This poem by Heinrich Heine tells of a bear named Atta Troll. The action begins in 1841 in the small resort town of Coteret in the Pyrenees, where the lyrical hero was relaxing with his wife Matilda, whom he affectionately calls Juliet. Their balcony overlooked the town square, and every day they could watch two bears dancing on a chain near a bear cub - Atta Troll and his wife Mumma.
But this did not last long. One fine day, the bear Atta Troll fell off the chain and fled to the mountains, to the den of his cubs - four sons and two daughters. He told them about his acting life and how bad all people are. Once Atta Troll brought his youngest son to the Blood Stone - the ancient altar of the Druids, and there he took an oath of eternal hatred of people from him.
But in the meantime, the lyrical hero is going to hunt for a bear along with a certain Laskaro - the son of the witch Uraki, who actually has already died long ago, but the witch instilled the appearance of life into his dead body. After wandering around the mountains for several days, they reached the Uraki hut, which is steeper, above the "Spirit Gorge". Officially it was believed that Uraka was engaged in the sale of mountain herbs and stuffed birds. In the shack stood a stench of grass, and the heads of dead birds on the walls terrified the lyrical hero. And at night, to get rid of this horror, he opened the window, because he wanted to breathe fresh air. And what did he see?
There was a full moon, the night of St. John, when spirits rush along the gorge to hunt. This picture was observed by the lyrical hero from the window. In the cavalcade, he saw three beauties: the goddess-hunter Diana, the fairy of the North Abundu and the wife of King Herod Herodias with the head of John the Baptist on a platter. Herodias was most liked by the lyrical hero, because, flying past him, she looked at him languidly and suddenly nodded. Three times a cavalcade flew past him along the gorge, and three times Herodias nodded to him. Knowing for a reason! And then the lyrical hero fell asleep on the straw, because the witch’s house did not have feather-beds.
The next morning, the lyrical hero, along with Laskaro, went for a walk in the valley, and while Laskaro studied the tracks of the bear, he himself was immersed in thoughts of three beauties at night. All day they wandered through the mountains, like Argonauts without Argo. A terrible downpour began, and at night, tired and angry, they returned to the house of Uraki. She, sitting by the fire, scratched a pug, but then she stopped doing it, only saw the exhausted travelers. She undressed the lyrical hero and laid him to sleep on the straw, and then she undressed her son Laskaro and laid him, half naked, on her lap. In front of her stood a pug on its hind legs and held in the front a pot of potion. From the pot took Uraka fat and smeared his son's chest and ribs. And the lyrical hero was again frightened of the dead Lazaro, the smell of potions and stuffed birds hanging here and there on the walls. Out of fear, he fell asleep. And he dreamed of a ball of bears and ghosts.
He woke up at noon. Uraka and Laskaro went hunting for a bear, and the lyrical hero was left alone in the hut with a thick pug. The pug stood on its hind legs at the hearth and cooked something in a pot, and then spoke to itself in Swabian. He told himself that in fact he was a poor Swabian poet, bewitched by a witch. Having heard about this, the lyrical hero asked him how it could happen that the witch enchanted him. It turned out that while walking in the mountains, he accidentally fell into the shack of a witch who immediately fell in love with him, and when she realized that he did not respond to her feelings because of her notorious Swabian morality, she immediately turned him into a pug. But it can be bewitched if some virgin can on New Year's Eve alone read the verses of the Swabian poet Gustav Pfitser and not fall asleep. The lyrical hero told the pug that this was impossible. At the same time, when the lyrical hero was having a conversation with a pug, Atta Troll was sleeping in his den among the children. Suddenly he woke up, sensing his imminent death, and told his children about it. Suddenly he heard the voice of his beloved wife Mumma and ran to her call. It was then that Lazaro, who had hidden not far away, shot him. The fact is that the witch lured the bear out of the den, very skillfully imitating the grunts of the she-bear, So Atta Troll died, and his last breath was about Mumm.
The bear's body was dragged to the city hall, where the assistant mayor spoke. He told the audience about the problems of beets, and also praised the heroism of Laskaro, which is why the dead Laskaro even blushed and smiled.
And the skin was removed from the bear, and once it was bought by the wife of the lyrical hero Matilda, whom he affectionately calls Juliet. The hero himself often walks barefoot in the skin at night.
As for the Mumma bear, she now lives in the Paris Zoo, where she indulges in endless joys with a hefty Siberian bear.
