A work of Fiction
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All of the fictional characters in this story were at least 18 years of age back in the 1700s when this story took place. I guess that makes them all about 318 or so now...
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It amuses me to combine historical fiction with my own life experiences; because I wonder what it would be like to have lived in another time. I also imagine that the saucier bits of history have been edited out. I doubt that people were any less sexual in the past than they are today. So, while I am inventing rather than restoring; I still fancy myself as a rather less talented Paul Herron providing her (Anais Nin's) loving audience with all of her words.
So this then is the story of the Weissmaedchen, the White Maiden. First told in German by the Grimms in 1812 and printed in the final revised Grimm version in 1854. A fifteen-year-old Walt Disney watched the 1916 silent film, adapted from the 1912 Broadway play. I am certain that you know the sanitised version, he called it 'Snow White.' It was his first full length animated film back in 1937.
This dear readers is the unexpunged version of the story.
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Before Napoleon redrew the map of Europe destroying the multi-ethnic Holy Roman Empire, and paving the way for nationalism; in eighteenth-century Swabia, the landed Baron of Oberkirschgarten was enthralled by the talented and beautiful young Silvia. One lonely night Silvia prayed to the Lord for a tall, beautiful fair-haired daughter. The Barron, being a man of God, as well as a man of voracious human appetite, both in the dining hall and in the bed chamber, was most happy to oblige. The baby Weissmaedchen Lorelei was thus born to the noble family's fair harpsichordist three seasons hence.
Lorelei had a happy childhood, as the daughter of one of her father's favorite retainers she played in the manor with her half-siblings, there were many of them. At times it seemed that she was related on her father's side to half the estate's young people. She learned to hunt with her father on his private reserve and visited with him his many farm and business holdings.
In the Imperially Chartered town, Cannstatt, which sat on the River Necar between her father's estate and Unterkirschgarten to the north, she met her seven half-brothers who were the towns Burgermeisters, leaders. Sonntag* was the Oberbuergermeister, the mayor. Montag was the Priest. Dienstag was the Kapitan, Captain of the Watch. Mittwoch was the miller, a most important position. Donnerstag was the Richter, the Court's Imperial Judge. Freitag was Schulmeister, Master of the School. Samstag was the Brewmeister, and probably the most popular man in town.
In those days gone by, just like today, a man of the Baron's wealth and vitality had no problem finding most willing, able and eager female compnions. While he was enthralled with Silvia and her lovely music he married another, Brunhilde, whose family owned substantial properties in the vicinity of Heilbronn a little to the north along the Neckar. Brunhilde, whose outward appearance of grace and physical beauty was matched by the appalling ugliness within her heart and soul.
Over time Lady Brunhilde bore the Baron three daughters, but significantly no sons. As the years passed she became increasingly irrationally jealous of young Lorelei. Brunhilde dismissed as family retainers all who admired the fair Maiden; all except Silvia whom the Baron stubbornly refused to dismiss. Brunhilde punished household servants who spoke favorably of Lorelei, sending them to work in the fields.
Her malevolence towards Lorelei became especially pronounced when the Baron of Unterkirschgarten expressed some interest to her husband in having Lorelai marry his younger son, who had become the subject of some nasty gossip in Cannstatt. She decided to eliminate the Maiden and make her demise appear to be the result of a hunting accident. She organised a hunt commemorating the Maiden's eighteenth birthday.
Brunhilde blackmailed the Barron's Jagermeister, his huntsman whose relationship to the Barron was unknown to her, to slay young Lorelai whilst on a hunt, that she might substitute one of her daughters and thus solidify her grasp on power on both sides of the Neckar. She was so obsessed with ensuring the young Maiden's demise that she ordered the huntsman to bring her the girl's disembodied heart as a trophy after her murder.
The Jagermeister, who as it happens was another illegitimate son of the Barron, was secretly in love with his half-sister Lorelei. He explained to her the grave peril she faced and then took her to his half brothers in Cannstatt for safekeeping. His affection for her was such that he risked the wrath of Brunhilde by substituting a freshly slaughtered sheep's heart for that of the maiden. Through the assistance of his half-brother, the butcher, Brunhilde was successfully deceived.