Tabamatus

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Tabamatus (German "intangible") is the title of a novel by the Estonian writer Jaan Kross (1920–2007).

Frequency of publication

The novel was published in 1993 in Estonian by the Kupar publishing house . In the first edition of the Estonian original it comprises 303 pages. The novel was published as an audio book in 1994, and in 2003 the second edition was published as the eleventh volume of the author's collected works. The book bears the subtitle Jüri Vilmsi romaan ("Jüri Vilms' Roman") after one of the three main characters .

Novel plot

Estonia 1941/42, during the German occupation in World War II . The first-person narrator, a young lawyer at Tartu University named Alo, behind whom the real person Aleksander Looring (1910–1942) hides, is on the run from the German henchmen and their Estonian henchmen. After the June swing, Looring had agreed to a certain extent with the new rulers, which he was now resented. On the other hand, before the political upheaval, he had dealt intensively with the lawyer and socialist politician Jüri Vilms (1889–1918), one of the founding fathers of the democratic Republic of Estonia. Vilms drove to Finland across the frozen Baltic Sea in early 1918 to promote Estonian sovereignty abroad. He and his companions were probably executed in Helsinki in April 1918 on German orders. The details of his death have not yet been fully clarified.

In addition to these two, the third central figure is the Swedish polar explorer Salomon August Andrée (1854–1897), who wanted to reach the North Pole with a daring balloon flight in 1897 (and never came back). It was not until 1930 that the tragic fate of Andrée and his two companions could be clarified. In the novel, the polar explorer becomes the childhood fascination of the young Jüri Vilms.

Alo finds shelter in West Estonia in his former school, whose director Hilja is a casual acquaintance of his: he had met her once during his research on Vilms, because her mother was a lover of Vilms. A love affair now develops between Alo and Hilja, to whom the historian retells the story of Vilms' life. Passages from Andrée's life are also woven in. At the same time, Alo asks himself whether his actions in the first “red year” in Estonia were morally correct and justifiable or whether he went too far and thus compromised himself.

When Hilja has to go to Tallinn for interrogation in connection with allegations against the caretaker of her school , Alo becomes careless and leaves his hiding place. He wants to see a film in the village, but is discovered, arrested, interrogated and finally executed. The reason for this, however, is not his “red” article, but his preoccupation with one of the founding fathers of the Estonian Republic, about whom the German occupiers did not want to know. Before the execution, however, Hilja was able to visit Alo twice in prison. She informed him that she was pregnant and that her father was not her mother's husband, but Jüri Vilms. Thus she carries the grandchild of the executed Jüri Vilms and the child of the Vilms researcher to be executed under her heart, and this child will live in contrast to the father and grandfather. It is intangible for those in power, which explains the title of the novel.

Narrative style and possibilities for interpretation

As is often the case in his literary works, Kross uses Plutarch's concept of parallel biographies (βίοι παράλληλοι). Real personalities mix with elements of the key novel and fictional characters. The focus is on Vilms (as martyrs of the Republic of Estonia), Andrée (as martyrs of humanity's urge to research) and Looring (as martyrs of truth and truthfulness).

The parallel between the author and his protagonist is also striking: Like Looring, Jaan Kross also tried to come to terms with power, as recent research has shown. Since the novel is Jaan Kross' first novel, which is written in a time without any censorship, the author probably wanted to paint as honest a picture as possible of his generation, which was looking for the "third way" between communism and National Socialism and was partially lost.

Trivia

HMS Svensksund (1891)

The Swedish ship HMS Svensksund accompanied Andrée on his balloon flight in 1897 and brought the remains back to Stockholm in 1930 when a Norwegian ship discovered the last whereabouts of the expedition . A delegation from Åland to Stockholm took the same ship in 1918 , in which Vilms should have participated.

Translations

  • 1993: Swedish - “Motstånd. Novels by Jüri Vilms "
  • 1994: Finnish - "Kuningasajatus. Jüri Vilmsin romaani "
  • 2001: French - “Dans l'insaisissable. Le roman de Jüri Vilms "

A translation into German is not yet available.

literature

  • Mati Graf: Legend ja selle uurija, in: Keel ja Kirjandus 5/1993, pp. 304–308.
  • Erich Wulff: “Surviving in the intangible. On Jaan Kross' novel Tabamatus ”. In: DAS ARGUMENT 258 (6/2004), pp. 850–856.
  • Eneken Laanes: Commitment and Complicity: Jaan Kross' Historical Fiction, in: Different inputs - same output? Autonomy and dependence of the arts under different social-economic conditions: the Estonian example. Maastricht: Shaker 2006, pp. 62-71 (Studia Fenno-Ugrica Groningana 3).
  • Cornelius Hasselblatt : Tabamata tabamatus. Katse läheneda Jaan Krossi romaanile “Tabamatus” , in: Looming 2/2020, pp. 278–287.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.raamatukoi.ee/cgi-bin/raamat?14631
  2. ^ Entry in the Estonian Union Catalog Ester
  3. ↑ http://valguraamatukogu.blogspot.com/2010/04/aleksander-looring-100.html
  4. ↑ German troops under Rüdiger von der Goltz took part in the Finnish Civil War and landed in Finland on April 3, 1918.
  5. ↑ Exhaustive on this: Seppo Zetterberg : Jüri Vilmsin kuolema. Viron varapääministerin Teloitus Helsingissä 13.4.1918. Helsinki: Otava 1997. 352 pp.
  6. ↑ http://www.eestigiid.ee/?Person=nimi&PYear=aasta&start=240&ItemID=325
  7. ↑ http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Tabamatus.-a016465961
  8. ↑ Cf. especially Jaan Undusk : Jaan Krossi nurjunud katsed saada nõukogude kirjanikuks. Asumisaastad 1951-1954, in: Tuna 2/2017, pp. 54-74; also: Jaan Krossi kirjavahetus Alma Vaarmani ja Huko Lumetiga aastail 1951–1954, in: Tuna 2/2017, 75–90; 3/2017, 97-118; 4/2017, 79-107.
  9. ↑ Cornelius Hasselblatt : Tabamata tabamatus. Katse läheneda Jaan Krossi romaanile "Tabamatus" , in: Looming 2/2020, p. 287.