The Golden Pot

The novella, which comprises twelve "vigils" (chapters, literally "night watches"), begins with the clumsy student Anselmus running through the Black Gate in Dresden, where he knocks over the basket of wares of an old applemonger, scattering them in all directions. To mitigate the old woman's rage, he gives her all the money in his purse and runs away. She reviles him prophetically with the words "Yes, run! Run, you child of Satan! Run into the crystal which will soon be your downfall." He flees and stops under an elderberry bush near Lincke’sches Bad. From his refuge in the bush, he hears melodious voices like the sounds of crystal bells. He looks up and finds himself looking into the blue eyes of a snake, which he falls in love with instantly. When the snake disappears soon after, he is beside himself and confused. Anselmus later chances to meet his friend, Assistant Headmaster Paulmann, who invites him to his home. There he meets Paulmann's sixteen-year-old daughter Veronika, who falls in love with him; she dreams of a future with the "privy councillor" Anselmus. He also meets Registrar Heerbrand, who gets him a job as a copier of old manuscripts for Archivist Lindhorst, an eccentric alchemist and magician. He is to be paid for this work so as to compensate for the loss of his purse to the applemonger. However, as he is about to begin his first day of work there, he sees the old woman's face in the bronze doorknob of his workplace and faints out of fright. A few days later, Anselmus happens across the archivist in an open field, who impresses him with his magic skills and reveals to him that the snake that Anselmus saw and fell in love with is his daughter Serpentina. Furthermore, Lindhorst tells a strange story from his family. It is about Phosphorus (which means "the shining one"), a beautiful fire lily, and the dragon which Phosphorus has to fight. Anselmus begins his work the following day. His work consists of making exact copies of Arabic and Coptic texts that he cannot decipher. The Archivist warns him explicitly that he must not spot any of the originals with ink from his pen. Fortunately, Anselmus obtains help from Serpentina and is able to perform his duties impeccably. The more he works with the manuscripts the more familiar he becomes with them, until one day he copies a document that he can understand. It turns out to be the story of Archivist Lindhorst, who in reality is a salamander, the Elemental Spirit of Fire, who has been banished from the legendary Land of Atlantis by Phosphorus, the Prince of Spirits, and must enter mankind's prosaic existence on Earth. To compensate for his offences and to be allowed to return to Atlantis, the Salamander must find loving "childlike and poetic" husbands for his three snake daughters. The Salamander owns three radiant golden pots, given to him by the Elemental Spirit of the Earth, which are to be his daughters' dowries. Serpentina assures Anselmus that her dowry will ensure their happiness together. Veronika, who fears that she will lose Anselmus (and her future as "Mrs Privy Councillor"), turns for help to the old applemonger (in the guise of a friendly old woman), who produces a magic metal mirror for her during the night of the autumn equinox. Later, as Anselmus gazes into this mirror, its magic powers cause him to think that Serpentina and the story of the Salamander are merely products of his imagination, and he falls in love with Veronika. He promises to marry her as soon as he becomes a Court Councilor. As he subsequently attempts to copy another of Lindhorst's manuscripts, it appears alien to him, and he accidentally splashes the original with ink. As punishment, the enraged Archivist uses a spell to imprison him in a crystal bottle on a shelf in his library. Anselmus subsequently discovers that he is among several other bottles, which are occupied by other men who previously worked for Lindhorst. A short time later, a witch (the applemonger) appears and attempts to steal the golden pot that was a present from the Earth Elemental Spirit to the Salamander. Archivist Lindhorst enters with his parrot, and they together fiercely battle the witch and her black cat. Lindhorst and the parrot are victorious, and the vanquished witch is transformed into a beet, her true form. The Archivist realizes that Anselmus had been under the influence of a "hostile principle," forgives him, and frees him from the bottle. In the penultimate vigil of the novella, Veronika accepts a marriage proposal from Heerbrand, who meanwhile has become a Court Councillor instead of Anselmus. In the final vigil, Hoffmann employs an unusual narrative device. The narrator, who previously has told the story from a 3rd-person perspective, inserts himself into the tale and reports to the reader on the difficulty he is having in bringing his account to an end. He receives and shares with the reader a letter from Archivist Lindhorst. From the letter, the reader learns that Anselmus has married Serpentina and now lives happily with her on the country estate of the Salamander in Atlantis. The Salamander himself, however, must wait until his other two daughters are married before he can return to Atlantis. Lindhorst invites the narrator to his study, where the narrator has a vision of Serpentina leaving a temple with the golden pot in her hands. From the pot has sprung a bright lily that represents the love, happiness, and fulfillment of the young couple. Anselmus, in his rapture, exclaims that the lily represents "knowledge of the sacred harmony of all things." The story ends with the Archivist comforting the narrator, who envies the happy Anselmus, by saying that every human being has access to "poesie", in which the "sacred harmony of all being is revealed as the deepest secret of nature". ==Origins==