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The deer that feature in the Schubert song texts are only objects, never subjects. The poems of Ossian and Walter Scott evoke the life of huntsmen and warriors in a remote highland landscape, but the deer never stand up for themselves or allow us to see the world on their own terms. There is no ‘Monarch of the Glen’ here.
In a couple of cases the deer are not even deer.
Was sucht denn der Jäger am Mühlbach hier!
Bleib trotziger Jäger in deinem Revier!
Hier gibt es kein Wild zu jagen für dich,
Hier wohnt nur ein Rehlein, ein zahmes, für mich.
So what is that huntsman looking for here by the mill river?
You troublesome hunter, stay within your own territory.
There is no game for you to chase here,
Only one little roe deer, a tame one, lives here, and she is for me.
Müller, Der Jäger D 795/14
The beautiful miller’s daughter has here become the object of the chase, fought over by a full-time huntsman and an incompetent, deluded fantasist.
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Descendant of:
Animals HUNTING AND MININGTexts with this theme:
- Leichenfantasie, D 7 (Friedrich von Schiller)
- Das Mädchen von Inistore, D 281 (James Macpherson (Ossian) and Edmund von Harold)
- Cronnan, D 282 (James Macpherson (Ossian) and Edmund von Harold)
- Shilric und Vinvela, D 293 (James Macpherson (Ossian) and Edmund von Harold)
- Lorma, D 327, D 376 (James Macpherson (Ossian) and Edmund von Harold)
- Die Nacht, D 534 (James Macpherson (Ossian) and Edmund von Harold)
- Philoktet, D 540 (Johann Baptist Mayrhofer)
- Der Alpenjäger, D 588 (Friedrich von Schiller)
- Der Jäger, D 795/14 (Wilhelm Müller)
- Jägerchor, D 797/8 (Wilhelmine Christiane von Chézy)
- Ellens Gesang II (Jäger, ruhe von der Jagd), D 838 (Walter Scott and Philip Adam Storck)
- Lied des gefangenen Jägers, D 843 (Walter Scott and Philip Adam Storck)
- Jägers Liebeslied, D 909 (Franz Adolph Friedrich von Schober)
- Nachtgesang im Walde, D 913 (Johann Gabriel Seidl)