The Rider on the White Horse
'The Rider on the White Horse' Summary
The novella tells the story of Hauke Haien, related to the narrator by a schoolmaster in a small town in Northern Frisia. Hauke is the son of a farmer and licensed surveyor and does his best to learn his father's trade. He even learns Dutch so he can read a Dutch print of Euclid's work on mathematics and geometry. Over time he becomes very familiar with the dykes along the local coast and begins to wonder if it would not be better to make them flatter on the sea side so as to reduce their windage during floods.
When local Deichgraf Tede Volkerts fires one of his hands, Hauke applies for the job and is accepted. He soon becomes a great help for Volkerts, which makes Ole Peters, the senior hand, dislike him. Tensions rise even more when Hauke begins to show interest in the Deichgraf's daughter, Elke. Hauke even proposes marriage, but she wants to wait.
After the unexpected deaths of both Hauke's and Elke's fathers, the people of the village must choose a new Deichgraf. Hauke is actually already doing the work, but does not hold the necessary lands required for the position. However, Elke announces that they are engaged, and that he will soon hold her family's lands as well. With the traditionalists satisfied, Hauke becomes the new Deichgraf. However, the people soon start talking about his white horse, which they believe is a resurrected skeleton that used to be visible on a small island, but is now gone.
Meanwhile Hauke begins to implement the changes to the form of the dykes that he has envisaged since childhood. However, during a storm surge several years later, the older dykes break and Hauke has to witness Elke and their daughter, Wienke, being swept away by the water. In agony, he drives his white horse into the sea, yelling, "Lord, take me, spare the others!"
The novella ends with the schoolmaster recounting that after the flood the mysterious horse skeleton was once again seen lying on the small island off the coast. Hauke Haien's dyke still stands and has saved many lives in the hundred years since its creator's tragic demise. And the older ones in the village say that, on stormy nights, a ghostly rider on a white horse can sometimes be seen patrolling the dyke.
Book Details
Language
EnglishOriginal Language
GermanPublished In
1888Author
Theodor Storm
Germany
Hans Theodor Woldsen Storm commonly known as Theodor Storm, was a German writer. He is considered to be one of the most important figures of German realism. Storm was one of the most important author...
More on Theodor StormDownload eBooks
Listen/Download Audiobook
- Select Speed
Related books
How to Tell a Story, and Other Essays by Mark Twain
How to Tell a Story and Other Essays is a series of essays by Mark Twain. In them, he describes his own writing style, attacks the idiocy of a fellow...
The Dunwich Horror by H. P. Lovecraft
"The Dunwich Horror" is a horror novella by American writer H. P. Lovecraft. Written in 1928, it was first published in the April 1929 issue of Weird...
Gleanings in Buddha Fields by Lafcadio Hearn
"A journey into the soul of Japan through the lens of Buddhism." In a land of ancient temples and sacred texts, a writer seeks to understand the esse...
The Farmer's Boy by Clifton Johnson
A year in the life of a New England farm boy at the end of the 19th century (Introduction by LC).
Aunt Jo's Scrapbag by Louisa May Alcott
A collection of short stories by Louisa May Alcott that were written with the intent to entertain the whole family and to fill children's heads with w...
The Diary of a Superfluous Man by Ivan Turgenev
The Diary of a Superfluous Man is an 1850 novella by the Russian author Ivan Turgenev. It is written in the first person in the form of a diary by a m...
Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things by Lafcadio Hearn
Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things, often shortened to Kwaidan ("ghost story"), is a 1904 book by Lafcadio Hearn that features several Jap...
The Chimes by Charles Dickens
The Chimes: A Goblin Story of Some Bells that Rang an Old Year Out and a New Year In, commonly referred to as The Chimes, is a novella written by Char...
Sarrasine by Honoré de Balzac
Sarrasine is a novella written by Honoré de Balzac. It was published in 1830, and is part of his Comédie Humaine.
Headlong Hall by Thomas Love Peacock
Headlong Hall is a novella by Thomas Love Peacock, his first long work of fiction, written in 1815 and published in 1816. As in his later novel C...
Reviews for The Rider on the White Horse
No reviews posted or approved, yet...