''The Amber Witch'' is a German novel published by

Wilhelm Meinhold Johannes Wilhelm Meinhold (27 February 1797Bridgwater (2000), p. 213. – 30 November 1851) was a Pomeranian priest and author. Life Meinhold was born in Lütow on the island of Usedom, where his father Georg Wilhelm Meinhold (1767–1728) ...

(1797–1851) in 1838. Its German title is ''Maria Schweidler, die Bernsteinhexe''. The novel was originally published as a

literary hoax Literary forgery (also known as literary mystification, literary fraud or literary hoax) is writing, such as a manuscript or a literary work, which is either deliberately misattributed to a historical or invented author, or is a purported memoir ...

which purported to be an actual 17th-century

chronicle A chronicle ( la, chronica, from Greek ''chroniká'', from , ''chrónos'' – "time") is a historical account of events arranged in chronological order, as in a timeline. Typically, equal weight is given for historically important events and lo ...

. Meinhold later admitted to the hoax but had some difficulty in proving that he was its author. In 1844, it was published in Britain as ''The Amber Witch'' in two English translations: one by E. A. Friedlander and another, more enduring, translation by

Lucie, Lady Duff-Gordon Lucie, Lady Duff-Gordon ( Austin; 24 June 1821 – 14 July 1869) was an English author and translator who wrote as Lucie Gordon. She is best known for her ''Letters from Egypt, 1863–1865'' (1865) and ''Last Letters from Egypt'' (1875), most ...

. Lady Duff Gordon's translation was very popular with the Victorians and went through numerous editions, including a luxurious one in 1895 illustrated by

Philip Burne-Jones Sir Philip William Burne-Jones, 2nd Baronet (1 October 1861 – 21 June 1926) was the first child of the British Pre-Raphaelite artist Sir Edward Burne-Jones and his wife Georgiana Macdonald. He became a well-known painter in his own right, pr ...

. The novel was a favourite of

Oscar Wilde Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 185430 November 1900) was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in London in the early 1890s. He is ...

's when he was a boy, and in 1861 it was made into an

opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a librett ...

, '' The Amber Witch'', composed by

William Vincent Wallace William Vincent Wallace (11 March 1812 – 12 October 1865) was an Irish composer and pianist. In his day, he was famous on three continents as a double virtuoso on violin and piano. Nowadays, he is mainly remembered as an opera composer of n ...

. Wallace's opera has faded into obscurity, but the novel on which it was based has continued to be republished, both on its own and in anthologies.

Background

Meinhold claimed to have discovered a manuscript written by a 17th-century minister, Abraham Schweidler (purportedly a pastor of

Coserow Koserow is a municipality on Usedom Island, in the Vorpommern-Greifswald district, in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. A small coastal bathing resort, Koserow lies on an isthmus on the island of Usedom on the Baltic Sea, near the border with Pola ...

and known for his fire and brimstone

sermon A sermon is a religious discourse or oration by a preacher, usually a member of clergy. Sermons address a scriptural, theological, or moral topic, usually expounding on a type of belief, law, or behavior within both past and present contexts. El ...

s) amongst rubbish in the choir of the old Coserow church. The manuscript contained the story of the pastor's daughter Maria, the "Amber Witch". The tale was described by Meinhold, in the subtitle of the novel, as "the most interesting trial for

witchcraft Witchcraft traditionally means the use of magic or supernatural powers to harm others. A practitioner is a witch. In medieval and early modern Europe, where the term originated, accused witches were usually women who were believed to have us ...

ever known". When it first appeared, almost all of the German critics believed it was an authentic historical document. The work attracted critical notice, not only for the dramatic nature of its narrative but also for disputes about which parts of it were original and which were Meinhold's reconstructions, written in imitation of the 17th-century style. Meinhold's intention was to set a trap for the disciples of

David Strauss David Friedrich Strauss (german: link=no, Strauß ; 27 January 1808 – 8 February 1874) was a German liberal Protestant theologian and writer, who influenced Christian Europe with his portrayal of the "historical Jesus", whose divine nature h ...

and his school, who pronounced the

Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a ...

to be a collection of legends from historical research assisted by internal evidence. In a direct challenge to these "modern documentary critics", Meinhold wrote in his preface to ''The Amber Witch'': Only in a later edition did the author admit that the tale was entirely imaginary. His admission that it was a hoax was at first rejected but was soon accepted as the truth. As ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'' wrote in the late 1840s: The hoax was done with great skill and attention to detail, using language that would have been used in 17th-century Germany. Writer

Seabury Quinn Seabury Grandin Quinn (also known as Jerome Burke; December 1889 – December 24, 1969) was an American government lawyer, journalist, and pulp magazine author, most famous for his stories of the occult detective Jules de Grandin, published in '' ...

wrote an article in the August 1925 issue of ''

Weird Tales ''Weird Tales'' is an American fantasy and horror fiction pulp magazine founded by J. C. Henneberger and J. M. Lansinger in late 1922. The first issue, dated March 1923, appeared on newsstands February 18. The first editor, Edwin Baird, prin ...

'' in which, unaware of the hoax, he recounted the plot of ''The Amber Witch'' as if it were an actual historical event.Fabrizio Foni, ''Alla fiera dei mostri: racconti pulp, orrori e arcane fantasticherie nelle riviste italiane, 1899-1932''`. Tunué, 2007. (p. 198).

Plot

The story is set during the

Thirty Years' War The Thirty Years' War was one of the longest and most destructive conflicts in European history The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (80 ...

. The purported author, Reverend Abraham Schweidler, almost loses his only child, Maria, to a plot by a rejected suitor, Sheriff Appelmann, who has accused Maria of practicing

. In this he was aided by an evil and jealous woman of the neighborhood. After a trial and under threat of the most dire torture, Maria, wholly innocent of the crime, confesses. While on her way to the stake, she is rescued by a courageous young nobleman who loves her and who exposes the evil plot against her.

References

Bibliography

External links

German facsimile edition of ''Die Bernsteinhexe''

Bayerische Staatsbibliothek The Bavarian State Library (german: Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, abbreviated BSB, called ''Bibliotheca Regia Monacensis'' before 1919) in Munich is the central " Landesbibliothek", i. e. the state library of the Free State of Bavaria, the bigg ...

* . * * Agnew, John Holmes and Bidwell, Walter Hilliard (eds)
"The Author of the Amber Witch"
''Eclectic Magazine: Foreign Literature'', Leavitt, Throw and Co., 1850, Vol. 21, p. 419. * ''The Daguerreotype''
"The Convent Witch"
Vol. III, No. 4, 9 December 1848, pp. 145–157. * Laurita, Paula
"The Amber Witch Hoax"
bellaonline.com * ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

''
"An old and famous story"
17 March 1895, p. 31. * Warner, Charles Dudley
''A Library of the World's Best Literature - Ancient and Modern''
originally published in 1902, published in facsimile by Cosimo, Inc., 2008, Vol.XXV, pp. 9853–9866. . * Wilde, Osca
''Complete shorter fiction''
with notes and introduction by

Isobel Murray Isobel Murray is a Scottish literary scholar, Emeritus Professor at the University of Aberdeen. She edited the work of Oscar Wilde and Naomi Mitchison. She also edited a series of interviews which she and her husband Bob Tait carried out with Sco ...

, Oxford University Press, 1998. . {{DEFAULTSORT:Amber Witch, The 1839 novels 1830s fantasy novels 19th-century German novels German Gothic novels German historical novels Literary forgeries Novels adapted into operas Novels set in the 17th century Witchcraft in written fiction

Background

Plot

See also

References

Bibliography

External links