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Death And The Maiden

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Jollyrei

Jollyrei

Angelus Mortis
Staff member
Der Tod und das Mädchen
From the lied by Franz Schumann. Text derived from a poem written by German poet Matthias Claudius.

Das Mädchen:
Vorüber! Ach, vorüber!
Geh, wilder Knochenmann!
Ich bin noch jung! Geh, lieber,
Und rühre mich nicht an.
Und rühre mich nicht an.

Der Tod:
Gib deine Hand, du schön und zart Gebild!
Bin Freund, und komme nicht, zu strafen.
Sei gutes Muts! ich bin nicht wild,
Sollst sanft in meinen Armen schlafen!

Death and the Maiden
The Maiden:
Pass me by! Oh, pass me by!
Go, fierce man of bones!
I am still young! Go, rather,
And do not touch me.
And do not touch me.

Death:
Give me your hand, you beautiful and tender form!
I am a friend, and come not to punish.
Be of good cheer! I am not fierce,
Softly shall you sleep in my arms!

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I have been fascinated with this motif in art for some time now. Part of this is the tension between death as fearful and natural, the poignancy of tragedy, and the idea that Death could be a friend. That friendliness is less apparent when the dying one is young. The use of the maiden brings in ideas of innocence and vulnerability, traditionally associated with the feminine, as well as missed or lost potential, implied by the girl's virginity (maiden/jungfrau). As evidenced by the number of pictures, poems, and stories on the forums here, as well as the artworks I posted, there is a lot of meaning in this idea.

Other representations that are similar would include stories/poems about the Erlkoenig (Elf King) who tempts a child to come away with him, even as the child's father is trying to ride away to safety with the child. When the father reaches home, he finds the child has died. There is a kind of beauty in the tension between life and death.
 
Romantisation and erotisation of death (because there is no way to escape it). Isn't our own crucifixion fetish another niche in this motif (erotisation of death, violent death by execution, prematurely cutting off a life)? Just a thought.

angelofdeath.jpg

Angel of Death by Evelyn de Morgan (1880). Preraphaelite painters were masters in representing death.
 
Primus pilus said:
Love the detail in this one, especially the flowers falling from her hand
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Jollyrei said:
One of my favourites as well, by Adolf Hering. While the theme was most popular in renaissance art, this painting dates from 1900.
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The flowers bring to mind that verse of that wonderful Dylan Thomas poem:

And death shall have no dominion.
No more may gulls cry at their ears
Or waves break loud on the seashores;
Where blew a flower may a flower no more
Lift its head to the blows of the rain;
Though they be mad and dead as nails,
Heads of the characters hammer through daisies;
Break in the sun till the sun breaks down,
And death shall have no dominion.
​
Not quite on the topic but, still....
 
Jollyrei said:
I have been fascinated with this motif in art for some time now. Part of this is the tension between death as fearful and natural, the poignancy of tragedy, and the idea that Death could be a friend. That friendliness is less apparent when the dying one is young. The use of the maiden brings in ideas of innocence and vulnerability, traditionally associated with the feminine, as well as missed or lost potential, implied by the girl's virginity (maiden/jungfrau). As evidenced by the number of pictures, poems, and stories on the forums here, as well as the artworks I posted, there is a lot of meaning in this idea.

Other representations that are similar would include stories/poems about the Erlkoenig (Elf King) who tempts a child to come away with him, even as the child's father is trying to ride away to safety with the child. When the father reaches home, he finds the child has died. There is a kind of beauty in the tension between life and death.
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Have you read John Donne's sonnet

Death, be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so;
For those whom thou thinkst thou dost overthrow
Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me.
From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be
Much pleasure; then from thee much more must flow
And soonest our best men with thee do go
Rest of their bones and soul's delivery.
Thou art slave to Fate, Chance, kings, and desperate men,
And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell,
And poppies or charms can make us sleep as well
And better than thy stroke. Why swellst thou then?
One short sleep past, we wake eternally,
And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die!
​
There are so many great works around the concept.
 
Jollyrei said:
Der Tod und das Mädchen
From the lied by Franz Schumann. Text derived from a poem written by German poet Matthias Claudius.
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Schubert, not Schumann - easily confused!
He used the melody he'd composed for the song
in the 2nd movement of his string quartet no. 14 in D minor,
one of the most gripping, even frightening, pieces of music in the repertoire:


And it was the title of a pretty powerful play by Ariel Dorfman
(made into a film, less successful in my view,
by Roman Polanski with Sigourney Weaver and Ben Kingsley)
about a woman who'd been tortured as a political prisoner
by a masked man who played that music while he tortured her -
and comes face-to-face with him - or believes she has!
 
More Death poetry:
Emily Dickinson
Because I could not stop for Death—
He kindly stopped for me—
The Carriage held but just Ourselves—
And Immortality.

We slowly drove—He knew no haste,
And I had put away
My labor and my leisure too,
For His Civility—

We passed the School, where Children strove
At recess—in the ring—
We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain—
We passed the Setting Sun—

Or rather—He passed Us—
The Dews drew quivering and chill—
For only Gossamer, my Gown—
My Tippet—only Tulle—

We paused before a House that seemed
A Swelling of the Ground—
The Roof was scarcely visible—
The Cornice—in the Ground—

Since then—'tis centuries— and yet
Feels shorter than the Day
I first surmised the Horses' Heads
Were toward Eternity—
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