My purpose here is to consider in some detail Nietzsche's early prose works. Since these works are not well known, I provide in the following an overview of the plots with commentary. The writings I consider were composed between 1857 and 1862, that is, when Nietzsche was between thirteen and eighteen years old. While the topics are varied, there are a number of thematic links: nature, hospitality, and the heroics of individuals. Early Nietzsche's diaries contain several travelogues that are remarkably literary in quality. They are not simply records of events and personal reflections. In several cases, unheard-of occurrences and short flowing narratives produce the structure of a novella.

“Der Leusch und das Wethauthal” (The Leusch and the Wethauthal, 1857; NA I/1, 201–2)

In this very short travelogue, a fragment, Nietzsche narrates a journey he took with Wilhelm Pinder through the environs of Naumburg. As in his early poetry, Nietzsche unveils the beauty and grandeur of nature that embraces the travelers. In the forest, everything is fresh, “und der Tau schimmerte auf allen Zweigen, die Vögel sangen und das Geläute der Glocken welche in die Kirchen riefen, tönte wunderbar um das Ohr, bald schwach bald stark” (NA I/1, 201; and the dew shimmered on every branch, birds sang, and the peel of bells that called out from the churches sounded wonderfully around one's ear, at first weakly and then strongly). The view of the hillside (the Leusch) from here is rather sublime: “Ein vollständiger Kreis von Bergen zog sich am Horizonte um uns, in seiner Mitte Naumburg umfassend, dessen Thurmspitzen in Strahlen erglüthen” (NA I/1, 201; A complete circle of mountains on the horizon ran around us, enveloping Naumburg, whose steeples glowed like beams of light). On their way home, the companions ventured down a path over the Bürgergarten (public, lit. citizens’ garden). They caught sight of a dark streak of mountains that increased more and more until the valley (Wethauthal) lay before them. The mountains are covered with forests. A blue mountain range emerges behind the hiking travelers. The narrative breaks off with the next sentence (NA I/1, 202). One wonders where the storyteller was headed. The open ending of the fragment creates an opportunity for readers to complete the narrative by way of imagination, that is, to write one's own conclusion.