Renate (novella)
Renate is a novella by Theodor Storm published in 1878 . At the center of the work are the pastor's son Josias and Renate, the daughter of a rich farmer from Schwabstedt . The two fall in love, but an understanding of religion determined by superstition leads to the couple becoming estranged.
background
Renate grants insights into Storm's poetry workshop like hardly any other work. From his correspondence with friends and other writers it is clear that he studied the Chronicle of Husum and the nearby villages in detail. Using these notes, he made up the stories in his imagination.
Theodor Storm learned a lot from pictures from pastor Dr. Jensen taken over. These appeared as early as 1850 and 1851 in Karl Biernatzki's popular books , on which Storm himself worked. This proves that the basics of the amendment go back decades.
In this template the broad lines of the plot are present. It's about the son of a pastor who wants to marry a farmer's daughter. In principle there is nothing against the marriage, but the pastor suspects that the girl's family is indulging in black art .
Theodor Storm used the Husumische church and school history as well as the Laß 'Nachrichten as further sources . Furthermore, he referred to his own observations and experiences.
Storm worked on the novella from November 1877 to February the next year. In April 1878 it appeared for the first time in the 15th volume of the Deutsche Rundschau under the title Renate . Two book editions appeared in the same year. In 1886 Renate was included in the collection of short stories Before Times .
content
The frame narrator reports from his early childhood, when he sometimes visited the nearby Schwabstedt . “Legendary and half-extinct history” told a lot there from times gone by. He was particularly interested in a stately farm. An old resident claimed that a witch used to live here.
Years later, the storyteller finds a booklet in his grandfather's drawer that describes the story of the “Schwabstedter Hexe”.
First part of the internal plot
Theodor Storm has divided the internal plot into two parts. In the first, the narrator tells Josias how he met Renate.
Josias describes his poor background: His father is a deacon in Schwesing and can currently support the family. Nevertheless, Josias can attend the Latin school in Husum.
When he returns to town from home on Sunday evening, he sits down in a church to rest. Josias falls asleep and when he wakes up he is locked in the building. A door is opened, he wants to go towards it, but suddenly a dog attacks him. Josias still notices how a young girl whistles the dog back before it loses consciousness.
The sexton takes him to the landlady, who nurses him back to health. He doesn't learn anything more from the girl.
The tale continues five years later. Josias is now a theology student. His father works as a pastor in Schwabstedt. During the holidays Josias moves to his father's new place of work, which has been completely unknown to him until now.
At a village festival he meets the girl who once saved him from the dog. He learns that her name is Renate and that her father is the farmer of a stately farm in Schwabstedt. She introduces Josias to her father, who invites the young man to come to his farm. The next day Josias visits the farm farmer. He is a welcome guest and is well received. Renate tells him about the early death of her mother and that her father suffers from asthma. The further course of the relationship is described very briefly. The frame narrator fades in again and explains that the handwriting is incomplete and partly illegible. He sums up what he can see in a few sentences and then continues the story.
Second part of the internal act
In the second part Josias describes how it comes about that the superstitious villagers see Renate as a witch.
In autumn the fanatical pastor Petrus Goldschmidt visits Josias's father. He triggers unrest and fear of witchcraft in the people through his speeches.
It is precisely at this time that Josias' holidays end and he moves to Halle to complete his studies there. On the last night before his departure, he visits Renate. In doing so, she expresses how the other villagers despise their father out of envy: “But I know very well what they are talking about my father, I know it very well! But I hate them, the stupid and superstitious people! "
The next day the little-wanted village tailor accompanies Josias. He reports all sorts of rumors, especially about the farm farmer. It is said that he is related to the devil.
A few months later, Josias receives a letter from his father. In it he tells of the strange death of the farmer who probably went into the moor during an asthma attack during the night. The farmer's corpse is nowhere to be found. The people believe that the devil has taken the peasants. This superstition is nourished by all kinds of spooks that are now taking place in the moor.
After completing his studies, Josias returned to Schwabstedt as his father's assistant chaplain. At a mass it happens that he hands Renate communion. She receives the host and takes the chalice. She lets the wafer fall out of her mouth. Josias confronts her after mass. She explains that she dreaded drinking from the same goblet as the old people before her, and that the host fell from her mouth: “'O poor old people!' called her. 'I know it was a sin! But when I saw their face, […] I shuddered that I should drink from a cup with them, and the holy host fell into the dust from my lips. [...] '"
Josias does not believe Renate and assumes that she has fallen into disbelief. So he follows the demand of his father "The house of the court farmer is not one, from which the servant of God should marry his wife!" And, when he is dying, gives him the promise never to marry Renate.
On the following Sunday afternoon, Josias notices how some villagers want to drown a woman as a witch in the stream. He recognizes Renate and tries to free her. When he is injured in the process, the people let go of Renate and disappear.
The next day Josias went to Schleswig to apply for another position. In the end he got a job far away from Schwabstedt, where he would do his best for another 20 years. During this time he no longer sees Renate.
Cover letter
A few years later the frame narrator searches his grandfather's drawer again and finds a letter from a certain Pastor Jensen. Obviously it is the cover letter to the booklet. It describes the last years of Josiah.
After Josias retired prematurely for health reasons, he lives with his cousin, the pastor, in Ostenfeld. Both live in harmony and believe "in alliances with the devil and black art".
The frame narrator also reports that Josias broke away from his belief in a devil towards the end of his life. He explained his change of heart with the words: "From my youth an angel comes up to me."
Soon afterwards the rumor spreads in the village that during Sunday mass, which Josias can no longer follow because of his poor health, a woman rides into the village to visit Josias while the pastor is holding mass.
One Sunday the pastor comes home from mass and finds Josias dead. It is now said that the witch von Schwabstedt was responsible for the death.
The letter ends with: "But we, if you have read everything now, you and I, we know better what it was that took the last breath from his lips."
literature
- Theodor Storm: Renate. Novella . 2nd edition. Verlag der Nation, Berlin 1991, ISBN 3-373-00244-3 .
- Ipke Nommensen: Explanations of Theodor Storm's novellas “ Aquis submersus ” and “Renate” . Bange Verlag, Hollfeld / Obfr. 1964.