How do Ulrich and Georg resolve their conflict in "The Interlopers"?

Initially, Ulrich von Gradwitz plans on killing his longstanding enemy, Georg Znaeym, who has been illegally poaching on his narrow strip of precipitous woodland. The Gradwitz and Znaeym families have been embittered in a fierce feud since the days of Ulrich's grandfather over the disputed territory. On a fateful winter night, Ulrich finally meets Georg face-to-face in the woods with bad intentions. However, Nature intervenes when a violent gust of wind blows a massive tree down, which lands on both men. Both Ulrich and Georg are incapacitated and wounded underneath the tree and cannot free themselves.

As time passes, Ulrich feels his hatred towards Georg steadily subside and begins to make amends by offering his enemy a draught of wine. Ulrich then tells Georg that if his men arrive first, he will immediately instruct them to free him first. Ulrich then attempts to end the longstanding feud by telling Georg,

We have quarrelled like devils all our lives over this stupid strip of forest, where the trees can’t even stand upright in a breath of wind. Lying here tonight thinking I’ve come to think we’ve been rather fools; there are better things in life than getting the better of a boundary dispute. Neighbour, if you will help me to bury the old quarrel I – I will ask you to be my friend (Saki, 4).

Georg responds by elaborating on how their neighbors would react to their new friendship and agrees to make amends by saying,

I never thought to have wanted to do other than hate you all my life, but I think I have changed my mind about things too, this last half-hour. And you offered me your wineflask . . . Ulrich von Gradwitz, I will be your friend (Saki, 4).

Tragically, wolves are the first to arrive at the scene, and it is implied that the men will both be eaten by the fierce animals before the town discovers that they made amends.

How do Ulrich and Georg resolve their conflict in "The Interlopers"?

In "The Interlopers," Georg and Ulrich do not manage to resolve their conflict until they are trapped under a tree together. The men initially continue to bicker, with each telling his enemy that his men will find them first and he will have his men kill the other. Eventually, though, the men become quiet. Ulrich manages to reach the flask of wine he has in his coat, and offers some to Georg. Georg refuses the wine, but this seems to make Ulrich contemplative instead of angry. A while later, he tells Georg,

I’ve changed my mind. If my men are the first to come, you shall be the first to be helped, as though you were my guest. We have quarreled like devils all our lives over this stupid strip of forest, where the trees can’t even stand upright in a breath of wind. Lying here tonight, thinking, I’ve come to think we’ve been rather fools; there are better things in life than getting the better of a boundary dispute. Neighbor, if you will help me to bury the old quarrel, I—I will ask you to be my friend.

I never thought to have wanted to do other than hate you all my life, but I think I have changed my mind about things too, this last half-hour. And you offered me your wine flask. . . Ulrich von Gradwitz, I will be your friend.

In Saki's short story "The Interlopers," why do Ulrich's and Georg's attitudes toward each other change?

“The Interlopers” by Saki is often taught in schools because it is such a striking example of plot twist--the main characters, bent on killing each other for so long, come to an agreement to end their quarrel, only to find themselves trapped and at the mercy of wolves by the end of the story.

Why do the men change their minds about killing each other? The most obvious answer is that they no longer have as much to lose. Faced with a miserable death in the woods, trapped under a fallen tree, there is no longer a reason to hate each other. When one man, Ulrich, finally makes a gesture of kindness, offering Znaeym the flask and promising not to have him killed if the occasion arises, their rivalry melts away.

But Saki does more than just rely on the men’s helplessness to support their decision to forgive each other. Students usually don’t notice that he has already laid the groundwork for a reconciliation earlier in the story: when the men are facing off in the woods, armed, with no witnesses to condemn them, they hold back. Why? Here is how Saki explains it:

But a man who has been brought up under the code of a restraining civilisation cannot easily nerve himself to shoot down his neighbour in cold blood and without word spoken, except for an offence against his hearth and honour.

Despite their feud, their upbringing, and the moral laws that bind civilized people together prevent them from following through on their murderous impulses. Had this moral standard not been instilled in them, they would have attempted to kill each other at that point, a moment or two before the tree crashed to the ground and pinned them down, removing the possibility of killing each other. It can be argued that this is the true climax of the story, because Ulrich and Znaeym still had the option of killing each other but did not.

In Saki's short story "The Interlopers," why do Ulrich's and Georg's attitudes toward each other change?

Awed by the sudden force of Nature that pinions them under the branches of a huge beech tree, Ulrich von Gradwitz, "the inheritor of the quarrel," and Georg Znaeym, "the tireless game-snatcher and raider of the disputed border-forest," join together in prayful thanks and curses.  Caught in this precarious position, the men arrive at a new perspective regarding their lives:  Neither of them may survive.

...in the pain and laguor that Ulrich himself was feeling the old fierce hatred seemed to be dying down.

Ulrich tells his old enemy that he has concluded that they have been "rather fools"; for, there is much in life better than feuding over a property border.  Von Gradwitz entreats his old enemy to let him bury the old quarrel.  With nothing to do but ponder von Gradwitz's words, Georg Znaeym considers how the whole region would be shocked if the two men end their feud.  Then, each of the men generously offers the other "honorable attention." Unfortunately, there are interlopers to themen's promises of generosity and friendship arrived at in the "moment of truth" as they have considered their chances for survival.

Define the relationship between George and Ulrich in "The Interlopers."

Ulrich von Gradwitz and Georg Znaenym are enemies. So strong is his hatred that Von Gradwitz patrols his forest every night in the hope of accosting his enemy and killing him, a man he has detested since they were boys. It is only a bizarre act of nature that changes this relationship; without this intervention, the two men might have been able to kill each other.

That the men have long hated each other is evident from the beginning of the narrative:

...as boys they had thirsted for one another’s blood, as men each prayed that misfortune might fall on the other.

When von Gradwitz hunts his enemy one night, he comes face-to-face with him:

Each had a rifle in his hand, each had hate in his heart and murder uppermost in his mind....

But, before they can touch the triggers of their rifles ("[T]he chance had come to give full play to the passions of a lifetime"), nature intervenes as lightning strikes and the two are pinioned beneath the fallen mass of an old beech tree. As they lie helpless, von Gradwitz experiences a change of heart and charitably offers his flask to his enemy so that he can warm himself. He tells his old enemy that he has realized that they have been 

"...rather fools; there are better things in life...than...a boundary dispute. Neighbour, if you will help me to bury the old quarrel I – I will ask you to be my friend.”

Ulrich then starts "feeling the old fierce hatred... dying down."

While the men do become friends before they die, without an aberrant act of nature that brings them together, they would probably have shot each other. So, perhaps a stronger argument can be made for their animosity for one another, rather than their friendship.