Bertalda’s Abduction and Rediscovery of Her Parentage

Bertalda’s abduction and rediscovery of her parentage transform an apparently celebratory banquet into a public reckoning over who may claim a child as family. Raised by a duke and duchess, Bertalda learns that she is the fisherman’s daughter, taken from her birth parents and left in the path of the duke. The revelation exposes the gap between the care that has shaped her life and the blood relationship she has not known, while Undine’s songs make that buried history audible to the assembled company.

The lost child and the found child

About fifteen years earlier, the fisherman had left home on a journey to the city. His wife stayed behind because they had recently welcomed a child, a baby girl. On his return, she met him dressed in mourning. She told him that the child had disappeared while she sat beside The Lake, playing with her. The baby had laughed, reached toward something in the water, and slipped from her mother’s arms beneath its surface. The fisherman searched for her but found no trace.

That evening, the grieving couple sat silently in The Fisherman’s Cottage. A little girl, three or four years old, appeared at the open door, her golden hair and rich clothes dripping wet. The fisherman and his wife warmed and cared for her. She could not give a clear account of her parents; her story was that she had been in a boat with her mother, fallen into the water, and recovered her senses beneath the trees. The couple decided to raise her in place of their lost child. Unsure whether she had been baptized, they proposed the name Dorothea, but she insisted that she was called Undine. A priest eventually baptized her by that name. This history establishes a striking asymmetry: the fisherman’s household had taken Undine in as a replacement for a daughter they believed drowned, while Bertalda, raised elsewhere, was in fact that household’s missing child.

The songs at the banquet

The recognition takes place at a feast attended by Bertalda’s foster parents and friends. After the meal, the doors are left open so ordinary people can watch the nobles’ celebration. Bertalda sits between Undine and Huldbrand, waiting with him for the explanation Undine has promised. Undine delays, then takes up her lute at the company’s request. Her first song describes a child lost and left on an unknown shore. The duke, deeply moved, recognizes the account as the morning on which he found Bertalda and admits that her foster parents could not give her the priceless joy of knowing her birth family.

Undine follows with a second song, this time tracing the parents’ grief: the mother searches through the chambers, and the father returns to find no bright infant waiting for him. The songs turn a private origin into a scene witnessed by the whole company. Bertalda, weeping, asks where her parents are and searches the gathering with her eyes. Undine turns toward the door and asks for the waiting parents to come forward. The old fisherman and his wife emerge from among the spectators. The duchess identifies Bertalda as their recovered child, and the couple embrace her, weeping and praising God.

Recognition and public rupture

Bertalda tears herself from their embrace. She had expected that the revelation would confirm, or even elevate, the rank she already enjoyed; instead, she interprets it as a deliberate humiliation staged by Undine. She insults Undine and the old couple, accusing them of deception. The fisherman’s wife nevertheless feels that Bertalda is her daughter, while the fisherman silently prays that the recognition might be mistaken. Their conflicting responses keep the scene from becoming a simple, immediate reunion: the parents claim a bond that Bertalda rejects, and the revealed identity is not yet an accepted relationship.

Undine is shaken by Bertalda’s anger and repeatedly asks whether she has a soul, as if trying to wake her to what has happened. When the guests begin to argue and the old couple weep, Undine asks to speak in her husband’s hall. She maintains that she has told the truth and explains that the information came from the very person who lured Bertalda away from her parents and later placed her in the duke’s path. Bertalda calls Undine a witch, but Undine denies being one. The duke remains unmoved by Bertalda’s demand to leave, and the duchess insists that the matter be examined before anyone departs.

The fisherman’s wife then offers a concrete test: Bertalda has a violet-like mark between her shoulders and another on the instep of her left foot. Bertalda refuses to uncover herself before a peasant woman. The duchess orders her into a private room with the older woman, and the examination confirms the marks. On their return, the duchess publicly declares that Bertalda is the fisherman’s daughter. The duke and duchess leave with the girl they have raised; the fisherman and his wife follow at the duke’s signal. The guests withdraw in silence or murmuring, and Undine, overwhelmed by the collapse of her hoped-for happy explanation, weeps in Huldbrand’s arms.

Aftermath and altered kinship

The recognition does not immediately restore Bertalda to her birth parents. After the fisherman and his wife have returned toward their secluded home, Bertalda explains that her father has required her to come to them through the Haunted Forest, dressed as a fisher-girl rather than as a lady, as proof of regard. She is frightened of the forest and believes herself forsaken, but she also asks Undine’s forgiveness for her behavior at the feast. Undine tells her that the fisherman is indeed her father and explains that the stranger she had taken for the master of the fountain disclosed the story to her.

Undine invites Bertalda to come with her and Huldbrand to Ringstetten Castle, and asks her not to address her as a noble lady. Undine frames their childhood exchange as a bond that can be strengthened rather than a reason for rivalry, proposing that they discuss how to share their lives as sisters. Huldbrand offers Bertalda his hand and agrees to send word to her parents explaining why she has not come. The revelation therefore changes Bertalda’s standing without erasing the attachments formed through her upbringing: blood establishes her birth family, while Undine’s offer and Huldbrand’s welcome begin the work of creating another kind of belonging.