The book dragon

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The Book Dragon is a 2019 novel by Walter Moers . Like its predecessors, it is set on the fictional continent of Zamonia and loosely ties in with the events from the first two parts of the Buchhaim trilogy. Again, Moers poses as the translator of the novel, while he ascribes the authorship to the fictional writer Hildegunst von Mythenmetz.

content

The novel consists of a story by the booklet Hildegunst von Mythenmetz, mostly called Mythenmetz II, about his role model, the writer Hildegunst von Mythenmetz. In the city of the dreaming books it was declared that the people of the booklings assign a Zamonian writer to every newborn. He not only gets his name from him, but also serves as a role model and his works are an essential part of Buchling's life. The time of the novel is set after the events of the labyrinth of the dreaming books , it takes place in the catacombs of Buchhaim, but not in the leather grotto, which was already destroyed at this point.

Buchling tells how he was told about the legend of the book kite in school lessons. It is said to be a being who lives in the catacombs, has wallowed in a brew of rotting books and orms (the magical power that helps writers achieve their masterpieces) for centuries and is therefore bristling with wisdom and knowledge. As a homework assignment, ask the students to think of a question they would ask the dragon. After school he meets a group of older classmates who continue to cheer on the legend and claim to have already met the dragon themselves. They describe the question that Mythenmetz came up with as an ingenious dragon question . They also report on a secret organization among the booklings, the Ormlings, to which they belong, and confirm that the legend of the book kite is true. They challenge Hildegunst II to look for the book kite and thus to be accepted into the Ormling circle. Full of youthful recklessness, he immediately sets off without luggage or provisions, but with detailed directions from his classmates to find the book kite. The aim of the trip is on the one hand to ask him his question, and on the other hand to steal a scale and thus prove that he has fulfilled his test of courage.

Mythenmetz arrives surprisingly easily and purposefully at the Orm Marsh, in which he also meets the book dragon directly. He doesn't seem at all embarrassed about a conversation in which he tells his life story in detail. It begins with the fact that in his youth he lived as a wild and free dragon on the surface of Zamonia. Although he did not like many of the typical kite actions, such as eating virgins or besieging cities, he did them anyway to fulfill the cliché. This soon ensured that he turned the anger of the settlers on him and that they tried to kill him with violence or poisoned drinking water. In order to have his peace, he decided to retreat to the underworld for a while. He quickly got used to the relaxed life in the underworld, roamed a lot and got into the catacombs of Buchhaim, and the large supply of food and water ensured that he stayed in the Orm Marsh. There he was forced to sleep in a bed made of books, which gummed up in his shed and thus not only formed a new coat of scales, but also enormously increased his intelligence. It seemed like he was absorbing what was written through his skin. At the same time, he began to have long conversations with his occasional visitors. This meant that more and more visitors came to him, initially scientists and adventurers, later also politicians and rulers who asked for his advice. A turnaround came after a group of scientists examined one of its scales and found that a powder made from it, as well as its blood, led to an orm rush that accompanied the writing of incredible literature. When this information became public, a kind of gold rush broke out on the dragon's scales. The dragon reacted with violence, killing most of the hunters and only allowing a few to survive. This quickly led to another loneliness of the dragon, in which he is still at the time of the story.

At the end of the story, Mythenmetz II asks him his prepared question, why the dragon himself is not a poet. At first he replies evasively, then he says that he lacks the madness to function as a poet. However, it turns out in the conversation that Mythenmetz himself would really like to be a writer. In addition, the dragon, flowing through the Orm, gives a prophecy that neither he nor Buchling understands. When the language comes up that Mythenmetz is supposed to steal, it becomes clear that the dragon does not intend to let him go, but to kill him instead. However, he does not do this immediately, he first takes him prisoner in his mouth and then goes to sleep.

Hope for Buchling comes shortly afterwards in the form of his classmates. Together they try to get him out of the predicament. They put the monster's tail into its own mouth to simulate its nightmare that it will eat itself. Next they pull one of his valuable scales out of his tank. At the same time, Mythenmetz bites him on the tongue, causing the dragon to spit him out in a high arc and wake up, and full of anger he chases the group through the grotto. They only manage to escape because they spontaneously discover that booklings can not only swim and dive surprisingly well, but can also breathe underwater. So they escape through underground tunnels back to the safety of the leather grotto. During the escape, the book dragon tries to change Mythenmetz and convince him that they could become great writers together.

At the end of the book, Hildegunst von Mythenmetz (the writer) suggests that he only dreamed the whole story.

style

The actual novel is preceded and followed by a short, multi-page comic with a dream conversation by Hildegunst von Mythenmetz. In addition, the novel is extensively illustrated by the author himself.

In the book, as is usual for Moers, many anagrams are again used in the names of the characters. The classmates are named after Greek poets, for example Estrakos instead of Socrates or Eliastrotes instead of Aristotle and are referred to as the classics . The book dragon, on the other hand, contains names such as Nathaviel, Elivathan or Thanaviel, which all represent anagrams of Leviathan .

Since it is not clear whether the conversation really took place, and thus the experiences of Mythenmetz II can be described as questionable rather than true (within the world of Zamonia), this book is closest to the series of Zamon (art) To classify fairy tales , for example, with Ensel and Krete or Princess Insomnia & the nightmare nightmare . This is also supported by the intricate narrative structure: Here the writer Mythenmetz writes of a conversation with Hildegunst II, in which he essentially tells him a story, which largely consists of the stories of the book dragon Nathaviel. This narrative form is often used in art fairy tales, for example those from the Arabian Nights .

background

The book, which is the ninth novel by the writer who plays on zamonia, can be seen as another placeholder. The first announcement was made about half a year before its publication in the form of a reading sample in the paperback edition of Princess Insomnia & the Nightmare Night Mahr in October 2018. Meanwhile, other books such as The Island of 1000 Lighthouses or, above all, The Castle of Dreaming Books have already been published Long announced and postponed several times. However, the first edition of The Book Dragon already contains a twenty-page reading sample including illustrations of the book The Island of 1000 Lighthouses .

reception

In the second week after publication, the book reached number one on the Spiegel bestseller list and stayed in the top 10 for a total of nine weeks.

The reviews were broadly positive. It was often mentioned that after the very short book Christmas at the Lindwurmfeste a somewhat more extensive and catchy novel was published again. This now plays again in the often praised catacombs of Buchhaim. One point of criticism is the initially slow narrative style and the somewhat too short descriptions of the surroundings.

literature

Text output

Audio book

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Princess Insomnia & the nightmarish nightmare on amazon.de. In: amazon. Retrieved August 25, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Walter Moers me there really is! In: Zamonien.de. Retrieved August 25, 2019 .
  3. ↑ The Book Dragon. In: buchreport.de. Retrieved May 17, 2019 .
  4. ↑ Where old books give birth to Orm ... In: blog-fluxkompensator.de. April 22, 2019, accessed August 25, 2019 .
  5. ↑ Review: Walter Moers - The Book Dragon. In: Soulfood and Books. May 24, 2019, accessed August 25, 2019 .
  6. ^ Arno Orzessek: Walter Moers: "The book dragon". In: rbb-online.de. April 29, 2019. Retrieved August 25, 2019 .