Twelve Nights
by Urs Faes
Translated from the German by Jamie Lee Searle
As the elder of two brothers, Manfred expects to inherit his
family’s farmstead in the Black Forest and dreams of settling down with his
childhood sweetheart Minna. Instead, the
Hullert farm goes to his brother Sebastian, and following a cruel and bitter falling-out
between the siblings, Minna takes Sebastian’s side. Crushed, Manfred decides to emigrate, leaving
his past behind him. Four decades later,
during the magical Raunächte – or Twelve Nights – which give the novella its title,
Sebastian returns to the village of his youth to seek reconciliation with
Manfred.
As far as “plot” is concerned, there’s not much to Urs Faes’ slim novella beyond the bare bones reproduced above. However, Twelve Nights acquires a resonance well beyond the number of its pages, by tapping into folklore, myth and Biblical imagery. The rivalry between the siblings and the theme of the “stolen birthright” has echoes of the stories of Jacob and Esau, Cain and Abel, the parable of the Prodigal Son. In the inn where Sebastian is staying, the men of the village congregate around the fire, telling tales of “ghosts stirring in the ravine”. Sebastian recalls his mother burning herbs to keep “dark forces” at bay. The evil spirits which roam in the days between Christmas and Epiphany threatening “disorder and peril…abysses gaping open” turn into a metaphor for the pain which humans can inflict on each other. It seems that everywhere Sebastian looks shimmers with a magical sheen imparted by legend:
Outside,
through the window, the snow was falling once more, in dense flakes on this
early evening; a creeping dusk blurred the contours, turning the trees into
wizened forms, the stream to a taffeta-grey ribbon, the farmhouses to shadowy
distorting mirrors. The street could no longer be seen in the leaden gloom,
which was tinged blue towards the forest, black down the ravine. Childhoodland,
filled with scents and stories, legends like that of the forest spirit
Holländer Michel, figures looming out of the darkness of the trees, the meadows
and marshlands, shallow waters and moon-pale quarry ponds…
This is a deeply atmospheric read: eerie with almost Gothic
overtones, and yet warm with hope. Jamie Lee Searle’s translation from the
German is poetic and evocative of the natural winter wonderland which serves as
a backdrop to this fable-like tale.
As far as “plot” is concerned, there’s not much to Urs Faes’ slim novella beyond the bare bones reproduced above. However, Twelve Nights acquires a resonance well beyond the number of its pages, by tapping into folklore, myth and Biblical imagery. The rivalry between the siblings and the theme of the “stolen birthright” has echoes of the stories of Jacob and Esau, Cain and Abel, the parable of the Prodigal Son. In the inn where Sebastian is staying, the men of the village congregate around the fire, telling tales of “ghosts stirring in the ravine”. Sebastian recalls his mother burning herbs to keep “dark forces” at bay. The evil spirits which roam in the days between Christmas and Epiphany threatening “disorder and peril…abysses gaping open” turn into a metaphor for the pain which humans can inflict on each other. It seems that everywhere Sebastian looks shimmers with a magical sheen imparted by legend:
ebook
Expected publication: December 3rd 2020 by Vintage Digital
 |
| Art by Karl Hauptmann |
No comments:
Post a Comment