The story tells us about the life of a young man, a student who considers himself very unlucky. His name is Anselm. He constantly gets into unpleasant situations. Walking through the market, he accidentally pushes a basket of apples, gives his purse to the grandmother selling them, she showers him with abuse and curses in return. He runs away from her and suddenly sees three snakes, looking at them he feels very good, but they jump into the river and the guy seems to be returning to real life.
One day his friend offered him a well-paid job as "scribe of the archivist Linhorst", who had been looking for a good calligrapher with talent for a long time. Anselm immediately agreed, because it was his hobby to copy difficult calligraphic works. He came to Linghorst, wanted to knock on the door, but suddenly the voice of an old woman is heard in his head, and her face appears before his eyes. The student runs away in fear, his friends think that he has set off and only the work of an archivist can help him. Having waited for the right moment, they introduce Anselm and Linhorst. He told Anselm the story that he was cursed and that the three snakes were his daughters. That they can be freed from the curse if a young man falls in love with their daughters.
After it turned out that the archivist is Salamander, and Anselm fell in love with his youngest daughter, Serpentina. He also learned that the grandmother is an evil witch who wants to get the golden pot and prevent the Salamander from removing the curse. The witch built many intrigues, tried to make another girl fall in love with Anselm, and for a short time she even succeeded, but Anselm came to his senses and remembered his beloved Serpentine. In the end, the curse was lifted, they got married, the student became a poet. And they lived happily ever after in Atlantis. The story tells that you need to listen to your heart, that there can be many obstacles on the way to what you want, but if it is really desirable, then it will be easier to overcome them.
A picture or drawing of a golden pot
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About three o'clock in the afternoon on the feast of the Ascension, the student Anselm strode swiftly through the black gates in the city of Dresden. He accidentally knocked over a large basket of pies and apples that the old woman was selling, and for this he had to give the old woman all his skinny purse. The merchant grabbed him, hastily hiding him, and then began to go bankrupt with threats and curses against the young man. She shouted after him that he would fall under the glass. Accompanied by malevolent laughter and a few sympathetic glances, Anselm turned onto a secluded road that ran along the Elbe. He began to complain aloud about his worthless life.
Anselm's monologue was interrupted by a strange rustling coming from the elder bush. There was a sound very similar to the ringing of crystal bells. Glancing up, Anselm noticed three golden-green snakes that twined around the branches. One of them stretched out her head to him and looked with great tenderness into his dark blue eyes. Anselm was in a feeling of deep sorrow and great bliss. Suddenly, a thick, rough voice was heard, the snakes disappeared back into the Elbe, from where they arose.
Anselm, longingly, took away the trunk of the elderberry, frightening passers-by with wild speeches and appearance. When Ansel suddenly heard unflattering talk about him, he finally woke up and took to his heels. Suddenly, he was called from behind. These were his friends - the registrar Geerbrand and the director Paulman with their daughters. Connector invited Anselm to take a boat ride on the Elbe in their company and to dine at his house in the evening. Now Ansel was aware that the golden snakes were just a reflection of the fireworks in the foliage. But still, until that moment, an unknown feeling of simultaneous sorrow and bliss again squeezed his chest.
Anselm almost turned the boat over during the walk, constantly shouting strange speeches about golden snakes. Everyone had the opinion that the young man was a little crazy and all this was due to bad luck and poverty. Geerbrand makes him an offer for a good amount of money to hire a scribe to the archivist Lindhorst - he is just in search of a talented calligrapher and draftsman to copy various manuscripts from his library. The student was very happy with this offer, because copying difficult calligraphic works was his passion.
The next day early in the morning Anselm put himself in order and went to Lindhorst. At that moment, when the young man wanted to knock on the door with a bronze door knocker, how cute on the knocker it twisted into an old woman, whose apples he was not lucky enough to knock over right at the Black Gate yesterday afternoon. Anselm, terrified, staggered aside and rang the bell. In the call, he again heard the prophetic words of the old woman that he should be in glass. The cord of the bell turned into a white snake and went downstairs. The snake squeezed him and wrapped itself around his neck so that blood spurted from the veins of the young man and began to penetrate into the body of the snake. He was in sharp pain the young man was left unconscious. The student regained consciousness only in his poor bed and next to him was Con-Rector Paulman.
After this incident, Anselm was afraid to approach the archivist's house. No persuasion of his friends had an effect on him, and everyone thought that he really was a mentally ill person. And, according to the registrar Geerbrand, the best occupation for him could only be the work of an archivist. For a closer acquaintance of Lindhorst and Anselm, the registrar invited them both to a coffee shop in the evening.
That evening, the registrar told a very strange story about a fire lily that originated in a primeval valley, and about her beloved Phosphorus. With a kiss, the lily flared up with a bright flame and flew away, no longer thinking about the young man in love with her. Phosphorus mourned his beloved for a long time. At that moment, a black dragon arose from the rock, which embraced this creature with its wings, and it again became a lily, but now the love for Phosphorus had already become a sharp pain, and everything around began to fade and fade from it. Phosphorus fought the dragon and won it, so he freed the lily, which became the queen of the valley. And Lindgrost said that he himself came from this valley, and this fiery lily is his great-great-great-grandmother and he himself is a prince.
Every evening Anselm began to appear at the elderberry bush, hugging him and saying that he loved the snake very much and was looking forward to meeting her again. Once at that moment Archivist Lindgrost approached him. Anselm told him about all the incidents that had happened to him recently. The archivist told the young man that the three snakes were his daughters, and he fell in love with the younger Serpentina. Then Lindgrost called him to him and gave him a magical liquid to drink in order to protect the young man from the old witch. After that, the archivist himself became a kite and flew away.
Veronica, the daughter of Con-Rector Paulman, accidentally learning that Anselm could become a Privy Councilor, was set on fire with the desire to become his wife. But in the midst of his dreams, a voice from nowhere said that he would never be her husband.
Having learned from a friend that there is an old fortune-teller Frau Rauerin in Dresden, Veronica wanted to ask her advice. “Throw thoughts about Anselm,” the witch said flatly to the girl. - He's a bad person. He contacted my old enemy, the evil old man. He is madly in love with his youngest daughter, a green snake. He will never become a court adviser.” Already disappointed with the fortune-telling, the girl wanted to leave, but at that moment the sorceress turned into the girl's old nanny Lisa. In order to somehow keep Veronica, she promised to heal Anselm from the spell of the evil old man. To do this, the girl will certainly need to come to her again at night for the future equinox. So Veronica regained hope.
At this time, Anselm began working for an archivist. Lindgrost provided the student with a huge amount of incomprehensible black mass, instead of ink and strangely colored pens, as well as unusually smooth and white paper, and ordered him to copy the Arabic manuscript. With every word, Anselm's courage and skill only increased. The young man felt that Serpentina was helping him. The archivist knew about the thoughts of the young man and said that by doing this work, he could find happiness.
It was a very windy and cold night of the equinox when the witch brought Veronica into the field. She lit a fire over the cauldron and threw into it several strange bodies that were in her basket, after which a curl from the girl's head and a ring from her hand went into the cauldron. The witch ordered the girl to keep her eyes on the boiling mixture. Soon Anselm appeared from the depths of the cauldron, holding out his hand to Veronica. The old woman opened the tap located on the boiler and metal began to flow into the mold. At the same moment, a voice was heard: “Hurry away!” and the old woman fell to the ground with a howl, and Veronica was left unconscious. When she came to her senses at home, in the pocket of her sodden raincoat she saw a silver mirror cast by a fortune-teller the night before. From the mirror, as well as last night from the thick of the boiling cauldron, her lover looked at her.
Anselm had been working for the archivist for more than one day. He copied quickly, and it always seemed to Anselm that he already knew the lines he needed to copy. He felt Serpentina's presence, sometimes her breath touched him. Very soon, Serpentina appeared to the student and told him that her father came from the Salamander tribe. He was very fond of the green snake, which was the daughter of a lily, but when the salamander embraced the snake, it turned into dust, and together with it a winged creature appeared, which flew far away.
In desperation, the Salamander ran through the garden and devastated everything with fire. Phosphorus, being the prince of the country of Atlantis, was very angry and put out the fire of the Salamander and since then he had to live in the form of a man, without any magical gift. Only then will Salamander throw off his heavy burden, when there will be young men who can hear the singing of his three daughters and fall in love with them. As a dowry, they will get the Golden Pot. When betrothed, a fiery lily will grow out of the pot and the young man will begin to understand its language and will be able to achieve everything that is only open to incorporeal spirits, and will live together with his beloved in Atlantis. There will be able to return, and, having received forgiveness, Salamander. The old witch needs a golden pot, beware of her. In conclusion, a kiss burned the lips of the young man. When the student came to his senses, he saw that everything Serpentina said was displayed on the manuscript.
Although Anselm was very fond of Serpentina, sometimes he still remembered Veronica. Soon he begins to see her in a dream, and more and more takes over his thoughts. One morning, instead of going to the archivist, he goes to Paulman, where he spends the whole day. There, quite by chance, a silver mirror catches his eye, in which they, along with Veronica, look. Anselm began to realize that he had always thought only about Veronica, and her hot kiss completely confirmed these feelings in him. On this day, Anselm made a promise to Veronica to marry her.
In the field of dinner the receptionist Geerbrand came, with all that was necessary for the preparation of punch. At the first sip of such a drink, all the oddities and wonders of the last weeks began to appear before the student's eyes. He suddenly started dreaming aloud about the Serpentine. Quite unexpectedly after this, the owner himself and Geerbrand also begin to roar, then shout, as if clouded by reason: “May the old woman perish! Let there be Salamander! Veronica kept trying to convince them, but being in silent horror, Ansel ran away to his closet and fell asleep soundly. When he woke up, he did not leave the thought of marrying Veronica. Now neither Lindgrost himself nor his garden had the same magic for him.
The next day, the student again came to work with the archivist, but now he saw that there were not letters on the parchment, but incomprehensible squiggles. When copying paper, Anselm drips ink onto the manuscript. A blue lightning arose from a drop, and from the fog surrounding it, the archivist himself appeared, and delivered a cruel punishment to the student. Lindgrost placed Anselm in one of the three glass jars that were placed on the table in the archivist's office. Nearby, in the other five jars, the young man saw two scribes and three scholars who had once worked for an archivist. They all mocked him that he thought he was in a bottle, but in fact he was on a bridge and saw his reflection in the water. They laughed at the crazy old man who showered them with gold just because they drew incomprehensible scribbles for him. Anselm was unpleasant, and he turned away from his frivolous comrades and directed all his feelings to his beloved Serpentina, she also loved him, as before, and wanted to alleviate the situation of the young man.
Suddenly, from a muffled grunt coming from an old coffee pot, Anselm recognized the witch. She said that she could save him if he married Veronica. Anselm gave a proud refusal. Then, taking a golden pot with fear, she tried to leave, but on the threshold she was met by an archivist. At that moment there was a mortal battle between the old woman and the sorcerer, where the Salamander won, and the witch became a beet. At the moment of such a triumph, Serpentina appeared before Anselm, the glass cracked, and he found himself in the arms of his beloved.
The next day, the rector Pullman and the registrar Geerbrand did not understand what exactly led them to a clouding of their minds, because they drank an ordinary punch. But they decided to blame the crazy student who infected them for all the troubles. Not one month has passed. On Veronica's birthday, Geerbrand, a newly minted court adviser, appeared on the threshold of their house, who offered the girl a hand and a heart. She quickly agreed and then told her future husband about the witch and her love for Anselm. And after the wedding, being Mrs. Geerbrand, she moved to a wonderful house in the New Market.
The author received a letter from the archivist Lindhorst, in which he was allowed to make public the story of the mysterious fate of his son-in-law Anselm and an invitation to complete his story about the Golden Pot exactly where the student Anselm once worked. Anselm and Serpentina got engaged in a wonderful temple, and when he inhaled the scent of lilies that emerged from a golden pot, he forever found bliss in Atlantis.
The summary of the story "The Golden Pot" was retold by Osipova A.S.
Please note that this is only a summary of the literary work "The Golden Pot". This summary omits many important points and quotations.
On the day of Ascension, at about three o'clock in the afternoon in the Black Gate area, in Dresden, the student Anselm raids an apple and pies vendor. He gives her his wallet to replace the damaged merchandise, but is cursed in return. In the Link Baths, a young man realizes that the holiday is passing him by. He chooses a secluded place for himself under an elder bush, fills his pipe with the useful tobacco of the director Paulman and begins to complain about his own clumsiness. In the rustle of the branches, Anselm hears the gentle singing of snakes shining with green gold. He sees dark blue eyes fixed on him and begins to experience a sensual attraction to them. With the last ray of the sun, a rough voice calls the snakes home.
Vigilia II
The young man comes to his senses from the remark of the townswoman about his madness. The woman's husband thinks the student drank too much. Having escaped from a respectable family, Anselm meets the director Paulman with his daughters and the registrar Geerbrand by the river. Riding along the Elbe with them, he almost jumps out of the boat, mistaking the reflection of fireworks for golden snakes. Anselm's story about what happened to him under the elder tree is not taken seriously by the director Paulman: he believes that only madmen and fools can daydream. His eldest daughter, sixteen-year-old Veronika, stands up for Anselm, saying that he must have had a dream, which he took for truth.
The festive evening continues in the house of the director Paulman. The registrar Geerbrand offers Anselm a job as a copyist at the archivist Lindgorst, where the student appears the next day, refreshes himself with Konradi's stomach liquor for courage and once again encounters an apple seller, whose face he sees in a bronze door figure. Anselm grabs the bell, the cord of the latter turns into a snake, which strangles the student into unconsciousness.
Vigilia the third
Archivist Lindgorst tells the coffee house guests the story of the creation of the valley, in which the love of the Fire Lily and the beautiful young man Phosphorus was born. From the kiss of the latter, the girl flared up and a new creature arose in her fire, leaving both the valley and her lover. A black dragon emerging from the rocks caught a wonderful creature and in its arms it again turned into a Fire Lily. The young man Phosphorus challenged the dragon to a duel and freed his beloved, who became the queen of a beautiful valley. He calls himself a descendant of the Fireline. Everyone laughs.
Archivist Lindgorst says that he told them the pure truth, after which he tells a new story - about a brother who was angry that his father bequeathed luxurious onyx not to him, but to his brother. Now he is a dragon living in a cypress forest near Tunisia and guarding the famous mystical carbuncle of a necromancer living in a dacha in Lapland.
Registrar Geerbrand introduces the student Anselm to the archivist. Lindhorst says that he is "pleased" and quickly runs away.
Vigilia the fourth
The author tries to explain to the reader what state the student Anselm was in at the time he began working with the archivist Lindgorst: the young man fell into dreamy apathy and dreamed of a different, higher being. He walked alone through meadows and groves and dreamed of a green-gold snake under an elder tree. One day, the archivist Lindgorst stumbled upon him there. In the voice of the latter, Anselm recognized the man who called home the snakes. The student told the archivist everything that happened to him in Ascension. Lindgorst explained to Anselm that he saw his three daughters and fell in love with the youngest, Serpentina. In an emerald mirror, formed from the rays of a precious stone on a ring, the archivist showed the student his beloved and once again invited him to copy the manuscripts. Anselm explained why he didn't show up for work last time. Lindgorst handed him a small vial of golden yellow liquid and told him to splash it into the bronze face of the apple seller, after which he said goodbye to the student, turned into a kite and flew into the city.
Vigilia fifth
Con-Rector Paulman considers Anselm an unfit subject for anything. The registrar Geerbrand stands up for the student and says that he can make a collegiate assessor or court adviser. Veronica dreams of becoming Madam Court Councilor Anselm. A student who has run in for a few minutes deftly kisses her hand. The hostile image destroys the girl's romantic illusions. Veronica tells about the little gray man to her friends who came to her for tea - young ladies Osters. The eldest, Angelica, shares her joy at the imminent return of her lover - officer Victor wounded in the right hand. She gives Veronica the address of the clairvoyant - Frau Rauerin, where the girl goes after parting with her friends.
Frau Rauerin, in whom the reader may recognize an apple merchant, advises Veronica to abandon Anselm, who has entered the service of the salamanders and dreams of marrying a snake. Angry with her words, Veronica wants to leave. Frau Rauerin kneels before her and asks her to recognize old Lisa in her. The former nanny promises Veronica help in getting Anselm. She makes an appointment for the girl on the night of the autumn equinox at a crossroads in a field.
Vigilia sixth
The student Anselm decides to give up gastric liquor before visiting the archivist, but this does not save him from a vision of an apple vendor, into whose bronzed face he splashes the liquid given to him by Lindhorst.
Anselm goes to the place of work through the most beautiful greenhouse filled with amazing talking birds. In the blue hall with golden columns, he sees a wonderful golden pot. The student copies the first manuscript in a high room with bookcases. He understands that the blots that he saw on the samples of his work did not appear there by chance, but does not say anything about this to Lindgorst. Serpentina invisibly helps Anselm in his work. Lindgorst turns into a majestic prince of spirits and predicts the student's fate.
Vigilia seventh
Bewitched by an apple merchant, Veronica can't wait for the autumn equinox, and as soon as it comes, she immediately rushes to meet the old woman. At night, in a storm and rain, women go out into the field, where old Lisa digs a hole in the ground, throws coals into it, sets up a tripod, puts a cauldron in which she begins to brew a magic potion, while Veronica constantly thinks from Anselme.
The author appeals to the imagination of the reader, who could be on September 23 on the road leading to Dresden. He depicts the beauty and fear of Veronica, the ugliness of the old woman, the infernal magical glow and suggests that anyone who saw this would want to break the evil spell.
Veronica sees the student Anselm coming out of the cauldron. A huge eagle descends on old Lisa. The girl loses consciousness and wakes up in the afternoon, in her own bed. The younger sister, twelve-year-old Frentshen, gives her tea and shows her a wet raincoat. On her chest, Veronica finds a small round, smoothly polished metal mirror, in which she sees the student Anselm at work. Dr. Eckstein prescribes medicine to the girl.
Vigilia eighth
Student Anselm works hard at the archivist Lindhorst. One day, he takes him to an azure room with a table covered with a purple veil and a velvet chair and offers a manuscript for copying, originally looking like a palm leaf. Anselm realizes that he will have to work on a story about the Salamander's marriage to a green snake. Serpentina comes out to the student. She hugs the young man and tells him about the magical land of Atlantis, where the mighty prince of spirits Phosphorus reigned, who was served by elemental spirits. One of them, Salamander, once saw a beautiful green snake in the garden, fell in love with it and stole it from his mother, Lily. Prince Phosphorus warned the Salamander about the impossibility of marriage with a unique lover who, like her mother, flared up and was reborn into a new being, after which the unfortunate lover fell into grief, burned down the beautiful garden of Phosphorus and was cast down to the earthly spirits. The prince of spirits said that the Salamanders would return to the magical land not earlier than the time of universal blindness would come on earth, he himself would marry Lilia, receive from her three daughters, each of whom would be loved by an earthly youth who believes in fabulous Atlantis. One of the earthly spirits made a magic pot as a gift to the snake girls. The apple merchant, according to Serpentina, is the offspring of one of the dragon feathers and some kind of beet, a creature hostile to both the Salamander and Anselm.
Serpentina's story ends at six in the evening. The student is surprised to find it on parchment. He spends the evening with Lindhorst and Geerbrand at the Link Baths.
Vigilia ninth
Against his will, Anselm begins to think about Veronica. Konrektor Paulman, who met a friend on the street, calls him to visit. The girl captivates the student with a fun game of catch-up, he accidentally breaks her drawer and finds a magic mirror, looking into which he begins to take the story of Serpentina for a fairy tale. Anselm is late for the archivist. The Paulmans treat him to soup. In the evening the registrar Geerbrand comes. Veronica is making punch. Under the influence of wine vapors, Anselm again begins to believe in miracles. The company gets drunk. At the height of the fun, a small man in a gray coat enters the room and reminds the student of Lindhorst's work.
The next morning, sober Anselm, who dreams of becoming a court counselor and marrying Veronica, puts an inkblot on parchment and falls into a glass bottle on the table in the library of the archivist.
Vigilia tenth
The student is in incredible pain. He constantly calls Serpentina, who alleviates his suffering. Next to him on the table, he sees five more young people imprisoned in banks, but who believe that in fact they are having fun, walking around taverns on Lindgorst's money. The apple vendor mocks Anselm and tries to steal the golden pot. Archivist Lindgorst enters into a fight with her and wins. The witch's black cat is being overwhelmed by a gray parrot. The archivist frees Anselm from under the glass.
Vigil Eleventh
Conrector Paulman does not understand how it was possible to get so drunk the day before? The registrar Geerbrand blames Anselm for everything, whose madness has spread to the others. Conrector Paulman rejoices at the absence of a student in his house. Veronica explains to her father that the latter cannot come, as he has fallen under glass. The girl is sad. Dr. Eckstein prescribes his entertainment.
The misadventures of the student Anselm. - Beneficial tobacco of Paulmann's con-rector and golden-green snakes.
On Ascension Day, about three o'clock in the afternoon, a young man was walking swiftly through the Black Gate in Dresden and just got into a basket of apples and pies that an old, ugly woman was selling - and hit so well that part of the contents of the basket was crushed, and everything that had safely escaped this fate scattered in all directions, and the street boys joyfully rushed to the booty that the dexterous young man brought them! At the cries of the old woman, her companions left their tables where they sold pies and vodka, surrounded the young man and began to scold him so rudely and furiously that he, numb with vexation and shame, could only take out his small and not particularly full purse, which the old woman seized it greedily and quickly hid it. Then the tight circle of merchants parted; but when the young man jumped out of it, the old woman shouted after him: “Run away, damn son, so that you will be blown away; you will fall under glass, under glass!…” There was something terrible in the sharp, piercing voice of this woman, so that the walkers stopped in surprise, and the laughter that had been heard at first immediately ceased. The student Anselm (it was he who was the young man), although he did not at all understand the strange words of the old woman, felt an involuntary shudder and accelerated his steps even more in order to avoid the eyes of the curious crowd directed at him. Now, making his way through the stream of smart citizens, he heard everywhere saying: “Ah, poor young man! Oh, she's a damned woman! In a strange way, the mysterious words of the old woman gave a certain tragic turn to the comical adventure, so that everyone looked with participation at a person whom they had not noticed at all before. The females, in view of the young man's tall stature and his handsome face, the expressiveness of which was intensified by hidden anger, willingly excused his awkwardness, as well as his costume, which was very far from any fashion, namely: his pike-gray tailcoat was tailored in such a way as if the tailor who worked for him knew only by hearsay about modern styles, and black satin, well-preserved trousers gave the whole figure some kind of master's style, which was completely inconsistent with gait and posture.
golden pot
On the Feast of the Ascension, at three o'clock in the afternoon, at the Black Gate in Dresden, the student Anselm, due to his eternal bad luck, overturns a huge basket of apples - and hears terrible curses and threats from the old merchant woman: "You will fall under glass, under glass!" Having paid for his oversight with a skinny purse, Anselm, instead of drinking beer and coffee with liquor, like other good townspeople, goes to the banks of the Elbe to mourn his evil fate - all his youth, all collapsed hopes, all sandwiches that fell butter down ... From the branches the elder tree under which he sits, marvelous sounds are heard, as if the ringing of crystal bells. Raising his head, Anselm sees three lovely golden-green snakes twined around the branches, and the cutest of the three looks at him with tenderness with large blue eyes. And these eyes, and the rustle of leaves, and the setting sun - everything tells Anselm about eternal love. The vision dissipates as suddenly as it appeared. Anselm in anguish embraces the trunk of an elderberry, frightening both with his appearance and wild speeches of the townspeople walking in the park. Fortunately, his good friends turn out to be nearby: the registrar Geerbrand and the secretary Paulman with their daughters, inviting Anselm to take a boat ride along the river with them and finish the festive evening with dinner at Paulman's house.
The young man, by common judgment, is clearly not himself, and his poverty and bad luck are to blame for everything. Geerbrand offers him a job as a scribe for the archivist Lindgorst for decent money: Anselm has a talent for calligraphy and draftsman - just such a person is looking for an archivist to copy manuscripts from his library.
Alas: the unusual atmosphere in the archivist's house, and his outlandish garden, where flowers look like birds and insects - like flowers, and finally, the archivist himself, who appears to Anselm either in the form of a thin old man in a gray cloak, or in the guise of a majestic gray-bearded king - all this plunges Anselm even deeper into the world of his dreams. The knocker pretends to be an old woman, whose apples he scattered at the Black Gate, again uttering ominous words: "You should be in glass, in crystal! .."; the cord of the bell turns into a snake, wrapping itself around the poor fellow until the bones crunch. Every evening he goes to the elderberry bush, hugs it and cries: "Ah! I love you, snake, and I will die of sadness if you do not return!"
Day after day passes, and still Anselm does not get to work. The archivist, to whom he reveals his secret, is not at all surprised. These snakes, according to the archivist Anselm, are my daughters, and I myself are not a mortal person, but the spirit of the Salamanders, overthrown for disobedience by my master Phosphorus, the prince of the country of Atlantis. Whoever marries one of the daughters of the Salamander-Lindhorst will receive the Golden Pot as a dowry. A fiery lily sprouts from a pot at the moment of betrothal, the young man will understand its language, comprehend everything that is open to incorporeal spirits, and with his beloved will begin to live in Atlantis. The Salamander, having finally received forgiveness, will return there.
Cheer up for work! The payment for it will be not only chervonets, but also the opportunity to see the blue-eyed snake Serpentina every day!
Having not seen Anselm for a long time, the daughter of Con-Rector Paulman Veronika, with whom they used to play music almost every evening, is tormented by doubts: has he forgotten her? Have you cooled off towards her at all? But she already painted a happy marriage in her dreams! Anselm, you see, will get rich, become a court adviser, and she - a court adviser!
Having heard from her friends that an old fortune-teller Frau Rauerin lives in Dresden, Veronica turns to her for advice. "Leave Anselm," the girl hears from the sorceress. "He is a bad man. He trampled on my children, my bulk apples. He got in touch with my enemy, the evil old man. He is in love with his daughter, the green snake. He will never be a court adviser." In tears, Veronika listens to a fortune-teller - and suddenly recognizes her nanny Lisa in her. The kind nanny consoles the pupil: "I will try to help you, heal Anselm from the enemy's spell, and you - to please the court advisers."
On a cold rainy night, the fortune-teller leads Veronica into the field, where he makes a fire under a cauldron, into which flowers, metals, herbs and animals fly from the old woman's bag, and after them - a curl from Veronica's head and her ring. The girl stares intently into the boiling brew - and from there the face of Anselm appears to her. At the same moment, a thunderous sound is heard above her head: "Hey, you bastards! Get away, hurry!" The old woman falls to the ground with a howl, Veronica faints. When she comes to her senses at home, on her couch, she finds in the pocket of her soaking raincoat a silver mirror - the one that was cast by a fortuneteller last night. From the mirror, as just now from a boiling cauldron, her lover looks at the girl. "Ah," he lamented, "why do you sometimes want to squirm like a snake!.."
Meanwhile, Anselm's work in the archivist's house, which did not go well at first, is becoming more and more controversial. He easily manages not only to copy the most intricate manuscripts, but also to comprehend their meaning. As a reward, the archivist arranges for the student a date with Serpentina. "You have, as they say now, a 'naive poetic soul,'" Anselm hears from the sorcerer's daughter. "You are worthy of both my love and eternal bliss in Atlantis!" The kiss burns Anselm's lips. But strange: in all the following days he thinks about Veronica. Serpentina is his dream, a fairy tale, and Veronica is the most alive, real thing that has ever appeared to his eyes! Instead of going to the archivist, he goes to visit Paulman, where he spends the whole day. Veronica is gaiety itself, her whole appearance expresses love for him. An innocent kiss completely sobers up Anselm. As a sin, Geerbrand appears with everything that is required to make a punch. With the first sip, the oddities and wonders of the last weeks rise again before Anselm. He dreams aloud of the Serpentine. Following him, unexpectedly, both the owner and Geerbrand begin to exclaim: "Long live the Salamander! May the old woman perish!" Veronica convinces them that old Lisa will certainly defeat the sorcerer, and her sister runs out of the room in tears. Crazy House - and only! ..
The next morning, Paulmann and Geerbrand are surprised at their rampage for a long time. As for Anselm, he, having come to the archivist, was severely punished for his cowardly renunciation of love. The sorcerer imprisoned the student in one of those glass jars that are on the table in his office. In the neighborhood, in other banks, there are three more scholars and two scribes who also worked for the archivist. They vilify Anselm ("The madman imagines that he is sitting in a bottle, while he himself stands on a bridge and looks at his reflection in the river!") and at the same time the crazy old man who showers them with gold because they draw scribbles for him.
From their mockery, Anselm is distracted by the vision of a mortal battle between a sorcerer and an old woman, from which the Salamander emerges victorious. In a moment of triumph, Serpentina appears before Anselm, announcing to him the granted forgiveness. The glass breaks - he falls into the arms of a blue-eyed snake...
On the day of Veronica's name day, the newly-made court adviser Geerbrand comes to Paulman's house, offering the girl a hand and a heart. Without thinking twice, she agrees: at least in part, yes, the old fortuneteller's prediction came true! Anselm - judging by the fact that he disappeared from Dresden without a trace - found eternal bliss in Atlantis. This suspicion is confirmed by a letter received by the author from the archivist Lindhorst with permission to publicize the secret of his wonderful existence in the world of spirits and with an invitation to complete the story of the Golden Pot in the very blue palm hall of his house, where the illustrious student Anselm worked.
