7.21 Droste-Hülshoff — «Die Judenbuche» (opening) — Epoché
What you will be able to do Read the opening of Annette von Droste-Hülshoff 's novella Die Judenbuche in its first printing of 1842. Follow a narrator who describes a whole society before telling a single event, and who comments on what she reports. Read the hearsay of village gossip: Am Abend vor der Hochzeit soll sie gesagt haben … ; wo er … ausgesehen haben soll . Recognise prejudice voiced by characters, and see how the text frames it. Sentences from this text, before the notes. Read the German aloud; all of them come back below. German English Kind, Brandis ist ein Förster. Child, Brandis is a forester. Friedrichs Vater, der alte Hermann Mergel, war in seinem Junggesellenstande ein sogenannter ordentlicher Säufer. Friedrich's father, old Hermann Mergel, was as a bachelor what is called a respectable drunkard. Gegen zehn Uhr schürte sie die Asche am Herde zusammen und machte sich zum Schlafengehen bereit. Around ten o'clock she raked the ashes together on the hearth and got ready for bed. Friedrich dachte an den Teufel, wie der wohl aussehen möge. Friedrich thought about the devil, and what he might look like. Der Rosenkranz flog klappernd auf den Brettstuhl, die Kleider wurden herbeigerissen. The rosary flew clattering onto the wooden chair; the clothes were snatched up. Die Mutter richtete sich auf; das Toben des Sturms ließ einen Augenblick nach. The mother sat up; the raging of the storm died down for a moment. Prerequisites : 7.20 — you need Konjunktiv I from 2.26 Grammar , the vocabulary of law and crime from 5.14 Vocabulary , and the older spellings of 7.12 Reading to 7.19 Reading . About this text Annette von Droste-Hülshoff (1797–1848), from an old noble family in Westphalia, is the most important German woman poet of the nineteenth century. Die Judenbuche. Ein Sittengemälde aus dem gebirgigten Westphalen , The Jew's Beech: A Portrait of Manners from Mountainous Westphalia , was first printed in instalments in the Morgenblatt für gebildete Leser , Stuttgart and Tübingen : Cotta, 1842. It is based on a real case from the eighteenth century. The text here is the opening, the motto poem and 17 paragraphs, about 2,600 words, from the transcription of that first printing in German Wikisource, unchanged. It is in the public domain. The novella tells the life of Friedrich Mergel, born in 1738 in a village where wood theft and poaching are a way of life and the law of the forest is decided by force. His father, a drunkard, is found dead in the forest one winter night; his uncle Simon later takes the boy under his wing. Years later a forester is murdered, and Aaron, a Jewish butcher and occasional second-hand dealer from the nearest town, is found killed beneath a beech tree; Friedrich is suspected and flees. The Jewish community buys the tree and carves a Hebrew inscription into it. The ending, many years later, brings Friedrich back to the tree. A warning for readers. The villagers in this story, including Friedrich's mother, voice crude prejudice against Jews: in this excerpt she calls them all rogues. These are the characters' words, which the novella shows in order to examine them. The motto poem at the start asks the reader not to judge too quickly, and the story as a whole is about how prejudice, poverty and a lawless community shape a person. Notice how the narrator stays at a distance and lets the characters condemn themselves. Grammar in the text Hearsay with sollen . The narrator often reports what people say rather than what she knows, using sollen + perfect infinitive, is said to have : Am Abend vor der Hochzeit soll sie gesagt haben , on the evening before the wedding she is said to have said ; Margreth soll sehr geweint haben ; wo er … blau und fürchterlich ausgesehen haben soll . This is how village knowledge works, and the story leaves much uncertain. The narrator's essay. The first paragraphs are not narrative but description and judgement: a remote little state, simple laws, and a second, unwritten law of custom and public opinion: es hatte sich neben dem gesetzlichen ein zweites Recht gebildet . Read these long sentences slowly; the whole story depends on this idea. als ob and reported thought. eine Windsbraut, als ob sie das Haus mitnehmen wollte , a gale, as if it wanted to take the house away . Er meinte, es müsse etwas Lebendiges drinnen seyn : the child's belief, in the subjunctive. Spelling of 1842. Besides the familiar ward, todt, Thür, daß , this text writes seyn for sein , jezt and zulezt for jetzt and zuletzt , and Wirthschaft for Wirtschaft . The adjective endings -igt ( gebirgigten, staubigten ) are old forms of -ig . Reading it a second time, section by section The motto (paragraph 1). A poem of twelve lines, printed here as one paragraph: who is so sure-handed that they may throw the first stone at a stunted, misguided life? Laß ruhn den Stein – er trifft dein eignes Haupt! The image comes from the Gospel story of the woman taken in adultery. The land and the village (paragraphs 2–4). A remote corner of Germany, a village known as the proudest and boldest in the principality, wood thieves who set out by night in dozens of wagons, and foresters who are carried out of the woods beaten and blinded with snuff. The parents (paragraphs 5–7). Hermann Mergel, a Sunday drunkard, loses his first wife after one week. His second wife, Margreth, is clever and proud, and believes that a woman who is badly treated has only herself to blame. The marriage destroys her confidence. Friedrich is born. The storm (paragraphs 8–14). On a stormy night around Epiphany, the eight-year-old Friedrich ( in seinem neunten Jahre , in his ninth year) asks for his father; his mother tells him the devil is at the door. In the night, voices outside: the men bring home Hermann, found dead in the forest. After the death (paragraphs 15–18). Margreth asks her son whether he will be good. He answers with the village's reality: a respected farmer beats and robs a Jew, and the forester says