Kui Anija mehed Tallinna's käisid

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Kui Anija mehed Tallinnas käisid ( When the men from Anija came to Tallinn ) is the title of a novel by the Estonian writer Eduard Vilde (1865–1933). The original was published in Estonian in 1903 .

Appear

Immediately after writing his novel Aufruhr in Mahtra, Eduard Vilde started working on a follow-up novel that is thematically closely related to the previous work. While working on this novel, he had come across material in the archive about the men from Anija who had been publicly flogged in Tallinn in 1858 . Now he drove into the area again and interviewed contemporary witnesses, supported by the local community secretary.

At that time Vilde was the editor of the newspaper Teataja , which he himself had founded in 1901 together with Konstantin Päts , and here the novel was published as a sequel from January 2nd (new style 15th) to March 12th (25th) 1903. Im the same year the first book edition was printed by G. Pihlakas, which was followed by new editions in 1929, 1940, 1946, 1948, 1955, 1960 and 1970. The novel is also available as an audio book.

action

For this novel, too, the rebellion of the oppressed and dependent Estonian peasants against the Baltic German feudal lords forms the historical framework, as the title already refers to. However, the social conflict rather forms the background against which, in the style of an educational novel, the career of a young man is described who wants to escape his fate and flees from the country to the city, successfully works his way up, but ultimately perishes on the curse that he perishes wanted to escape.

The main character Mait Lut is the son of Baron Riesenthal and the fruit of a rape that he committed against the Estonian maid he employed. To cover up his act, the landowner gave Mait's mother to an Estonian farmer and transplanted her to a neighboring community. There, however, Mait is teased as the “son of a baron” and gradually he discovers the secret of his origins. At the same time, he has manual skills and dreams of going to town and learning a craft. For this, however, the consent of “his” landlord is required, since despite the abolition of serfdom at the beginning of the 19th century there was no real freedom of movement in Estonia. Contrary to expectations, he also receives his consent after he has visited his biological father and gently pressured him: If he does not help him, he would divulge the secret of his origin. Since the landowner is not interested, he agrees.

In Tallinn, Mait Luts receives an apprenticeship with the master carpenter Wittelsbach and works his way up to become a journeyman, which is manifested in the Germanization of his name: Mait Luts has now become Matthias Lutz. In order to rise from journeyman to master, he would have to marry into higher social classes as an improper farmer's son, and Berta, the master's younger daughter, offers herself for this. After initial difficulties, the two get closer, but the class-conscious wife of Master Wittelsbach does not want to know anything about her daughter's marriage to a farmer's son. While those who are devoted to each other consider all kinds of lists, life in Tallinn in the mid-19th century is described in detail.

In this description, footnotes are occasionally made to Vilde's previous novel Mahtra sõda , and a chapter with the same title as the whole novel describes in detail and partly in a documentary style the actual flogging of the peasants at the Tallinn market in 1858. At the same time, two new people are introduced who are crucial for the progress of the plot: Leena, a young woman who, like Mait, fled from the country to the city at the time to escape a lustful landowner, and Konrad, a craftsperson from Germany, who wonders about the strange conditions in Estonia and becomes Mait's best friend.

Among the beaten farmers was Mait's father, whom he temporarily placed with Master Wittelsbach to look after. Leena has also found an illegal shelter here because Wittelsbach can't stand the landed gentry. She takes care of the battered farmers with pity, while Berta turns away in disgust. For Mait, this leads to doubts about his love and ultimately a turn to Leena. As soon as Berta notices this, Leena whistles to the local police, and Wittelsbach only manages to save her from the worst - extradition to the country and into the clutches of "her" baron - through his good relationships. Leena is allowed to stay in town, but has to work as a maid for a young noblewoman in Tallinn. This is, however, the sister of the same baron from whom Leena fled at the time, the young Baron Riesenthal, son of Mait's lively father.

Mait finally marries Leena and seems to be able to build up a young family happiness, which is abruptly destroyed: four months after the wedding, Leena goes into hiding and has a child who cannot be from Mait. In fact, the young Baron Riesenthal - in his sister's house - impregnated her by force, so the same thing happened again that Riesenthal's father had done with Mait's mother. As a result, Mait falls into a deep depression and gives himself up to alcohol, but also seeks revenge. In fact, he attacks father and son Riesenthal one night and kills the old man, but is dangerously injured by the young baron with a weapon. He can still drag himself home, but soon dies of blood poisoning.

reception

Together with the previous Mahtra sõda (1902) and the subsequent Prohvet Maltsvet (1905–1908), the novel forms the so-called historical trilogy by Eduard Vilde. The connection does not exist in the persons, but in the treated topic, since the author draws from the same historical material. In this novel, too, the sharp social contrasts are the dominant theme, which is presented in a psychologically convincing manner. The simple and bitter conclusion is that the fate of the main character ends tragically "because of the brutality of the landlords."

In the novel, “physical and sexual violence play an important role”, and in his aggressive denunciation of the existing social conditions, Vilde has been compared to Gerhart Hauptmann and Hermann Sudermann . This aspect of Vilde's critical realism led to the fact that in the GDR one could even say that an author who died in 1933 "left behind a socially critical, humanistic, popular work, the best evidence of which is essentially related to socialist realism." (!)

Adaptations and translations into other languages

  • In 1946 a stage version was created: Näidend kolmes vaatuses proloogiga, E. Vilde samanimelise romaani järgi Enn Toona. Tallinn: Ilukirjandus yes art 1946. 111 pp.

A translation into German is not yet available, the novel has been published in the following languages:

  • Latvian: Anijas vīri . No igaunu valodas tulk. J. Žigurs and A. Kempe. Rīgā: LVI, 1956. 284 pp.
  • Russian: Ходоки из Ания . Перевод с эстонского языка: В. Бергман. Таллинн: Художественная литература 1949. 400 p .; New translation: Ходоки из Ания . Перевод с эстонского М. Кулишовой. Таллинн: Ээсти раамат 1969. 316 p.
  • Ukrainian: Ходаки з Анiя: iсторичний роман . З естоньскої. Киïв: Державне видавництво художньої лiтератури 1957. 270 p.

literature

  • Herbert Salu : Eduard Vilden historialliset romaanit. Summary: Eduard Vilde's historical novels. Helsinki : Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura 1964. 314 p. (SKS Toimituksia 277)
  • Karl Mihkla: Eduard Vilde elu ja looming. Tallinn: Eesti Raamat 1972, pp. 280-289.
  • Elle-Mari Talivee / Jason Finch: Uue linna sünd Eduard Vilde romaanis “Kui Anija mehed Tallinnas käisid”, in: Looming 11/2015, pp. 1628–1638.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Karl Mihkla: Eduard Vilde elu ja looming. Tallinn: Eesti Raamat 1972, p. 280.
  2. ↑ The first edition appeared under the title "Kui Anija mehed Tallinnas käisiwad", whereby the verb form of the 3rd person plural ("käisiwad") is an older variant (today "käisid").
  3. ↑ Tallinn: Eesti Pimedate Raamatukogu 1982. 1 CD (13 h, 15 min.). DAISY 2.02.
  4. ↑ Epp Annus, Luule Epner, Ants Järv, Sirje Olesk, Ele Süvalep, Mart Velsker: Eesti kirjanduslugu. Tallinn: Koolibri 2001, p. 141.
  5. ↑ Elle-Mari Talivee / Jason Finch: Uue linna sünd Eduard Vilde romaanis "Kui Anija mehed Tallinnas käisid", in: Looming 11/2015, p. 1634.
  6. ↑ Herbert Salu: Eduard vilden historialliset romaanit. Helsinki 1964. p. 139.
  7. ^ Rudolf Gregor: On the traditions of Estonian Soviet literature: Eduard Vilde, in: Baltic Soviet literature. Achievements, problems and impact. Contributions to the working conference of the Slavic Studies section of the Linguistics and Literature Studies section of the Ernst-Moritz-Arndt University of Greifswald on 28/29 October 1986 in Rostock. Greifswald 1989, pp. 28–34, here p. 34. (Scientific articles from the Ernst-Moritz-Arndt University of Greifswald).