The Forest Farm by Peter Rosegger
The Forest Farm. Frontispiece by Milicent Norris of Gutenberg Press edition.
In the heart of Austria lies rough, remote mountain terrain called Steiermark (Styria) on the eastern slopes of the Alps. Largely cut off from modern influences, its inhabitants lived according to their age-old traditions, steeped in local customs and Christian faith. It was a hard life but a rewarding one, and it is the place where a talented writer grew up called Peter Rosegger (1843-1918). He wrote autobiographical accounts of his upbringing there and they remain classics of Austrian literature to this day. The Forest Farm - Waldheimat in German - is probably his best known and most popular work.
Book review by Robert J Davies
Perhaps it was the coming of Christmas that made me think back to this book and inspire me to write a review. Waldheimat (The Forest Farm) is the sort of autobiography you most want to read in mid-winter on an ice cold, frosty day in front of a log fire. It’s beautifully written and a shame it is not better known outside Austria and Germany.
I have read it in both its original German and the English translation. The German version was quite a struggle, in part because my German vocabulary was (and still is) rather threadbare in places but also because there are quite a few dialect words used which possibly even native German speakers to the north would struggle with. But the simple, rustic charm of Peter Rosegger’s writing shines through. It’s remarkable how well he writes considering the circumstances of his upbringing. Rosegger was the son of a mountain farmer and grew up amid the beautiful and stunning forests and mountains of Styria, in the little hamlet of Alpl above the town of Krieglach. The family lived in a modest century-old farmhouse, with the central room used for eating, sleeping and working. And Peter was the first of seven children!
The children had to walk for some two hours down the mountainside to a larger village to attend church and school. As a result Peter and his siblings had a very limited education. However by sheer luck, an old schoolmaster, whom the church had dismissed, wandered as a begger through the mountains and offered to teach the peasant children to read and write - his school fees consisting of the right to eat and drink as much as he liked.
Austria marks the 50th anniversary of Rosegger’s death in 1968
It was the kick-start Rosegger needed. He acquired books and began to write and was eventually discovered by a publisher in Graz. Perhaps my favourite chapter, particularly at this time of year, is his deeply atmospheric account of a snowbound childhood Christmas and his anticipation of the big day preceded by a lantern-lit journey to Midnight Mass. Here’s an extract:
“The snow crunched under our feet, and wherever the wind had carried it away, there the black patch of bare ground was so hard that our shoes rang upon it. The people talked and laughed a great deal, but this seemed not a bit right to me in the holy night of Christmas. I could only think all the while about the church and what it must be like when there is music and High Mass in the dead of night.
Germany marks the centenary of Rosegger’s birth, in 1943
“When we had been going for a long time along the road and past isolated trees and houses, then again over fields and through a wood, I suddenly heard a faint ringing in the tree-tops. When I wanted to listen, I couldn’t hear it, but soon after I heard it again, and clearer than the first time. It was the sound of the little bell in the church steeple. The lights which we saw on the hills and in the valley became more and more frequent, and we could now see that they were all hastening churchwards.”
On the way back from church, young Peter loses his way and nearly tumbles over a sheer cliff in the snowy darkness. He recalls what could have easily turned into a yuletide tragedy in vivid detail.
This is a compelling and touching account, penned with simple eloquence and Peter Rosegger’s deep love of his mountain home is evident. Small wonder that, to this day, he is fondly remembered in Austria and his family farm is now a museum in his memory. A lovely book, especially around Christmas time.
The Forest Farm by Peter Rosegger is available as a paperback on Amazon for £6.47 and as a Kindle e-book for £1.31. It can also be downloaded for free from Project Gutenberg. The original German version Waldheimat is available in paperback or hardback in various editions and also as a free Kindle download.
