The Bride of Corinth

Summary

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) is widely recognized as Germany's greatest poet and writer. His early works are rooted in the German Sturm und Drang movement, which was also the early phase of German Romanticism.

'The Bride of Corinth' was written as part of a ballad-writing competition which Goethe was engaged in with Friedrich von Schiller. It tells the grisly tale of star-crossed lovers who were betrothed as children. The bride's family has converted from the old magical gods to the newfangled Christianity and no longer wish their daughter to marry a pagan.

When the bridegroom, having grown to manhood, arrives to claim his bride, he is welcomed by the mother, who shows him a room where he can sleep and recover from his journey. While he sleeps, his betrothed slips into his room and wakes him. While they consummate their marriage, the bridegroom makes a horrifying and macabre discovery....