I read this for my German class. It was pretty enjoyable. But all I can really say is that I did NOT expect it to end with incest! WOW. ( )

Possibly my favorite sentence ever written in the German language:

"Eckbert lag wahnsinnig und verscheidend auf dem Boden; dumpf und verworren hörte er die Alte sprechen, den Hund bellen, und den Vogel sein Lied wiederholen." ( )

We've only read the first story, "Der blonde Eckbert", in school and for once I thought it OK. Nothing really special but not too bad to read either.

Not sure if I'll read "Der Runenberg", but I'm at least considering it for a time when I'm in a very good reading mood. ( )

Der Runenberg was the subject of my senior thesis for my B.A. in the Honours Division Department of German, Scandinavian and Dutch, at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. I don't remember exactly what it was about, but I'm sure it had something to do with intrusive narrators in German Romanticism, desire and the subconscious, projection and madness, the high vs. low physical space occupied by angelic/virtuous vs. demonic/sexually desireable women, and music. It probably had a lot of Foucault, Lacan, and Barthes in the list of references. I'm sure it was fascinating.... ( )

German Classic