SOURCE: "Storm: 'Der Schimmelreiter'," in Narration in the German Novelle: Theory and Interpretation, Cambridge University Press, 1974, pp. 155-68.

In the following essay, Ellis examines the importance of the narrative framework in Der Schimmelreiter, demonstrating how attention to the frame puts greater emphasis on the community and its reactions to the tale than on the tale's hero.

The narrative framework of Storm's Der Schimmelreiter is notoriously complex, and involves at least four visible or implied story-tellers; but though some recent criticism of Storm's narrative technique has been very interesting, it is surprising that no detailed examination of the narrative framework of his most popular Novelle has yet appeared. The brief and undeveloped remarks on the question to be found in criticism of the Schimmelreiter do not generally consider it to be an important aspect of the story, and at best think of it as a technical matter which is...