''The Rider on the White Horse'' (German: ''Der Schimmelreiter'') is a
novella
A novella is a narrative prose fiction whose length is shorter than most novels, but longer than most short stories. The English word ''novella'' derives from the Italian ''novella'' meaning a short story related to true (or apparently so) facts ...
by German writer
Theodor Storm
Hans Theodor Woldsen Storm (; 14 September 18174 July 1888), commonly known as Theodor Storm, was a German writer. He is considered to be one of the most important figures of German realism.
Life
Storm was born in the small town of Husum, on th ...
. It is his last complete work, first published in 1888, the year of his death. The novella is Storm's best remembered and most widely read work, and considered by many to be his masterpiece.
It has been translated into English under titles ''The Dykemaster'', ''The Dikegrave'', and the most literal, ''The Rider on the White Horse'' ("Schimmel" being the German word for a
gray or white horse).
Characters
* Hauke Haien - the main character, based on mathematician and astronomer Hans Momsen
* Elke Haien (née Volkerts) - the old dykemaster's daughter and Hauke's wife
* Wienke Haien - Hauke and Elke's mentally challenged daughter
* Tede Volkerts - Elke's father, and dykemaster prior to Hauke
* Ole Peters - the old dykemaster's senior hand and Hauke's rival
* The Schoolmaster - a man from the town who tells the story to the narrator a hundred years later
Plot summary
The novella tells the story of Hauke Haien, related to the narrator by a schoolmaster in a small town in
Northern Frisia. Hauke is the son of a farmer and licensed surveyor and does his best to learn his father's trade. He even learns
Dutch
Dutch commonly refers to:
* Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands
* Dutch people ()
* Dutch language ()
Dutch may also refer to:
Places
* Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States
* Pennsylvania Dutch Country
People E ...
so he can read a Dutch print of
Euclid
Euclid (; grc-gre, Wikt:Εὐκλείδης, Εὐκλείδης; BC) was an ancient Greek mathematician active as a geometer and logician. Considered the "father of geometry", he is chiefly known for the ''Euclid's Elements, Elements'' trea ...
's work on mathematics and geometry. Over time he becomes very familiar with the
dykes along the local coast and begins to wonder if it would not be better to make them flatter on the sea side so as to reduce their
windage
Windage is a term used in aerodynamics, firearms ballistics, and automobiles.
Usage
Aerodynamics
Windage is a force created on an object by friction when there is relative movement between air and the object. Windage loss is the reduction in e ...
during
flood
A flood is an overflow of water ( or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are an area of study of the discipline hydrol ...
s.
When local ''
Deichgraf'' Tede Volkerts fires one of his hands, Hauke applies for the job and is accepted. He soon becomes a great help for Volkerts, which makes Ole Peters, the senior hand, dislike him. Tensions rise even more when Hauke begins to show interest in the Deichgraf's daughter, Elke. Hauke even proposes marriage, but she wants to wait.
After the unexpected deaths of both Hauke's and Elke's fathers, the people of the village must choose a new Deichgraf. Hauke is actually already doing the work, but does not hold the necessary lands required for the position. However, Elke announces that they are engaged, and that he will soon hold her family's lands as well. With the traditionalists satisfied, Hauke becomes the new Deichgraf. However, the people soon start talking about his white horse, which they believe is a resurrected skeleton that used to be visible on a small island, but is now gone.
Meanwhile Hauke begins to implement the changes to the form of the dykes that he has envisaged since childhood. However, during a
storm surge
A storm surge, storm flood, tidal surge, or storm tide is a coastal flood or tsunami-like phenomenon of rising water commonly associated with low-pressure weather systems, such as cyclones. It is measured as the rise in water level above the n ...
several years later, the older dykes break and Hauke has to witness Elke and their daughter, Wienke, being swept away by the water. In agony, he drives his white horse into the sea, yelling, "''Lord, take me, spare the others!''"
The novella ends with the schoolmaster recounting that after the flood the mysterious horse skeleton was once again seen lying on the small island off the coast. Hauke Haien's dyke still stands and has saved many lives in the hundred years since its creator's tragic demise. And the older ones in the village say that, on stormy nights, a ghostly rider on a white horse can sometimes be seen patrolling the dyke.
Reception
Thomas Mann
Paul Thomas Mann ( , ; ; 6 June 1875 – 12 August 1955) was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and the 1929 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate. His highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and novella ...
called it a "tremendous tale, with which Storm took his conception of the novella, as epic sister of drama, to unprecedented heights".
Michael Dirda
Michael Dirda (born 1948) is a book critic for the ''Washington Post''. He has been a Fulbright Fellow and won a Pulitzer Prize in 1993.
Career
Having studied at Oberlin College for his undergraduate degree in 1970, Dirda took an M.A. in 1974 and ...
says that it is arguably the greatest 19th century German novella.
Adaptations
*
''Der Schimmelreiter'', a 1934 German film directed by
Hans Deppe
Hans Deppe (; 12 November 1897 – 23 September 1969) was a German actor and film director.
Filmography
As director
As actor
References
External links
*
1897 births
1969 deaths
German male film actors
German television dire ...
* ''
Der Schimmelreiter
''The Rider on the White Horse'' (German: ''Der Schimmelreiter'') is a novella by German writer Theodor Storm. It is his last complete work, first published in 1888, the year of his death. The novella is Storm's best remembered and most widely read ...
'', a 1978 West German film directed by
Alfred Weidenmann
Alfred Weidenmann (10 May 1916 – 9 June 2000) was a German film director, screenwriter, and author of children's books. He directed more than 30 films between 1942 and 1984.
Selected filmography
* '' Hände hoch (1942)
* ' (1944)
* ''I a ...
* ' or ''Jeździec na siwym koniu'', a 1984 East German-Polish film directed by
* ''Der Schimmelreiter'', an opera by
Wilfried Hiller
Wilfried Hiller (born 15 March 1941) is a German composer. He became known above all for his stage works for families, children and young people.
Life and work
Hiller was born the son of the teacher August Hiller and his wife Josepha Hiller, n ...
, first performed in
Kiel
Kiel () is the capital and most populous city in the northern Germany, German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 246,243 (2021).
Kiel lies approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the southeast of the J ...
in 1998.
Editions
*''The Rider on the White Horse and Selected Stories''. Translated by
James Wright,
New York Review of Books Classics
New York Review Books (NYRB) is the publishing division of ''The New York Review of Books''. Its imprints are New York Review Books Classics, New York Review Books Collections, The New York Review Children's Collection, New York Review Comics, N ...
, 2009. Reprinted from Signet's Classics, 1964.
*''The Dykemaster'', translated by Denis Jackson, 1996.
''The Rider on the White Horse'' translated by Margarete Münsterberg
''Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction, Vol XV'' 1917. Pg. 179
''The Rider on the White Horse'' translated by Muriel Almon
''The German Classics of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Vol. 11'' 1914. Pg. 225
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rider on the White Horse
German novellas
German novels adapted into films
1888 German novels
German Gothic novels
Novels by Theodor Storm
Novels set in Germany
North Frisia