss against the overpowering French is only admitted in one sentence: “The only time the soldiers were led forward instead of back, the French found out what Swiss strength and courage can still do today, at Neuenegg they found out. "

Bern German

Bärndütsch Standard German
Runnerli Sliding window
Chair free-standing bench at the dining table
Use money save up
Filling moorings Mother mare
Söhniswyb daughter in law
horse riding drive
martyrs market, haggle
Bibs Wrong
drungelich urgent
Churches Parish
Bell mechanism Penitentiary
behind think deeply
Hamme ham
Kuder flax

reception

literature

source
  • Jeremias Gotthelf: Elsi, the strange maid . Pp. 3-37. Reclam Universal Library No. 7747. Stuttgart 1952 (1998 edition, 72 pages), ISBN 3-15-007747-8
Secondary literature
  • Karl Fehr : Jeremias Gotthelf (Albert Bitzius). Second, revised and expanded edition . Metzler M60 collection; Dept. D, History of Literature. Stuttgart 1985 (106 pages), ISBN 3-476-12060-0

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Fehr, p. 6, last paragraph.
  2. Source, p. 35, 9. Zvu
  3. Source, p. 32, 7. Zvo
  4. Source, p. 17, 2nd paragraph
  5. Source, p. 35, last sentence in the first paragraph
  6. Fehr, p. 57 middle
  7. Fehr, p. 57 above