Der blonde Eckbert

Last updated
"Der blonde Eckbert"
Short story by Ludwig Tieck
Original titleDer blonde Eckbert
CountryPrussia
LanguageGerman
Genre(s) Romanticism, Fairy Tale
Publication
Published inVolksmärchen
Publisher Friedrich Nicolai
Publication date1797
Published in English1823

"Der blonde Eckbert" is a Romantic fairy tale written by Ludwig Tieck at the end of the eighteenth century. [1] It first appeared in 1797 in a collected volume of folktales published by Tieck under the publisher Friedrich Nicolai in Berlin. For some literary scholars and historians, the publication of Eckbert represents the beginning of a specifically German romantic movement. [2] [3]

Contents

Plot summary

Eckbert lives an idyllic life, secluded in a castle deep within a forest in the Harz Mountains, with his wife Bertha. The two find happiness in their refuge away from the corrupting influences of society. They have no children but enjoy life together. Phillip Walther, Eckbert's one contact with society, shatters this harmony during a visit at the outset of the story. Walther had become a close friend of Eckbert over the years as the two frequently rode about Eckbert's demesne. Eckbert feels compelled to share his secret with Walther as his only confidant. He invites Walther to stay the night and enjoy familiarities and dine with Bertha. She reveals the secret of her childhood and begins the frame story.

Bertha escaped from a life of hunger, poverty and abuse at a young age. She found herself at the center of fights between her mother and father. She ran away from their pastoral home, begged on the streets, and made her way into the woods. An old woman took Bertha to a cabin and taught her to weave, spin, and read as they live together with the old woman's animals—a dog and a magical bird. The anthropomorphic bird sings a variety of songs encased by the concept of Waldeinsamkeit, the feeling of being alone in the forest, and the bird lays a precious stone each day. [4] The birds songs always begin and end with Waldeinsamkeit. For instance:

"Waldeinsamkeit,
Mich wieder freut,
Mir geschieht kein Leid,
Hier wohnt kein Neid,
Von neuem mich freut,
Waldeinsamkeit"

Bertha and the old woman find this arrangement pleasing, but Bertha yearns to meet a knight from the stories she has read. After six years of living with the old woman, Bertha steals a bag of precious stones and departs the home, taking the bird with her. As she runs away, she realises that the old woman and the dog won't be able to survive without her. She regrets her decision and wants to head back, but then she comes across her childhood village. She finds out about her parents deaths, and decides to head to the city instead of back to the old woman. She rents a house and gets a housekeeper, but she feels threatened by the fact that the bird keeps singing louder, about how he misses the forest. The bird terrifies her and she strangles it as she leaves and marries Eckbert. Walther listens to this story, reassures her that he can imagine the bird, and the dog "Strohmian". Walther and Bertha retire to bed while Eckbert worries whether his familiarity with Walther and the story will compromise him.

Bertha becomes ill and lies dying a short time after confessing her sins to Walther. Eckbert suspects Walther may be to blame For Bertha's condition. He believes Walther may have been secretly planning for the death of Bertha. His paranoia and suspicions grow more intense after he realized that Walther revealed the name of Bertha's dog, Strohmian, when she never mentioned it during the story. Eckbert encounters Walther in the woods while on a ride and shoots his friend. Eckbert returns home to find his wife as she dies from a guilty conscience.

After the death of his wife and friend, Eckbert finds solace in frequent excursions from his home and befriends a knight named Hugo. Eckbert suffers from a guilty conscience after witnessing his wife's death and murdering his friend. He becomes paranoid and increasingly finds it difficult to disentangle the perception of reality with his imagination. Hugo appears to be his murdered friend Walter and he suspects that Hugo may not be his friend and reveals the secret of Walther's murder. Eckbert fearfully flees into the forest and stumbles upon the place where the old woman found Bertha as a little girl and led her through the forest. He hears a dog barking. He recognizes the sound of the wondrous bird singing. Eventually he meets the old woman who immediately recognizes him. She curses him for Bertha's theft and abrupt departure. The old woman tells Eckbert that she was Walther and Hugo, at the same time, and that he and Bertha are half-siblings from the same noble father. Bertha had been sent away from home to live with a shepherd. This news of his incestuous relationship deeply affects Eckbert's already weakened constitution. He quickly descends into paranoia, delusion, and madness shrieking in agony before he dies.

Interpretation of Romantic themes

Rousseau's ideas about the corruption of bourgeois society begins the story. [5] Eckbert and his wife find themselves happy in their medieval setting. Although this does not extend to Bertha's Arcadian childhood. Her father, a shepherd, struggled to feed her and beat her forcing her to flee from her pastoral home into the woods. In this way, the short tale also highlights the opposition and ambiguity characteristic of romanticism. [6]

The pathological elements of the Romantic experience all color Tieck's short story. [7] The characters experience a range of physical and psychological problems, including, amnesia, abuse, abandonment, incest, immorality and illness. From the outset, the idea of longing Sehnsucht, or a deep emotional bond through a strong interpersonal relationship, drives the story forward. [8] Eckbert feels the guilt of hiding a secret from his friend Walther. He must confess this secret to strengthen their emotional bond, as Tieck suggested "The soul then feels an irresistible impulse to impart itself completely, and reveal its innermost self to the friend, in order to make him so much the more a friend." Eckbert and his wife commit immoral acts and experience retribution for their actions.

Nature's power and the supernatural shape many different elements of the book. [9] Supernatural elements play a role in the main antagonist. The old woman in the woods owns a powerful, gem-laying bird and performs magical acts such as transforming into multiple people. The haunting of Eckbert by this old woman, a revenant from Bertha's past, demonstrates her supernatural qualities. Repetition of the phrase Waldeinsamkeit reinforces the terror of the supernatural within the forest. Eckbert loses his friend in the forest and loses his mind. Here two levels of reality are contrasted, the usual and the supernatural. [10]

Eckbert, Walther, and Bertha all experience a fall characteristic of romanticism as described by M. H. Abrams The Mirror and the Lamp. These characters experience no redemption but only damnation. [11]

Lastly, the frame story and the cyclical nature of the plot follow romantic conventions. [12] Eckbert's life and the story end at the cabin in the woods with the old woman where Bertha's frame story began.

Translations

The tale has been translated into English a number of times:

Comparing the first four translations, academic Edwin Zeydel considered Carlyle's to be by far the best, which "stands head and shoulders above his predecessors" and "towers even higher" above Hare and Froude. He considered Roscoe's and the Popular Tales and Romances translations "usually fair", with Roscoe's translation "succinct and to the point, but unable to convey every finesse of meaning", while Popular Tales and Romances "fails to attain literalness, often produces a false effect and is not infrequently inaccurate", "a trifle better" than Hare and Froude's translation, which he considered "poor and inaccurate in both substance and form", and "literally full of errors". [19]

A revised version of Carlyle's translation was included in German Literary Fairy Tales (1983) as "Fair-haired Eckbert", edited by Robert M. Browning and Frank G. Ryder. [20]

Influence

Tieck's Eckbert fits well within the genre of German romanticism. The character of Bertha has been identified by literary criticism as being based on Tieck's sister Sophie Tieck. [21]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas Carlyle</span> Scottish essayist, historian and philosopher (1795–1881)

Thomas Carlyle was a Scottish essayist, historian, and philosopher from the Scottish Lowlands. A leading writer of the Victorian era, he exerted a profound influence on 19th-century art, literature, and philosophy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ludwig Tieck</span> German poet, writer, and critic (1773–1853)

Johann Ludwig Tieck was a German poet, fiction writer, translator, and critic. He was one of the founding fathers of the Romantic movement in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1801.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Julius Hare (theologian)</span> English theological writer

Julius Charles Hare was an English theological writer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Novalis</span> German poet and writer (1772–1801)

Georg Philipp Friedrich Freiherr von Hardenberg, pen name Novalis, was a German aristocrat and polymath, who was a poet, novelist, philosopher and mystic. He is regarded as an influential figure of Jena Romanticism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Achim von Arnim</span> German poet and novelist (1781–1831)

Carl Joachim Friedrich Ludwig von Arnim, better known as Achim von Arnim, was a German poet, novelist, and together with Clemens Brentano and Joseph von Eichendorff, a leading figure of German Romanticism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fantasy literature</span> Literature set in an imaginary universe

Fantasy literature is literature set in an imaginary universe, often but not always without any locations, events, or people from the real world. Magic, the supernatural and magical creatures are common in many of these imaginary worlds. Fantasy literature may be directed at both children and adults.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Johann Karl August Musäus</span> German author (1735–1787)

Johann Karl August Musäus was a German author. He was one of the first collectors of German folk stories, most celebrated for his Volksmärchen der Deutschen (1782–1787), a collection of German fairy tales retold as satires.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dark Romanticism</span> Literary subgenre of Romanticism

Dark Romanticism is a literary sub-genre of Romanticism, reflecting popular fascination with the irrational, the demonic and the grotesque. Often conflated with Gothic fiction, it has shadowed the euphoric Romantic movement ever since its 18th-century beginnings. Edgar Allan Poe is often celebrated as one of the supreme exponents of the tradition. Dark Romanticism focuses on human fallibility, self-destruction, judgement, punishment, as well as the psychological effects of guilt and sin.

Blond Eckbert is an opera by Scottish composer Judith Weir. The composer wrote the English-language libretto herself, basing it on the cryptic supernatural short story Der blonde Eckbert by the German Romantic writer Ludwig Tieck. Weir completed the original two-act version of the opera in 1993, making Blond Eckbert her third full-length work in the genre. Like its predecessors, it was received well by the critics. She later produced a one act "pocket" version of the work. This uses chamber forces rather than the full orchestra of the two act version and omits the chorus. The pocket version receives frequent performances, especially in Germany and Austria, while the full version is available in a recording featuring the original cast.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Mortal Immortal</span> 1833 short story by Mary Shelley

"The Mortal Immortal" is a short story from 1833 written by Mary Shelley. It tells the story of a man named Winzy, who drinks an elixir which makes him immortal. At first, immortality appears to promise him eternal tranquility. However, it soon becomes apparent that he is cursed to endure eternal psychological torture, as everything he loves dies around him.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sophie Tieck</span> German writer, playwright and poet

Sophie Tieck, later known as Sophie Bernhardi or Sophie von Knorring, was a German Romantic writer and poet. Her role as a writer of the Romantic period was overshadowed by her brother Ludwig and her first husband, August Ferdinand Bernhardi. She was only really appreciated as an important writer when her letters were published in the 1960s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Romantic literature in English</span> Era in English-language literature

Romanticism was an artistic, literary, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe toward the end of the 18th century. Scholars regard the publishing of William Wordsworth's and Samuel Coleridge's Lyrical Ballads in 1798 as probably the beginning of the movement in England, and the crowning of Queen Victoria in 1837 as its end. Romanticism arrived in other parts of the English-speaking world later; in the United States, about 1820.

<i>Die schöne Melusine</i> Concert overture by Felix Mendelssohn

Ouvertüre zum Märchen von der schönen Melusine, Op. 32, is a concert overture by Felix Mendelssohn written in 1834. It is generally referred to as Die schöne Melusine in modern concert programming and recordings, and is sometimes rendered in English as The Fair Melusine.

<i>The Woman with the Spiders Web</i> Print by Caspar David Friedrich

The Woman with the Spider's Web is a small c. 1803 print by the German Romantic painter Caspar David Friedrich, made into a woodcut the same year by his brother Christian Friedrich, a carpenter and furniture maker.

<i>Woman with a Raven at an Abyss</i> c. 1803/04 print by the German Romantic painter Caspar David Friedrich

Woman with a Raven at an Abyss is a c. 1803/04 print by the German Romantic painter Caspar David Friedrich, made into a woodcut by his brother Christian Friedrich, a carpenter and furniture maker, around the same time.

<i>Der Runenberg</i> 1802 fairy tale by Ludwig Tieck

Der Runenberg is a fairy tale written by German writer, translator and poet Ludwig Tieck. It was written in 1802 and first published in 1804 in the Taschenbuch für Kunst und Laune. It was later published in the 1812 collection Phantasus. The tale is seen as one of the earliest stories in the literary movement of Romanticism.

The eighteenth-century Gothic novel is a genre of Gothic fiction published between 1764 and roughly 1820, which had the greatest period of popularity in the 1790s. These works originated the term "Gothic" to refer to stories which evoked the sentimental and supernatural qualities of medieval romance with the new genre of the novel. After 1820, the eighteenth-century Gothic novel receded in popularity, largely overtaken by the related genre of historical fiction as pioneered by Walter Scott. The eighteenth-century Gothic was also followed by new genres of Gothic fiction like the Victorian penny dreadful.

<i>Popular Tales and Romances of the Northern Nations</i>

Popular Tales and Romances of the Northern Nations is an anthology of translated German stories in three volumes, published in 1823.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wake Not the Dead</span> Short story by Ernst Raupach

"Wake Not the Dead" is a short story by Ernst Raupach published in Minerva magazine in 1823. It was one of the earliest vampire stories. The story was translated into English in Popular Tales and Romances of the Northern Nations (1823) without crediting Raupach, and was often misattributed to Ludwig Tieck in the English-speaking world.

References

  1. Saul, Nicholas (2009). The Cambridge Companion to German Romanticism. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge. pp. 85–91.
  2. Corkhill, Allan (1978). The Motif of "Fate" in the Works of Ludwig Tieck. Stuttgart: Akademischer Verlag H.-D. Heinz. pp. 9–15, 155–157.
  3. Hahn, Walter L (1967). "Tiecks Blonder Eckbert als Gestaltung romantischer Theorie". Proceedings: Pacific Northwest Conference on Foreign Languages. 18 (1): 69–78.
  4. Hasselbach, Karlheinz (1987). "Ludwig Tiecks Der blonde Eckbert: Ansichten zu seiner historischen Bewertung". Neophilologus. 71 (1): 90–101. doi:10.1007/BF00556708. S2CID   161499843.
  5. Rousseau, Jean Jacques (1921) [1763]. Emile, or on Education. London: J.M. Dent & Sons. pp. 17–22.
  6. Clive, Geoffrey (1960). The Romantic Enlightenment: Ambiguity and Paradox in the Western Mind, 1750-1920. New York: Meridian Books. pp. 19, 51.
  7. Saul, Nicholas (2009). The Cambridge Companion to German Romanticism. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge. pp. 212–213.
  8. Saul, Nicholas (2009). The Cambridge Companion to German Romanticism. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge. pp. 22–23.
  9. Freund, Winfried (1990). oterarische Phantastik: Die phantastische Novelle von Tieck bis Storm, Sprache und Literature, vol. 129. Stuttgart: W. Kohlhammer. pp. 16–26.
  10. Saul, Nicholas (2009). The Cambridge Companion to German Romanticism. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge. pp. 62–63.
  11. Abrams, M. H. (1971). The Mirror and the Lamp: Romantic Theory and the Critical Tradition. Oxford University Press. p. 416. ISBN   9780195014716.
  12. Birrell, Gordon. "The Boundless Present: Space and Time in the Literary Fairy Tales of Novalis and Tieck". University of North Carolina Studies in Germanic Languages and Literature. 95 (1). University of North Carolina Press: 178. doi:10.5149/9781469657127_birrell via JSTOR.
  13. Tieck, Ludwig (1823). "Auburn Egbert". Popular Tales and Romances of the Northern Nations . Vol. 1. London: W. Simpkin, R. Marshall, and J. H. Bohte. pp. 293–332.
  14. Tieck, Ludwig (1826). "Auburn Egbert". The German Novelists. Vol. 3. Translated by Roscoe, Thomas. London: H. Colburn. pp. 102–132.
  15. Tieck, Ludwig (1827). "The Fair-Haired Eckbert". Tales by Musaeus, Tieck, Richter. Vol. 3. Translated by Carlyle, Thomas. London: Chapman and Hall. pp. 159–174.
  16. Tieck, Ludwig (1845). "The White Egbert". In Hare, Julius; Froude, James Anthony (eds.). Tales from the "Phantasus," etc. of Ludwig Tieck. London: James Burns.
  17. "The Fair-Haired Egbert". Christmas Eve; or Tales for Youth. Translated by Burette, Madame. London: Whittacker and Co. 1849.
  18. Sammons, Jeffrey L. (2009). Kuno Francke's Edition of the German Classics (1913–15): A Historical and Critical Overview. Peter Lang. pp. 138–139. ISBN   978-1-4331-0677-4.
  19. Zeydel, Edwin H. (1931). Ludwig Tieck and England. Princeton: Princeton University Press. pp. 186–188. hdl:2027/mdp.39015003502757.
  20. Browning, Robert Marcellus; Ryder, Frank Glessner, eds. (2002) [1983]. "Fair-haired Eckbert". German Literary Fairy Tales. The German Library. Vol. 30. New York: Continuum. pp. 30–46. ISBN   9780826402776.
  21. Corkhill, Alan (2010). "Keeping it in the Family? The Creative Collaborations of Sophie and Dorothea Tieck". In Fischer, Gerhard; Vassen, Florian (eds.). Collective Creativity Collaborative Work in the Sciences, Literature and the Arts. Amsterdam: Rodopi. pp. 121 ff. ISBN   978-9042032743.