Chapter 65 The Holy Sinner by Thomas Mann

The Holy Sinner by Thomas Mann I read the news about the recent disastrous changes in ethics in West Germany in the newspaper, which reminded me of my sojourn in the United States. In his later years, the German German novelist Thomas Mann wrote an article based on a legend of incest in the Middle Ages. The plot of the novel with the subject matter is more legendary and more terrifying than that news.But the ending is amazing Unexpectedly, the man who committed the crime of incest between mother and child was later elected Pope! Thomas Mann's novel has already been translated into English, and there is a cheap "Penguin Books"

Version.The title of the book is "The Holy Sinner" (The Holy Sinner), and the number is the first sixty-two of the series number five.You can buy it anywhere for a few bucks. Thomas Mann, who once won the Nobel Prize in Literature, because he is a Jewish German, is in When Hitler's Nazi regime rose, he lived a sheltered life in exile in the United States, in Princeton University lectures, and later went to California.His "Holy Sinner" was written at this time as written.The German version was first published in 1951, the English translation was available the following year, and the 1961

With a cheap version of "Penguin". The main plot of "The Holy Sinner" is that in the Middle Ages, Flanders had a pair of noble twins Brother and sister had an incestuous relationship, and gave birth to a boy, who was thrown into the sea, but never died, and was rescued and raised Raise people.The incestuous brother and sister, after the death of their father, first the elder brother inherited the duke title, and then Later, when my elder brother died again, my younger sister succeeded me and became the duchess.At this time there was a feud coveting the Duchess' fief,

A war broke out, and a loyal hero defeated the enemy and preserved the duchess' fief, so the duchess According to the wishes of the people under his command and the traditional customs, the Jue married this hero as his husband. Unexpectedly, this hero is the illegitimate child of the incest relationship they abandoned back then. Terrible double incestuous relationship.The duchess had already committed incest with her brother. Shi actually married his son again, and committed the crime of incest between mother and child. After several years, this terrible relationship was unintentional because of a memorandum left to the child back then.

was found in.But at this time, the two had already given birth to a boy and a girl. Her first son, that is to say, her husband, who was at the same time the hero of her rescue, found After having this terrible sinful relationship, he abandoned his family and ran away, went to a foreign land and wilderness to change his name and surname, and lived a life of pain and confessed his sins. life of guilt.After seventeen years, he became a highly respected saint, and finally, after many "miracles" Under the inspiration of "Dream Omen", he was elected Pope. He became the Pope, the woman who was both his wife and his mother, naturally did not know all this,

For the sins in her heart, she came to the newly elected Pope to confess her sins.The pope listened to her Only after Bai Hou knew who she was, she explained the truth to her. Thomas Mann's "Holy Sinner", the story is based on the German medieval poet Hada Man? Feng Yayi's epic "Grigorius? Feng? Stein".Gregorios is that The name of the child born of an incestuous relationship who later became Pope.The theme of the poet Yayi is based on, From French folklore. Thomas Mann's "Holy Sinner" uses the method of storytelling, by a third person written down.Of course, Thomas Jin Mann's theme is not to write a story of incest between a brother, sister, mother and son

However, I want to use this story to illustrate the sins of human nature. In the eyes of God, no matter how serious the nature is, All can be forgiven, as long as the sinner is willing to repent sincerely.Of course, he emphasized Fatalism believes that everything is arranged by God, and that no matter good or evil, it is also God's grace.because Gregorios, who committed the crime of incest between mother and child, after a long and painful life of repentance, is in virtue become a perfect saint and can be elected Pope.And his election was through miracles and gods. inspired by.This shows that the best and the worst, in the eyes of gods, are just a difference of one thought

That's all. Thomas Mann, at the end of The Holy Sinner, describes Gregorios as Pope asking him After his mother revealed the truth about his identity, his mother asked him: son, husband, pope, these three are different What kind of identity is he willing to continue to maintain with her?He thinks it is the "husband" that should be kept, because Because their union was blessed by God in the church, while the relationship of "mother and child" was out of illegitimate produced by the combination. The mother also asked her son to announce the dissolution of their terrible marriage relationship with the prerogative of the Pope, but the son

Zi also refused, thinking that this should be left to God's will to arrange.He suggested that they might henceforth use the name "Sister "brother" commensurate. The mother brought the two sons and daughters of the two of them to meet him, and Gregorios followed the "Sister and brother" relationship, call them their own children.In this way, a family with such a complicated relationship, Under the arrangement of God's will, they were reunited together. The gist of this incest story: Gregorios, who was abandoned since he was a child, rescued the unknown The incestuous conjugal relationship with her mother's duchess is quite similar to the oldest Greek incest story.

In addition to the harm of the sphinx monster, Oedipus got married because his mother's queen was the husband of the king. resemblance.It may be that the French medieval legend was transformed from the ancient Greek tragedy.in ancient times In Egypt and Greece, in order to maintain the purity of their blood and prevent the throne from falling into the hands of foreigners, incest The marriage relationship is considered inevitable and legal.