"Wake Not the Dead" (german: Laßt die Todten ruhen, , Let the Dead Rest) is a short story by
Ernst Raupach published in ''
Minerva
Minerva (; ett, Menrva) is the Roman goddess of wisdom, justice, law, victory, and the sponsor of arts, trade, and strategy. Minerva is not a patron of violence such as Mars, but of strategic war. From the second century BC onward, the Rom ...
'' 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
''Popular Tales and Romances of the Northern Nations'' is an anthology of translated German stories in three volumes, published in 1823.
Publication
The book was announced as being prepared for publication in January and February 1823. All thre ...
'' (1823) without attribution, and has often been misattributed to
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 B ...
in the English-speaking world.
Plot
Walter, a powerful lord in
Burgundy mourns the death of his wife Brunhilda. He marries another woman, Swanhilda, but despite having two children together, he remains fixated on his first wife. One night, while at the grave of Brunhilda, he meets a wandering
sorcerer, who says he can bring her back to life, but warns him that it will have a terrible effect. Despite this, Walter insists, and though the sorcerer warns him over several nights "wake not the dead", he demands that the sorcerer brings her back from death. The sorcerer casts a spell which restores Brunhilda to life, and departs, telling Walter how to find him if he needs his help. Walter takes Brunhilda to one of his castles, and swears the one servant there to secrecy. He returns there often, and once she recovers he longs to "press her to his bosom", but she refuses while he remains married to Swanhilda. Walter gives Swanhilda a paper of
separation; she accepts this, saying that she saw him bring Brunhilda back to life and tells him that it will prove to be his downfall, before returning to her father. Brunhilda is then brought back, pretending to be Walter's new wife, but the servants become suspicious. A rumour starts that it is Brunhilda herself, brought back from the grave, and many start to leave. Her renewed life causes Brunhilda to thirst for the blood of the young, and many of the children in the surrounding area start to wither and die. The parents of the remaining children flee, leaving only old servants, Walter, and his two children. Brunhilda lulls them to sleep with wonderful dreams, and feeds on them, gradually killing them. Walter is appalled, but remains under her spell; she tries at first to resist feeding on him, but soon relents. Losing his strength, Walter goes hunting and happens to find a strange plant which he starts to eat. This has properties which allow him to resist Brunhilda's power, and he remembers the sorcerer's offer of help. He hastens to the place appointed, where he finds the sorcerer waiting for him, who conducts him to a cave, and tells him that he will have to remain there until the
new moon. Brunhilda finds him there, but cannot reach him due to the sorcerer's spells. When the new moon arrives, the sorcerer travels with Walter to the castle, and gives Walter a dagger, which he uses to stab through her heart, and at the same time swearing to renounce her forever, which returns her to death. The sorcerer tells Walter that if he ever thinks of Brunhilda intentionally, she will return again. He thinks of Swanhilda, and travels to seek her forgiveness. She initially accepts, but then refuses him on learning of their children's death. Returning home, Walter meets a woman who strongly resembles Swanhilda, and he allows her and her group to stay with him. He puts on a lavish feast over several days, and finally proposes to marry her. She accepts, but on their wedding night she transforms into a serpent, and crushes him to death.
Publication
"Wake Not the Dead" was first published as "" () in ''
Minerva
Minerva (; ett, Menrva) is the Roman goddess of wisdom, justice, law, victory, and the sponsor of arts, trade, and strategy. Minerva is not a patron of violence such as Mars, but of strategic war. From the second century BC onward, the Rom ...
'' magazine in 1823.
Raupach went on to adapt it as a play, which was published as (1826).
The story was translated into English in the anthology of German stories ''
Popular Tales and Romances of the Northern Nations
''Popular Tales and Romances of the Northern Nations'' is an anthology of translated German stories in three volumes, published in 1823.
Publication
The book was announced as being prepared for publication in January and February 1823. All thre ...
'' (1823) as "Wake not the Dead"; this book did not give the names of the authors of the stories or their translators, and though its Preface mentioned a number of German authors (including
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 B ...
) Raupach was not among them. Though the book's translations were later attributed to a number of people – including
Thomas De Quincey
Thomas Penson De Quincey (; 15 August 17858 December 1859) was an English writer, essayist, and literary critic, best known for his '' Confessions of an English Opium-Eater'' (1821). Many scholars suggest that in publishing this work De Quinc ...
,
William Henry Leeds, Mr Browning, Mrs Hodgskin,
Robert Pearse Gillies,
George Soane, and
John Bowring
Sir John Bowring , or Phraya Siamanukulkij Siammitrmahayot, , , group=note (17 October 1792 – 23 November 1872) was a British political economist, traveller, writer, literary translator, polyglot and the fourth Governor of Hong Kong. He was a ...
– it is not known which of these, if any, was the translator of "Wake Not the Dead".
This translation was included in the anthology ''Legends of Terror!'' (1826) under the title "The Bride of the Grave", again without providing any attribution to the author or translator. The anonymous editor writes "We have seen several translations, but we think none of them are equal to the one given in the collection of 'Popular Tales and Romances of Northern Nations,' lately published by the German bookseller, Bohte, of Tavistock Street, which we take the liberty of extracting"; none of the other translations mentioned have been identified, though scholar Heide Crawford concludes that this remark demonstrates the story's popularity in England.
It was reprinted in Charles M. Collins' anthology ''A Feast of Blood'' (1967) under the title "Wake not the Dead", where it was incorrectly attributed to Tieck. This was followed by
Peter Haining's anthology ''Great Tales of Terror from Europe and America'' (1972), this time printed under the title "The Bride of the Grave", also misattributed to Tieck. This incorrect attribution may have been a result of misreading the
National Union Catalog entry for ''Popular Tales and Romances of the Northern Nations'' (1823),
and persisted in the English-speaking world for many years, despite German scholars consistently attributing the work to Raupach.
Impact
A play adaptation by George Blink was published as ''The Vampire Bride; or Tenant of the Tomb: A Romantic Drama, in Two Acts'' (1838),
which was later slightly altered for another edition that was published as ''The Vampire Bride; or Wake Not the Dead: A Melo-Drama in Two Acts'' (1854).
"Wake Not the Dead" may have been a source of inspiration for
Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe (; Edgar Poe; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is wid ...
's "
Ligeia" (1838), which deals with very similar elements of the story in a very different way. Professor
Paul Lewis compares the two, and concludes that while there are no sources that confirm Poe read Raupach's story, this is not conclusive as Poe "always busy accusing others of plagiarism, was careful to conceal his own borrowings".
Scholar Heide Crawford writes that Poe is likely to have borrowed, or to have been influenced by "Wake Not the Dead" from ''
Popular Tales and Romances of the Northern Nations
''Popular Tales and Romances of the Northern Nations'' is an anthology of translated German stories in three volumes, published in 1823.
Publication
The book was announced as being prepared for publication in January and February 1823. All thre ...
'' (1823) or ''Legends of Terror!'' (1826), both of which published the story without attribution, which may explain why Poe does not mention anyone as an inspiration for "Ligeia".
See also
* ''
Léonor
''Léonor'' (also known as ''Mistress of the Devil'') is a 1975 French-Italian-Spanish horror film written and directed by Juan Luis Buñuel (the son of Luis Buñuel) and starring Michel Piccoli, Liv Ullmann and Ornella Muti.
Plot
Cast
...
'', a 1975 film based on "Wake Not the Dead"
References
{{Reflist
1823 short stories
German short stories
Translations into English
Gothic short stories
Horror short stories
Short stories set in France
Short stories about vampires
Human-vampire romance in fiction