Gawân: a mystery
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| Title: | Gawân: a mystery |
| Genus: | romance |
| Original language: | German |
| Author: | Eduard Stucken |
| Literary source: | Sir Gawain and the Green Knight |
| Publishing year: | 1901 |
| Premiere: | May 1, 1907 |
| Place of premiere: | Residenztheater in Munich |
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Gawân: Ein Mysterium is a drama in five acts by Eduard Stucken and was premiered on May 1, 1907 at the Münchner Kammerspiele. It was created under the influence of the fin de siècle and is about the story of the knight Gawân from the round table of King Arthur , who is tested in his loyalty and his Christian faith by a deception of the Green Knight.
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Act 1
The first act begins with the Christmas celebrations in the great hall of the round table in Camelot Castle. Arthur is just about to hear a story about the great deeds of his knights, when the Seneschal announces a knight who wants to enter the gate. The knight is dressed entirely in green, his armor is decorated with emeralds and he is surrounded by a hellish glow. He carries a hatchet with him, which he wields ominously. After Arthur has asked him into the hall, he rides into the festive hall with his horse, whereupon everything falls silent. The Green Knight, who heard the great deeds of the Knights of the Round Table, came to test them in their honor. He demands that one of the knights should beat him with the hatchet he has brought with him and assures that he will not fight it. A year later, however, the Green Knight should also be allowed to strike this knight with the ax. None of the knights wants to accept this terrifying demand first, but when Arthur himself wants to carry out the deed to save Camelot's honor, Gawân, Arthur's nephew, offers to strike down the green knight. Gawân seals the pact with the Green Knight by giving him his name and assuring him that in exactly one year he will be ready to receive the blow of the Green Knight. The Green Knight then has his head chopped off by Gawân without resistance, then the headless body stands up under the shocked gaze of those present, grabs his head and climbs back on the horse. Before he rides out of the hall, the head tells Gawân to go to the Green Chapel next year, when the bell rings for Christmas Eve, to fulfill his oath.
Act 2
The second act takes place in the castle of the knight Hautdesert, who gives Gawân, who is looking for the Green Chapel, night quarters. There are only two days left until Gawân has to keep his oath in order not to lose his honor and he has not yet found anyone who can help him with his search for the Green Knight or the chapel. The lovely wife of the knight Hautdesert, Marie, supplies Gawân with wine and tells him that she knows the way to the Green Chapel. Hautdesert also knows the way and assures Gawân that it will only be a six-hour journey and that he will give him a guide the next day so that he can get there on time. Although Gawân prefers to move on right away, he lets tender Marie persuade him to spend a night in the castle. At supper, Hautdesert made Gawân promise to savor his sleep and to dine with his wife the next day and have fun while he was on the hunt himself. Furthermore, Hautdesert wants to give everything he steals to Gawân as a gift. In return, Gawân should give him every treasure and every good that he gets in Hautdesert's absence as a gift. Gawân readily agrees to this request.
Act 3
Gawân wakes up from nightmares the next morning while the lord of the castle is setting off to hunt. Gawân wants to leave immediately, but the lord's workshop convinces him that he cannot find the Green Chapel on his own, as a will-o'-the-wisp would lead him astray. Only the Schatelier and Hautdesert know the way and the servant refuses to break his promise to the lord of the castle not to leave the castle. After Gawân has come to terms with staying in bed and the workshop has disappeared, Marie de Hautdesert appears in his bedchamber, which seems completely different. She tries to seduce him, but Gawân already pushes her back during the first kiss because he is afraid of her and her "devilish" manner. He tries to make it clear to her that he doesn't love her or any other woman. Nevertheless, she wants to give him a souvenir belt that allegedly makes him invulnerable. Gawân, who is reluctant at first, is so gripped by fear in the face of the approaching death by the Green Knight that he cannot refuse the gift. Although he regrets it shortly afterwards, since he realizes that the gift has a sinful character and therefore will not bring him happiness, Marie does not want to take it back.
Act 4
Gawân waits impatiently for Hautdesert to finally be able to ride to the chapel. However, this is still on the hunt. Gawân tries vehemently to convince Marie to take the belt back because he had promised his life to the Green Knight and would commit a fraud and lose his honor if he were invulnerable with the belt. He claims to be ready for death, even after Marie has shown him through a story about life candles that he actually wants to live. For this she pretends to blow out his life light, which Gawan prevents her from, although it is only a simple candle. Marie gives Gawan to understand that her own honor would have been lost if her husband found out about the belt and the events connected with it. Gawân reluctantly takes the belt back and hides it. When it comes to exchanging gifts and fulfilling the promise that Hautdesert made, Gawân cannot give away the belt. Instead, he gives him a kiss on the cheek, but without revealing who gave him the kiss. Hautdesert tells Gawân that he does not believe that Gawân only received the kiss, but cannot convince him to go to confession before his ride to the Green Chapel, as Gawân believes that he has lost and corrupted his soul anyway.
Act 5
His guide leaves him at the Green Chapel. Gawân enters the chapel, the doors of which open by itself, and kneels in the green light of the church in front of a statue of the Madonna , to which he laments his suffering and atonement puts the belt at her feet to atone for his deed. Then he calls for the Green Knight, who then climbs out of his coffin, which is in the chapel, and welcomes Gawân. The knight describes Gawân as a man of honor who keeps his promises and demands the ax back. Gawan hands it to him and kneels to receive the blow. But when the ax is already crashing down on his neck, the statue of the Madonna, bearing the facial features of Marie De Hautdesert, steps in and calls out that Gawan's soul is pure and that he must not be touched. She explains to Gawan that he was tested by God and death because, although he was a pure-hearted knight, he never went through sin and mortal agony. So God gave the holy virgin the opportunity to lead Gawan through horror and sin and to let him prove himself. She also turned into Marie De Hautdesert, since no earthly woman could ever have lured Gawân. The Green Knight then also bares his face and reveals himself as death in the mask of Hautdesert. As a reward for passing the tests, Gawân is allowed to watch the holy grail and drink from the shining chalice.
Medieval sources
Stucken uses the medieval story by Sir Gawain and the Green Knight as a model for his drama . After a two-trophic introduction, the story begins with the Green Knight riding into the hall of the round table. He does not wear a helmet or armor, like Stucken, but is still dressed in green and even his beard and hair are green. He carries a holly with him as a sign of his peaceful intentions, but his eyes sparkle like lightning. He states that he came on assignment, but does not say from whom. From here on, Stucken's work and the medieval source are the same, as the knight also has Gawain's head cut off for the pact after Arthur offered himself. In contrast to Stuckens Gawân, the medieval Gawain is not afraid, so that he does not immediately go in search of the Green Chapel, but stays at King Arthur's court until shortly before the end of the ultimatum . After a long journey, Gawain prays for night quarters where he can hear mass and promptly he stands in front of a castle. The lord of the castle is not introduced here by name, nor is the beautiful lady of the castle, whom Gawain and an old lady get to know at mass. Unlike Stucken, Gawain spends several days in the castle and takes part in the Christmas celebrations. Here, too, the lord of the castle forces Gawain to stay until New Year's morning and then let a servant take him to the chapel. As with Stucken, the two then also close the deal by exchanging gifts. In the absence of the lord of the castle, the lady of the house also comes into Gawain's bedroom to seduce him. However, he defends himself and only allows one kiss, after which she says goodbye. Here, too, Gawain kisses the lord of the castle after his return, who seems less interested in the origin of the kiss than Hautdesert and is satisfied with it without further explanation. At this point the action is repeated on three consecutive days: the lord of the castle rides on the hunt, Gawain receives kisses forwards them to the lord of the castle as a present. Only then does Gawain finally reject the lady and receive the belt from her, which is supposed to make her invulnerable. He then puts it on when he rides to the chapel to protect himself from the fatal blow of the Green Knight. Unlike Stucken's Gawân, who takes the belt with a bad conscience and actually doesn't want it, Gawain is happy about his gift. After a servant of the lord of the castle had led him to the Green Chapel, he met the Green Knight. He made three sham blows against Gawain with his ax, which angered Gawain. With the last blow, he only slightly injured his neck, whereupon Gawain's vow to receive a blow is fulfilled and he promises to defend himself against any further blow. The Green Knight then explains to Gawain that the sham blows for the kisses passed on, i.e. his honesty and the blow that injured Gawain, stood for the dishonesty regarding the belt. Furthermore, the Green Knight reveals his real name, namely Bertilak de Hautdesert, and goes on to explain that all that happened was through the power of Morgan le Fay . The story ends with Gawain's return to Arthur's court and the remorseful descriptions of his deeds. Apart from the slightly changed name, Stucken's piece is very close to the medieval source in many respects. Only the ending differs significantly: Stucken equates the lord of the castle, contrary to his original, with death and the lord's wife with the mother of God . So he replaces the figure of Morgan le Fay as the female principle behind the plot with a Christian femininity.
Productions
Stucken's work was premiered on May 1, 1907 at the Residenztheater in Munich under the direction of Runges. In the theater magazine Die Schaubühne , this is particularly emphasized by the writer and theater critic Leo Greiner , because Runge created pictures with his direction and achieved a merger of the individual elements in the scenic and dramatic areas with an “invisible hand”. The actor Albert Heine materialized death in "flesh and bone". All in all, Greiner reports very positively in his review of Stucken's play and its staging.
Stucken's work was performed at the Berlin Kammerspiele in 1910. This time under the director Eduard von Winterstein in front of the stage set by the painter Ernst Stern . Here it is stated that the spatial implementation of the piece, especially with regard to King Arthur's Christmas hall, was "solved surprisingly well". However, the spirituality that prevailed here at the beginning is to be missed in the further stages. In particular, the "Green Chapel", which the poet describes as "prehistoric and gruesome" and "torn from the rock", is presented rather comfortably, which stylizes the "infernal spirituality of poetry" Stucken into a mild miracle show. The main characters were cast by the actors Friedrich Kayßler (Gawân), Ludwig Hartau (Hautdesert) and a "Frau Konstantin" (Marie). Kurtz praises the performer of Gawân for his visualization of the bitter and chaste, but also of the hardships, the torment and the suffering of Gawân. Hartau, on the other hand, finds Kurtz pale in the presentation of the skin desert. The atmosphere of mystical loneliness that the actor should have portrayed does not appeal to the audience; accordingly, the fateful meaning and profundity of individual scenes cannot be adequately reproduced. The portrayal of Marie is also viewed critically by Kurtz. Although the actress is very talented, there is nothing diabolical about her, so she appears pale and conventional in the moments when she should represent pure temptation and passion. On this point, the director is particularly criticized, who let the figure of Marie stand for minutes in a seductive pose on the stage, which, according to Kurtz in 1910, was no longer appropriate. The performance in the Kammerspiele as a whole is praised by the critic, however, which is not least due to the mood of the work Stuckens, which bursts out from the actors.
Contemporary influences / interpretations
Eduard Stuckens work joins the movement of fin de siècle (also decadentism ), which rebels in particular against realism and excessive objectivity , regarding the stage v. a. against the naturalism prevailing at the time . In the light of this context, Stucken's work of Arthur's fabric appears as a logical conclusion, as the mystical character and the almost fairytale content of the legend can be seen as a counterpart to naturalism.
literature
- Eduard Stucken: Gawân: A mystery. 7th edition. Erich Reiss Verlag, Berlin 1914.
- Sir Gawain And The Green Knight. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, ed. by Manfred Markus : Philipp Reclam Junior, Stuttgart 1974
- The Schaubühne. Complete reprint of the years 1905–1918. 7th year 1911. Königstein / Ts. 1980
- Roger Bauer: Fin de siècle: on literature and art at the turn of the century. Klostermann, Frankfurt am Main 1977
- Sabine Haupt: Handbook Fin de Siècle. Kröner, Stuttgart 2008
Web links
- Literature by and about Eduard Stucken in the catalog of the German National Library
- Works at ngiyaw eBooks Romances and elegies, ballads