The letter for the king (novel)

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The letter for the king is a youth novel by Tonke Dragt . It was published in Dutch in 1962 as De brief voor de Koning , with illustrations by the author. The German translation by Liesel Linn and Gottfried Bartjes was first published in 1977. The book is about a fictional medieval world in which a young squire named Tiuri has to bring a secret message to a foreign land.

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Tiuri is a sixteen-year-old squire and is about to become a knight of King Dagonaut. On the night before the accolade, he is supposed to keep vigil with other squires in the chapel. He is not allowed to speak or open the door during the watch, but when a stranger knocks at the gate and begs for help, Tiuri opens the door for him despite the prohibition. The stranger asks Tiuri to take a letter and deliver it to the Black Knight with the White Shield, who is supposed to wait nearby. After a long search, Tiuri finds the knight badly wounded in a forest clearing. He was ambushed by an enemy knight with a red shield and is now dying. The Knight with the White Shield tells Tiuri to bring the letter to King Unauwen in his place in the realm west of the mountains. Tiuri vows to deliver the letter and rides the knight's horse west through the forest. On his way through the forest, Tiuri is pursued by riders in red, whom he narrowly escapes, ambushed by robbers and sought by knights in gray armor, who finally take him prisoner in a castle on the edge of the forest. With the help of the lord of the castle and his daughter, Tiuri is able to save himself and learns that the knights thought he was the murderer of the knight with the white shield. This knight was actually called Edwinem and was a paladin of Unauwen. The gray knights apologize to Tiuri and, now convinced of his innocence, escort him to the foot of the mountains on the border with Unauwen.

Tiuri goes to Menaures, a hermit with the reputation of a sage, who is supposed to bring Tiuri over the mountains. Menaures provides him with his foster son Piak, a boy Tiuri's age, as a guide. On the way, a pilgrim joins the group who soon confesses that he is in truth one of the riders in red and charged with Tiuri's murder. He warns Tiuri about Slupor, an unscrupulous spy of the Red Riders, and heads back east. Piak, who overheard the conversation, offers Tiuri to accompany him after crossing the mountains and becomes a confidante and friend. Arrived in the border town in the east of Unauwen, Tiuri and Piak are held by an ally of Slupor and can only escape with the help of the townspeople. On the further way they almost escaped several attacks by Slupor until Tiuri finally met Slupor in person at the gates of the royal city. Tiuri overwhelms him and enters the city of Unauwen to deliver his message.

The king reveals the background to the assignment to Tiuri: Knight Edwinem had ridden south with other paladins of the king to negotiate peace with the kingdom of Evillan. Evillan is ruled by a son of Unauwen, who is not entitled to the throne as the second born. Out of anger at this, this son had conquered Evillan and from there involved Unauwen in fights until he recently offered peace. Edwinem's message reveals that the peace offer was only a ruse to enable the younger son to go to Unauwen. There he would kill his older brother. When the paladins of Unauwen found out about the ruse, they were murdered. With the king's thanks, Tiuri and Piak return to the east. Piak stays with Menaures. At home, Tiuri was knighted for his willingness to help and sacrifice despite breaking the rules. When he was riding the next day, he met Piak. He decided against a life in the mountains and is now Tiuri's squire.

Success and films

The letter for the king has won several awards in the Netherlands and has been sold over a million times in various languages ​​(as of 2008).

Two audio book versions were published in German, in 2001 by Sebastian Goder and Thomas M. Meinhardt by Hörverlag, and in 2007 by Konstantin Graudus by Beltz & Gelberg.

In 2008, the first film based on the book followed, directed by Pieter Verhoeff . In 2020 the series The Letter for the King was published.

Sequels

Tonke Dragt brought in 1965 with Der Wilde Wald (Dutch: Secret van het Wilde Woud ) a direct sequel to the novel. In the volumes Het gevaarlijke venster ( The uncanny window ) and Het dansende licht ( The dancing light ) there are further stories based on Tiuri's world.

literature

  • De brief voor de koning . Illustrated by Tonke Dragt. Leopold BV, Amsterdam 2013 (1962), ISBN 978-9025852443 .
  • The letter for the king . Translation by Liesel Linn and Gottfried Bartjes. Beltz & Gelberg, Weinheim and Basel 2013 (1977), ISBN 978-3407784575 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ publisher's website (Dutch)