I have chosen a book full of old German fairy tales. Originally I chose “The Marble Statue” because it was the shortest fairy tale and I thought that this project could only be 1500 words. However, now that I know that that is actually the minimum amount of words, and not maximum, I realized that I did not like that story very much. I went back and read some more of the fairy tales and found one that I like a lot more.
The “Fair-Haired Eckbert” is about a man named Eckbert who lives in a hidden castle deep in the forest with his wife Bertha. One day Eckbert’s friend Walther comes to visit and Bertha decides to confess the sins of her past. She ran away from her home and was taken in by an older woman, who she later abandons when she runs away again.
Bertha later dies, presumably of a guilty conscience. Eckbert believes Walther poisoned her so he kills him as well.
Later Eckbert runs into a knight named Hugo who looks a lot like Walther. Eckbert runs away from him and stumbles across the old woman’s house that Bertha abandoned. Out of spite, the old woman, who turns out to be a witch, curses Eckbert and tells him that she was both Walther and Hugo. To make matters worse, the woman also says that Eckbert and Bertha are half-siblings. This makes Eckbert go mad and he soon dies in agony.
The way that the text is written is perfect for translating it for a website for this project. The author uses a lot of descriptive language to help the reader visualize what is happening and what things look like.
One thing that the author tends to like to focus on is the environment. He always describes the landscape and scenery of almost every scene. I want to emphasize this in my project just like the author does.
10 Words, Phrases, or Ideas that Describe this Text: