Hoffmann's golden pot analysis. Specifics of Hoffmann's romanticism: the short story "The Golden Pot"
The Misadventures of the Student Anselm. - Healthy Conrector Paulman tobacco and golden-green snakes.
On the day of the Ascension, around three in the afternoon, a young man was rapidly walking through the Black Gate in Dresden and just fell into a basket of apples and pies that was being sold by an old, ugly woman - and he fell so successfully that part of the contents of the basket was crushed, and everything that successfully escaped this fate scattered in all directions, and the street boys joyfully rushed to the prey that the clever young man delivered to them! At the cries of the old woman, her companions left their tables, at which they were selling pies and vodka, surrounded the young man and began to scold him so rudely and furiously that he, speechless with annoyance and shame, could only take out his small and not particularly full wallet, which The old woman greedily grabbed it and quickly hid it. Then the tight circle of merchant women parted; but when the young man jumped out of it, the old woman shouted after him: “Run away, damn son, so that you will be blown away; You’ll fall under glass, under glass!...” There was something terrible in this woman’s sharp, shrill voice, so the walkers stopped in surprise, and the laughter that had been heard at first suddenly fell silent. Student Anselm (it was he who was the young man), although he did not at all understand the old woman’s strange words, felt an involuntary shudder and quickened his steps even more in order to avoid the gaze of the curious crowd directed at him. Now, making his way through the stream of smartly dressed townspeople, he heard everywhere saying: “Ah, poor young man! Oh, she’s a damned woman!” In a strange way, the old woman’s mysterious words gave the funny adventure a certain tragic turn, so that everyone looked with sympathy at the man whom they had not noticed at all before. Female persons, in view of the young man's tall stature and his handsome face, the expressiveness of which was enhanced by hidden anger, willingly excused his awkwardness, as well as his costume, which was very far from any fashion, namely: his pike-gray tailcoat was cut in such a way as if the tailor who worked for him knew only from hearsay about modern styles, and the black satin, well-preserved trousers gave the whole figure a kind of magisterial style, which was completely inconsistent with his gait and posture.
Having read the work “The Golden Pot” by Hoffmann, we see the first thing that belongs to the features of romanticism - the use of the grotesque. The entire work is built on a bizarre interweaving of the real and the fantastic. With the help of fiction, Hoffman creates the effect of two worlds. In Hoffmann's work there are metamorphoses, that is, transformations; an example of such a transformation could be a green snake that turned into a girl. There are many digressions in the work in which the author explains the author’s position, namely the author’s irony. Irony is also inherent in this work, the intertwining of two worlds leads to an ironic situation when Anselm is considered crazy after his stories about the other side of reality. Fantasticity and fabulousness are manifested throughout the entire work, the magical world, witchcraft, metamorphoses, fantastic heroes of the work, etc. Hoffmann's fantasy in The Golden Pot is not hidden, but, on the contrary, obvious. Also, the features of romanticism in Hoffmann’s work “The Golden Pot” include such features as unity with nature, this can be seen in the episode when Anselm sees three green snakes entwined around the branches of an elderberry, after they disappeared Anselm remained standing, hugging the bush elderberries. As for Anselm, he is a romantic hero in this work; he does not betray his dreams. Despite the events taking place, even when he finds himself in the bottle, he does not give in to the persuasion of the witch.
As you know, we associate romanticism with everything bright, sweet, with flowers and elegant gifts. It turns out that in our time you can be a romantic. For me, for example, a bouquet of sweets as an original gift for a loved one was a revelation. It is very original, pleasant and romantic.
Every nation has its own fairy tales. They freely intertwine fiction with real historical events, and they are a kind of encyclopedia of traditions and everyday characteristics of different countries. Folklore tales existed in oral form for centuries, while original tales began to appear only with the development of printing. The tales of Gesner, Wieland, Goethe, Hauff, and Brentano provided fertile ground for the development of romanticism in Germany. At the turn of the 18th-19th centuries, the name of the Brothers Grimm sounded loudly, who created an amazing, magical world in their works. But one of the most famous fairy tales was “The Golden Pot” (Hoffmann). A brief summary of this work will allow you to get acquainted with some of the features of German romanticism that had a huge impact on the further development of art.
Romanticism: origins
German romanticism is one of the most interesting and fruitful periods in art. It began in literature, giving a powerful impetus to all other forms of art. Germany at the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th centuries did not resemble much of a magical, poetic country. But the burgher life, simple and rather primitive, turned out, oddly enough, to be the most fertile soil for the birth of the most spiritual trend in culture. Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann opened the door to it. The character he created of the mad bandmaster Kreisler became the herald of a new hero, overwhelmed by feelings only to the most superlative degree, immersed in his inner world more than in the real one. Hoffmann also owns the amazing work “The Golden Pot”. This is one of the pinnacles of German literature and a real encyclopedia of romanticism.
History of creation
The fairy tale "The Golden Pot" was written by Hoffmann in 1814 in Dresden. Outside the window, shells were exploding and bullets were whistling from the Napoleonic army, and at the writer’s desk an amazing world was born, filled with miracles and magical characters. Hoffmann had just experienced a severe shock when his beloved Julia Mark was married off by his parents to a wealthy businessman. The writer once again encountered the vulgar rationalism of the philistines. An ideal world in which the harmony of all things reigns - this is what E. Hoffmann longed for. “The Golden Pot” is an attempt to invent such a world and inhabit it, at least in the imagination.
Geographical coordinates
An amazing feature of "The Golden Pot" is that the scenery for this fairy tale is copied from a real city. The heroes walk along Castle Street, passing the Link Baths. Pass through the Black and Lake Gates. Miracles happen at real folk festivities on Ascension Day. The heroes go boating, the Osters ladies pay a visit to their friend Veronica. Registrar Geerbrand tells his fantastic story about the love of Lily and Phosphorus, drinking punch at the evening at Conrector Paulman's, and no one even raises an eyebrow. Hoffman interweaves the fictional world with the real one so closely that the line between them is almost completely erased.
"The Golden Pot" (Hoffmann). Summary: the beginning of an amazing adventure
On the day of the Ascension, at about three o'clock in the afternoon, student Anselm quickly walks along the pavement. Passing through the Black Gate, he accidentally knocks over the basket of an apple seller and, in order to somehow make amends for his guilt, gives her his last money. The old woman, however, not satisfied with the compensation, pours out a whole stream of curses and curses on Anselm, from which he catches only that he threatens to end up under glass. Dejected, the young man begins to wander aimlessly around the city when he suddenly hears the slight rustling of an elderberry tree. Peering into the foliage, Anselm decided that he saw three wonderful golden snakes wriggling in the branches and whispering something mysteriously. One of the snakes brings its graceful head closer to him and looks intently into his eyes. Anselm becomes wildly delighted and begins to talk with them, which incurs puzzled glances from passers-by. The conversation is interrupted by Registrar Geerbrand and Director Paulman and his daughters. Seeing that Anselm is a little out of his mind, they decide that he has gone crazy from incredible poverty and bad luck. They invite the young man to come to the editor in the evening. At this reception, the unfortunate student receives an offer from the archivist Lindgorst to enter his service as a calligrapher. Realizing that he can’t count on anything better, Anselm accepts the offer.
This initial section contains the main conflict between the miracle-seeking soul (Anselm) and the mundane, preoccupied with everyday life consciousness (“Dresden characters”), which forms the basis of the dramaturgy of the story “The Golden Pot” (Hoffmann). A summary of Anselm's further adventures follows below.
Magic house
Miracles began as soon as Anselm approached the archivist’s house. The door knocker suddenly turned into the face of an old woman whose basket was overturned by a young man. The bell cord turned out to be a white snake, and again Anselm heard the prophetic words of the old woman. In horror, the young man ran away from the strange house, and no amount of persuasion helped convince him to visit this place again. To establish contact between the archivist and Anselm, registrar Geerbrand invited them both to a coffee shop, where he told the mythical story of the love of Lily and Phosphorus. It turned out that this Lily is Lindgorst’s great-great-great-grandmother, and royal blood flows in his veins. In addition, he said that the golden snakes that so captivated the young man were his daughters. This finally convinced Anselm that he needed to try his luck again in the archivist’s house.
Visit to a fortune teller
The daughter of the registrar Geerbrand, imagining that Anselm could become a court councilor, convinced herself that she was in love and set out to marry him. To be sure, she went to a fortune teller, who told her that Anselm had contacted evil forces in the person of the archivist, fell in love with his daughter - the green snake - and he would never become an adviser. In order to somehow console the unfortunate girl, the witch promised to help her by making a magic mirror through which Veronica could bewitch Anselm and save him from the evil old man. In fact, there was a long-standing enmity between the fortune teller and the archivist, and thus the sorceress wanted to settle scores with her enemy.
Magic ink
Lindhorst, in turn, also provided Anselm with a magical artifact - he gave him a bottle with a mysterious black mass, with which the young man was supposed to copy the letters from the book. Every day the symbols became clearer to Anselm, and soon it began to seem to him that he had known this text for a long time. One working day, Serpentina appeared to him, a snake with whom Anselm fell madly in love. She said that her father comes from the Salamander tribe. For his love for the green snake, he was expelled from the magical land of Atlantis and doomed to remain in human form until someone could hear the singing of his three daughters and fall in love with them. They were promised a Golden Pot as a dowry. Upon betrothal, a lily will grow from it, and the one who can learn to understand its language will open the door to Atlantis for himself and for Salamander.
When Serpentina disappeared, giving Anselm a burning kiss goodbye, the young man looked at the letters he was rewriting and realized that everything the snake said was contained in them.
Happy ending
For some time, Veronica's magic mirror affected Anselm. He forgot Serpetina and began to dream about Paulman's daughter. Arriving at the archivist’s house, he discovered that he had ceased to perceive the world of miracles; the letters, which he had recently read with ease, again turned into incomprehensible squiggles. After dripping ink onto the parchment, the young man found himself imprisoned in a glass jar as punishment for his mistake. Looking around, he saw several more of the same cans with young people. Only they did not understand at all that they were in captivity, mocking Anselm’s suffering.
Suddenly a grumbling sound came from the coffee pot, and the young man recognized it as the voice of the notorious old woman. She promised to save him if he married Veronica. Anselm angrily refused, and the witch tried to escape, taking the golden pot. But then the formidable Salamander blocked her path. A battle took place between them: Lindgorst won, the spell of the mirror fell off Anselm, and the sorceress turned into a nasty beetroot.
All of Veronica’s attempts to tie Anselm to her ultimately ended in failure, but the girl did not despond for long. Conrector Paulman, appointed court councilor, proposed marriage to her, and she happily gave her consent. Anselm and Serpentina became happily engaged and found eternal bliss in Atlantis.
"The Golden Pot", Hoffmann. Heroes
Enthusiastic student Anselm has no luck in real life. There is no doubt that Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann associates himself with him. The young man passionately wants to find his place in the social hierarchy, but stumbles upon the rough, unimaginative world of burghers, that is, ordinary people. His inconsistency with reality is clearly demonstrated at the very beginning of the story, when he knocks over the apple seller's basket. Sedate people, with their feet firmly planted on the ground, make fun of him, and he acutely feels his exclusion from their world. But as soon as he gets a job with the archivist Lindgorst, his life immediately begins to improve. In his house, he finds himself in a magical reality and falls in love with a golden snake - the youngest daughter of the archivist Serpentina. Now the meaning of his existence becomes the desire to win her love and trust. In the image of Serpentina, Hoffmann embodied the ideal lover - elusive, elusive and fabulously beautiful.
The magical world of Salamander is contrasted with “Dresden” characters: Conrector Paulman, Veronica, and Registrar Geerbrand. They are completely deprived of the ability to observe miracles, considering belief in them a manifestation of mental illness. Only Veronica, in love with Anselm, sometimes lifts the veil over the fantastic world. But she loses this sensitivity as soon as a court councilor appears on the horizon with a marriage proposal.
Features of the genre
“A Tale from Modern Times” - this is the title Hoffmann himself suggested for his story “The Golden Pot”. An analysis of the features of this work, carried out in several studies, makes it difficult to accurately determine the genre in which it was written: the chronicle plot makes it possible to classify it as a story, the abundance of magic as a fairy tale, and the small volume as a short story. The real world, with its dominance of philistinism and pragmatism, and the fantastic country of Atlantis, where entry is accessible only to people with heightened sensitivity, exist in parallel. Thus, Goffman affirms the principle of dual worlds. Blurring of forms and duality in general were characteristic of romantic works. Drawing inspiration from the past, the romantics turned their longing gaze to the future, hoping to find the best of worlds in such unity.
Hoffman in Russia
The first translation from German of Hoffmann’s fairy tale “The Golden Pot” was published in Russia in the 20s of the 19th century and immediately attracted the attention of all thinking intelligentsia. Belinsky wrote that the prose of the German writer is opposed to vulgar everyday life and rational clarity. Herzen devoted his first article to an essay from the life and work of Hoffmann. The library of A. S. Pushkin had a complete collection of Hoffmann's works. The translation from German was made into French - according to the then tradition of giving preference to this language over Russian. Oddly enough, the German writer was much more popular in Russia than in his homeland.
Atlantis is a mythical country where the harmony of all things, unattainable in reality, was realized. It is precisely this place that the student Anselm strives to get to in the fairy tale “The Golden Pot” (Hoffmann). A brief summary of his adventures, unfortunately, cannot allow one to enjoy either the smallest twists of the plot, or all the amazing miracles that Hoffmann’s imagination scattered along his path, or the exquisite style of storytelling characteristic only of German romanticism. This article is intended only to awaken your interest in the work of the great musician, writer, artist and lawyer.
1813 Better known at that time as a musician and composer than as a writer, Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann becomes director of the Sekonda opera troupe and moves with her to Dresden. In a besieged city under Napoleon's attack, he conducts an opera. And at the same time he conceived the most striking of his early works - a phantasmogorical fairy tale "Golden Pot".
“On Ascension Day, around three in the afternoon, a young man was quickly walking through the Black Gate in Dresden and just fell into a basket of apples and pies that was being sold by an old, ugly woman - and he fell so successfully that part of the contents of the basket was crushed, and everything that successfully escaped this fate scattered in all directions, and the street boys joyfully rushed to the prey that the clever young man delivered to them!”
Isn't it true that the first phrase is as addictive as a witch's spell? Luring with playful rhythm and beauty of style? Let's attribute this to the wonderful translation of Vladimir Solovyov, but it is not Solovyov who is to blame for the fact that the Russian classic rests on Hoffmann's shoulders from Gogol to Dostoevsky, capturing, however, the twentieth century. Dostoevsky, by the way, read all of Hoffmann in translation and in the original. Not a bad characterization for an author!
However, let's return to the "Golden Pot". The text of the story is magical and bewitching. Mysticism permeates the entire content of the story-fairy tale, tightly intertwined with the form. The rhythm itself is musical and enchanting. And the images are fabulous, colorful, bright.
“Here the student Anselm’s monologue was interrupted by a strange rustling and rustling sound that arose very close to him in the grass, but soon crawled onto the branches and leaves of the elderberry tree spread over his head. It seemed as if the evening wind was moving the leaves; that it is birds fluttering here and there in the branches, touching them with their wings. Suddenly there was some whispering and babbling, and the flowers seemed to ring like crystal bells. Anselm listened and listened. And so - he himself did not know how this rustle, and whisper, and ringing turned into quiet, barely audible words:
“Here and there, between the branches, along the flowers, we wind, intertwine, spin, sway. Sister, sister! Swing in the radiance! Hurry, hurry, up and down, - the evening sun shoots rays, the breeze rustles, moves the leaves, falls dew, the flowers sing, we move our tongues, we sing with the flowers, with the branches, the stars will soon sparkle, it’s time for us to go down here and there, we wind, weave, spin, sway; sisters, hurry!”
And then the intoxicating speech flowed.”
The main character of the fairy tale is student Anselm, a romantic and clumsy young man, whose hand is sought after by the girl Veronica, and he himself is in love with the beautiful golden-green snake Serpentina. Helping him in his adventures is a mystical hero - Serpentina's father, archivist Lindgorst, and in fact the mythical character Salamander. And the intrigues are being plotted by an evil witch, the daughter of a black dragon's feather and a beetroot (beets were fed to pigs in Germany). And Anselm’s goal is to overcome the obstacles in the form of the dark forces that have taken up arms against him and unite with Serpentine in distant and beautiful Atlantis.
The meaning of the story lies in irony, reflecting Hoffmann's credo. Ernst Theodor Amadeus is the worst enemy of philistinism, everything philistine, tasteless, and mundane. In his romantic consciousness, two worlds coexist, and the one that inspires the author has nothing in common with the philistine dream of well-being.
A certain plot feature caught my attention - the moment when student Anselm finds himself under glass. This reminded me of the main idea of the famous film "Matrix", when the reality of some people is just a simulation for the chosen hero.
“Then Anselm saw that next to him, on the same table, there were five more bottles, in which he saw three students of the Cross School and two scribes.
“Ah, dear sirs, comrades of my misfortune,” he exclaimed, “how can you remain so carefree, even contented, as I see from your faces?” After all, you, like me, sit sealed in bottles and cannot move or move, cannot even think anything meaningful without a deafening noise and ringing rising up, so that your head will crackle and buzz. But you probably don’t believe in the Salamander and the green snake?
“You are delusional, Mr. Studiosus,” one of the students objected. - We have never felt better than now, because the spice talers that we receive from the crazy archivist for all sorts of meaningless copies are good for us; Now we no longer need to learn Italian choirs; Now every day we go to Joseph’s or to other taverns, enjoy strong beer, look at the girls, sing, like real students, “Gaudeamus igitur...” - and are happy.”
Hoffmann also depicted his own image, divided in two, in The Golden Pot. As you know, he wrote music under the pseudonym Johannes Kreisler.
“Archivist Lindgorst disappeared, but immediately reappeared, holding in his hand a beautiful golden glass, from which a blue, crackling flame rose high.
“Here you have,” he said, “the favorite drink of your friend, bandmaster Johannes Kreisler.” This is a lit arrack into which I threw a little sugar. Taste a little, and I’ll now take off my dressing gown, and while you sit and watch and write, I, for my own pleasure and at the same time to enjoy your dear company, will lower and rise in the glass.
“As you wish, venerable Mr. Archivist,” I objected, “but only if you want me to drink from this glass, please do not...
- Don't worry, my dear! - exclaimed the archivist, quickly threw off his dressing gown and, to my great surprise, entered the glass and disappeared in the flame. Lightly blowing off the flame, I tasted the drink - it was excellent!”
Magical, isn't it? After the creation of The Golden Pot, Hoffmann's reputation as a writer began to strengthen more and more. Well, in the meantime, Seconda fired him from the post of director of the opera troupe, accusing him of amateurism...
On the Feast of the Ascension, around three in the afternoon, a young man, a student named Anselm, was rapidly walking through the Black Gate in Dresden. He accidentally knocked over a huge basket of apples and pies that an ugly old woman was selling. He gave the old woman his skinny wallet. The merchant hastily grabbed him and burst out with terrible curses and threats. “You’ll end up under glass, under glass!” - she shouted. Accompanied by malicious laughter and sympathetic glances, Anselm turned onto a secluded road along the Elbe. He began to complain loudly about his worthless life.
Anselm's monologue was interrupted by a strange rustling sound coming from the elderberry bush. There were sounds similar to the ringing of crystal bells. Looking up, Anselm saw three lovely golden-green snakes entwined around the branches. One of the three snakes extended its head towards him and looked at him with tenderness with its wonderful dark blue eyes. Anselm was overcome with a feeling of the highest bliss and deepest sorrow. Suddenly a rough, thick voice was heard, the snakes rushed into the Elbe and disappeared as suddenly as they had appeared.
Anselm, in anguish, hugged the trunk of an elder tree, frightening the townspeople walking in the park with his appearance and wild speeches. Hearing unkind remarks about himself, Anselm woke up and started running. Suddenly they called out to him. It turned out to be his friends - registrar Geerbrand and rector Paulman and their daughters. Conrector invited Anselm to take a boat ride with them on the Elbe and end the evening with dinner at his house. Now Anselm clearly understood that the golden snakes were just a reflection of the fireworks in the foliage. However, that same unknown feeling, bliss or sorrow, again squeezed his chest.
During the walk, Anselm almost capsized the boat, shouting strange speeches about golden snakes. Everyone agreed that the young man was clearly not himself, and that this was due to his poverty and bad luck. Geerbrand offered him a job as a scribe for the archivist Lindgorst for decent money - he was just looking for a talented calligrapher and draftsman to copy manuscripts from his library. The student was sincerely happy about this offer, because his passion was to copy difficult calligraphic works.
The next morning, Anselm dressed up and went to Lindhorst. Just as he was about to take hold of the knocker on the door of the archivist’s house, suddenly the bronze face twisted and turned into an old woman, whose apples Anselm scattered at the Black Gate. Anselm recoiled in horror and grabbed the bell cord. In its ringing, the student heard the ominous words: “You will already be in glass, in crystal.” The bell cord went down and turned out to be a white, transparent, gigantic snake. She wrapped herself around him and squeezed him, so that blood sprayed from the veins, penetrating the snake’s body and coloring it red. The snake raised its head and laid its tongue of red-hot iron on Anselm's chest. He lost consciousness from the sharp pain. The student woke up in his poor bed, and Principal Paulman stood over him.
After this incident, Anselm did not dare to approach the archivist’s house again. No amount of persuasion from his friends led to anything; the student was considered to be truly mentally ill, and, in the opinion of Registrar Geerbrand, the best remedy for this was to work for an archivist. In order to get to know Anselm and Lindhorst better, the registrar arranged a meeting for them one evening in a coffee shop.
That evening the archivist told a strange story about a fiery lily that was born in a primeval valley, and about the young man Phosphorus, for whom the lily was inflamed with love. Phosphorus kissed the lily, it burst into flames, a new creature came out of it and flew away, not caring about the young man in love. Phosphorus began to mourn his lost friend. A black dragon flew out of the rock, caught this creature, hugged it with its wings, and it again turned into a lily, but her love for Phosphorus became a sharp pain, from which everything around her faded and withered. Phosphorus fought the dragon and freed the lily, who became the queen of the valley. “I come from exactly that valley, and the fire lily was my great-great-great-great-grandmother, so I myself am a prince,” Lindgorst concluded. These words of the archivist caused trembling in the student’s soul.
Every evening the student came to that same elderberry bush, hugged it and sadly exclaimed: “Ah! I love you, snake, and I will die of sadness if you don’t come back!” On one of these evenings, archivist Lindgorst approached him. Anselm told him about all the extraordinary events that had happened to him recently. The archivist told Anselm that the three snakes were his daughters, and he was in love with the youngest, Serpentina. Lindgorst invited the young man to his place and gave him a magical liquid - protection from the old witch. After this, the archivist turned into a kite and flew away.
The daughter of the director Paulman, Veronica, having accidentally heard that Anselm could become a court councilor, began to dream of the role of a court councilor and his wife. In the midst of her dreams, she heard an unknown and terrible creaking voice that said: “He will not be your husband!”
Having heard from a friend that an old fortune teller, Frau Rauerin, lived in Dresden, Veronica decided to turn to her for advice. “Leave Anselm,” the witch told the girl. - He's a bad person. He contacted my enemy, the evil old man. He is in love with his daughter, the green snake. He will never be a court councilor.” Dissatisfied with the fortune teller's words, Veronica wanted to leave, but then the fortune teller turned into the girl's old nanny, Lisa. To detain Veronica, the nanny said that she would try to heal Anselm from the sorcerer’s spell. To do this, the girl must come to her at night, on the future equinox. Hope woke up again in Veronica's soul.
Meanwhile, Anselm began working for the archivist. Lindhorst gave the student some kind of black mass instead of ink, strangely colored pens, unusually white and smooth paper and ordered him to copy an Arabic manuscript. With every word Anselm's courage increased, and with it his skill. It seemed to the young man that the serpentine was helping him. The archivist read his secret thoughts and said that this work is a test that will lead him to happiness.
On the cold and windy night of the equinox, the fortune teller led Veronica to the field. She lit a fire under the cauldron and threw into it those strange bodies that she had brought with her in a basket. Following them, a curl from Veronica’s head and her ring flew into the cauldron. The witch told the girl to stare into the boiling brew without stopping. Suddenly Anselm came out from the depths of the cauldron and extended his hand to Veronica. The old woman opened the tap near the boiler, and molten metal flowed into the mold. At that same moment a thunderous voice was heard above her head: “Get away, quickly!” The old woman fell to the ground screaming, and Veronica fainted. Coming to her senses at home, on her couch, she discovered in the pocket of her soaked raincoat a silver mirror that had been cast by a fortune teller the previous night. From the mirror, as if from a boiling cauldron at night, her lover looked at the girl.
Student Anselm had been working for the archivist for many days. The write-off went quickly. It seemed to Anselm that the lines he was copying had already been known to him for a long time. He felt Serpentina next to him all the time, sometimes her light breath touched him. Soon Serpentina appeared to the student and told him that her father actually came from the Salamander tribe. He fell in love with a green snake, the daughter of a lily, who grew in the garden of the prince of spirits, Phosphorus. The salamander embraced the snake, it disintegrated into ashes, a winged creature was born from it and flew away.
In desperation, Salamander ran through the garden, devastating it with fire. Phosphorus, the prince of the country of Atlantis, became angry, extinguished the flame of Salamander, doomed him to life in the form of a man, but left him a magical gift. Only then will Salamander throw off this heavy burden, when there are young men who will hear the singing of his three daughters and love them. They will receive a Golden Pot as a dowry. At the moment of betrothal, a fiery lily will grow from the pot, the young man will understand its language, comprehend everything that is open to disembodied spirits, and begin to live with his beloved in Atlantis. The Salamanders, who have finally received forgiveness, will return there. The old witch strives to own a golden pot. Serpentina warned Anselm: “Beware of the old woman, she is hostile to you, since your childish pure character has already destroyed many of her evil spells.” In conclusion, the kiss burned Anselm's lips. When the student woke up, he discovered that Serpentina’s story was captured on his copy of the mysterious manuscript.
Although Anselm's soul was turned to dear Serpentine, he sometimes involuntarily thought about Veronica. Soon Veronica begins to appear to him in his dreams and gradually takes over his thoughts. One morning, instead of going to the archivist, he went to visit Paulman, where he spent the whole day. There he accidentally saw a magic mirror, into which he began to look together with Veronica. A struggle began in Anselm, and then it became clear to him that he had always thought only about Veronica. A hot kiss made the student’s feeling even stronger. Anselm promised Veronica to marry her.
After lunch, Registrar Geerbrand arrived with everything needed to prepare the punch. With the first sip of the drink, the strangeness and wonder of the past weeks rose again before Anselm. He began to dream aloud about the Serpentine. Suddenly, after him, the owner and Geerbrand begin to scream and roar, as if possessed: “Long live Salamander! Let the old woman perish!” Veronica tried in vain to convince them that old Lisa would certainly defeat the sorcerer. In insane horror, Anselm ran into his closet and fell asleep. When he woke up, he again began to dream about his marriage to Veronica. Now neither the archivist's garden nor Lindhorst himself seemed so magical to him.
The next day, the student continued his work with the archivist, but now it seemed to him that the parchment of the manuscript was covered not with letters, but with tangled squiggles. Trying to copy the letter, Anselm dripped ink onto the manuscript. Blue lightning flew out of the spot, the archivist appeared in the thick fog and severely punished the student for his mistake. Lindhorst imprisoned Anselm in one of those crystal jars that stood on the table in the archivist's office. Next to him stood five more bottles, in which the young man saw three students and two scribes, who had also once worked for the archivist. They began to mock Anselm: “The madman imagines that he is sitting in a bottle, while he himself stands on the bridge and looks at his reflection in the river!” They also laughed at the crazy old man who showered them with gold because they were drawing doodles for him. Anselm turned away from his frivolous comrades in misfortune and directed all his thoughts and feelings to dear Serpentine, who still loved him and tried as best she could to alleviate Anselm’s situation.
Suddenly Anselm heard a dull grumbling and recognized the witch in the old coffee pot standing opposite. She promised him salvation if he married Veronica. Anselm proudly refused. Then the old woman grabbed the golden pot and tried to hide, but the archivist overtook her. The next moment, the student saw a mortal battle between a sorcerer and an old woman, from which Salamander emerged victorious, and the witch turned into a nasty beetroot. At this moment of triumph, Serpentina appeared before Anselm, announcing to him the forgiveness granted. The glass cracked and he fell into the arms of the lovely Serpentina.
The next day, Registrar Geerbrand and Registrar Paulman could not understand how an ordinary punch had brought them to such excesses. Finally, they decided that the cursed student was to blame for everything, who infected them with his madness. Many months have passed. On Veronica’s name day, the newly appointed court councilor Geerbrand came to Paulman’s house and proposed marriage to the girl. She agreed and told her future husband about her love for Anselm and about the witch. A few weeks later, Madam Court Counselor Geerbrand settled into a beautiful house in the New Market.
The author received a letter from the archivist Lindhorst with permission to make public the story of the strange fate of his son-in-law, a former student, and currently the poet Anselm, and with an invitation to complete the story of the Golden Pot in the very hall of his house where the illustrious student Anselm worked. Anselm himself became engaged to Serpentina in a beautiful temple, inhaled the aroma of a lily that grew from a golden pot, and found eternal bliss in Atlantis.
Retold
