Peter Klaus
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File:Otmar (Johann Carl Christoph Nachtigal) Volcks-Sagen, Bremen 1800.jpg
"Peter Klaus" is a German folk tale. The story was written as "{{lang|de|Der Ziegenhirt|italics=no}}" ({{gloss|The Goatherd}}) by Johann Karl Christoph Nachtigal, who published it in 1800 under the alias Otmar.{{Cite book |last=Charters |first=Ann |year=2006 |title=The Story and Its Writers : An Introduction to Short Fiction |publisher=Bedford/St. Martin's |isbn=978-0-312-44272-9 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/storyitswriter000char }}
Plot summary
Translations
"{{lang|de|Der Ziegenhirt|italics=no}}" 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 {{lang|de|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 {{lang|de|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".Burstein, Andrew. The Original Knickerbocker: The Life of Washington Irving. New York: Basic Books, 2007: 125. {{ISBN|978-0-465-00853-7}}
{{wikisource|Der Ziegenhirt|Peter the Goatherd}}