A363839 Numbers in the witch's multiplication table (German: "Hexeneinmaleins") in Goethe's Faust.

1, 10, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 1, 10, 0, 1

Offset: 1

Author

Georg Fischer, Jun 23 2023

Keywords

• nonn
• word
• fini
• full

Comments

In German, the witch declaims the following magic spell to Faust:

Du mußt verstehn!

Aus Eins[1] mach' Zehn[10],

Und Zwey[2] laß gehn,

Und Drey[3] mach' gleich,

So bist du reich.

Verlier' die Vier[4]!

Aus Fünf[5] und Sechs[6],

So sagt die Hex',

Mach' Sieben[7] und Acht[8],

So ist's vollbracht:

Und Neun[9] ist Eins[1],

Und Zehn[10] ist keins[0].

Das ist das Hexen-Einmal-Eins[1]!

(The numbers in "[...]" do not apppear in the original.)

Literal translation into English:

You must understand!

From one make ten,

And two let go,

And three make equal,

So you are rich.

Lose the four!

From five and six,

So says the witch,

Make seven and eight,

So it is finished:

And nine is one,

And ten is none.

This is the Witch's one-times-one!

.

From Peter Luschny, Jun 23 2023: (Start)

Sometimes the witch's one-times-one is interpreted as a construction guide for a magic square, which describes a transformation like this:

1 2 3 4 9 2

4 5 6 -> 3 5 7

7 8 9 8 1 6

(End)

Links

• Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: Faust - Der Tragödie erster Teil. Page 161 and page 162. Tübingen: Cotta, 1808. Digital full-text edition at Wikisource, version of Aug 18 2016.
• Poetry in Translation, Faust Scene VI, translated by A. S. Kline, 2003.
• Wikipedia (German), Hexeneinmaleins.

Crossrefs

Cf. A080992, A108579.