486 GERMANIC LITERATURE 



fruit. These hastily got up German translations, which bristled 

 with un-German idioms and constructions, must be made the basis 

 of our study, since Stifter undoubtedly had them before him. It is 

 scarcely probable that he had read the novels also in the original, 

 as he seems not to have had a mastery of English. 1 



An accident led my honored co-worker in the editing of Stifter's 

 works, Professor Adalbert Horcicka of Vienna, to the detection of 

 a number of resemblances in subject-matter between the Mountain 

 Forest and the Deerslayer. At my suggestion, Mr. Karl Wagner, 

 student of philosophy in the University of Prague, then undertook 

 a minute comparison of Stifter's book with the Pathfinder and the 

 Deerslayer, and I myself extended this study to all the five novels. 

 On account of the close connection of the whole cycle, and its many 

 repetitions of motives, language, and even definite expressions, it is 

 impossible to determine surely in detail and in every case what 

 particular passage may have had its effect on Stifter. The relation 

 between the two authors appears most strongly and clearly, as far as 

 regards the substance, in comparing the Mountain Forest with the 

 Deerslayer. 



In this novel Cooper unfolds a picture of the hazardous hunter- 

 life, a life which also forms the background of Stifter's narrative. 

 Old Tom. in his earlier years a notorious freebooter, enters on a late, 

 and. as it seems, loose sort of marriage with a woman of high birth 

 and checkered past, the mother of two daughters; he goes west and 

 leads a hunting-life in idyllic fashion. For a home he constructs 

 a log house, which for better protection against enemies he locates 

 in a large lake surrounded by the forest. At the beginning of the 

 action, the unfortunate wife has long been buried in the lake, and 

 a son laid to rest beside her. but in the memory of her daughters. 

 Judith and Hetty, she still lives as their illuminating genius. So 

 also, in the Mountain F\>re*t, the mother of Johanna and Clarissa has 

 long been dead, her name is not even mentioned in the story, while 

 Felix, the brother, is made a very secondary personage. 



The attention, here as there, is directed to defense against an 

 approaching enemy. The Swedes are preparing an expedition against 

 ihe upper Danube country; their goal is not really the storming of 

 the castle just as. in Cooper, a war between the rival French and 

 English is expected in the West, the first forerunners of which appear 



1 T make my citations from the following: volumes of the Sauorland comply-to 

 edition: !)[< .\nsi<(Utr, (,(lir die Qucll'-n >!c.v Sitzquchannah , 2 Auflaire. 1S3S. 

 ~2 Tf ilc. D<r I.ff-f/ flu- ^f<l|;il;^^^<r. F,ine Krzahhing aus dom Jahre 1757. Aus dem 

 Knelischen ul)<r.Mt/t von Heinrich Dorinc. 4 Auflage, 1845. 2 Teile. l)i<:^t<pp(. 

 F.ine Krzal.lur.tr. 2 Auflatre. 1X40. 2 Teile. DerPfadftndKr,odcrderBimun^ee. 1MO. 

 3 Teile. l)cr Hirsrlifi'tfltrr. Kin Unman. Aus dem Knjjlischen ubersetzt von < >. von 

 Czarrunvski, 1M1. '.} Teile. [The citations from the Deerslayer and Pathfinder, in 

 the Ki:rli--li version ff this paper, are often taken directly from the original. 

 - Translator. 1 



