Lake poet."
"In these works," says Heine, "there reigns a mysterious intenseness, a
peculiar sympathy with nature, especially with the vegetable and mineral
kingdoms. The reader feels himself transported into an enchanted forest;
he hears the melodious gurgling of subterranean waters; at times he seems
to distinguish his own name in the rustling of the trees. Ever and anon
a nameless dread seizes upon him as the broad-leaved tendrils entwine his
feet; strange and marvellous wild flowers gaze at him with their bright,
languishing eyes; invisible lips mockingly press tender kisses on his
cheeks; gigantic mushrooms, which look like golden bells, grow at the
foot of the trees; large silent birds sway to and fro on the branches
overhead, put on a sapient look and solemnly nod their heads. Everything
seems to hold its breath; all is hushed in awed expectation; suddenly the
soft tones of a hunter's horn are heard, and a lovely female form, with
waving plumes on head and falcon on wrist, rides swiftly by on a
snow-white steed. And this beautiful damsel is so exquisitely lovely, so
fair; her eyes are of the violet's hue, sparkling with mirth and at the
same time earnest, sincere, and yet ironical; so chaste and yet so full
of tender passion, like the fancy of our excellent Ludwig Tieck. Yes,
his fancy is a charming, high-born maiden, who in the forests of
fairyland gives chase to fabulous wild beasts; perhaps she even hunts the
rare unicorn, which may only be caught by a spotless virgin."

In 1827 Carlyle[25] published translations of five of Tieck's "Maehrchen,"
viz.: "The Fair-Haired Eckbert," "The Trusty Eckart," "The Elves," "The
Runenberg," and "The Goblet." He mentioned that another tale had been
already Englished--"The Pictures" (Die Gemaelde). This version was by
Connop Thirwall, who had also rendered "The Betrothal" in 1824. In spite
of Carlyle's recommendations, Tieck's stories seem to have made small
impression in England. Doubtless they came too late, and the romantic
movement, by 1827, had spent its first force in a country already sated
with Scott's poems and novels. Sarah Austin, a daughter of William
Taylor of Norwich, went to Germany to study German literature in this
same year 1827. In her "Fragments from German Prose Writers" (1841), she
speaks of the small success of Tieck's stories in England, but testifies
that A. W. Schlegel's dramatic lectures had been translated early and the
translation frequ