Now he, immortal, invulnerable, but unable to come ashore, is doomed to plow the waves of the world ocean until the second coming. Although, according to some versions, he has a chance to find peace: once every ten years Van der Dekken may return to earth and try to find someone who voluntarily agrees to become his wife. And then the spell will cease to work, and he will become a simple man, able to love and live as a simple man. All of the ship’s sailors will also be forgiven. It is believed that the legend of the Flying Dutchman came from Scandinavia – as there is a runic legend of a similar ship Naglfar – translated “ship of the dead men’s nails”. But in Scandinavian mythology the appearance of this ship portends misfortune or the end of the world for people, while the Dutch legend retains the possibility of a positive outcome, which gives this legend a kind of additional areol of mystery. In my poem I described the case of composer Richard Wagner who took this legend to heart after the ship on which he and his wife Minna sailed from Riga to London was caught in a great storm in 1839. That is, this story, in a sense, comes from the composer Wagner, it should be noted that the great composer later dedicated music to this theme. I suggest you listen to it at your leisure. The theme of the piece of music and the theme of my poem overlap.
The poem was included in the collection of poems “The Marriage of Poseidon”
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