Lokis (novella)
Lokis. A Manuscript of Professor Wittembach (French: Lokis - Le manuscrit du professeur Wittembach) is an 1869 Prosper Mérimée horror fantasy novella. It was one of the last stories by Mérimée, started in July 1868 and published in the Revue des deux Mondes in September 1869.[1] The title is a misspelling of the Lithuanian word lokys for "bear". The plot revolves around a young man who is suspected to be half-human half-bear. Robin MacKenzie from University of St Andrews classifies the plot into a werewolf theme with some elements of vampirism (the motif of drinking blood repeats through the work).[1] The novella primarily deals with the dual nature of human–beast. It also contrasts Western education and Christianity with pagan Lithuanian rituals and beliefs,[2] on more broadly – cultured civilization with primordial wilderness.[3]
Plot
The story is told from the point of view of an observer – professor Wittembach, a pastor and an amateur ethnographer - who comes to a
Inspiration
Mérimée conceived the novella in spring 1867 as a contrast to horror stories often read at the court of Empress Eugenie.[2] Intrigued by the human–beast duality, he quickly decided against a parody. It is believed that Mérimée borrowed the plot from the 13th-century Gesta Danorum, published in Revue des deux Mondes. Gesta Danorum includes a story of a girl kidnapped and impregnated by a bear. The girl gives birth to a son who exhibits violent sexual tendencies as an adult.[2]
Epigraph and title
"Miszka su Lokiu, Abu du tokiu" cited at the beginning of the novel as an
Inaccuracies
The novella draws elements, such as thunder god
Adaptations
- Film
- Anatoli Lunacharskyloosely based on Lokis.
- Lokis(1970) by Janusz Majewski
- La Bête (1975) by Walerian Borowczyk, loosely based on the novella
- Massacre (2010) by Andrej Kudzinenka ,[8] a Belarusian film with the plot loosely based on Lokis and Belarusian legends.
- Opera
- Lokys (2000) was commissioned by the Vilnius Festival (2000) to libretto by Aušra Marija Sluckaitė-Jurašienė and composition by Bronius Kutavičius. This afterwards entered the repertoire of the Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theatre.
See also
- Jean de l'Ours ("John-of-the-Bear")
- Valentine and Orson
References
- ^ .
- ^ ISBN 9955-429-72-0.
- ^ ISSN 0236-0551.
- OCLC 702545279.
- OCLC 977710198.
- OCLC 3175910.
- ^ Медвежья свадьба (Мелодрама на сюжет Мериме)
- IMDb
External links
- Lokis title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
- Sprenger, Scott (2009). "Mérimée’s Literary Anthropology: Residual Sacrality and Marital Violence in 'Lokis,'" Anthropoetics XIV, no. 2 Winter 2009.