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Frederick the Great, Discussion Post 22 (or: Yuletide 2020 edition)
ETA: Whoops, I missed my cue -- this might as well be the next discussion post, I guess! :)
This is about the fic I didn't author (I have another reveals post for the fics I did author).
So my goal this Yuletide was NOT to write any historical fandom (because hard!) and just enjoy the excellent stuff that other people wrote. And... that sort of happened? I didn't end up authoring anything history-intensive? Buuuuut I ended up spending a lot more time than I did on any of my own fics working with![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
mildred_of_midgard on her fic, which she was worried about being able to pull off because she had had this completely insane idea to write a long casefic about Frederick the Great that every time I turned around had another twist put in :P :) She supplied me with what we called a "rough opal in matrix" bus pass casefic, and I cut away the matrix that remained and in some cases carved the opal -- that is to say, writing additional text for some of the scenes, what we liked to call "putting in feels," and in at least two cases entirely rewriting and/or restructuring the scene she'd written. She didn't always keep what I wrote (which we'd agreed upon in the beginning), but when she did (which was most of the time :) ) she then went in and rewrote/restructured what I put in to wordsmith (some of the words I gave her were really rough) and match her style, adding even more scenes -- that is, polishing it up and adding some gold and diamonds -- and voila, a beautiful pendant, I mean, story :)
I'm really proud of it and also it was really fun and also what I could handle this year, especially because mildred did all the parts I thought were hard and also wrote all the parts involving actual history or subtle AU before I was brought in so I didn't actually have to know historical stuff (though I guess I will never forget the battle of Leuthen now), and took full responsibility for how the whole thing turned out, so all I had to do was be like "Here, I'll write some rough feels for you for this scene!" The funny part was that I would often then write a paragraph justifying why I *had* to write the scene the way I did, and more likely than not mildred would be like, "yeah, I was sure you would do that, of course it should be written like that." (The most glaring example of this was where I inserted the Letter of Doom at the climax. I was worried there was some reason she didn't want it there, but she said, no, she just didn't have time to put it in herself and was just trusting me to do that :) ) She started jokingly calling me her "other self," to which I replied that it was with 1000% less angst and frustration -- as Frederick the Great's brother was his "other self" (which actually comes up in the fic) that he could trust to do all kinds of competent things, but they had a relationship that was, um, fraught? radioactive? Whereas this was just fun :)
Mildred did so much more than I did (we estimated a 90%/10% word ratio, not even counting the part where she wordsmithed a lot of my text) that I felt very uncomfortable being listed as a co-author, but hey, ~3000 words is a respectable Yuletide fic length :)
Yet They Grind Exceedingly Small (30384 words) by mildred_of_midgard
Chapters: 5/5
Fandom: 18th Century CE RPF, Historical RPF
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Relationships: Anna Amalie von Preußen & Wilhelmine von Preußen, Anna Amalie von Preußen & Friedrich Heinrich Ludwig von Preußen, Wilhelmine von Preußen & Elisabeth Friederike Sophie von Brandenburg-Bayreuth, Friedrich II von Preußen | Frederick the Great & Wilhelmine von Preußen | Wilhelmine of Prussia
Characters: Anna Amalie von Preußen (1723-1787), Wilhelmine von Preußen | Wilhelmine of Prussia (1709-1758), Friedrich Heinrich Ludwig von Preußen | Henry of Prussia (1726-1802), Elisabeth Friederike Sophie von Brandenburg-Bayreuth (1732-1780), Wilhelmine von Hesse-Kassel (1726-1808), August Wilhelm von Preußen | Augustus William of Prussia (1722-1758), Alcmene 1 | Frederick the Great's Italian Greyhound, Voltaire (Writer), Friedrich II von Preußen | Frederick the Great
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Dysfunctional Family, Suicide, Alternate Universe - Dark, Siblings, Canon-Typical Violence, Mystery, Tide of History Challenge
Summary:
This is about the fic I didn't author (I have another reveals post for the fics I did author).
So my goal this Yuletide was NOT to write any historical fandom (because hard!) and just enjoy the excellent stuff that other people wrote. And... that sort of happened? I didn't end up authoring anything history-intensive? Buuuuut I ended up spending a lot more time than I did on any of my own fics working with
mildred_of_midgard on her fic, which she was worried about being able to pull off because she had had this completely insane idea to write a long casefic about Frederick the Great that every time I turned around had another twist put in :P :) She supplied me with what we called a "rough opal in matrix" bus pass casefic, and I cut away the matrix that remained and in some cases carved the opal -- that is to say, writing additional text for some of the scenes, what we liked to call "putting in feels," and in at least two cases entirely rewriting and/or restructuring the scene she'd written. She didn't always keep what I wrote (which we'd agreed upon in the beginning), but when she did (which was most of the time :) ) she then went in and rewrote/restructured what I put in to wordsmith (some of the words I gave her were really rough) and match her style, adding even more scenes -- that is, polishing it up and adding some gold and diamonds -- and voila, a beautiful pendant, I mean, story :)I'm really proud of it and also it was really fun and also what I could handle this year, especially because mildred did all the parts I thought were hard and also wrote all the parts involving actual history or subtle AU before I was brought in so I didn't actually have to know historical stuff (though I guess I will never forget the battle of Leuthen now), and took full responsibility for how the whole thing turned out, so all I had to do was be like "Here, I'll write some rough feels for you for this scene!" The funny part was that I would often then write a paragraph justifying why I *had* to write the scene the way I did, and more likely than not mildred would be like, "yeah, I was sure you would do that, of course it should be written like that." (The most glaring example of this was where I inserted the Letter of Doom at the climax. I was worried there was some reason she didn't want it there, but she said, no, she just didn't have time to put it in herself and was just trusting me to do that :) ) She started jokingly calling me her "other self," to which I replied that it was with 1000% less angst and frustration -- as Frederick the Great's brother was his "other self" (which actually comes up in the fic) that he could trust to do all kinds of competent things, but they had a relationship that was, um, fraught? radioactive? Whereas this was just fun :)
Mildred did so much more than I did (we estimated a 90%/10% word ratio, not even counting the part where she wordsmithed a lot of my text) that I felt very uncomfortable being listed as a co-author, but hey, ~3000 words is a respectable Yuletide fic length :)
Yet They Grind Exceedingly Small (30384 words) by mildred_of_midgard
Chapters: 5/5
Fandom: 18th Century CE RPF, Historical RPF
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Relationships: Anna Amalie von Preußen & Wilhelmine von Preußen, Anna Amalie von Preußen & Friedrich Heinrich Ludwig von Preußen, Wilhelmine von Preußen & Elisabeth Friederike Sophie von Brandenburg-Bayreuth, Friedrich II von Preußen | Frederick the Great & Wilhelmine von Preußen | Wilhelmine of Prussia
Characters: Anna Amalie von Preußen (1723-1787), Wilhelmine von Preußen | Wilhelmine of Prussia (1709-1758), Friedrich Heinrich Ludwig von Preußen | Henry of Prussia (1726-1802), Elisabeth Friederike Sophie von Brandenburg-Bayreuth (1732-1780), Wilhelmine von Hesse-Kassel (1726-1808), August Wilhelm von Preußen | Augustus William of Prussia (1722-1758), Alcmene 1 | Frederick the Great's Italian Greyhound, Voltaire (Writer), Friedrich II von Preußen | Frederick the Great
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Dysfunctional Family, Suicide, Alternate Universe - Dark, Siblings, Canon-Typical Violence, Mystery, Tide of History Challenge
Summary:
January 1758. Prince William is dead, some say of a broken heart. Frederick wants to absolve himself of blame for William's death. Henry schemes to end the Third Silesian War on his terms. Amalie and Wilhelmine team up to find out what really happened to their brother. Alcmene just wants to be told she's a good dog.
Toutes nos félicitations, Henri!
18th January. Morning with the King. Then I present my congratulations to Prince Heinrich who receives me very amiably. I lunch in small company with the Duc de Nivernais with whose manners I am delighted. After the reception at the Queen's, I accompangny Prince Heinrich to Countess Monroy and introduce him as my cousin. The ruse works perfectly well since the Prince has put on a different outfit, we arrived in a hired carriage, and didn't fall out of character. Afterwards the Prince comes to me and I present him with a small party. At first, I let him enter a darkened room, where he finds the following words written at the wall with phosphorus: "The most worthy of mortals shall await the God's messenger here!"
A moment later, a man disguised as Mercury enters and gives him a letter from the assembly of gods, where it's said that the entire Olympus has been busy selecting presents worthy of him: Jupiter and his brothers had wanted to turn over the rulership of their realms to him, but after a vote Jupiter had decided that the Prince could not abandon his current position where he's crucial for the happiness of mankind and thus indispensable to it. Mars and Apollo had wanted to give him their courage and their mind, but Minerva then humiliated them by proving to them that the Prince surpasses them in both by far. At last, the noble assembly was much embarrassed at finding a worthy present, until Venus freed them through the suggestion to send him letters by his grandmother, Queen Sophie, whose worthy heir he was. At the same time, Mercury gave him letters from this Queen which I had received from Fräulein v. Fuchs. While the Prince reads them now, I change into evening wear and present my congratulations for the day. Then we dine in high spirits.
Re: Toutes nos félicitations, Henri!
(No, wait. The "Heinrich as Sophie's worthy heir" is rather interesting, and the fact that old family letters as a present are a thing. And I love the phosphorus detail. Not gonna go into the Gods' thoughts as foreshadowing, though. ;P)
Re: Toutes nos félicitations, Henri!
Given that I read Barbara Beuys’ biography last year, I’m also curious as to what this says about how SC was seen by her son. Older biographers were sure he must have loathed her (female intellectual, wanted to turn Berlin into Athens,
made FW dance ballet), but Beuys quotes several highly affectionate letters between mother and son, and points out he went painting hunting for her in The Hague when he was there because he knew she’d like it. And of course FW was sentimental for a prince about family relationships (with his idea of living the middle class family life) and super respectful to his parents both. So how did he talk about her to his children, if he did at all?Back to SC’s high standing in 1750s Prussia (that Lehndorff could find preserved letters from her is telling by itself): this is also why it so surprised me when reading in Hervey’s memoirs that Queen Caroline, who had been raised by her for some years, referred to her as a “shallow, silly woman”. Ouch. (Then again, Caroline is the woman who according to Hervey repeatedly described her oldest son as only worthy of death, the worst of the worst, etc., etc.)
Phosphorus: my own question is - did he get that out of the tapestry again afterwards or did his apartment still have that inscription when he got married a few years later?
Re: Toutes nos félicitations, Henri!
So how did he talk about her to his children, if he did at all?
That's a really interesting question! You're right that he was super into the idea of a close-knit, loving family. And also she's been dead for decades, which makes it even easier to glorify her memory. Hmm! I guess Stratemann doesn't say anything on the matter? It's the kind of thing he'd be likely to report.
did he get that out of the tapestry again afterwards or did his apartment still have that inscription when he got married a few years later?
Ha! Good question. Man, these wives put up with a lot, didn't they?
Re: Toutes nos félicitations, Henri!
Man, these wives put up with a lot, didn't they?
They did indeed. Incidentally, it's of course also interesting and telling that Heinrich chooses to spend so much of his thirtieth birthday not with his boyfriend du jour (Kalckreuth, whom he had only just fallen for), or even with beloved brothers AW and Ferdinand, but with Lehndorff. (Spending the day with Mina is of course out of the question.)
Re: Toutes nos félicitations, Henri!
Uh... I was tempted. Have another silly comic.
“It has no deeper meaning. Very practical when you want a midnight snack without lighting a candle though.”
Re: Toutes nos félicitations, Henri!
Re: Toutes nos félicitations, Henri!
I saw this come in when I was out taking a walk and now I'm home and I'm stiiillll laughing so hard, you have no idea. Omg, you are a genius.
Re: Toutes nos félicitations, Henri!
Re: Toutes nos félicitations, Henri!
Re: Toutes nos félicitations, Henri!
I have a WIP for you for this special occasion! I would have liked to finish it, but I have to wait for the paint to dry for the finishing details (the transparent jabot-thing) and the important parts are done anyway and it's his birthday ... so without further ado: Heinrich's portrait for my wall!
and the corresponding tumblr post on my newly (re-)established art blog ^^
This thing was done in oil paint and I still like it SO much better than acrylic, it's incredible. I'm rather satisfied with the hair, not quite as satisfied with the skin tone (mixing colours from scratch is not my forte, so it turned out rather pink...). Overall it's not as bad as others, I'm definitely improving my painting skills :D They still don't match my drawing skills, so Wilhelmine will remain the prettiest person on my wall for quite a while, but the birthday boy has definitely surpassed poor Fredersdorf :'D
P.S.: I spotted
Re: Toutes nos félicitations, Henri!
If this is Lehndorff in his "I'm gonna leave"-mode, I wonder what he was capable of in full "Prince Heinrich is the center of the world"-mode :'D
Well, hiding from his carriage lest his heart would burst at the sight of Heinrich leaving Berlin, for starters, see the entries for the early May days of 1753. :) Lehndorff's diary entry for Heinrich's 1753 birthday went: January 18th: As this is the Prince's birthday, the court of the Queen Mother's is assembled in full. I am convinced that as many have good wishes for the prince as those wearing clothing on their skin. For to know him is to love him. I seek out my dear H., embrace him tenderly and await with impatience the next opportunity to be alone with him. (...) I feel something for him I haven't felt for anyone else. Sometimes I wish he was poor, so I could give him everything I have; at other times, I would be ready to do the most humble service if only that meant I could be always with him.
Author of "Prince Heinrich's development as a military leader" dissertation, in a disapproving footnote: "Eva Ziebura is totally misunderstanding the emo tone of the era when ascribing gayness to Heinrich or his entourage in her biography. Take Lehndorff. He was just that enthusiastic a courtier, okay!"
Re: Toutes nos félicitations, Henri!
Why am I not surprised it was a military history work. The cult of manly chaste Prussians continues, I see.
(Also, if I were a total homophobe, I could just about see saying Lehndorff as a courtier is just that taken with his prince. But what about Hotham? What other than romantic love would lead Lehndorff to think about leaving his prince and emigrating to another country with someone he just met but has been expressing passionate declarations of love for? This is not rational courtier behavior! This is not going to move him up the social ladder!)
Re: Toutes nos félicitations, Henri!
Well, in fairness to military historians, there's also non-military Charlotte Pangels who was the first 20th century author I came across to insist that not just Fritz but also Heinrich were straight (and that Lehndorff was just an enthusiastic yenta shipping Heinrich with Bentinck while being in love with Amalie himself).
But what about Hotham? What other than romantic love would lead Lehndorff to think about leaving his prince and emigrating to another country with someone he just met but has been expressing passionate declarations of love for?
Job frustration and enthusiasm for the English way of life? I'm just guessing, btw, the dissertation writer didn't bother with Lehndorff more than in that footnote. But, you know, anyone who can describe the state of Heinrich's marriage in January 1759 with "it can't be denied that the spouses were no longer as close" has their perspective of human relationships so irrevocably fixed that it can't be helped....
Re: Toutes nos félicitations, Henri!
Lol at poor Fredersdorf. Practice makes perfect, I guess. I indeed endorse you fixing Fredersdorf so he can stop being sad, haha. :'D Poor Fredersdorf.
I spotted [personal profile] mildred_of_midgard 's Fanart post in Rheinsberg only fairly recently and I didn't get to thank you for that yet, so consider this my humble thanks to you :D
Consider the post my/our humble thanks to you! You create all the art; all I do is catalog it. <3
Re: Toutes nos félicitations, Henri!