Heavenly People

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Heavenly People by Waldemar Bonsels

Heavenly People. A fairy tale of flowers, animals and God is a book by the German writer Waldemar Bonsels that was first published in 1915.

Himmelsvolk is the follow-up volume to the extremely successful book Maya the Bee and Her Adventures from 1912. Like this book, Himmelsvolk was able to achieve high editions and has been translated into numerous languages. Due to its content and the poetic mood of the book, it can be assigned to the neo-romanticism . The fairy tale , with which the author conveys all kinds of wisdom, is primarily intended for adults.

content

The book describes a year on a forest meadow in which the native animals experience all kinds of adventures. The author translates into human language how plants and animals communicate with one another. The appearance of a flower elf in broad daylight on the meadow makes a great impression, because elves are normally not allowed to see the sun and have to return to their realm before sunrise. However, this elf has seen two loving people and missed the timely return because of this impressive sight. As long as he does not meet a greater love than this, he must therefore remain among the mortal beings of the earth. He gets to know the joys and sorrows of plants, animals and people and is extremely happy about these new experiences. In individual chapters the different experiences are told, the fight of the hedgehog with the adder, the fight of the fox with the marten, the terrible end of the frog in human captivity, the lovers under the linden tree and the death of the young man by the bear. The elf is again and again deeply moved by the beauty of nature, filled with love and pity for the pains of beings. One night the Elven Queen summons him and gives him the opportunity to return to the Elven Kingdom if he renounces everything that binds him to the ephemeral world. He refuses because he doesn't want to forget what he has learned in the meantime. With that the elven kingdom is finally lost for him. But when in autumn the old linden tree in the forest meadow tells of Christ, who has put love in the place of the ephemeral values ​​of the world and gave his life for this love, the elf recognizes a greater love than the one he has between them had seen two people, and with the knowledge of this deepest and purest love he is redeemed and, accompanied by the song of the lark, he leaves the meadow with its plants and animals.

expenditure

  • Heavenly People. A fairy tale of flowers, animals and God . Schuster & Löffler: Berlin 1915
  • Heavenly People. A fairy tale of flowers, animals and God . Book & Media: Munich 2005 ISBN 978-3-86520-086-0

literature

  • Johannes Beer (ed.): The novelist. The German Novels and Short Stories of the Present Vol. 1 . Hiersemann: Stuttgart 1952

Web links