Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Frau Lange my teacher had books


Impressions from childhood....
Frau Lange my teacher had books...Helden Sagen (Heroes Legends)...early Norse and German legends....Jutes,Angels,Saxons,Friesens,Danes,Burgundians,Huns,Swiss.....names like Siegfried,Hagen,Gunther,Gudrun & Ortwin, Brunhilde,Krimhilde,Dietrich,Etzel, Arthur and the Round Table,Percival,Lohengrin...dragons and dwarf smiths & treasures,Rhein maidens... the great battles,loves,revenge,deaths,kidnappings,raids,foul play...
I think that was better then the video games of modern day.I guess I am too slow with my fingers and reaction time as compared to my grandkids.
I cannot forget the Brothers Grimm and their collections of stories and German vocabulary.
When I went on my second trip to Germany...UNITED GERMANY...I visited my Aunt Alma Kuehn( she was my Godmother and lived in Wandersleben,Thuringia.On my first visit back it had been East Germany and I was not going to cross that border at that time It was bad enough the first time in 1947.We had not seen each other since 1944...more then 50 years had passed.She gave me money as a belated godchild gift and I bought this Helden Sagen book of my childhood and re-read the stories.
Well, I got a different impression from the stories ...Siegfried was a Dutch prince who collaborated with the Burgundians(French) who fought the Saxons and the Danes and killed them.My hero had killed the Germans(Saxons) and Danes( my wife's ( Patti) ancestors). Of course, I had read a little more history since the age of 10 years.

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