The terrifying master

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The Schrecksenmeister is a fantasy - novel by Walter Moers , published in August 2007. It is the fifth of Zamonien novels by Walter Moers and a revision of the amendment mirrors the kitten by Gottfried Keller . The focus of the novel is a cat-like being, the Kritty Echo, who has to free itself from the terrifying master's clutches.

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The terrifying master takes place in Sledwaya , the most unhealthy city in Zamonia . There a cat named Echo loses its owner. ("Scratching" only differs from cats in that they speak all the languages ​​of all living beings and have two livers and a practically perfect memory.) Since Echo does not find support from the city's residents, he faces starvation.

Succubius Eißpin , the dreaded city horror master and secret ruler of Sledwaya, proposes a pact: Eißpin will fatten the kitten with the most refined delicacies until the next full moon and then kill it. The terrifying master needs the scraping grease , which is valuable in alchemy - which, for example, a perpetual motion machine lubricates far better than conventional grease. However, he may only remove it in agreement with the scratcher concerned if it is to be effective. In his need, Echo agrees.

The Schrecksenmeister immediately begins to fatten Echo with the most unusual delicacies and also instruct him in all the secrets of alchemy, because when he has boiled Echo's fat, it also contains all the knowledge that the Kratze received during its lifetime . However, the Schrecksenmeister did not count on the will to survive and the inventiveness of the Krätzchen.

Echo joins forces with the horror Izanuela , who, despite his hatred of horrors, is in love with Eißpin. Together they brew a love potion, with the help of which Izanuela wants to win Eißpin's heart and then free Echo from its clutches. Echo secretly administers the potion to the horror master; this apparently does not notice anything. When Izanuela appears in Eißpin's castle, he showered her with oaths of love. When the three of them are standing on the roof of Eißpin's house, Izanuela asks Eißpin to release Echo as a token of love. Eißpin, who has long since figured out the plan of the two, pushes Izanuela off the roof instead.

Eißpin now sets about killing Echo and boiling his fat. But all beings in the castle who are victims or creations of Eißpins try to prevent this together. In order to be able to continue working, Eißpin has to release the snow-white widow, a dangerous, deadly monster with whom he has, like Echo, signed a contract. Eißpin can only prevent the Snow-White Widow from killing him and Echo after the contract with her has been terminated, because she too has fallen in love with him.

Eißpin finally goes back to his work, but is disturbed again, this time by the living tree dwellings of the horrors of Sledwaya, who, under the leadership of Izanuela's house, attack the castle. While these Eißpins smash the lock, Echo succeeds in snatching Eißpins grip and jumps out of the window. He is caught by the leather mice that live in Eißpin's castle before the impact. The leather mice let him fall again from an even greater height (with the characteristic saying: “Nobody understands the leather mice”). This time he is saved by his friend, Schuhu Fyodor F. Fyodor , whom he met in the course of his time in Eißpin's castle.

In the end, Echo looks at the Zamonian wilderness and is determined to leave Sledwaya and look for “the miracle of love”.

characters

  • Echo, the Kritty (Its fat and other ingredients make you immortal)
  • Succubius Eißpin, terrifying master
  • Vlad the first - two thousand four hundred thirty-eighth, leather mice
  • Izanuela Anazazi, scare
  • Fyodor F. Fyodor, One-Eyed Shoe
  • a boiled ghost
  • the snow-white widow
  • the golden squirrel
  • a toad
  • Gnorkx, the god of demon bees
  • Floria von Eisenstadt (ex-mistress of Echo, mistress of Eißpin, the reason why Echo has to die)

shape

Intertextuality and naming

The Schrecksenmeister provides a process the amendment mirrors the kitten by Gottfried Keller is that under the already from the City of Dreaming Books known anagram Gofid Letter guy is named as the original author. Kellers Seldwyla also becomes Sledwaya , and the sorcerer Pineiss becomes the terrifying master Eißpin . From mirror the kittens will echo the Krätzchen . While the name of the kitten in Keller's novel indicated a visual duplication ("mirror"), in Moers the name of the scabies is an acoustic duplication ("echo").

In contrast to the kitten in Keller's novella, however, the kitten is a rather dependent being that needs the help of other creatures in order to free itself from its position. Instead of the kitten, Moers focuses on its opponent, the Schrecksenmeister.

Author and narrator

Moers plays with the concept of authorship several times. According to the cover sheet, Der Schrecksenmeister is a fairy tale by the Zamonian author Gofid Letterkerl, which in turn is retold by the Zamonian poet Hildegunst von Mythenmetz. As in Ensel and Krete and The City of Dreaming Books , the impression is given that Moers is only the translator of the novel into German. This is taken to extremes in Der Schrecksenmeister parodistically by two afterwords: In the first afterword, the "author" Hildegunst von Mythenmetz explains that he had to adapt the Zamonian original to the present day, supplement it and transfer it into New Zamonian. In the second afterword, the "translator" Moers explains that he had to shorten the book to include the extensive digressions by Mythenmetz. The real author Moers must be differentiated from the fictional translator: Moers presents himself as a translator who in turn hides behind the actual "author" Letterkerl and the "reteller" Mythenmetz.

Motifs

The novel is described on the cover as a culinary fairy tale . Cooking, eating, drinking and related activities already play a major role in Keller's original artwork. In Moers' novel this is supplemented by allusions to alchemy .

reception

The Schrecksenmeister was on the Spiegel bestseller list for nine weeks , where it reached fourth place. The novel received a warm, but not exuberant, critical response.

The novel has been translated into several languages, including English, French, Italian, Spanish, and Korean. The unabridged edition was published as an audio book by Verlag HörbucHHamburg; The speaker is Andreas Fröhlich .

literature

Text output

Audio book

Secondary literature

  • Gerrit Lembke: "We are all corpse bats." The palimpsest structure in Walter Moers' Der Schrecksenmeister. In: Gerrit Lembke (Ed.): Walter Moers' Zamonien-Romane. Surveying a fictional continent. V&R unipress, Göttingen 2011, pp. 305–326.
  • Katja Pawlik: From Atlantis to Zamonia, from Menippos to Moers: Walter Moers' Zamonia novels in the context of Menippi satire . Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 2016, ISBN 978-3-8260-5899-8 .
  • Mareike Wegner: »Knowledge is night!«. Parodic procedures in Walter Moers' Zamonien novels and in Wilde Reise durch die Nacht. Aisthesis Verlag, Bielefeld 2016, ISBN 978-3-8498-1137-2 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Gerrit Lembke: "We are all corpse bats". The palimpsest structure in Walter Moers' Der Schrecksenmeister . In: Gerrit Lembke (Ed.): Walter Moers' Zamonien-Romane. Surveying a fictional continent . V&R unipress, Göttingen 2011, ISBN 978-3-89971-906-2 , p. 305-326 .
  2. ↑ Mareike Wegner: "Knowledge is Night!" Parodic procedures in Walter Moers' Zamonien novels and in "Wilde Reise durch die Nacht" . Aisthesis Verlag, Bielefeld 2016, ISBN 978-3-8498-1137-2 , p. 145 .
  3. ^ Walter Moers: The Schrecksenmeister . Piper, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-492-04937-5 , pp. 378-383 .
  4. ↑ Ingo Irsigler: "A master of the hide-and-seek". Written production by Walter Moers . In: Gerrit Lembke (Ed.): Walter Moers' Zamonien-Romane. Surveying a fictional continent . V&R unipress, Göttingen 2011, ISBN 978-3-89971-906-2 , p. 59-72 .
  5. ↑ Der Spiegel 36 / 2007-44 / 2007
  6. ↑ Gerrit Lembke: "This is where the story begins." Moers' Zamonien novels. Surveying a fictional continent . In: Gerrit Lembke (Ed.): Walter Moers' Zamonien-Romane. Surveying a fictional continent . V&R unipress, Göttingen 2011, ISBN 978-3-89971-906-2 , p. 32 .
  7. ↑ Gerrit Lembke: "This is where the story begins." Moers' Zamonien novels. Surveying a fictional continent . In: Gerrit Lembke (Ed.): Walter Moers' Zamonien-Romane. Surveying a fictional continent . V&R unipress, Göttingen 2011, ISBN 978-3-89971-906-2 , p. 40 .