Fonque

Fonque, Heinrich, Baron de la Motte (1777-1843), a German author, was born at Brandenburg, and served as a lieutenant in the Prussian Guards, rising, after some years of intervening retirement, to major. He afterwards went to Paris, and then lived on his estate, and died at Berlin. Though he wrote some poetry, he is chiefly known by his prose, his best-known works being Aslauga's Knight, Sintram and his Companions, and Undine. This last has been widely translated, and has been dramatised, and is a wonderfully pretty example of imaginative mysticism. The weirdly allegorical story of Sintram has also many admirers.