Undine
A water sprite who looks entirely human but has no soul, Undine can gain one, according to the old lore, only through the love of a mortal. When the knight Sir Huldbrand of Ringstetten is stranded at the seaside cottage where she lives with her foster parents, the two fall in love and marry, and she wins her soul along with all the sorrows that come with it. Friedrich de la Motte Fouque’s short novel, first published in 1811, became one of the best-loved tales of German Romanticism, admired by writers from Goethe to George MacDonald for its tenderness and its undertow of grief. What starts as enchantment turns, by slow degrees, into tragedy. Offered here as a free PDF and EPUB edition.
Listen to Undine Audiobook Free
Listen to Undine by Friedrich de la Motte Fouque free online. The full audiobook (3 hr 8 min, 19 chapters, read by Pete Williams, Pittsburgh, PA) streams free on this page.
Undine (1811) is a public domain work.
| # | Chapter | Length | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dedication, How The Knight Came To The Fisherman | 13:40 | |
| 2 | In What Way Undine Had Come to the Fisherman | 11:27 | |
| 3 | How They Found Undine Again | 8:05 | |
| 4 | Of That Which the Knight Encountered in the Wood | 12:25 | |
| 5 | How the Knight Lived on the Little Promontory | 9:33 | |
| 6 | Of A Nuptial Ceremony | 11:19 | |
| 7 | What Further Happened on the Evening of the Wedding | 6:23 | |
| 8 | The Day After the Wedding | 11:40 | |
| 9 | How the Knight Took His Young Wife with Him | 9:25 | |
| 10 | How They Lived in the City | 7:56 | |
| 11 | The Anniversary of Bertalda’s Name-Day | 10:59 | |
| 12 | How They Departed from the Imperial City | 7:53 | |
| 13 | How They Lived at Castle Ringstetten | 14:06 | |
| 14 | How Bertalda Returned Home with the Knight | 12:51 | |
| 15 | The Journey to Vienna | 11:33 | |
| 16 | How It Fared Further with Huldbrand | 8:14 | |
| 17 | The Knight’s Dream | 5:49 | |
| 18 | How the Knight Huldbrand is Married | 9:21 | |
| 19 | How the Knight Huldbrand was Buried | 5:29 |
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