"Lenore", sometimes translated as "Leonora", "Leonore" or "Ellenore", is a

poem Poetry (derived from the Greek '' poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meaning ...

written by German author

Gottfried August Bürger Gottfried August Bürger (31 December 1747 – 8 June 1794) was a German poet. His ballads were very popular in Germany. His most noted ballad, '' Lenore'', found an audience beyond readers of the German language in an English and Russian ...

in 1773, and published in 1774 in the ''

Göttinger Musenalmanach ''Göttinger Musenalmanach'' was the title of two different literary magazines published in Göttingen, Germany, one running from 1770 to 1807, the other 1896 to 1953. A ''Musen-Almanach'' was a kind of literary annual, and the Göttingen magazin ...

''. "Lenore" is generally characterised as being part of the 18th-century

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

ballads A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads derive from the medieval French ''chanson balladée'' or '' ballade'', which were originally "dance songs". Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and ...

, and although the character that returns from its grave in the poem is not considered to be a

vampire A vampire is a mythical creature that subsists by feeding on the Vitalism, vital essence (generally in the form of blood) of the living. In European folklore, vampires are undead, undead creatures that often visited loved ones and caused mi ...

, the poem has been very influential on

vampire literature Vampire literature covers the spectrum of literary work concerned principally with the subject of vampires. The literary vampire first appeared in 18th-century poetry, before becoming one of the stock figures of gothic fiction with the publicat ...

. William Taylor, who published the first English translation of the ballad, would later claim that "no German poem has been so repeatedly translated into English as 'Ellenore.

Background

In the 18th century there were more than eighteen hundred different German-speaking political entities in Central Europe. During this period, due to influences from the

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ide ...

and the Enlightenment, Latin and French dominated over the German language, and

German literature German literature () comprises those literary texts written in the German language. This includes literature written in Germany, Austria, the German parts of Switzerland and Belgium, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, South Tyrol in Italy and to a less ...

had mostly been modelled after

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

and

Italian literature Italian literature is written in the Italian language, particularly within Italy. It may also refer to literature written by Italians or in other languages spoken in Italy, often languages that are closely related to modern Italian, includin ...

. These factors led few scholars to recognize the existence of a distinct

German culture The culture of Germany has been shaped by major intellectual and popular currents in Europe, both religious and secular. Historically, Germany has been called ''Das Land der Dichter und Denker'' (the country of poets and thinkers). German cult ...

or literature. In order to gain acknowledgement for the German language and thus acquire a distinctively German literary tradition from which it would be possible to get a sense of nationality, philosopher

Johann Gottfried Herder Johann Gottfried von Herder ( , ; 25 August 174418 December 1803) was a German philosopher, theologian, poet, and literary critic. He is associated with the Enlightenment, '' Sturm und Drang'', and Weimar Classicism. Biography Born in Mohr ...

believed that it was necessary to preserve German idioms, for they are the element that gives a language its idiosyncrasies and distinguishes it from other languages:

The idioms are the elegances of which no neighbor can deprive us and they are sacred to the tutelary goddess of the language. They are the elegances woven into the spirit of the language, and this spirit is destroyed if they are taken out. ..Take the idiomatic out of a language and you take its spirit and power. ..The idioms of the time of the ''Meistersänger'', of Opitz and Logau, of
Luther Luther may refer to: People * Martin Luther (1483–1546), German monk credited with initiating the Protestant Reformation * Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968), American minister and leader in the American civil rights movement * Luther (gi ...
, etc. should be collected ..And if they are good for nothing else they will at least open the way to the student of the language so he can understand the genius of the nationality, and explain one by the other. The idioms of every language are the impressions of its country, its nationality, its history.

After reading ''

Reliques of Ancient English Poetry The ''Reliques of Ancient English Poetry'' (sometimes known as ''Reliques of Ancient Poetry'' or simply Percy's ''Reliques'') is a collection of ballads and popular songs collected by Bishop Thomas Percy and published in 1765. Sources The basis ...

'' by Thomas Percy and

James Macpherson James Macpherson (Gaelic: ''Seumas MacMhuirich'' or ''Seumas Mac a' Phearsain''; 27 October 1736 – 17 February 1796) was a Scottish writer, poet, literary collector and politician, known as the "translator" of the Ossian cycle of epic poem ...

's Ossianic poems, Herder thought the means through which Germany could create a unique literature of its own would be to collect

folk song Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has ...

s among the lower classes of Germany:

It will remain eternally true that if we have no ''
Volk The German noun ''Volk'' () translates to people, both uncountable in the sense of ''people'' as in a crowd, and countable (plural ''Völker'') in the sense of '' a people'' as in an ethnic group or nation (compare the English term '' folk ...
'', we shall have no public, no nationality, no literature of our own which shall live and work in us. Unless our literature is founded on our ''Volk'', we shall write eternally for closet sages and disgusting critics out of whose mouths and stomachs we shall get back what we have given.

Bürger answered Herder's plea by publishing "Lenore", which had been suggested to him by a

Low German : : : : : (70,000) (30,000) (8,000) , familycolor = Indo-European , fam2 = Germanic , fam3 = West Germanic , fam4 = North Sea Germanic , ancestor = Old Saxon , ancestor2 = Middle ...

Volkslied Volkslied (literally: folk song) is a genre of popular songs in German which are traditionally sung. While many of them were first passed orally, several collections were published from the late 18th century. Later, some popular songs were also ...

, similar to the Scottish ballad of " Sweet William's Ghost" collected in Percy's ''Reliques''. William Taylor has also compared Lenore to "an obscure English ballad called '

The Suffolk Miracle The Suffolk Miracle is Child ballad 272 and is listed as #246 in the Roud Folk Song Index. Versions of the ballad have been collected from traditional singers in England, Ireland and North America. The song is also known as "The Holland Handkerc ...

, in which a young man appears to his sweetheart, who has no knowledge that he had already died, and carries her on horseback for forty miles until the man complains he has a headache, which leads the maid to tie her handkerchief around his head. After they depart, the young maid returns home and is informed by her father that her lover had in fact died, whereupon he goes to the young man's grave and digs up the bones, finding that his daughter's handkerchief is tied around the skull.

Synopsis

Although the Battle of Prague is over, William, the fiancé of a young woman named Lenore, has not returned from the

Seven Years' War The Seven Years' War (1756–1763) was a global conflict that involved most of the European Great Powers, and was fought primarily in Europe, the Americas, and Asia-Pacific. Other concurrent conflicts include the French and Indian War (1754 ...

yet. Ever since he had gone to battle in the army of King Frederick, Lenore has been impatiently worrying about William every day and longing for his return, but she has not heard any news from him. When the other warriors return from the war without William, she begins to quarrel with God, complaining about His unfairness and proclaiming that He has never done her any good, which prompts her mother to ask for her daughter's forgiveness because she knows that such a thought is blasphemous and will condemn her to

Hell In religion and folklore, hell is a location in the afterlife in which evil souls are subjected to punitive suffering, most often through torture, as eternal punishment after death. Religions with a linear divine history often depict hell ...

. At midnight, a mysterious stranger who looks like William knocks on the door searching for Lenore and asks her to accompany him on horseback to their marriage bed. Lenore happily gets on the stranger's black steed and the two ride at a frenetic pace, under the moonlight, along a path filled with eerie landscapes. Terrorised, Lenore demands to know why they are riding so fast, to which he responds that they are doing so because "the dead travel fast" ("die Todten reiten schnell"). Lenore asks William to "leave the dead alone" ("Laß sie ruhn, die Todten"). At sunrise, their journey ends and they arrive at the cemetery's doors. As the horse goes through the tombstones, the knight begins to lose its human appearance, and is revealed as

Death Death is the irreversible cessation of all biological functions that sustain an organism. For organisms with a brain, death can also be defined as the irreversible cessation of functioning of the whole brain, including brainstem, and brain ...

, a skeleton with a scythe and an hourglass. The marriage bed is shown to be the grave where, together with his shattered armour, William's skeleton lies. The ground beneath Lenore's feet begins to crumble and the spirits,

dancing in the moonlight "Dancing in the Moonlight" is a song written by Sherman Kelly, originally recorded in 1970 by Kelly's band Boffalongo, and then a hit single by King Harvest in 1972, reaching number 5 in Canada and number 13 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100. In 20 ...

, surround dying Lenore, declaring that "no one is to quarrel with God in Heaven" ("mit Gott im Himmel hadre nicht"). However, Lenore, punished with death, still has hope for forgiveness ("des Leibes bist du ledig/Gott sei der Seele gnädig").

Reception and impact

Lenore had a profound effect on the development of

Romantic literature 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 ...

throughout Europe and a strong influence on the English ballad-writing revival of the 1790s. According to

German language German ( ) is a West Germanic language mainly spoken in Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and official or co-official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and the Italian province of South Tyrol. It is also a ...

scholar John George Robertson,

enoreexerted a more widespread influence than perhaps any other short poem in the literature of the world. ..like wildfire, this remarkable ballad swept across Europe, from Scotland to Poland and Russia, from Scandinavia to Italy. The eerie tramp of the ghostly horse which carries Lenore to her doom re-echoed in every literature, and to many a young sensitive soul was the revelation of a new world of poetry. No production of the German "
Sturm und Drang ''Sturm und Drang'' (, ; usually translated as "storm and stress") was a proto- Romantic movement in German literature and music that occurred between the late 1760s and early 1780s. Within the movement, individual subjectivity and, in particul ...
"—not even
Goethe Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic. His works include plays, poetry, literature, and aesthetic criticism, as well as tr ...
's ''
Werther ''Werther'' is an opera (''drame lyrique'') in four acts by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Édouard Blau, Paul Milliet and Georges Hartmann (who used the pseudonym Henri Grémont). It is loosely based on Goethe's epistolary novel '' Th ...
'', which appeared a few months later—had such far-reaching effects on other literatures as Bürger's ''Lenore''; it helped materially to call the Romantic movement in Europe to life.

In a similar tone,

English literature English literature is literature written in the English language from United Kingdom, its crown dependencies, the Republic of Ireland, the United States, and the countries of the former British Empire. ''The Encyclopaedia Britannica'' defines E ...

scholar Marti Lee claims that:

"Lenore" had tremendous influence on the literature of the late eighteenth- and early neteenth-centuries, and in fact, today's popular horror books and movies are still feeling the reverberations. ..In short, Bürger’s achievement, while minor in itself, helped father an international movement that led directly to the massive popularity of Gothic works then and now. ..As the Gothic novel borrowed many of its original conventions from the German ballads, as popularized by "Lenore," we can fairly say that Bürger is one of the most influential founding fathers of the Gothic and horror genres.

"Lenore" was an immediate sensation in Germany and was widely translated into different languages, which brought it a great deal of popularity in many European countries and the United States, and also generated numerous "imitations, parodies, ndadaptations". Its first English translation was published in March 1796, when William Taylor's rendering of the ballad, "Ellenore", appeared in the ''Monthly Magazine''. The translation, however, was completed in 1790, and it had already been "declaimed, applauded and much discussed in

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. As the seat of the Episcopal see, See of ...

literary circles". After

Walter Scott Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet, playwright and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European and Scottish literature, notably the novels '' Ivanhoe'', '' Rob Roy ...

heard how enthusiastically a crowd at

Dugald Stewart Dugald Stewart (; 22 November 175311 June 1828) was a Scottish philosopher and mathematician. Today regarded as one of the most important figures of the later Scottish Enlightenment, he was renowned as a populariser of the work of Francis Hut ...

's house had reacted to a reading of Taylor's version done by

Anna Laetitia Barbauld Anna Laetitia Barbauld (, by herself possibly , as in French, Aikin; 20 June 1743 – 9 March 1825) was a prominent English poet, essayist, literary critic, editor, and author of children's literature. A " woman of letters" who published in mu ...

, he attempted to acquire a manuscript of Bürger's original. In 1794, when he had finally received one, he was so impressed by it that he made his own rendering, ''William and Helen'', in less than a day. Scott's version was passed from hand to hand, and was extremely well received. In 1796, three new English translations were published by

William Robert Spencer William Robert Spencer (9 January 176922/23 October 1834) was an English poet and wit from the Spencer family. Life He was the younger son of Lord Charles Spencer and his wife Mary Beauclerk. He was the grandson of Charles Spencer, 3rd Duke of ...

, Henry James Pye and John Thomas Stanley. Translations by James Beresford and

Dante Gabriel Rossetti Gabriel Charles Dante Rossetti (12 May 1828 – 9 April 1882), generally known as Dante Gabriel Rossetti (), was an English poet, illustrator, painter, translator and member of the Rossetti family. He founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhoo ...

were published in 1800 and 1844, respectively, and both have been hailed as the most faithful translations of Bürger's original work. Other notable translators of "Lenore" into English include Frederic Shoberl, Julia Margaret Cameron and

John Oxenford John Oxenford (12 August 1812 – 21 February 1877) was an English dramatist, critic and translator. Life Oxenford was born in Camberwell, London, his father a prosperous merchant. Whilst he was privately educated, it is reported that he was mo ...

Sigmund Zois Sigmund Zois Freiherr von Edelstein, usually referred as Sigmund Zois ( sl, Žiga Zois, formerly Slovenized as ''Cojs'' or ''Cojz''; ) (23 November 1747 – 10 November 1819) was a Carniolan nobleman, natural scientist and patron of the arts. He ...

and

France Prešeren France Prešeren () (2 or 3 December 1800 – 8 February 1849) was a 19th-century Romantic Slovene poet whose poems have been translated into many languages.

translated the ballad into

Slovenian Slovene or Slovenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Slovenia, a country in Central Europe * Slovene language, a South Slavic language mainly spoken in Slovenia * Slovenes, an ethno-linguistic group mainly living in Slovenia * Sl ...

, while

Vasily Zhukovsky Vasily Andreyevich Zhukovsky (russian: Василий Андреевич Жуковский, Vasiliy Andreyevich Zhukovskiy; – ) was the foremost Russian poet of the 1810s and a leading figure in Russian literature in the first half of the 19t ...

and Pavel Katenin published translations in Russian. A version in Italian was made by Giovanni Berchet and both Leopoldo Augusto de Cueto and Juan Valera made their own translations to Spanish.

Gérard de Nerval Gérard de Nerval (; 22 May 1808 – 26 January 1855) was the pen name of the French writer, poet, and translator Gérard Labrunie, a major figure of French romanticism, best known for his novellas and poems, especially the collection '' Les ...

, who was obsessed with the text, published five translations in French, two in

prose Prose is a form of written or spoken language that follows the natural flow of speech, uses a language's ordinary grammatical structures, or follows the conventions of formal academic writing. It differs from most traditional poetry, where the ...

and three in verse. Between 1797 and 1800,

Samuel Taylor Coleridge Samuel Taylor Coleridge (; 21 October 177225 July 1834) was an English poet, literary critic, philosopher, and theologian who, with his friend William Wordsworth, was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lake ...

wrote '' Christabel'', which according to some German critics was influenced by Bürger's "Lenore". We can also find a strong influence of Lenora in the ballad Escape (1832, Ucieczka) by the Polish poet

Adam Mickiewicz Adam Bernard Mickiewicz (; 24 December 179826 November 1855) was a Polish poet, dramatist, essayist, publicist, translator and political activist. He is regarded as national poet in Poland, Lithuania and Belarus. A principal figure in Polish Ro ...

. Percy Bysshe Shelley was also impressed by "Lenore" and treasured a copy of the poem which he had handwritten himself. Shelley

biographer Biographers are authors who write an account of another person's life, while autobiographers are authors who write their own biography. Biographers Countries of working life: Ab=Arabia, AG=Ancient Greece, Al=Australia, Am=Armenian, AR=Ancient Rome ...

Charles S. Middleton further suggests that "it is hinted, somewhat plausibly, that the Leonora of Bürgher first awakened his poetic faculty. A tale of such beauty and terror might well have kindled his lively imagination". Influences of Bürger's poem on "Monk" Lewis, John Keats and

William Wordsworth William Wordsworth (7 April 177023 April 1850) was an English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with their joint publication '' Lyrical Ballads'' (1798). Wordsworth's ' ...

have also been noted, and some of its verses have been used by other authors on their own works. The verse ''die Todten Reiten schnell'' ("The dead travel fast") is also particularly famous for being cited by Bram Stoker in the first chapter of his novel '' Dracula'' (1897).

Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian e ...

alludes to the thought that "The dead travel fast" in '' A Christmas Carol'' (1843), during an exchange between Scrooge and the ghost of Marley ("You travel fast?" said Scrooge. "On the wings of the wind," replied the Ghost.) The verse ''Laß sie ruhn, die Todten'' ("Leave the dead in peace") and the poem would later inspire a story of the same title by

Ernst Raupach Ernst Benjamin Salomo Raupach (21 May 178418 March 1852) was a German dramatist. Biography He was born at Straupitz ( pl, Strupice), near Liegnitz in Silesia, a son of the village pastor. He attended the gymnasium at Liegnitz, and studied theol ...

Adaptations

Russian poet Pavel Katenin freely adapted the story of Lenore in his own work ''Olga''. In 1828, Karl von Holtei wrote ''Lenore'', a dramatization of Bürger's ballad which achieved great popularity. Several

composers A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

have written pieces based on, or inspired by, "Lenore". Joachim Raff's Symphony No .5, named ''Lenore'', one of his best-regarded works and which he finished writing in 1872, has been described by pianist Donald Ellman as "a most important pivotal work between early and late-romantic styles". In 1874, Henri Duparc wrote his symphonic poem ''Lénore'', which was then arranged for two pianos by Camille Saint-Saëns and for piano duet by

César Franck César-Auguste Jean-Guillaume Hubert Franck (; 10 December 1822 – 8 November 1890) was a French Romantic composer, pianist, organist, and music teacher born in modern-day Belgium. He was born in Liège (which at the time of his birth was pa ...

. Musicologist Julien Tiersot called it "one of the best models of its kind". Between 1857 and 1858, Franz Liszt wrote his first melodrama, ''Lenore'', based on Bürger's ballad.

Maria Theresia von Paradis Maria Theresia von Paradis (May 15, 1759 – February 1, 1824) was an Austrian musician and composer who lost her sight at an early age, and for whom her close friend Mozart may have written his Piano Concerto No. 18 in B-flat major. She was a ...

also composed a ballad for

voice The human voice consists of sound made by a human being using the vocal tract, including talking, singing, laughing, crying, screaming, shouting, humming or yelling. The human voice frequency is specifically a part of human sound producti ...

and piano in 1789 based on "Lenore". "Lenore" has also inspired several illustrations by a large number of notable artists, including Carl Oesterley,

Daniel Chodowiecki Daniel Niklaus Chodowiecki (16 October 1726 – 7 February 1801) was a German painter and printmaker of Huguenot and Polish ancestry, who is most famous as an etcher. He spent most of his life in Berlin, and became the director of the Berlin Acad ...

, Ary Scheffer,

Horace Vernet Émile Jean-Horace Vernet (30 June 178917 January 1863), more commonly known as simply Horace Vernet, was a French painter of battles, portraits, and Orientalist subjects. Biography Vernet was born to Carle Vernet, another famous painter, who w ...

, Johann Christian Ruhl, Hermann Plüddemann, Johann Heinrich Ramberg,

Louis Boulanger Louis Candide Boulanger (1806 – 1867) was a French Romantic painter, pastellist, lithographer and a poet, known for his religious and allegorical subjects, portraits, genre scenes. Life Boulanger was born in Piedmont where his father, Fran ...

, Otto Schubert,

Eugen Napoleon Neureuther Eugen Napoleon Neureuther (13 January 1806 – 23 March 1882) was a German painter, etcher, and illustrator. Born in Munich, Germany, he was the son and pupil of the painter Ludwig Neureuther (1775–1830). He also studied at the Munich Academ ...

Karl Friedrich Lessing Karl Friedrich Lessing (15 February 1808, Breslau – 4 January 1880, Karlsruhe) was a German historical and landscape painter, grandnephew of Gotthold Ephraim Lessing and one of the main exponents of the Düsseldorf school of painting. Biograp ...

, Frank Kirchbach, Georg Emanuel Opiz,

William Blake William Blake (28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his life, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of the poetry and visual art of the Romantic Age. ...

, Franz Stassen, Franz Kolbrand, Octave Penguilly L'Haridon, Wilhelm Emelé,

Alfred Elmore Alfred Elmore (1815–1881) was a British history and genre painter. Life Alfred Elmore was born in Clonakilty, Ireland, the son of John Richard Elmore, a surgeon who retired from the British Army to Clonakilty. His family moved to London, ...

and Frank Stone.

Lady Diana Beauclerk Lady Diana Beauclerk (''née'' Lady Diana Spencer; other married name Diana St John, Viscountess Bolingbroke; 24 March 1734 – 1 August 1808) was an English noblewoman and artist. Early life Beauclerk was born into the Spencer family as the da ...

's depictions of the ballad were published in William Robert Spencer's rendering, while Daniel Maclise and

Moritz Retzsch Friedrich August Moritz Retzsch (December 9, 1779 - June 11, 1857) was a German painter, draughtsman, and etcher. Retzsch was born in the Saxon capital Dresden. He joined the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts in 1798 under Cajetan Toscani and Józ ...

illustrated Julia Margaret Cameron and Frederic Shoberl's translations, respectively. The main plot of the ballad is classified as Aarne–Thompson–Uther ATU 365, "The dead bridegroom carries off his bride" or ''The Specter Bridegroom'', a sister story to

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...

ic ghost story/ folk tale The Deacon of the Dark River.Lindow, John. "Nordic Legends of the Churchyard". In: ''Storied and Supernatural Places: Studies in Spatial and Social Dimensions of Folklore and Sagas''. Edited by Ülo Valk and Daniel Sävborg. Studia Fennica Folkloristica 23. 2018. pp. 42-53. (PDF)

References

External links

* Kamila Vránková
Variations and Transformations of the 'Lenore' Motif in European Ballads
* Oliver Farrar Emerson
The Earliest English Translations of Bürger's Lenore: A Study in English and German Romanticism
* Peter Drews
G.A. Bürger's Lenore in the Slavic (pre-)Romantic era
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lenore (Ballad) German-language literature German literature Gothic fiction