The Story of the Beautiful Lau

by Mörike, Eduard; Menzel, Dorothee

• ISBN13: 9783936681833
• ISBN10: 393668183X
• Edition: Bilingual
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2015-08-07
• Publisher: Edition Axel Menges

Summary

During Germany's Romantic period, the Blautopf, a "pot spring" connected to a cave system on the Swabian Alb, deep blue in colour, changing from turquoise blue to dark blue as the light shifts, gave rise to all kinds of speculations and stories. Also the Swabian poet Eduard Mörike took his inspiration from this striking place as well and wrote the story of the beautiful Lau, which is in fact part of the story Das Stuttgarter Hutzelmännlein, however it is often published as a story of its own. The heroine is half a water spirit—her mother was a human woman, and her father was a water nix of royal blood. She has thin webs between her toes, but apart from this she is not externally different to a human being. Because she cannot laugh and can bear only dead children, her husband, the Donaunix, sends her to the Blautopf lake. Before she can be permitted to return, she must laugh five times, what she finally achieved by the help of Ms Betha, the landlady of the Nunns Inn.

Author Biography

Eduard Mörike (1804–1875) is one of the most prominent exponents of Germany's Romantic period.

Dorothee Menzel lives near Bremen, Germany. She was so fascinated by Mörike's story that she created a large number of illustrations, which appear in this volume.