Historical dream account · English · machine translation
The eagle held to the sunlight
Friedrich Hebbel (1813–1863)
Friedrich Hebbels Tagebücher. Zweiter Band (1887) · Printed pp. 473–474
Dreamer identified by the source: Baroness Engelhofen (as named in the diary)
Read in your language or share a constellation ↗
Baroness Engelhofen told me a most fantastical dream. In Gmunden she is looking out of the window towards the mountains when a sudden blow throws her violently back into the room. Recovering from the fright, she notices a large eagle that has flown against her chest and is now tumbling about on the table. Thinking it injured, she approaches to help it, then discovers that it seems blind. She calls to her maid beside her, “The bird is blind; what shall we do with it?” The maid replies, “Hold it at the window in the sunlight. Perhaps it is not completely blind and will fly away again; in here it will kill us all.” She follows this advice. As the sunbeam touches the bird, it really begins to blink, then rises into the air, but as it soars upwards it casts back a grateful glance with a flashing eye.
Den 3. Dec.; follows the explicit 24 Novbr. 1859 heading.
Read the original German account
The eagle held to the sunlight
Die Baronin Engelhofen erzählte mir einen höchst phantastischen Traum. Sie sieht in Gmunden aus dem Fenster in die Berge hinein, auf einmal wird sie durch einen Stoß heftig in’s Zimmer zurück geworfen und als sie sich vom Schreck wieder erholt, bemerkt sie einen großen Adler, der ihr gegen die Brust geflogen ist und der nun auf dem Tisch herum kugelt. Sie geht zu ihm, weil sie ihn für verletzt hält, um ihm zu helfen, da entdeckt sie, daß er blind scheint und ruft ihrer Magd, die dabei steht, zu: der Vogel ist blind, was thun wir mit ihm? Die Magd erwiedert: an’s Fenster in die Sonne halten, vielleicht ist er nicht ganz blind und fliegt wieder davon, hier bringt er uns Alle um. Sie befolgt diesen Rath und das Thier fängt, wie der Lichtstrahl es berührt, wirklich an zu blinzeln, dann erhebt es sich in die Lüfte, wirft aber im Emporschweben noch einen dankbaren Blick mit blitzendem Auge zurück.
Source & context
English machine translation. The original account, source credit and publication terms remain available.
The dreamer is Baroness Engelhofen, who tells this account to Hebbel. The eagle only seems blind and later blinks in the sunlight; no medical diagnosis is implied. Immediately after the dream Hebbel adds, “Bald darauf wird der Baron in Einer Nacht blind und wieder sehend” (“Soon afterwards the Baron becomes blind and regains his sight in one night”). This is a distinct historical waking claim, not independently verified evidence of prediction.
Friedrich Hebbel, Friedrich Hebbels Tagebücher. Zweiter Band (Berlin: G. Grote’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1887), edited by Felix Bamberg, Printed pp. 473–474. Dreamer: Baroness Engelhofen (as named in the diary); recorded by Friedrich Hebbel. Original German witness: Bayerische Staatsbibliothek München, Biogr.506sv-2, via Internet Archive. Editorial title and navigation metadata added by Synastry; source wording, narrative uncertainty and distinct reported voices retained.
The entry Den 3. Dec. follows the explicit Den 24. Novbr. 1859 heading. It records a dream told by the Baroness, without an exact dream date.
Public domain in the United States (original German 1887 edition) ↗
Original German diary passage from the independently witnessed 1887 second volume, edited by Felix Bamberg (1820–1893), of Friedrich Hebbel (1813–1863). The 1887 publication has an expired-US-publication basis; author/editor ordinary life-plus-70 terms have elapsed. No modern edition or English translation is copied. Public archive access is not itself a reuse grant; no new licence or blanket worldwide clearance is asserted.
Source locator and text provenance
Printed pp. 473–474
The original text and redactions are preserved. The page title is an editorial navigation label.
Original-scan-witnessed OCR letter/punctuation repairs; long-s transcribed as s; physical line/page furniture and division hyphens normalized exactly as the reversible ledger records. Historical spelling, wording and dream uncertainty retained. Complete eagle episode across pp. 473–474, including its departing glance. The em-dash sequel about the Baron’s sight is waking commentary, retained separately in source context with its unverified status.
- Account text SHA-256
- 0f1c48ea516626b35166f2e0e5810d4e8cf93096ac51af3c8185b05599c9dc1a
- Source file SHA-256
- ebd64c69b8734682c1c03d597a68ea4332c644f521634ab61208df941367032c
Content notes
- Historical recollection
Connections in the Loom
Titles, theme labels, illustrations and map connections are editorial navigation aids. They are separate from the account’s words and do not establish connections between real people.