Froschmeuseler
Froschmeuseler is a fable epic by Georg Rollenhagen (1542–1609), it was written in 1595. The literary model is the pseudohomeric fable - a script erroneously assigned to Homer - the Batrachomyomachia , in German the frog mouse war . Rollehagen has expanded the pseudohomeric script, which comprises about 400 verses, to about 5500 verses and added numerous subplots, additional fables, proverbs, prince mirrors and moral and Christian treatises to the original plot .
content
The basic act of the frog chatterer is an unintentional accident for which the frog prince is to blame. He offers the Prince of Mice to show him his kingdom in the pond and takes the non-swimmer on his back. When a water snake approaches them, the frog dives and the mouse drowns. The horrified companions of the mouse run to the mouse king, who then starts a terrible war against the frogs. Only the intervention of God (in the ancient model: Zeus) can put a stop to the slaughter. Rollehagen lets the mice and frogs tell numerous fables and parables during their deliberations, which illuminate the problem of war and peace from all sides.
intention
Rollehagen allows numerous problems and questions of his time to flow into his work, for example Erasmus von Rotterdam's lament for peace (querela pacis) or Luther's attitude to the peasant war . He dedicates the work to Heinrich Rantzau , who at times pursued the idea of a European general peace, and shows a pronounced pacifism , an attitude that has probably matured in him due to the siege and destruction of his hometown Magdeburg. "Better is peace with difficulty / Because war with vain justice.", He says at one point.
Rollehagen ties his doctrine of peace to the prevailing class doctrine and the Protestant doctrine of virtue, but always allows peace to be the better choice: "Because it is better to get a friend / because thousands of enemies split up." Finally, the work ends in its core statement: Only one People who live in peace can also make their peace with God. His work is structured accordingly in terms of content: The war between people, between states, between man and God. Peace itself does not appear in his work, however: the reader has to imagine it for himself, which should not have been too difficult in view of the plastic war scenes.
Effect and reception
Because of its moral content, the Froschmeuseler quickly became the “ children's book ” of the Protestant bourgeoisie. Numerous editions appear well into the 19th century, but all of them mutilate and shorten the text. Only with a critical edition by Dietmar Peil in 1989 is the text available again in its original form. Modern literary studies essentially only examine episodes and partial aspects of the work.
literature
- Georg Rollehagen: Froschmeuseler. Edited by Dietmar Peil , Frankfurt am Main 1989 (= Library of the Early Modern Age. Vol. 12).
- Johannes Bolte: Source studies on Georg roles hagen. Berlin 1929.
- Helmut K. Krausse: The Circe episode in Rollenhagen's "Froschmeuseler". In: Arcadia . No. 15, 1980, pp. 243-257.
- Dietmar Peil : The conflict between limbs and stomach. Studies on the tradition and history of interpretation of the fable of Menenius Agrippa from antiquity to the 20th century. Frankfurt am Main / Bern / New York 1985.
- Dietmar Peil : Georg Rollenhagen. In: Stephan Füssel (ed.): German poets of the early modern period (1450–1600). Your life and work. Berlin 1993, pp. 561-574.
- Dietmar Peil : The peace in the German literature of the early modern times. In: Wolfgang Augustyn (Ed.): Pax. Contributions to the idea and representation of peace. Munich 2003, pp. 315–340 (= publications of the Central Institute for Art History Munich. Vol. 15).
- Roland Richter: Georg Rollehagens Froschmeuseler: A rhetorical masterpiece. Bern / Frankfurt am Main 1975.
- Joachim Telle: On Georg Rollehagen's “Froschmeuseler” (I / 2, chap. 15–17). In: Wolfenbütteler Barock-Nachrichten. No. 3, 1976, pp. 256-259.