Peter Klaus

"Peter Klaus" is a German folk tale. The story was written as "Der Ziegenhirt" ('The Goatherd') by Johann Karl Christoph Nachtigal, who published it in 1800 under the alias Otmar.[1]

Cover of Nachtigals Volcks=Sagen (1800)

Plot summary

The story follows a German goatherd from a village named Sittendorf, today part of the town Kelbra. While looking for escaped goats, Peter Klaus is led to where others are playing games in the woods. After tasting their wine, he falls asleep and wakes up twenty years later.

Translations

"Der Ziegenhirt" was translated into English by Thomas Roscoe as "Peter Klaus, the Goatherd" for The German Novelists (1826). Edgar Taylor translated the story as "Peter the Goatherd", for the second volume of German Popular Stories (1826), as one of only four stories not by the Brothers Grimm. Taylor revised the translation for the Gammer Grethel anthology (1839) as "Karl Katz", including changing the main character's name from Peter to Karl. This version of the story was revised again by Marian Edwardes for Grimm's Household Tales (1912).

Influence

The story was part of the inspiration for American writer Washington Irving's 1819 short story "Rip Van Winkle".[2]

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References
  1. Charters, Ann (2006). The Story and Its Writers : An Introduction to Short Fiction. Bedford/St. Martin's. ISBN 978-0-312-44272-9.
  2. Burstein, Andrew. The Original Knickerbocker: The Life of Washington Irving. New York: Basic Books, 2007: 125. ISBN 978-0-465-00853-7

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Wood, James, ed. (1907). The Nuttall Encyclopædia. London and New York: Frederick Warne. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)

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