The battle for the island

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The fight for the island is the German title of the first book in the 12-part series "Swallows and Amazons" by the British author Arthur Ransome .

background

The English original edition was published under the title Swallows and Amazons (which subsequently became the series title) for the first time on December 1, 1930, with the action taking place in the English Lake District in the summer of 1929 . In the English version of the book, the main characters are John, Susan, Titty (nickname of Mavis Altounyan, who Ransome used as a model for the character Titty, from Joseph Jacob's children's story Titty Mouse and Tatty Mouse ) and Roger Walker (Swallows), her mother Mary Walker, her little sister (Bridget - nickname Vicky) and Nancy (actually Ruth, but pirates are ruthless, in English: ruthless) and Peggy Blackett (Amazons), her uncle Jim (James Turner), commonly known as "Captain Flint" ( after the pirate from Stevenson's Treasure Island), and her widowed mother Molly Blackett.

The book was inspired by a summer Ransome was teaching the children of his friends, the Altounyans, to sail. Three of the Altounyan children's names are taken directly to the Walker family. Ransome and Ernest Altounyan bought two small sailing boats named Swallow and Mavis . Ransome kept Swallow until he sold it a few years later, while Mavis stayed with the Altounyan family and is now on permanent display at the Ruskin Museum in Coniston . However, Ransome later attempted to downplay the Altounyan connections by changing the initial dedication to Swallows and Amazons and writing a new foreword that included other sources.

James Turner seems, in a way, to be a role model for Ransome himself. The story, set in August 1929, encompasses much of everyday life in the Lake District, from the farmers to the charcoal burners who work in the woods; Corned beef, which the children call pemmican, and lemonade, which they call grog, appear as normal foods for the campers; life on the island also allows occasional references to the story of Robinson Crusoe .

Every location in his book is in the Lake District, according to Ransome, but he took different locations and placed them in different ways: the lake is a fictionalized version of Windermere , but the surrounding landscape is more similar to that around Coniston Water. Wildcat Island, the location of the island camp, features elements of Peel Island in Coniston and Blake Holme (or Blakeholme) in Windermere. Holly Howe, the farmhouse where the swallows live, is based on the Bank Ground Farm that still exists today.

action

The book tells of the adventures of two families with children. These include sailing, camping, fishing, exploring and being a pirate on an island called Wild Cat Island. The Walker children (John, Susan, Titty and Roger; the Swallows) live on a farm (Holly Howe) near a lake in the Lake District of England during school holidays. You sail with a rented dinghy called Schwalbe ( Swallow) and meet the Blackett children (Nancy and Peggy; the Amazons) who sail with a dinghy called Amazone ( Amazon) . The Walkers camp on an island in the lake, while the Blacketts live in their home nearby. When the children meet, they agree to band together against a common enemy - the Blackett's uncle, Captain Flint (Jim Turner). Turner, usually an ally of his nieces, has retired this summer to write his memoir and is therefore downright in need of rest. After Nancy and Peggy set off fireworks on the roof of his houseboat, he suspects the Walkers. He refuses to even listen to them when they try to give him a warning about intruders in the area.

To determine who should take the lead in their campaign against Captain Flint, the Swallows and Amazons vie to see who can capture each other's boat. As part of their strategy, the swallows sail across the lake at night. You win the competition - thanks to Titty, who boarded the Amazon when the Amazons came to Wildcat Island. That same night, Titty hears suspicious voices coming from another island - Cormorant Island - and in the morning it turns out that Turner's houseboat was broken into and his suitcase stolen. Turner again blames the swallows, but eventually becomes convinced that he is wrong and feels that it was wrong to distance himself from his nieces' adventures all summer. The Swallows, Amazons, and Turner investigate Cormorant Island, but they cannot find Turner's missing suitcase.

The next day there is a sea battle between Captain Flint and the children. After his defeat, Turner is forced to walk over the plank on his own houseboat. At the post-battle feast, they agree that Titty and Roger will return to Cormorant Island on the last day of their vacation while the others go fishing. Titty finds the suitcase containing Turner's memoir and is rewarded with Turner's green parrot.

expenditure

German translations
  • The fight for the island - sailing trips, discoveries and battles of the "swallows" and "amazons". A children's novel . Slightly abridged transcription from Wilhelm Fronemann , illustrated by KF Brust. Union Deutsche Verlagsgesellschaft, Stuttgart 1933.
  • The battle for the island . Translated from English by Edith Gradmann-Gernsheim, text drawings by Margery Gill. Sauerländer, Aarau and Frankfurt 1966.
  • Swallows and Amazons - translated in 2015, available as an ebook
Book review of the new translation

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Origin of Mavis Altounyan's nickname of Titty (English)
  2. ↑ Autobiography of Arthur Ransome , Arthur Ransome, ed.Rupert Hart-Davis, 1976
  3. ↑ The Life of Arthur Ransome , Hugh Brogan, 1984
  4. ↑ Christina Hardyment: Arthur Ransome and Captain Flint's Trunk , 1988. Edition, Jonathan Cape, 1984, p. 47: "... the lake of the books is almost exactly Windermere, but that the land round about it was much more like Coniston."
  5. ↑ Hardyment (1984: 66-67)
  6. ↑ Hardyment (1984: 32)
  7. ↑ Fulfilled Kindertraum zeit.de, November 25, 1966, accessed on March 25, 2020