"Zu hören vom Gebirge her, im Gebrülle des Waldstroms, halb verwehtes Ächzen der Geister aus ihren Höhlen, und die Wehklagen des zu Tode sich jammernden Mädchens . . . ." (October 12)
"To hear from the mountaintops in the roaring forest stream the wind-scattered groans of spirits in their graves and the pitiful maiden's lament unto Death . . . ." (Trans. Dillon Ford)
Werther was a devoted reader of James MacPherson's enormously popular verses composed in the antique style of Ossian, a legendary Gaelic warrior whose life and deeds took on a supernatural grandeur rivaling that of Homer's Odyssseus.
Goethe's fascination with the supernatural is similarly revealed in this moonlit mountainous landscape (1776-79, here digitally colorized), in which spirits arise and monstrous forms appear around a magic circle where three female figures engage in ritual communication with the dead.