Peter Klaus

Cover of Nachtigal's Volcks-Sagen (1800)

"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]

Plot summary

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

Translations

"Der Ziegenhirt" has been translated into English a number of times:

• "Peter Klaus, the Goatherd" translated by Thomas Roscoe for The German Novelists (1826)
• "Peter the Goatherd" translated by Edgar Taylor for German Popular Stories volume 2 (1826) – one of only four stories in this book not by the Brothers Grimm
• "The Goatherd" translated by George Godfrey Cunningham for Foreign Tales and Traditions (1829) – translated via Johann Gustav Gottlieb Büsching's 1812 collection Volks-Sagen, Märchen und Legenden ('Folktales, Fairy Tales and Legends')
• "The Goatherd" translated by William John Thoms for The Original (1832) – also translated via Büsching's Volks-Sagen, Märchen und Legenden (1812)
• "Karl Katz" revised by Taylor from his earlier translation, for Gammer Grethel (1839) – the main character's name is changed from "Peter Klaus" to "Karl Katz"
• "The Goatherd" translated by Benjamin Thorpe for Yule-Tide Stories (1853)
• "Karl Katz" revised by Marian Edwardes from Taylor's "Karl Katz", 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]

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