The Golden Pot

This year the library book group is all about the Germans, and our first readings are the stories of E.T.A. Hoffmann. Hoffmann (1776-1822) was a major figure in German romantic literature, though he was also a notable composer, artist and lawyer. His stories have characteristics of horror, fantasy, and fairy tale, and feature imagery of mirrors, eyes, lenses, and mechanical devices - he's credited with writing the first detective story (Mademoiselle de Scudéri), and was the author of "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King," which, of course, provided the inspiration for Tchaikovsky's Christmas ballet.

"The Golden Pot" (1814) is a literary fairly tale. The clumsy (and whiny) student Anselmus of Dresden has a run-in with an apple-seller who happens to be the very picture of the fairy tale hag-witch. She curses him cryptically, and he walks away, tripping over things and complaining about his life, until, in the shade of an elder tree, he has a strange vision of a crystal voice and a blue-eyed snake.

As Anselmus begins to fall in love with the snake, he's drawn back to earth by his friend Sub-Rector Paulmann, who's urging him to take a job transcribing mysterious ancient manuscripts in the library of the eccentric Archivist Lindhorst. Apparently, for all his clumsiness, Anselmus is noted for his beautiful hand. Anselmus accepts the job, and strange things begin to happen at the Archivist's house - including the reappearance of his beloved green snake.

Meanwhile, Sub-Rector Paulmann's daughter, Veronica, has her sights set on Anselmus, having heard that he's destined to be an important civil servant some day. Veronica enlists the help of the old witch to ensure that Anselmus will be hers.

The story was kind of hard going for the first 50 pages or so - it grabbed my interest at the point in which one of the Archivist's daughters explains to Anselmus the magical back story, and it finally becomes clear that something definitive is happening. But even then, the lines between good and evil were unclear; it was uncertain whether the reader should be rooting for Veronica or the green snake to win Anselmus's affections, or whether the evil force was the Archivist or the old woman. This uncertainty stands out, because, of course, moral ambiguity is not normally a characteristic of fairly tales.

At the very least, Hoffmann retains the fairy tale happy ending, and all around, I was pleased with the first story.