Interesting! I think my surprise came from reading the letters quickly, thinking, "Oh, he 'Du's Moltke!" and extrapolating too much and thinking he did it regularly, then realizing that there weren't nearly as many as I thought I remembered. If I'd never seen a "Du", I don't think I have batted an eye.
That said, I also didn't realize how surprising it was, so thank you for the historical context!
even adult children call their father Sie.
See, I was thinking the "Du" went with all Frederik's references to Moltke as his father and himself as son, but I didn't know that you wouldn't expect a "Du" there either!
Well, I see why people find these letters so surprising.
Incidentally, I have zero idea of how Danish language habits were in the 18th century
Same, but I'll let you know if that changes. I'm trying to study a little every day.
Note on your translation - my guess is that "erligen" stands for "ehrlichen", i.e. "honest".
Ah, yes, good catch. I hadn't noticed that Google omitted that. (For the sake of speed, all my translations are run through Google and given one quick cleanup--I do not have time to be doing the translation myself, especially if, as here, I have to type up the German because it can't be copy-pasted, or, as with Lehndorff, the copy-paste job needs serious cleaning up.)
I also, looking back, see Google left out two of the "heart"s probably because it's more fluent in English to just say "dearest." But since I was trying to call attention to all the uses of "heart" here: there are 7 total, Cahn!
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Re: Fritz in the Media: The Extra History Series
Date: 2023-03-01 10:33 am (UTC)That said, I also didn't realize how surprising it was, so thank you for the historical context!
even adult children call their father Sie.
See, I was thinking the "Du" went with all Frederik's references to Moltke as his father and himself as son, but I didn't know that you wouldn't expect a "Du" there either!
Well, I see why people find these letters so surprising.
Incidentally, I have zero idea of how Danish language habits were in the 18th century
Same, but I'll let you know if that changes. I'm trying to study a little every day.
Note on your translation - my guess is that "erligen" stands for "ehrlichen", i.e. "honest".
Ah, yes, good catch. I hadn't noticed that Google omitted that. (For the sake of speed, all my translations are run through Google and given one quick cleanup--I do not have time to be doing the translation myself, especially if, as here, I have to type up the German because it can't be copy-pasted, or, as with Lehndorff, the copy-paste job needs serious cleaning up.)
I also, looking back, see Google left out two of the "heart"s probably because it's more fluent in English to just say "dearest." But since I was trying to call attention to all the uses of "heart" here: there are 7 total, Cahn!
Frederik: I just have a lot of feelings!