Metzengerstein

About “Metzengerstein”

"Metzengerstein: A Tale in Imitation of the German" is a short story by Edgar Allan Poe, his first to be published. It appeared in the 1832 issue of the Philadelphia Saturday Courier. The story centers on Frederick, the last member of the Metzengerstein family, who is involved in a feud with the Berlifitzing family. He is suspected of starting a fire that kills the Berlifitzing patriarch. Frederick becomes fascinated by a wild horse he had previously ignored. In the end, his home catches fire, and the horse leads him into the flames, symbolizing his punishment. The story includes a Latin hexameter from Martin Luther as its epigraph: "Pestis eram vivus—moriens tua mors ero." (Summary adapted from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.)