SOURCE: Morgan, Mary. “The Great Achievement.” In Annette von Droste-Hülshoff: A Woman of Letters in a Period of Transition, pp. 183-218. Berne: Peter Lang, 1981.

In the following excerpt, Morgan concludes her study of Droste-Hülshoff's career with her later works, including Der Spiritus familiaris des Rosstäuschers and the Heidebilder poems. Morgan draws frequent parallels between Droste-Hülshoff and English Romantic poets to illustrate the German author's position in literary history.

Der Spiritus Familiaris Des Rosstäuschers

Late in the year 1842, after the publication of Die Judenbuche, Annette wrote to Schücking:

Ich habe soeben ein grösseres Gedicht beendigt von ohngefähr 600-700 Versen, “Der Spiritus familiaris des Rosstäuschers”, sieben Abteilungen, eine Grimmsche Sage zum Grunde; sie gefällt sehr.¹

Commentators have had some difficulty in determining the Gattung of this exceptional work; the Winkler editors seem to favour its classification as ‘balladenhaftes Versepos’.² This...