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Der Schimmelreiter

3.35 of 5 stars 3.35 · rating details · 1,275 ratings · 39 reviews

Der Schimmelreiter ist viel mehr als ein klassisches Stück deutscher Literatur - auf knappsten Raum nutzt er eine Gespenstergeschichte, um vom Kampf des Menschen gegen die Natur und gegen den Menschen zu erzählen. Hauke Haiens Versuch, dem Meer neue Grenzen zu ziehen, führt in einen Abgrund, dessen Ausdeutung den Leser verschlingt wie die Sturmflut das neugewonnene Land.

Paperback, 159 pages

Published 2001 by Reclam (first published 1888)

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Jan 30, 2009 Greg rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, short-stories, nyrb

I can imagine reading these stories in a high school setting and having the teacher strangle all of the life out of them. They seem like those kind of stories. Luckily I'm not a high school student and I read them on my own and didn't have any of the life taken from them. Many of these stories reminded me of Thomas Hardy in that bleak and doomed way that Hardy's novels have.

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Nov 10, 2011 Vishy rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I loved Theodor Storm’s ‘Immensee’ when I read it last week. So, this week I thought I will read Storm’s ‘The Rider on the White Horse'. I got Storm’s book and read it today. I finished it sometime back. Here is what I think.

What I think

‘The Rider on the White Horse’ is a story set in a small North German village. It is told by a narrator, who seems to be the author, but we are not sure. The narrator says that he read this story half a century ago, in his great-grandmother’s place, in a newspape...more I loved Theodor Storm’s ‘Immensee’ when I read it last week. So, this week I thought I will read Storm’s ‘The Rider on the White Horse'. I got Storm’s book and read it today. I finished it sometime back. Here is what I think.

What I think

‘The Rider on the White Horse’ is a story set in a small North German village. It is told by a narrator, who seems to be the author, but we are not sure. The narrator says that he read this story half a century ago, in his great-grandmother’s place, in a newspaper. The story in the newspaper is told by another storyteller. This storytelling traveller is riding through a storm, despite his friend warning him to stay back in the warmth of the home, because he has some urgent business. On the way, he suddenly sees a ghostly white horse with a rider brushing past him in the opposite direction. The horse and the rider come back and pass him again. In a short while, the storyteller arrives at a village inn. He goes in and discovers that a few people – the dykemaster and a few dyke overseers – are having a conversation. He joins them. After a short while he tells them about the white horse and the strange horseman. Everyone becomes silent. When the traveller asks them about it, the dykemaster says that there is a story behind the white horse and its rider. The dykemaster asks the local village schoolmaster to tell the story. While the storm rages outside, the schoolmaster tells the story of Hauke Haien, how he was a lonely and an intelligent boy, how he got interested in mathematics, design and related topics, how he went to work at the place of the dykemaster of that time and how he fell in love with the dykemaster’s daughter Elke. The schoolmaster’s story goes on to tell the story of Hauke and Elke, how they get married and how Hauke becomes the dykemaster after many years, realizing his dream and how he planned a major project of building a new dyke, how it turned out to be a tremendous success but made a lot of people in the village suspicious of him and how a small flaw in the dyke and the violence of nature lead to disastrous consequences in the end.

‘The Rider on the White Horse’ evokes the haunting atmosphere of the North Frisian landscape, with its farms, dykes, storms and floods. I liked that aspect of the book very much. It also gives an interesting picture of North Frisian people and their culture. The book also contrasts reason with superstition – Hauke Haien wants to use logic while building a dyke, while the people of the village who are working with him are superstitious and suspect him. Many haunting visions appear throughout the story – the ghostly horse with its strange rider, a mermaid, strange creatures that Hauke sees near the dyke, when he is young, and which he sees again later, when he comes there as an adult with his young daughter. We are not sure whether these visions are optical illusions or whether they actually are what they seem to indicate. The reader is expected to form his / her own conclusions based on which side of the divide he / she is in. The story has a sad ending – how can it be otherwise, when it happens in the middle of a storm?

I liked ‘The Rider of the White Horse’ for the haunting images it evokes. I can’t wait to read more of Storm’s novellas.

Have you read ‘The Rider of the White Horse’? What do you think about it?
(less)

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Apr 30, 2013 Jan-Maat added it · review of another edition

Shelves: 19th-century, fiction, germany, schleswig-holstein

The Rider on the White Horse was Theodor Storm's last completed work before his death. At the centre is a man trying to do his job in a new way, that will bring him fame, renown and satisfaction and the price that he will have to pay for what ever he may achieve. We might remember that white horses are often sacred and there's a cost to mortals in getting too involved in the with the divine.

We are held at arm's length away from this story by a series of framing devices: the author remembering r...more The Rider on the White Horse was Theodor Storm's last completed work before his death. At the centre is a man trying to do his job in a new way, that will bring him fame, renown and satisfaction and the price that he will have to pay for what ever he may achieve. We might remember that white horses are often sacred and there's a cost to mortals in getting too involved in the with the divine.

We are held at arm's length away from this story by a series of framing devices: the author remembering reading the story as a boy in a newspaper, the newspaper story which is told by a traveller who takes refuge in an inn during a storm, while there he is told the story of Hauke Haien by the village school teacher. We are at a remove from the events of the story, each step takes us further back in time emphasising our alienation from them, it's a different world.

This is a world of coastal marshlands threatened by storms or floods. An unenlightened world of pre-Christian superstition and belief in the absolute power of God. The separation of the village from the narrator (and the reader) is marked by a linguistic threshold, the first person he meets in the village speaks in dialect (the same device is used in Aquis Submersus). The difference in speech suggesting any number of cultural differences.

Unlike Theodor Storm, Haien does not seek to make his mark through literature but through building a new dyke that will increase the amount of land protected from the sea. This might be the story of the hubris of man against the forces of nature, or man against the fickle will of the divine, or indeed one man against the community, Hauke who has learnt geometry from a Dutch edition of Euclid (note that it is a Dutch edition, knowledge itself is foreign here) versus the men who want to bury a puppy alive into the dyke to ensure that it will stand strong against the weather since life must pay for life. But Hauke can't escape. He lives in the community, the community shapes how he will be remembered.

When Hauke, learned in Euclid, criticises the profile of the traditional dykes pointing out that they are not fit for purpose his father - the cleverest man in the village (not much of a compliment, particularly if the village is a small one) - calls him the wonderchild of Lubeck, learning in this place, in this time is more improbable than miracles and wonderchildren. In death Hauke becomes a ghost, galloping on his fatal, otherworldly horse along his dyke. This is a world untouched by the Enlightenment and so even in death there is no escape from an unfriendly magical universe that now swallows up the man and resurrects him as a supernatural figure.

While in Aquis Submersus the couple in love can never marry and their lives will be unfulfilled here marriage isn't sufficient. Hauke's need to prove himself through his work keeps Hauke apart from his wife, Elke. Eventually when a child is born to them she is lack-witted, simple and fearful. To a superstitious mind this is another judgement from the beyond - man should not over step his bounds.

Were it not for the fact that the man's work survives his death, and the death of his wife and daughter (since in this unenlightened universe life must pay for life), this would be a thoroughly pessimistic ending to a life of creativity. Having read a few of Theodor Storm's stories this is the end point of a trend of incresing pessimism.

Dat is de Dod, de allens fritt,
Nimmt Kunst un Wetenschop di mit;
De kloke Mann is nu vergahn,
Gott gaew em selig Uperstahn.

(less)

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Jun 01, 2009 Heather rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: literature-in-translation, library-books, fiction

Until the last story, which is the title story and the last that Storm wrote, I wasn't enraptured by this book. Each story had its satisfying bits, but mostly they were too self-consciously stories, too concerned with doomed love, too nostalgic.

That said, I liked this passage from "Aquis Submersus" a lot, the solid everyday detail of it:

And yet, how friendly I found the rooms of that old house! In winter I liked the small chamber to the right of the vestibule, and in summer the large room on t

...more

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Mar 28, 2012 Chuck LoPresti rated it 4 of 5 stars

Not every story here is great - but all are good. This is probably too dated for most modern readers but those that appreciate Turgenev, Hamsun or Stifter will find something to enjoy here. The title story is the highlight, a real page-turner that build to a fierce crescendo. At times this reminded me of Bely's Silver Dove, with its strange mysticism that lurks throughout. Doomed love and ill-fated children populate the otherwise naturalistic focus of Storm's capable writing. He's a painter with...more

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Oct 03, 2007 Annika rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: studymaterials

The Dykemaster.

Well, well. It was a nice little story. However, I do feel that it might have had more potential. Especially the ending came a little bit too abrupt for my liking. *shrugs* I suppose that's a question of taste, though.

I can definitely say that it didn't bore me at any point, and that it gave some interesting insights into society at that place and time.

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Apr 03, 2009 Rick rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Theodor Storm’s RIDER OF THE WHITE HORSE is a tightly woven novella about the conflict of man with nature and of man with man in the face of nature.

Hauke Haien the dikegrave (or supervisor of dikes for a section of the coast of Frisia) proves himself capable of tremendous feats of planning and engineering. This is all the more so when he acquires the white horse of the title, whom many believe to be a phantom, resurrected from a pile of bones dimly seen on the horizon.

One might suspect him of ha...more

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Mar 19, 2009 Adam rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: nyrb, recent-enthusiasms

This is a wonderful collection of short stories (and two novellas) originally written in German by 19th century Danish author Theordor Storm. “The Rider on the White Horse”--the title novella and, at 100 pages, the longest piece in the collection--is a beautifully written ghost story in which the supernatural element remains almost entirely in the background. Also known as “The Dykemaster,” this novella tells of a young Frisian man’s ambitious rise to the position of dykemaster in his town, of h...more

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Mar 20, 2012 Viktoria rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012, classics

Das war jetzt natürlich nicht dsa erste Mal, dass ich den "Schimmelreiter" gelesen habe. Es war Schullektüre... Beim erneuten Lesen ist mir das tolle an der Novelle bewusst geworden. Storm schafft durch die Bilder, die er schafft, und durch die Sprache eine einzigartige stimmung zwischen unheimlliche, gruselig und rauh. Die Nordsee und die Küste werden wunderbar von ihm eingefangen. Gerade auch der Aspekt der Grusel- bzw. Geistergeschichte ist hier wirklich spannend und sehr gut gemacht! Und man...more

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Dec 19, 2012 Michael rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: German Students, German Teachers, Frisians

Recommended to Michael by: Steven Fuller

Shelves: classics, german, literature

This is probably the most difficult book I have yet read in German. I’m going to be honest: my German is rusty enough that I had to make use of various online tools (and an online synopsis) to figure out what was going on at a couple of points. Once I had started to get into it, it was possible for me to follow, but this is definitely not a book for a beginner, or anyone whose German is only middling.

Part of the problem (for me, at least) is the narrative structure. There’s a meta-story, about...more This is probably the most difficult book I have yet read in German. I’m going to be honest: my German is rusty enough that I had to make use of various online tools (and an online synopsis) to figure out what was going on at a couple of points. Once I had started to get into it, it was possible for me to follow, but this is definitely not a book for a beginner, or anyone whose German is only middling.

Part of the problem (for me, at least) is the narrative structure. There’s a meta-story, about a guy being driven into a bar by a storm and meeting an elderly school-teacher, and a sub-meta story, about how the school-teacher heard the real story, which is about Hauke Haien, a legendary local figure. Because most of the story is being related by this internal character, the main narrative uses single quotes (because their all inside the generic double-quotes of the narrator’s dialogue). This can be confusing, especially if you’re not familiar with the appearance of German quotes. Furthermore, while the book is from 1888, but the main narrative takes place in the 18th century (the meta-narrative is set in the 1830s), and I think this also accounts for its alien-ness. It also takes place in Schleswig-Holstein/Denmark (northern Frisia), and so it has some cultural and linguistic eccentricities that may confuse readers more familiar with other parts of Germany. It’s not actually in dialect, which I probably would have found impossible to read, but some non-standard German terms are included. There are notes in German at the back of the book, which offer some assistance, although I often found that the words they picked out as strange were cognates with English and thus the notes were less useful than I would have hoped.

The main story is about a young man with a somewhat liberal education who grows up near a complex set of dykes, which protect the local farmers from flooding. At an early age, he sees a way to improve these dykes and thus reduce the number of catastrophic floods, but he must work for years to become the new Deichgraf (literally “dyke reeve,” or an administrator of the dykes) to implement his idea. Along the way, he conveniently falls in love with the old Deichgraf’s daughter, which helps to further his career. Once he is Deichgraf, he has to deal with resentment from an ousted rival, and a strange superstition among the locals regarding his pale horse (connected to the title). Nevertheless, he manages to get the work done to improve the dykes, but ultimately pays a heavy price for it, in a way that seems to confirm the locals’ sense of him as a man who has defied God.

It’s not really the sort of thing I go for, in a lot of ways. It struck me as rather traditionally romantic and conservative, but it did hold my interest and manage to be a pretty effective story. I don’t think I’ll be seeking out any more Theodor Storm to read, but I’m glad to have this one under my belt.(less)

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Jun 27, 2009 Wendy rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: german-language, classics, gothic

The schoolmaster of a northern German coastal town narrates the tale of Hauke Heien, the highly driven dykemaster who haunts the road along the dyke that bears his name.

As the story begins, it is earthly and normal: young Hauke Heien becomes the apprentice to the former dykemaster, secretly woos his daughter, and eventually inherits the prestigious position himself (raising a few eyebrows in the process). Hauke's latent sinister side is foreshadowed as a boy by the killing of a cat, and later ma...more

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Oct 21, 2012 Katri rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 19th-century, classics

An odd little story; I loved it in a way, yet don't quite know what to think of it. It's a strange combination of a ghost story and a rather realistic-seeming story from a small village and a guy with very concrete dreams that are bigger than can be managed. It has a strong atmosphere and a chilling storyline, and I read it almost in one go. There's something about Storm's style and his characters that I absolutely adored, so hopefully this will not be the only story of his that I read.

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Oct 14, 2010 Felix rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: german-literature

German Edition - German review:

Die titelgebende Novelle über den Deichgrafen Hauke Haien und seine Hybris hat mir ganz gut gefallen, auch wenn mir hier schon in Teilen die Beschaulichkeit etwas auf die Nerven gefallen ist, die aber wenigstens durch das Ende ein wenig abgemildert wird. Die restlichen Erzählungen des Bandes - "Immensee", "Posthuma", "Viola Tricolor", "Psyche", "Aquis Submersus" und "Zur Chronik von Grieshuus" - waren mir dann auf die Dauer doch zu repetitiv. Immer wieder das Ideal...more

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Dec 16, 2012 Katja rated it 5 of 5 stars

Leg "Riders ob the storm" von den "Doors" ein und lies die Eingangsszene des Schimmelreiters! Ich mag die unheimliche Atmosphäre des Buchs, die Beschreibungen der Nordsee, Storms einfache und gerade darin fesselnde Sprache. Oben auf einem Deich zu laufen und von Wind und Wetter fast umgehauen zu werden ist wunderbar - die Geschichte von Hauke Heien wird beinahe lebendig. (Erstmals gelesen 2002)

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Aug 28, 2009 Tanja rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: germanliterature

My mother sent a bunch of my old books from home. 'Der Schimmelreiter' among them. So I thought, why not, I reread it. It has been a long time after all. Still full of atmosphere, the anticipation of doom -- so evident even when Hauke seems to have it all. And so very very much 'Norddeutsch'. I think it would make a great companion to 'The Legend of Sleepy Hallow' for Halloween.

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Jul 13, 2011 John rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

beautiful old world literature. the translator's intro explains that each story is written in the nouvelle format. basically they're really good TALES in the best old world sense. they're a bit maudlin in a thomas hardy kind of way. if you're a fan of the icelandic writer haldor laxness or the danish writer isak dinesen, more than likely you'll appreciate this collection.

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Jun 04, 2012 Cooper Renner rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Though the shorter works in this volume are mostly just fine, the longer "novellen" are really first-rate, and the title novella is absolutely superb. A kind of ghost story which is also a tale of life on the North Sea shore a few hundred years ago: lean, propulsive, involving, tense. A masterpiece.

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May 18, 2011 Sternchen rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

ich habe mir das extra in dieser tollen ausgabe geholt, damals, fürs examen, auch wenn ich es dann doch nicht als thema genommen hab...
ja, man kann hier ruhig vergleiche zu wuthering heights ziehen, wenn es um die grausam-schöne gewalt der rauhen natur geht.

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May 14, 2009 Anica rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: classics

Normally, this would have been my cup of tea because of the sea and everything. But I really didn't like it. It was boring and stupid and very blah.
On the other hand, the movie was even worse!

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Mar 02, 2013 Dennis rated it 5 of 5 stars

Ein sehr wunderbares und sehr trauriges Buch. Von Anfang bis Ende werden schöne Naturbilder erzeugt, die gegen Ende zum großen Finale gipfeln. Auch der geheimnisvolle Unterton, welcher das Pferd umgibt, gefällt mir.

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Apr 02, 2011 Doreen rated it 5 of 5 stars

Ich muss nur den Titel lesen und schon stehe ich gedanklich auf dem Deich und der Regen peitscht mir ins Gesicht. Storms leicht unbehagliche Bilder habe ich nie vergessen.

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Apr 14, 2013 Kai Schreiber rated it 3 of 5 stars

Ein Mann wird zum Gespenst, weil er seine Amtspflicht nicht getan hat. Ist nicht das Leben, nicht die Welt, so wie oben dargestellt? Ja, so ist es.

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Feb 06, 2011 Ashley Cox rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

I honestly loved this books and sadly, I can't even put to words why. Just read it and learn the tragic story of dykemaster, Hauke Haien.

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May 06, 2013 Jaehwa Sa rated it 4 of 5 stars

I love this story. My great-grandmother gave it to me when I was little and I always got so consumed by Hauke and his Schimmel.

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Jul 06, 2010 Katrin rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: 1-stern

Ich musste es in der Schule lesen (wie viele andere bestimmt auch) und ich fand es schrecklich! Einfach langweilig...

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May 10, 2012 Rainee Wood-wink rated it 1 of 5 stars

read this in my German class in eight grade...this book gave me a trauma (not because of the ghost though)

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Dec 06, 2011 Uklatsch De la Mancha rated it 5 of 5 stars

EIn absolut wunderbares Buch. Die Magie des Lebens am Meer wird ohne Kitsch oder Pathos rübergebracht. Toll.

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Feb 10, 2011 Bettie marked it as to-read · review of another edition

Recommended to Bettie by: Brazilliant Laura

http://www.gutenberg.org/catalog/worl...

work laptop/Nutty NUUT

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May 03, 2013 Graham rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is a terrific slice of life - one which has since disappeared.

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Aug 12, 2009 Benjamin Thomas Sutpen added it

http://sensemania.blogspot.com/2008/0...

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About Theodor Storm

Hans Theodor Woldsen Storm (14 September 1817 – 4 July 1888) was a German writer.

He was born in Husum (die graue Stadt am grauen Meer, "the grey town by the grey sea") on the west coast of Schleswig of well-to-do parents. While still a student of law, he published a first volume of verse together with the brothers Tycho and Theodor Mommsen.

He worked as a lawyer in Schleswig-Holstein, but emigrated...more

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“Euere Schuld, Deichgraf!" schrie eine Stimme aus dem Haufen.” — 0 people liked it

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