Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué

Friedrich Heinrich Karl de la Motte, Baron Fouqué (); (12 February 1777 – 23 January 1843) was a German writer of the Romantic style.

Biography

He was born at Brandenburg an der Havel, of a family of French Huguenot origin, as evidenced in his family name. His grandfather, Heinrich August de la Motte Fouqué, had been one of Frederick the Great's generals and his father was a Prussian officer. Although not originally intended for a military career, Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué ultimately gave up his university studies at Halle to join the army, and he took part in the Rhine campaign of 1794. The rest of his life was devoted mainly to literary pursuits. He was introduced to August Wilhelm Schlegel, who deeply influenced him as a poet ("mich gelehret Maß und Regel , Meister August Wilhelm Schlegel") and who published Fouqué's first book, ''Dramatische Spiele von Pellegrin'', in 1804.

Marriage

Fouqué's first marriage was unhappy and soon ended in divorce. His second wife, Caroline Philippine von Briest (1773–1831), enjoyed some reputation as a novelist in her day. After her death Fouqué married a third time. Some consolation for the ebbing tide of popular favour was afforded him by the munificence of Frederick William IV of Prussia, who granted him a pension which allowed him to spend his later years in comfort. He died in Berlin in 1843.

For Fouqué's life see ''Lebensgeschichte des Baron Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué (only to the year 1813), Aufgezeichnet durch ihn selbst'' (Halle, 1840), and also the introduction to Koch's selections in the ''Deutsche Nationalliteratur''.

Literary work

Romantic roots

After ''Dramatische Spiele von Pellegrin'', his second work, ''Romanzen vom Tal Ronceval'' (1805), showed more plainly his allegiance to the romantic leaders, and in the ''Historie vom edlen Ritter Galmy'' (1806) he versified a 16th-century romance of medieval chivalry.

''Sigurd der Schlangentödter, ein Heldenspiel in sechs Abentheuren'' (1808), was the first modern German dramatization of the Nibelung legend combining Icelandic sources such as the Volsunga Saga and the Middle High German Nibelungenlied. The play and its two sequels ''Sigurds Rache'' (1809) and ''Aslaugas Ritter'' (1810) were published together under the title ''Der Held des Nordens'' in 1810 The Hero of the North" The trilogy brought Fouqué to the attention of the public, and had a considerable influence on subsequent versions of the story, such as Friedrich Hebbel's ''Nibelungen'' and Richard Wagner's ''Der Ring des Nibelungen''.One source for some information in this paragraph gives year 1810 for both sequels.
" later added ''Sigurd's Rache'' (1810) and ''Aslaugas Ritter'' (1810; trans as "Aslauga's Knights" in ''German Romance'' ed Thomas Carlyle anth 1827 UK), the three forming the trilogy ''Der Held des Nordens'' The Hero of the North" which hugely influenced Richard Wagner."

Mike Ashley
"Fouqué, Friedrich, Baron de la Motte"
''Encyclopedia of Fantasy'' (1997). Online edition not updated (http://sf-encyclopedia.uk/fe.php). Retrieved 2019-08-04.

These early writings indicate the lines which Fouqué's subsequent literary activity followed; his interests were divided between medieval chivalry on the one hand and northern mythology on the other. In 1813, the year of the rising against Napoleon, he again fought with the Prussian army, and the new patriotism awakened in the German people left its mark upon his writings.

Popular works

Between 1810 and 1815, Fouqué's popularity was at its height; the many romances and novels, plays and epics which he produced with extraordinary rapidity, appealed greatly to the mood of the hour. '' Undine'' appeared around 1811, the only work by which Fouqué's memory still lives today. A more comprehensive idea of his talent may, however, be obtained from the two romances ''Der Zauberring'' (1813) and ''Die Fahrten Thiodolfs des Isländers'' (1815).

Later years

From 1820 onwards the quality of Fouqué's work deteriorated, partly owing to the fatal formal ease with which he wrote, and he failed to keep pace with the changes in German taste by clinging to the paraphernalia of romanticism. His rivals applied a sobriquet of "Don Quixote of Romanticism" to him.

Translations

Most of Fouqué's works have been translated. Menella Bute Smedley, for instance, translated his ballad, "The Shepherd of the Giant Mountains." The English versions of ''Aslauga's Knight'' (by Thomas Carlyle), '' Sintram and his Companions'' and ''Undine'' have been frequently republished. A number of his short stories were translated in ''Popular Tales and Romances of the Northern Nations'' (1823).

Influence

Fouqué's play ''Der Sängerkrieg auf der Wartburg'' (The Song Contest on the Wartburg) is likely one of the sources for Wagner's ''Tannhäuser''. Goethe was not impressed by it, remarking to Eckermann: "We both agreed that all his life this poet had engaged in old Germanic studies, however without being able to develop this into a culture of his own making.""Johann Peter Eckerman: Gespräche mit Goethe in den letzten Jahren seines Lebens"
3 October 1828. The original full quote is: "Ich sprach diesen Mittag bei Tisch mit Goethe über Fouqués ›Sängerkrieg auf der Wartburg‹, den ich auf seinen Wunsch gelesen. Wir kamen darin überein, daß dieser Dichter sich zeitlebens mit altdeutschen Studien beschäftiget, und daß am Ende keine Kultur für ihn daraus hervorgegangen."
Project Gutenberg-DE (gutenberg.spiegel.de). Retrieved 2019-08-04.
Robert Louis Stevenson admired Fouqué's story "The Bottle Imp" and wrote his own version (''The Bottle Imp'') with a Hawaiian setting. Mike Ashley, "Fouqué, Friedrich (Heinrich Karl),(Baron) de la Motte" in ''St. James Guide To Fantasy Writers'', edited by David Pringle. St. James Press, 1996, (pp. 654-55) . John Henry Newman and Charlotte Mary Yonge both praised ''Sintram and his Companions''. William Morris also became an admirer of ''Sintram and his Companions'', and it influenced
Morris' own fiction. ''Sintram and his Companions'' and ''Undine'' are referred to in ''Little Women'' by Louisa May Alcott; the character Jo mentions wanting them for Christmas in the first chapter of the book and finally receives them in chapter 22. ''Aslauga's Knight'' as well as ''Sintram and his Companions'' and ''Undine'' are referred to in ''Jo's Boys'', the final book in Alcott's ''Little Women'' series, where the story of ''Aslauga's Knight'' mirrors the character Dan and his affection for gentle Bess. ''Undine'' is the basis, along with Hans Anderson's '' Little Mermaid'', for Dvořák's opera ''Rusalka''.

References

Bibliography

*
*''Ausgewählte Werke'', edited by himself, in 12 vols. (Berlin, 1841)
*A selection, edited by M. Koch, in Kürschner's ''Deutsche Nationalliteratur'', vol. 146, part ii. (Stuttgart, 1893)
*'' Undine'', ''Sintram'', etc., in innumerable reprints. *Bibliography in Karl Goedeke's ''Grundriss zur Geschichte der deutschen Dichtung'' (2nd ed., vi. pp. 115 ff., Dresden, 1898).
*''Undine'', trans. Paul Turner. ''German Romantic Stories''. Ed. Frank G. Ryder. New York: Continuum, 1998. (The German Library, vol. 35). 15–90.
*''Fouqué und einige seiner Zeitgenossen'', Arno Schmidt (Bläschke 1958; 2nd Revised Edition 1960), also in the Bargfelder Edition, Volume III/1 (1993)
*

External links

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Book description of ''The Magic Ring'' (1825) (''Der Zauberring'', 1813) at Valancourt Books
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Fouque, Friedrich de la Motte
1777 births
1843 deaths
Barons of Germany
German fantasy writers
People from Brandenburg an der Havel
People from the Margraviate of Brandenburg
Romanticism
German-language poets
Prussian Army personnel of the Napoleonic Wars
German male poets