''Der Runenberg'' is a
fairy tale
A fairy tale (alternative names include fairytale, fairy story, magic tale, or wonder tale) is a short story that belongs to the folklore genre. Such stories typically feature magic (paranormal), magic, incantation, enchantments, and mythical ...
written by German writer, translator and poet
Ludwig Tieck
Johann Ludwig Tieck (; ; 31 May 177328 April 1853) 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.
Early life
Tieck was born in Be ...
. 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
Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic, literary, musical, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century, and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate ...
.
Plot
A melancholic hunter named Christian meets a stranger in the mountains. The stranger accompanies Christian for a while, and Christians tells him about his background - Christian's father, a gardener in a castle, is disappointed with him, because his son does not share the same interests as him, but rather is guided by his longing for the mountains and nature. Christian eventually leaves home and learns how to hunt from an old forester.
After a while Christian and the stranger part ways. On the advice of the stranger, Christian climbs the "Runenberg", doubtful and afraid but inquisitive. After a while he finds a window and peers through it; he sees a singing woman undressing. The naked woman hangs him a strange tablet with signs drawn on it, set with precious stones. Christian falls asleep.
When he wakes up, he can only vaguely remember what has happened and convinces himself it was a dream. A short time later he arrives in a small village and is relieved to finally be amongst people again. At the village church he meets his future wife, the beautiful Elisabeth. In order to be near to Elisabeth he takes a job as a gardener with her father.
Christian is a hard worker, and 6 months later he marries Elisabeth. The couple are very happy together and soon start a family. After a long time, Christian decides to visit his hometown. On the way, he meets his father at the foot of the fateful Runenberg. He tells Christian that after his mother died, he became very lonely and thus decided to try to find his son. The two return to Christian's house and the father becomes part of the family. They live happily oncemore. One day a stranger comes to the village and stays at Christian's house. After three months the stranger leaves, leaving behind a large sum of money. Christian is told to take care of it; if the stranger does not return within a year, it is his to keep.
A year passes, and the money becomes Christian's. He increasingly suffers from paranoia - the money has corrupted him, according to his father. He wanders aimlessly until he meets an old woman in the forest. She gives him back the missing tablet, which completely captivates him.
Christian disappears down a mineshaft and is presumed dead. After many years he returns to his family, who hardly recognise him. In the meantime, his father and parents-in-law have died. Elisabeth has had to remarry due to poverty, and has birthed more children. Christian shows his now-impoverished wife a sack of worthless stones, which nonetheless seem valuable to him. He then returns to his forest wife.
Themes
A central theme of the text is that of the
Venusberg, which can be seen in Tieck's story ''Der getreue Eckbart und der Tannhäuser'', and several other
Romantic tales, such as
Joseph von Eichendorff
Joseph Freiherr von Eichendorff (10 March 178826 November 1857) was a German poet, novelist, playwright, literary critic, translator, and anthologist. Eichendorff was one of the major writers and critics of Romanticism.Cf. J. A. Cuddon: '' ...
's
''Das Marmorbild''. In ''Der Runenberg'', the mountain is unhospitable, a desolate place in which dwells the "supernaturally beautiful woman", a manifestation of Venus. The bleak environment of the mountain is contrasted with the wholesome domestic environment of the fertile, light plain where Christian lives with his family.
''Der Runenberg'' shares many themes with Tieck's 1797 story ''
Der blonde Eckbert
Der blonde Eckbert is a Romantic fairy tale written by Ludwig Tieck at the end of the eighteenth century. It first appeared in 1797 in a collected volume of folktales published by Tieck under the publisher Friedrich Nicolai in Berlin. For some ...
'' - both stories feature a "Waldweib", a "woman of the woods"; this manifests itself in ''Der Runenberg'' in the Venus-like figure which Christian encounters, and in ''Der blonde Eckbert'' as the woman with whom Bertha lives in her childhood. In both tales, this woman possesses supernatural qualities,
and is capable of transforming into different forms; in ''Der Runenberg'' it can be argued that the Venus-like woman, the stranger who brings Christian gold and the ugly ''Waldweib'' are all manifestations of the same being.
References
{{reflist
External links
*
The full text in English at
Wikisource
Wikisource is an online digital library of free-content textual sources on a wiki, operated by the Wikimedia Foundation. Wikisource is the name of the project as a whole and the name for each instance of that project (each instance usually rep ...
The full text in Germanat
Project Gutenberg
Project Gutenberg (PG) is a Virtual volunteering, volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, as well as to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks."
It was founded in 1971 by American writer Michael S. Hart and is the ...
German fairy tales
German short stories
Works by Ludwig Tieck