Hymns to the Night

Hymns to the Night is the last published work of Georg Philipp Friedrich Freiherr von Hardenberg (1772-1801), the German philosopher and early Romantic poet whose pen name was simply Novalis. The work alternates poetry and prose, exploring a personal mythology of darkness and light, but it is also a free-associative chronicle of a young man rationalizing the untimely death of his fianc. This version (1897) was translated by influential fantasy author and novelist George MacDonald, who cited it as a great and early inspiration.