Lenore (ballad)

Lenore (poem)
Lenore and William riding on horseback, as depicted by Johann David Schubert.
Folk tale
NameLenore (poem)
Also known asBallade de Lénore; Leonora, Leonore, Ellenore
Aarne–Thompson grouping
  • ATU 365 (The Dead Bridegroom carries off his Bride)
  • ATU 365 (The Specter Bridegroom)
  • ATU 365 (La fiancée du mort)
RegionGermany
Published inGöttinger Musenalmanach (1774), by Gottfried August Bürger
RelatedThe Deacon of the Dark River
Sweet William's Ghost

"Lenore", sometimes translated as "Leonora", "Leonore" or "Ellenore", is a poem written by German author Gottfried August Bürger in 1773, and published in 1774 in the Göttinger Musenalmanach.[1] "Lenore" is generally characterised as being part of the 18th-century Gothic ballads, and although the character that returns from its grave in the poem is not considered to be a vampire, the poem has been very influential on vampire literature.[2] William Taylor, who published the first English translation of the ballad, would later claim that "no German poem has been so repeatedly translated into English as 'Ellenore'".[3]

  1. ^ Garland, Henry; Mary Garland (1997). The Oxford Companion to German Literature. United States: Oxford University Press. p. 126. ISBN 978-0-19-815896-7.
  2. ^ Twitchell, James B. (1981). The Living Dead: A Study of the Vampire in Romantic Literature. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press. p. 33. ISBN 978-0-8223-0789-1.
  3. ^ Summers, August Montague (1960). The Vampire, His Kith and Kin. Forgotten Books. p. 349. ISBN 978-1-60506-566-3. Retrieved 2010-09-10.