The fairy war
The Feenkrieg is a fantasy - novel by Martina Dierks . The book was published by Altberliner-Verlag in August 2001.
The novel deals with the adventures of a lonely girl named Trish who, in her search for rescue for her father, encounters completely unknown and different worlds and has to learn a lot to find her way around.
action
I. part
Chapters 1 to 8
Trish of Magimare lives alone with her father on Magimare, an empire that has been separated from the rest of the world. The reasons for this exclusion go back years: Trish's father, a great magician named Agador, once fell out with the fairies who rule the rest of the world. He blamed them for the disappearance of his wife Morgana, Trish's mother.
Trish's only friends so far are her wet nurse Joella and her talking horse Veronese, who visit Magimare every now and then. One day, Joella is absent, a fairy appears on Magimare. It has always been Trish's greatest wish to leave Magimare and explore the country whose capital is the luxurious city of Goldonia. Trish calls the nameless fairy Cherrybell. According to Cherrybell, the frost fairy Fragila fell out with the usual fairies because she didn't win an annual competition. Fragila has sworn revenge and left Goldonia, no one knows her current whereabouts.
Agador's appearance puts the fairy to flight, as the magician has an enormous dislike for the fairies and all other magical beings. He had once put a spell on magimars, which prevented a single magical being from entering magimars without perishing. Trish denies Cherrybell's existence, but her father suspects that the spell has now been broken and he has lost power.
A legend tells wondrous things about the Tourmalinoberg, which is located in the north of Magimare: An evil spirit, called the black Murgan, is said to inhabit it and guard valuable treasures. The black Murgan can transform into any shape, if not permanently.
A short time after Cherrybell's appearance, the weather is going crazy: The current summer is turning into autumn and shortly afterwards into winter. One night there is a huge explosion and when Trish finds her father in his room, he is sitting in his armchair like a frozen ice sculpture. He has lost the ability to speak and he no longer recognizes anything or anyone.
Chapters 9 to 14
Trish wants to travel to Goldonia and ask the fairies for help so that they can reconcile with their father. She takes her mother's compass, which she found in her room and which hides mysterious powers. Shortly before leaving, she meets the talking snowman Freddo, who accompanies her on her journey. In the Wünschelwald she meets the forest king Farfallo and his lover Venus, who is the fairy of fire and, since the competition, has been Fragila's archenemy because of her success.
Chapters 15 to 24
Shortly after her arrival in Goldonia, the protagonist is picked up by Jolirevette, the fairy of dreams, and placed in the fairy palace as her first fairy. Rosalie is currently absent as she has gone on a cruise . Trish realizes just in time that Jolirevette only wants to take advantage of her, but her plan to start her own business is made more difficult: Fragila returns and it is known that the former fairy queen Rosalie sank on her ship while cruising.
Chapters 25 to 30
Trish has now made friends in Goldonia, Gil, the son of a famous goldsmith, in the fairy tailor Daglint and in the penniless storyteller Hans. The latter lives in the Fishermen's Quarter and tells Trish something about the argument between the fairies and their father. Gil and Trish are welded together because they both no longer have a mother.
Part II
Chapters 31 to 35
Fragila takes power; Trish's attempt to ask her for help fails. The fairy's no has a reason: At the time, Agador was engaged to Fragila before he left the fairy for his future wife Morgana. The fairies did not forgive him for this betrayal and condemned him to eternal loneliness.
Trish accepts Daglint's help; he wants to help her get Morgana's compass that Jolirevette has taken from Trish.
Chapters 36 to 42
The Faun Farfallo succeeds in releasing Agador from his rigidity. The wizard suspects that Fragila could have connected with the black Murgan and he sets off with the Faun and Joella to Goldonia to save Trish.
Trish is locked in a dark dungeon by jealous fairies so that no one can find her. You, Cherrybell and a few other fairies have to wait idly for the moment of their liberation.
Chapters 43 to 48
Fragila is holding a masked ball on the occasion of her coronation. However, Agador, Joella and the Trolls of the Faun cause a stir with their appearance. Agador's attempts to squeeze Trish's location out of Fragila fail. The fairy passes.
Agador, Joella, Jolirevette, Daglint, Gil, his father, the goldsmith Brabante and the trolls can be found in the ballroom of the fairy palace. The truth is now coming to light: Daglint is the black Murgan who has turned into the fairy cutter. He was on the hunt for Morgana's compass, as this object has more power than the mountain spirit. Daglint fatally injured Brabante at the masquerade ball to prevent the goldsmith from divulging the truth about his real identity. Brabante had forged armor for the black Murgan in which the spirit can now permanently assume a form, which it had never before succeeded.
Daglint frees Trish from the dungeon and then kidnaps her to the Tourmalinoberg.
Chapters 49 to 54
The black Murgan tells Trish that he has turned into her mother Morgana, but the girl does not trust him. In a bitter fight, she and the fire fairy Venus succeed in defeating the black Murgan, even if the substance of this being cannot be completely destroyed, since the atoms can reassemble at any time.
A year later, Venus has been named the new fairy queen and Trish and Gil are now happily living together on Magimars. The wedding of Farfallo and Venus is now being celebrated.
characters
Trish from Magimare
Trish from Magimare is the main character of the book. She is around 16 or 17 years old. She inherited her golden blonde curls and green eyes from her mother, who is said to look very much like her. Trish is described as very pretty and intelligent. Her father is the great magician Agador von Magimare, who takes care of his only child in an exaggerated way: he forbids her to leave the castle grounds and forbids the gardeners to exchange a word with Trish. Trish is beginning to rebel against this oppression. The girl is mad about horse riding and at first behaves quite boyish.
During her stay in Goldonia, Trish has to learn not to be dazzled by kind words. In the end, she and Gil are a couple.
Agador of Magimare
Agador of Magimare is Trish's single father. In his youth he spent a lot of time looking for pearls in the humpback sea with his then friend Brabante. Agador left his fiancée Fragila when he met his future wife Morgana. Thereupon he was condemned to eternal loneliness by the fairy queen.
Agador is described as a tall, sturdy man with thick, black hair, a sinister expression and distinctive blue eyes.
Morgana was a very mysterious and reserved person. So Agador began to distrust her. Morgana was the only one who had clearly felt the presence of the black Morgan, but no one had believed her. That was why she ran away from Magimare one night shortly after the birth of her daughter. Since then, Agador had never seen his wife again, he had cut himself off from the outside world and declared all his former friends to be his enemies. He mainly spends his time translating the books of the ancient magicians and interpreting intricate prophecies and riddles.
One day Trish finally finds her father in his room, frozen in an armchair. Agador is later cured by Farfallo, the two reconcile and set off to save Trish.
After a year, Joella lives with Agador, Gil and Trish in the castle of Magimare. However, according to the book, Agador and Joella are not lovers.
Joella
Joella is Trish's wet nurse and is one of the few friends Agador still has. She looks after them a lot, for example doing all the laundry once a week, decorating the house for special occasions and baking cakes for Trish's birthday. Usually Joella doesn't live on Magimare, but she pays frequent visits to Trish and her father. She is described as a beautiful woman with long, dark blonde braids, red cheeks, and tanned skin. Joella also has magical powers, knows her way around herbs and comes from an ancient family of fortune tellers.
Cherrybell
Cherrybell is a fairy. At the beginning she serves Blaumarina, but afterwards she falls victim to a malicious plan of the toad, so that she is locked in the Chamber of Repentance. Cherrybell is the first fairy Trish meets. She has long, hazel-brown hair, very light skin and is of narrow stature. Cherrybell later befriends a nose obtroll and becomes the color fairy's first fairy.
Freddo
Freddo is a very petite and excellently built snowman. His eyes are made of two rough, green emeralds , he wears a cylinder made of blue silk and shabby patent leather boots. Beings who do not have magical powers usually cannot understand the language of a snowman. Freddo was once built by Gil on the edge of the forest in Magimare when he was a boy. Since then, Freddo has woken up every winter and goes for a walk in the divine forest.
The lonely snowman has a heartfelt desire: he wants to learn to read and write. After Trish has promised to grant him this wish, he accompanies her on her trip to Goldonia and makes it up to take care of her. However, this fails after one of the storm soldiers ripped out his emeralds. Freddo finds refuge with the destitute storyteller Hans.
In the end, Trish wades out into the sea of humpback fish with Freddo's top hat in hand. There she lets the melted Freddo flow into the sea water.
Gil
Gil is the son of the Goldonian goldsmith Brabante. He also lost his mother early and has a rather sad demeanor. He has dark curly hair and green eyes. Gil is artistically gifted because he can build beautifully shaped snowmen like Freddo. Agador does not have a particularly good relationship with Gil, as the magician has not forgiven the goldsmith Brabante for having freed the black Murgan. Later, Trish and Gil live together on Magimare.
Brabante
Brabante is a goldsmith and a former friend of Agador. After Brabante, who was in love with Fragila, realized that she preferred Agador to him, the friendship began to crumble. Brabante is the richest man in Goldonia and the only goldsmith in the country. His wife died early; his son Gil suspects, out of grief, since he was only busy with his work and had hardly returned their love. Brabante has locked his wealth in a cellar that not even Gil has access to.
One day Brabante returns from one of his many trips with torn clothes and wounds on his face. People then rumored that he had discovered the cave of the large crystals in the Tourmalinoberg - which is also true. Brabante was silent about it, his character had changed in a negative way since then. He had met Fragila and the black Murgan in the Tourmalino Mountain. Brabante had made a pact with Fragila: if he helped her subjugate the country, she would marry him. Brabante signed the pact with his curse. He freed the black Murgan from his cave, as this promised him success and Fragila's love. Brabante forged gold armor for him in return, in which the black Murgan could take permanent shape. In the ballroom, the reader learns that Brabante had left a spot in the seam of the armor, making the black Murgan vulnerable, not immortal. Brabante dies a little later because black Murgan seriously injured his head at the masked ball after Brabante threatened to expose him. Fragila had not kept her promise to marry him.
Brabante's last wish is that Agador forgive him. His wish is granted.
Farfallo
The Faun Farfallo is the king of the divine forest. He is a tall, deeply tanned man with turquoise eyes, a beautiful, melancholy face and black curly hair. He was once in love with Morgana, which is why Agador became suspicious and suspected that his wife was unfaithful. Farfallo is always accompanied by his trolls and obtrolliks, three of which have particularly important functions: the truffle troll (master of the nasal obtrolliks), the stinging-eye troll (master of the eye obtrolliks) and the ear blower troll (master of the eared obtrolliks).
Farfallo is with Venus, the fairy of fire. The two often quarrel because Venus has a rather jealous character.
The faun has great healing powers; he frees Agador from its enigmatic rigidity and sets out to search for Trish together with the wizard, Joella and the trolls.
At the end of the novel, the wedding of Farfallo and Venus is celebrated.
Hans
Hans is a pretty penniless storyteller who lives in Goldonia and also makes his living as an almond seller. He lives in the Fishermen's Quarter, the only poor area in Goldonia. Hans is good friends with Gil.
He is the first person Trish met in Goldonia. Hans is ugly, skinny and poorly dressed; the noble and wealthy Goldonians always treat him with ridicule. Hans tells Trish about the story of the argument between her parents and the fairies.
Later, Hans is made official in the new government of Venus. He now writes down his stories in order to send them to the old world so that the inhabitants there begin again to believe in the existence of the Goldonian land.
The toad
The toad (that's what Trish secretly calls it) is one of the fairies. She is neither as pretty nor as graceful as all the other fairies, but rather strongly built. The toad has the function of the little order fairy, it monitors the work of the cleaning fairy and ensures a regular daily routine. She is too untalented to be accepted by a fairy as a fairy, and therefore jealous of every talented fairy. With the help of some other envious little fairies, she regularly locks talented fairies in a dungeon, which can be found in the labyrinthine cellar of the fairy palace. In the end, the jealous fairies flee together with Jolirevette to the Tourmalino Mountain, from which they never return.
The storm soldiers
Fragila is accompanied by an army of storm soldiers as they enter Goldonia. These soldiers were brought to life by the black Murgan; they always awaken when war is waged and can only be sustained by taking regular servings out of cruelty. Assault soldiers all look the same, they have no hair, eyelashes without lashes, no teeth, and are all tall and massive. Your strengths are more physical than mental. The soldiers guard the fairy palace and only allow those who have a permit signed by Fragila to pass through. They are very raw and tyrannize and steal from the fishermen.
One of the storm soldiers steals the emeralds from Freddo; by chance Trish meets the soldier and she manages to take the stones from him. The storm troopers then search for her, so Trish Fragilas attracts attention. The Frostfree frees the girl by giving the soldiers her pearl necklace.
For their coronation day, Fragila has new uniforms chosen for the storm soldiers. During the masked ball, the Obtrolliks mix a sleeping pill in the wine for the storm soldiers. Later the storm soldiers then disintegrate as the war is finally over.
Venus
Venus is the fairy of fire. She has dark red, long hair, cinnamon brown, narrow and slanted eyes and a challengingly curved mouth. Venus is jealous, heated and difficult, she always wants her lover Farfallo to herself. On the other hand, she can be sincere, courageous, and helpful. Among the remaining five Goldonian fairies, she has a few enemies because, unlike them, she managed to acquire a body made of flesh and blood, which is not always a matter of course for a fairy.
After Fragila fled, Venus rides across the country to bring fire to the people who were surprised by the winter and to scout out Fragila's hiding place. When Fragila conquered Goldonia with her army of storm soldiers, Venus was shot and bedridden because of her resistance.
During the masked ball, Farfallo frees Venus, who finally wakes up. Together they go to the red lighthouse with the trolls, Agador, Joella, Hans and Freddo. Venus rushes to Trish's aid by setting the tower on fire, causing the black Murgan to explode.
Thereupon, after the old fairy queen Rosalie is no longer able to rule, she is chosen by the Goldoni as the new queen.
Jolirevette
Of all the fairies, Jolirevette has the worst character. Vain, snobbish, devious and selfish, she tries to exploit Trish just for herself. Jolirevette is the fairy of dreams; but because of her ambition, which has eaten away her abilities, she no longer has the strength to do her job as a fairy.
Shortly after her arrival in Goldonia, Jolirevette takes Trish to the fairy palace and names her her first fairy. But when the fairy realizes after a while that Trish has discovered her egoism and starts to resist her, Jolirevette has her locked in the Chamber of Repentance.
Towards the end of the book it is explained that Jolirevette fled to the Tourmalino Mountain with some jealous fairies and never came back because she had lost her magical power and thus her destiny. According to a legend, she haunts the fairies around the Tourmalino Mountain on full moon nights.
Fragila
Fragila is the frost fairy. She is quite unhappy as she was abandoned by Agador in her youth. After Venus won the fairy award, she disappeared in anger. Shortly after Trish's arrival in Goldonia, she reappears with an army of storm soldiers, conquers the Fairy Palace and prepares for her coronation. Through their rule, Goldonia has been subjected to the eternal winter. She has silver, lightly woven hair, bluish skin and, according to Trish, eyes that are "clear as mountain streams." Your coat of arms is a silver star on a black background. Trish's attempt to seek help from Fragila about her father fails. Agador later tries to extract Trish's whereabouts from Fragila, but the fairy passes away, claiming that she only sent Trish away out of a willingness to help. After Fragila passes, the snow begins to thaw and the storm soldiers crumble.
Blue marina
Blaumarina is the fairy of colors. She wears mostly colorful clothes, is a bit stout, has a cheerful charisma, a lot of patience and a flowery disposition and has blue hair that is quite wildly coiffed. Blaumarina has a laboratory where she experiments with light. Her work is mainly based on more physical experiments and painting, with Blaumarina specializing in painting nature. She doubts the quality of Fragila's portrait, which she should have painted on the occasion of the coronation. One of Blaumarina's fairies was Trish's friend Cherrybell, who had been banished to the kitchen due to intrigue.
concertina
Konzertina is the fairy of music and the youngest of the fairies. She has wild, untamed black hair. Concertina never washes or eats little, her clothes are mended and dirty. The fairy only lives for the music and often suffers from blockages. Konzertina only composes sad pieces, one of which is called “The sadness of an icicle on a branch of a weeping willow over a wintry lake”. Of the fairies, Konzertina loves Venus the most.
The locations
Magimars
The book says that Magimare would be like a "glass island", "deep in sleep". Magimare is the home of Trish and Agador and, as an antagonism to the fairy realm, is also described as the magic realm. There is a large park with Trish's ship swing, a carousel with elephants and horses and a lake created by the magician, on the bottom of which various kinds of shells from the sea of humpback fish have been scattered. Trish owns a boat that she can row across the lake. To the north of Magimare, where delicate crystal flowers grow, is the Tourmalinoberg, where the evil mountain spirit lives and guards its treasures. In the west (if you follow Morgana's compass) are the large corn and rye fields, in the east the moor, where the leeches have their breeding grounds. Magimare is also bordered by the divine forest, where the large entrance gate guarded by stone dragons is located.
The divine forest
The Divine Forest is a rather gloomy forest that Trish first thinks would be home to wild animals. Among other things, the divine forest is populated by flock birds and song catchers. What is special about this forest is that the paths keep changing, which is quite exhausting for Trish and Freddo. The Wünschelwald is ruled by the Faun Farfallo and the trolls. Farfallo resides in a small palace made of wood, which is overgrown by a thick ivy carpet.
Goldonia
Goldonia is the capital of the Goldonian country. It is Trish's greatest wish to go there once. There is the fairy palace. Many roofs in Goldonia (for example that of the House of Brabante) are made of gold, which is where the city's name comes from. The center of Goldonia is the boulevard of the fairies, which was once named after the magician. Freddo is initially intimidated by the magnificence of the mostly luxurious city.
The quarter of the fishermen
This neighborhood is in Goldonia. In contrast to the rest of the city, this area is extremely poor. This is where the fishermen live who came from the old world a long time ago and settled the Goldonian land. The storyteller Hans also lives in this area.
The sudden winter had made living conditions in the neighborhood worse. Young men fight each other to the blood in backyards until the winner is rewarded with some goldonis. Children, too, treat each other with the greatest brutality; it is said that once a child was stabbed with a knife by another.
After the death of his father, Gil gives the fishermen part of the inherited property. With it the fishermen can build new ships and a necessary port in Goldonia.
The Chamber of Repentance
The Chamber of Repentance is a dungeon deep down in the labyrinthine cellar of the Fairy Palace. The toad and some other jealous fairies lock the gifted fairies there and then explain to the fairies that the locked up are gone. The fairies are too busy with their demanding work to pay any more attention to the matter. Trish finds out about this before she's incarcerated. Among other things, she and Cherrybell are locked up shortly before the coronation day.
Trish fails to penetrate the walls because the palace was built by too powerful fairies. Some pitying fairies sometimes sneak down into the cellar to push thin slices of bread and hoses filled with water under the iron door. Trish is finally freed by Daglint, who kidnaps her shortly afterwards.
The red lighthouse
The red lighthouse was once built by the first fishermen to arrive in the Goldonian land. The purpose of this lighthouse was to show the ships on the sea of humpback fish the way so that they would not sink into the mist of oblivion, as it almost happened to the fairy queen Rosalie. In this tower Trish and the black Murgan meet in a decisive battle. Eventually Venus sets the lighthouse on fire to destroy the spirit. This rekindles the lighthouse fire, the mist of oblivion dissolves and Rosalie finds her way back to Goldonia. Out of gratitude, the Goldonians choose Venus as the new fairy queen.
The sea of humpback fish
The humpback sea is the sea that separates the Goldonian land from the ancient world. Trish dreams of going there one day. It's extremely large and populated by the humpback fish who flip flips and (according to Gil) can sing as if telling stories. In his youth, Agador and his friends spent many days there. After the lighthouse fire no longer ignited, the mist of oblivion settled over the sea, in which it was very easy to get lost and where it was freezing cold.
Gil, too, had spent much of his early childhood on the seashore. When he was about four years old, a strange feeling took hold of him, as if he were floating. His father then told him he had a fever and forbade him to ever go there again.
The Tourmalino Mountain
The black Murgan lives in the Tourmalinoberg and guards his mighty treasures there. A long time ago, the black Murgan, as a royal sailor, had charmed the fairies, so that they all fell in love with him except the fairy queen. The fairy queen, who was then a fairy of the air, managed to unleash a storm and smash a rock in front of the entrance to the Cave of Great Crystals. Now the black Murgan was trapped until Brabante freed him again. Behind the Tourmalinoberg, which is in the north of Magimare, there is supposed to be nothing. At the end of the book, Jolirevette flies to the Tourmalino Mountain with her magical dream carpet and never returns.
Special terms and beings
Offense
In the book, passing away is a process in which a magical being dies. However, it is always reborn in a different form at some point, so that it is immortal in its element ( fire , water , dreams ).
It is also the case with fairies that they are only allowed to love once. If this love is disappointed, like the Fragilas at Agador, for example, the fairy returns to her element in order to serve only him from now on.
All fairies strive to achieve a body made of flesh and blood, but only very few, such as Venus, succeed. The other fairies then fade over time, only to return one day to the element that gave birth to them. With a human body, fairies also acquire a heart and thus a human life.
Fairy
In the novel, a fairy is understood as a lower race of fairies. While real fairies have the shape of a grown woman, fairies always look like girls. Nor do they have as much power as the fairies and are far more meaningless.
In the fairy palace there are different ranks for fairies: first fairy, dog fairy, kitchen or cleaning fairy, and washroom fairy. All fairies want to get a name as soon as possible in order to gain importance.
The term fairy is only coined in the novel "The Fairy War".
Obtrolliks
Obtrolliks, like the little fairies, denote a lower race, namely that of the trolls. There are three different types of obtrolliks (see above). In contrast to the little fairies, the book does not report any ambition or resentment. This term can also only be found in this novel.
Song catcher
The song catcher is a giant who is up to mischief in the divine forest and always carries a butterfly net with him. It is described as thin, its body is covered with gooseberry-green stripes, it has a long, powerful tail and three pointed ears on each side of its head.
In the passage where Trish is in the celestial forest, the song catcher causes strife by catching a camel, thereby provoking the wrath of the Obtrolliks. Trish, however, manages to confuse him so much through rapid mental arithmetic and revealing her identity that he releases the camel, shrinks and digs himself into the earth.
Fibbler
The flock birds also populate the divine forest. They look like a cross between a human and a chicken, with red, lobed feet, a flattened nose, small round ears, egg-shaped skulls and a comb of tattered feathers. They are always trying to stop people by asking over and over to be told interesting lies.
criticism
“She [Martina Dierks] calls the book a 'fantastic children's novel' and it lives up to this claim in two senses. [...] With the magical realm of Magimare and the fairy town of Goldonia, the author creates her own coherent worlds. For characters like fairies, fauns and trolls, who seem familiar to readers from fairy tales, she develops new, unusual characterizations. She never loses sight of her main character and their goals. That reads fantastic. "
literature
Text output
- Martina Dierks: The Fairy War . Altberliner Verlag, 2001, ISBN 3-8339-6072-8 ( hardback edition)
- Martina Dierks: The Fairy War . Arena, 2005, ISBN 3-401-02307-1 (paperback)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Cornelia Geissler: The Magician of Magimare . In: Berliner Zeitung , January 26, 2002