Historical dream account · English · machine translation
Across the river to the palace
Friedrich Hebbel (1813–1863)
Friedrich Hebbels Tagebücher. Zweiter Band (1887) · Printed p. 482
Dreamer identified by the source: Baron von Engelhofen, reported by his wife
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Mrs von Engelhofen visited us. She told us that for eight nights before he became ill, her husband had always had the same dream, with a variation on the ninth. He is in a strange landscape wholly unknown to him, with a broad, bright river in the middle and mist on the far side. A boatman stands by the river, but whenever he approaches and offers money for a crossing, the man grimly turns him away. On the ninth night the boatman becomes friendly, lets him step into his boat, and takes him across to the other bank as swiftly as an arrow. Everything here becomes bright. A stately palace rises before him, and his deceased father steps out of it and welcomes him kindly.
Den 24. März.; year not repeated in this heading.
Read the original German account
Across the river to the palace
Frau von Engelhofen bei uns. Sie erzählte, ihr Mann habe acht Nächte vor seinem Erkranken immer denselben Traum gehabt, die neunte mit einer Variation. Er ist in einer fremden, ihm ganz unbekannten Landschaft, ein breiter, heller Strom in der Mitte, jenseits Nebel. Ein Schiffer steht am Strom, wenn er sich aber nähert und ihm Geld für’s Ueberfahren bietet, weis’t der Mann ihn finster zurück. In der neunten Nacht wird er aber freundlich, läßt ihn in seinen Nachen steigen und fährt ihn pfeilschnell hinüber an’s andre Ufer. Hier wird Alles hell und ein stattlicher Palast erhebt sich, aus dem sein verstorbener Vater hervor tritt und ihn freundlich bewillkommt.
Source & context
English machine translation. The original account, source credit and publication terms remain available.
Mrs von Engelhofen reports her husband’s recurring dream to Hebbel. The eight repetitions and ninth variation are one series, counted once. The deceased father’s welcome occurs within the dream. Afterward the source says he interpreted it as an imperial travel order, became ill on that ninth day, and died within a short week. These are separate historical reported claims, not independently verified prediction or a medically established sequence.
Friedrich Hebbel, Friedrich Hebbels Tagebücher. Zweiter Band (Berlin: G. Grote’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1887), edited by Felix Bamberg, Printed p. 482. Dreamer: Baron von Engelhofen, reported by his wife; 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 diary heading reads Den 24. März., without repeating a year. The report describes eight repeated nights and a ninth variation before illness; no normalized event date is assigned.
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 p. 482
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. One recurring series counted once: eight repetitions and a ninth variation. Stop at the father’s welcome. Following travel/illness/death interpretation is waking reported commentary, retained separately and qualified in source context.
- Account text SHA-256
- 7e9a08eedf59e743088b49aed7f673b6b757b91cc1a6512819c9ada2bb579a8d
- 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.