Heinrich von Ofterdingen tells the story of the famous minnesinger. In Chapter 2, the naivity of the protagonist is described in spatial terms: "Heinrich was just turned twenty years old. He had never passed the region of his native city; the world was known to him only by stories".1 In Heinrich's case this means that his cultivation necessitates a journey from Eisenach to Augsburg.
"Heinrich war eben zwanzig Jahre alt geworden. Er war nie über die umliegenden Gegenden seiner Vaterstadt hinaus gekommen; die Welt war ihm nur aus Erzählungen bekannt." (My translation.) Novalis, Werke, Tagebücher und Briefe Friedrich von Hardenbergs. Band I. Hrsg. Hans-Joachim Mähl & Richard Samuel. Hanser, München 2004, 248. ↩
"Der furchtbare Thüringer Wald lag im Rücken". Novalis, Werke I, 276.
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