The winter smith
The Wintersmith (English title: Wintersmith ) is a fantasy novel by Terry Pratchett . It is the thirty-fifth Discworld novel. The Winterschmied was published in 2006 and in 2007 won the Locus Award for the best book for young people. The action takes place in Lancre . The winter smith is one of the witch stories, but Grandma Wetterwax and Nanny Ogg only play supporting roles. The main burden of the story rests on the now thirteen-year-old Tiffany Weh , who kisses a legend in the heat of the moment, and now has to make every effort to keep the new admirer at bay.
The winter smith is the fourth novel with "A fairy tale from the disc world" subtitled. There are two more novels that accompany Tiffany Weh's adolescence : The Midnight Dress and The Shepherd's Crown .
The winter smith is a novel of development that shows how the protagonist learns painfully that self-discipline is sometimes quite useful and that orders are not always the result of pure arbitrariness. He is clearly inspired by Greek mythology, especially the Orpheus myth .
German edition
Munich, 2007, ISBN 3-442-54619-2
action
The Wintersmith is the sequel to A Hat Full of Stars and tells the story of the second year of apprenticeship of Tiffany Weh , the witch from the chalk land . Her teacher Miss Verrat , a 113-year-old blind witch, specializes in justice . To ensure that the respect of her customers is right, she has put together an impressive collection of terrifying accessories . Starting with the skulls that frame their place of execution, to enormous dripping candles, to a hand-forged pocket watch, the ticking of which is so loud that the villagers stiffly and firmly asserted that the witch's heart was hidden in it. In a throne-like armchair, sitting at her loom - two ravens on the back of the chair, who take care of the sight for her - she receives the arguing roosters. She listens to them and makes a final decision. The intimidating ambience - Miss Treason calls it Boffo - has an impact and nobody ever dares to object to a judgment pronounced by Miss Treason . Even when Tiffany discovers that all of the horror stuff comes from the Boffo's joke store catalog, that doesn't change its effectiveness.
On a cold, damp autumn evening, Miss Treason takes her student to the Dark Moriskentanz - the dance in which summer is replaced by winter. Against an express ban, Tiffany lets herself be infected by the rhythm and also dances. That catches the attention of the winter blacksmith who thinks Tiffany is the summer woman. A summer woman who, unlike the original, does not disappear into the underworld as soon as he meets her. It happens as it has to: the winter smith falls in love with Tiffany and begins to woo her, which leads to partly grotesque, partly tragicomic misunderstandings. In any case, the Wintersmith humanizes more and more, while Tiffany gains certain divine attributes. It starts with the feet. No matter where she goes, everything begins to sprout and bud under her bare feet, even the oldest plank wood. Next, a cornucopia falls from the sky and provides the enthusiastic witch community with various delicacies, but always in abundance.
Before things come to a head, Miss Treason dies . Like any good witch, of course, she knows the exact time of her death and makes an outstanding finish. After death and burial, the question of succession for Miss Treason Hut is on the agenda. Witch huts, like titles of nobility, are always passed on from one witch to the next. But who fills the vacancies is always a question of politics. When Grandma Weatherwax vehemently pleads for Tiffany's successor, who is unequivocally too young for this job, it happens that Annagramma , the favorite student of Grandma's arch enemy Frau Ohrwurm , wins the contract. After Tiffany learns how things went, she knows immediately. Grandma wants to humiliate Mrs. Earwig by demonstrating that her students fail even at a simple witch hut succession. And Annagramma will fail, that is clear. She has no idea of the work of a village witch. Obstetrics is just as foreign to her as dying care, and she lacks any idea of Miss Verrats' specialty, jurisdiction. She has not the slightest idea of the correct demeanor of a witch in this region, let alone that she suspected the brutally high standards Miss Treason set.
Tiffany , who has been with Nanny Ogg in the meantime , doesn't think that's correct. She doesn't particularly like Annagramma , but neither does she wish her the fate of being ground up between the millstones of two warring head witches. She organizes the members of the old witch's circle (see: A hat full of stars ) into an Annagramma rescue squadron and after a few weeks of intensive tutoring, Annagramma slowly manages to meet the requirements of the position - especially after she eventually Boffo and his useful ones Catalog discovered.
All the while, the Wintersmith's advertisement for Tiffany continues, becomes more persistent and more dangerous for the people. Because if the winter woos someone, an ice sculpture in the front yard is not enough, no, then an entire iceberg is made into Tiffany shape and if ships collide with it by chance, that is inevitable collateral damage .
The clan of we-are-the-greatest! watches the hustle and bustle of the winter smith angrily but passed out. You know, the direct battle with winter can only be fought by Tiffany alone. However, Grandma Weatherwax makes it clear to them where and how they can make themselves useful. So that things can end well, the real summer woman has to be brought back from the underworld. This requires a hero from Tiffany's environment and Rob Irgenwer already has a clear idea of who that is: Roland , the Baron's son. At the moment he doesn't have the slightest bit of heroism about him, but Rob is sure that a little training with the clan will quickly remedy this deficiency. He's right.
The little free men and Roland bring the summer woman back from the underworld. Meanwhile, Tiffany surrenders to the winter smith and kills him with a kiss that is full of the sun's fire. The long winter is over, the real summer woman demands her cornucopia back and Tiffany flies back to Lancre to complete her training with Grandma Weatherwax . She learns to take the pain away from those who suffer. Then she finally returns to the chalk country to give the baron last aid.
Others
Also as an (abridged) audio book, speaker Boris Aljinovic, ISBN 3-86604-493-3 .
In October 2013 the folk rock band Steeleye Span , in collaboration with Terry Pratchett - a declared fan of the band - released the concept album Wintersmith .
Remarks
- ^ Locus YA Award Winners & Nominees . In: Worlds Without End . Retrieved November 4, 2011.
Web links
- Table of contents
- Remarks
- Quotes
- The winter smith at LSpace
- The winter smith. Entry in the German-language DiscWiki