Undine (Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué)
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Undine is an art fairy tale by Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué . It appeared in his magazine Jahreszeiten and as a book in 1811 .
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At the behest of his adored Bertalda, the foster daughter of a duke, knight Huldbrand rides through a haunted forest and reaches a headland with an old fisher couple and their foundling daughter Undine. Their irresistible charm leads to the marriage in the seclusion when the tide rises . Again and again a river spirit appears in the form of an old man. It is Undine's uncle , Kühleborn. Her father sent her to have a soul through marriage to a human being. In town, she becomes friends with Bertalda and reveals that she is the lost daughter of the fishermen who fell into the river as a child. The vain reacts extremely offended. At Ritter Huldbrand's castle, his love for Undine, which he finds a little scary, turns back to Bertalda. That angered Kühleborn. Again and again Undine has to protect her husband. Finally, in anger, he wishes her back to the river. He mourns, but marries Bertalda. When she, ignorant, opens the closed castle well, Undine, following the elementary laws, comes up and kisses Huldbrand weeping to death.
First chapter. How the knight came to the fisherman
An old fisherman lives on a headland behind a haunted forest that other people have avoided. He himself often crosses the forest to sell his fish in town. He feels protected by his piety. Knight Huldbrand comes out of the forest to the fisherman and asks him to camp for the night. He gets along well with him and his wife quickly. Then her foster daughter Undine comes and wants, not at all shy, to have told the knight about his adventures in the forest. The fisherman doesn't want to hear anything about the haunted house in the evening. Undine runs out of the house.
Second chapter. How Undine had gotten to the fisherman
The knight calls after Undine, but she does not come. The housewife has gone to bed, the fisherman and his guest are drinking wine, but involuntarily hoping for signs that she will come back. The fisherman tells how her little child fell into the water fifteen years ago and in the evening a wet girl of about three stood at the door who wanted to be called Undine. At the end of the story it storms and the brook has overflowed its banks. The men run out.
Third chapter. How they found Undine again
The knight finds Undine on an island formed by the flood. She wants to keep Huldbrand with her on the island and kisses him while the fisherman scolds and cries. Undine is only ready to leave the island when the fisherman agrees that the knight will tell about the forest. When you return to the hut, you are very welcome. You have breakfast outside in the dawn. Undine and Huldbrand get closer.
Chapter Four. About what the knight had met in the forest
Knight Huldbrand tells how he met a beautiful but haughty Fraulein Bertalda at the tournament festival in town, who sent him to the disreputable forest for a trial. When it is mentioned, Undine bites the knight's hand. Huldbrand goes on to say that at first he had no concerns, but then that he was afraid of getting lost in the forest. Then he saw a figure in a tree which he initially took to be a bear, but which threatened him with a human voice to roast him. His horse ran in fear towards a ravine and was only saved from falling by a stream, which at first he thought was a white man. Then there was a little ugly fellow who wanted reward for his rescue and chased him at a gallop, but laughed at his gold pieces and showed him the riches of the goblins underground. The knight fled again. Then an indistinct white face appeared, which finally drove him to the fisherman's hut. After the story, the fisherman explains the way to the city to the knight, but because of the swollen river he cannot leave yet.
Fifth chapter. How the knight lived on the top of the lake
The knight begins to feel at home with the fishermen, as if the rest of the world had become alien to him. To old people, young people seem like fiancés who stand by them in old age. Everyone's mood goes dark when the wine runs out. Undine finds a wine barrel in the river. Even the rain seems to obey her and waits until they are inside with it. The fisherman feels guilty about the previous owner of the wine, but the knight promises to find him and pay him off. Undine thinks that's stupid, everyone is next to himself. She is insulted. If Undine is insulted, she reacts offended.
Sixth chapter. From a wedding
A priest comes and asks for shelter, Undine is unusually accommodating. The father wanted to go to the bishop to tell him about the flood. The tide just seems to have been waiting to wash him ashore here. He notices that the headland is now an island. Undine and Huldbrand are married by the father. Undine is very serious about this. She has two beautiful wedding rings from her parents that she has never shown anyone. The tall white man looks in through the window at the wedding ceremony.
Seventh chapter. What happened next on the wedding evening
After the wedding, Undine is in a teasing mood again. When the pastor admonishes her to improve her soul, she mentions that she has none. When she tries to explain it, she bursts into tears that a soul must be dear, but also so heavy. The priest finds nothing wrong with her, only strange things, and recommends caution, love and loyalty to the knight.
Eighth chapter. The day after the wedding
The knight dreams of evil spirits in the moonlight at night, but sees nothing evil in Undine's eyes. Undine is suddenly serious and grateful to her foster parents. Undine reveals to him on the same river island on which they have sat before that she is a water creature that her father had sent here so that she could acquire a soul through marriage.
Chapter ninth. How the knight took his young wife with him
The next morning Undine reports that her uncle, the river, has withdrawn and that they can now travel. The knight first considers staying, but agrees that this would only increase the pain of the old people. After a short, painful farewell, you leave the clergyman. In the forest they meet Undine's uncle Kühleborn, as an escort against the earth spirits, but Undine does not want to see him. Father Heilmann doesn't even notice him, even though he's talking to him.
Chapter ten. How they lived in the city
Huldbrand has been missing in town, including from Bertalda, whose foster parents have come. She gets along very well with Undine, who is thought to be a freed princess. Bertalda is supposed to come to Huldbrand's Ringstetten Castle at the sources of the Danube. Kühleborn comes out of a fountain and reveals something to Undine that she wants to announce at Bertalda's name party.
Eleventh chapter. Bertalda's name celebration
At Bertalda's name party, Undine sings and reveals that Bertalda is the daughter of the fishermen who were also invited. But she is angry that she should be from this stand, which the fishermen do not want her to do. Her foster mother finds skin marks that the fisherwoman knows about. Undine is shocked and complains about the harsh customs of the people, for whom she cannot help.
Chapter Twelve. How they left the imperial city
You are leaving. The people are badly disposed towards Bertalda, their foster parents have rejected them. The fisherman only wants to take her in when she comes to him as a fisherman's whore through the forest. She asks Undine for forgiveness. Undine offers her eternal friendship and that she will come to Burg Ringstetten.
Chapter thirteen. How they lived at Ringstetten Castle
Huldbrand sticks more and more to Bertalda, who gets used to an imperious manner. Kühleborn gives Bertalda fainting spells. The fisherman writes that his wife is dead and that Bertalda could stay away if she only did nothing to Undine. Undine has the castle fountain closed with a heavy stone and draws signs on it to keep Kühleborn away. Bertalda is against it, she needs the water for her skin. When Undine explains it to her husband, he is touched by her good heart. She asks him never to scold her in a body of water because her relatives would then drag her down to them. Bertalda has been reset to run away. Huldbrand follows her. Undine rides after him, scared, when she hears that he wants to go to the Schwarztal.
Fourteenth Chapter. How Bertalda drove home with the knight
In the Schwarztal, Huldbrand first finds Kühleborn, who lies in wait for him in Bertalda's form, then Bertalda herself. She likes to come with him, but is tired and soon can't go any further. Huldbrand's horse has grown so wild that he cannot pick her up. Then a coachman comes and whispers in the horse's ear, which calms it down. The couple talk confidentially in their car, when the coachman becomes Kühleborn. Undine has to save the two of them from him.
Chapter fifteen. The trip to Vienna
Bertalda is grateful and shy and doesn't want to know anything about the well out of shame and the black valley out of horror, so she doesn't learn anything more. During a walk to the sources of the Danube, you burst out with the idea of taking a Danube trip, which Undine immediately joins in. You enjoy the ride, but Kühleborn shows his power. Undine has to scold the water again and again, the knight becomes annoyed and the sailors become suspicious. Bertalda is playing with her gold collar over the surface of the water, and it is torn from her. The knight scolds. Undine takes a beautiful coral collar out of the water and wants to hand it to Bertalda as a replacement, but he curses her loudly to her relatives. She cries because she has to go now, but asks him to remain loyal to her so that she can protect him from them. It flows into the Danube.
Sixteenth Chapter. From Huldbrands for your success
At first, Undine often appears to the knight in dreams, then less often. The fisherman demands his daughter back. Huldbrand wants to marry Bertalda, and the fisherman finally agrees. Father Heilmann advises against it because he saw Undine alive as a dream face. But Huldbrand and Bertalda have made up their minds.
Chapter seventeenth. The knight's dream
Huldbrand dreams that he is flying with swans across the sea and listening to Kühleborn say to Undine that she must kill Huldbrand if he remarries. Undine knows that Huldbrand is watching and advises him to keep the well closed.
Chapter eighteenth. How the knight Huldbrand held a wedding
The mood at the wedding is depressed and just pretended to be happy. Bertalda has the well opened because the water would be good for her skin. This enables Undine to enter the castle, which is why Undine now has to do her duty and kill Huldbrand, which she finally does with a kiss.
Chapter Nineteenth. How the knight Huldbrand was buried
Father Heilmann comes because the monk who performed the wedding leaves, frightened. He tries to comfort Bertalda, the fisherman is caught. Undine appears at the funeral and cannot be turned away. Then there is a spring that flows around the grave.
style
The narrative uses fairytale, simple locations and characters. It is essentially the forest that is feared, the fisherman's hut and the castle or the knight, the bride and the rival. Time and place are indeterminate (apparently Middle Ages; Ringstetten Castle is near the Danube springs).
The first nine chapters at the Fischerhütte bring Huldbrand and Undine together step by step, in a rhythm of three chapters each, through unnoticed influences from Kühleborn. The dispute at Bertalda's name party is a certain climax. The second half brings the alienation, with changes of location also after three chapters, up to Huldbrand's wedding with Bertalda. The last chapter only contains the funeral scene. At the beginning the water is compared to two loving arms who seem to reach for the headland. This corresponds to the two branches of water from the spring at the end, which includes the grave of your lover.
The aquatic beings are repeatedly described as deceptions because the viewer cannot be sure whether they really exist. They sometimes speak in verse. Undine's uncle Kühleborn appears one moment as a tall white man, the next as Bach again. In connection with Undine are lightning-fast waves and clouds described front of the moon, which spread to the knight Kühleborn and owned by him Stallion foam , roar and gush . The narrator also addresses the reader directly and speaks of the nature of people in order to make Huldbrand's feelings understandable.
The clearest contrast is between the Christian human world and the elemental world , which is also compared with light and dark, house and wilderness. The former represents most of all the honorable fisherman, whose faith holds the illusions of the forest under its spell, the latter Undine, to whom the elements obey. The complete absence of confrontation and moral judgment is peculiar. The fisherman describes Undine as a naughty child who can never be angry. She is always more popular in the city and as the lord of the castle than the imperious Bertalda, with whom she nevertheless always seeks reconciliation. The distribution of roles between bride and rival is ultimately not clear.
Work history
Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué published the story in his magazine Jahreszeiten in 1811 and in the same year as a book, preceded by a poem to his heroine. He had the material from a writing by Paracelsus : Liber de Nymphis, Sylphis, Pygmaeis et Salamandris, et de caeteris spiritibus . The romantic recourse to fairy tales and legends is typical for Fouqué. The Melusine , Staufenberger or folk tales of the swan maiden or false bride type would be appropriate here ( AaTh 400; 313). At the same time, the story should also have autobiographical features.
The book has been translated into many languages. It influenced many later literary works: Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Mermaid , Oscar Wilde's The Fisherman and His Soul , Giraudoux 's Ondine and 1961 Ingeborg Bachmann's Undine goes .
Setting of the story as an opera
- Undine , magic opera by ETA Hoffmann (world premiere 1816 in Berlin)
- Undine , magic opera by Albert Lortzing (first performance in Magdeburg in 1845)
- Undine , unfinished opera by Sergei Prokofjew (composed 1904–1907)
swell
- Undine, a story. In: The Seasons. A quarterly journal for romantic poems, booklet [1], 1811, pp. 1–189 ( digitized and full text in the German text archive ).
- Undine. A story. With a comment. Reclam, Stuttgart 2001 ISBN 3-15-000491-8 .
- Undine. Narrative. Edited by Joseph Kiermeier-Debre. First Edition Library Series. dtv, Munich 1999, 2nd edition 2005, ISBN 978-3-423-02650-5 (text from 1811).
- Undine. A story. Sixth “legitimate” edition. Ferdinand Dümmler, Berlin 1849 ( digitized version ).
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué: Undine. A story. With a comment. Reclam-Verlag, Stuttgart 2001. ISBN 3-15-000491-8 pp. 13, 17, 19-20, 22, 28, 77, 80.