The fat little knight
The Little Fat Knight (English. The Thwarting of Baron Bolligrew , literally: "The thwarting of Baron Bolligrew") is a children's book by the British radio play and screenwriter Robert Bolt from 1963.
Emergence
The radio play The Thwarting of Baron Bolligrew was broadcast on the BBC at Christmas time in 1964 . As early as 1963, the retelling of the radio play, written by Carl Mandelartz and translated by Marianne de Barde, was published as a book in Germany by Hoch-Verlag, Düsseldorf. The book was also reprinted by Thienemann-Verlag , Munich, and by the Süddeutsche Zeitung publishing house in Stuttgart.
action
A duke sends the fat little knight Sir Oblong-Fitz-Oblong to the island of Bolligru to put the baron of the same name in his place, who is unjustly ruling there. With the support of the villagers and the animals, Knight Oblong manages six times to prevail against the baron and tame the dangerous black dragon.
The plot in detail:
- 1st chapter
The story begins a long time ago when there were still evil, fire-breathing dragons in the east-west . Here a duke lives with his knights in a large castle. They had come here to chase away the junker and kill the dragons that terrorized the peasants. Only Sir Oblong-Fitz-Oblong, a little and fat knight who is no longer very young, brings the dragons into the castle because he cannot bring himself to kill them. When it comes time to move on, the court doesn't feel like it in the least. Only Oblong-Fitz-Oblong urges to leave, which is why the Chief Marshal Sir Juniper uses a ruse. He tells the duke that he cannot serve his favorite food, stuffed jackdaws, as long as the animal lover Oblong is in the castle. The Duke therefore sends the fat little knight to Bolligru Island to rebuild the church that the evil baron, who hunts all animals, set on fire there, and around the dangerous, two-tailed black dragon allied with the baron to kill.
- 2nd chapter
Oblong doesn't have the heart to leave his friend Dolfus, a jackdaw, behind, so he takes him and the other jackdaws with him on the boat trip to Bolligru. The lands are terribly devastated and Baron Bolligru greets Oblong with malice at his battered armor and the missing horse, which the fat little knight preferred to leave behind because of his age. Against the will of the baron, Oblong-Fitz-Oblong moves into the ruins of the church and hides the badger that the baron wanted to hunt. The villagers cheer the knight errant as Bolligru tears down fences and smashes windows to take whatever he likes. When Oblong also saves a fox from Bolligrus' hunting party by sending it to the badger den under the church, Baron Bolligru has the first rebuilt walls of the church torn down again and, furious, chases the knight up a tree. Oblong-Fitz-Oblong buys safe conduct by returning the gold treasure of his thieving jackdaws.
- 3rd chapter
Bolligru sends a messenger to the dragon with the request that Knight Oblong be removed. Nobleman Schwarzherz, who is in the service of the baron, is supposed to challenge Oblong-Fitz-Oblong to the tournament, defeat him and tie him up. Then the dragon should appear and eat the knight. Blackheart throws the gauntlet to the knight. He insists on an immediate fight because he has to continue building on the church. Since the fight takes place on a sodden meadow, the knight survives the fall from the borrowed plow horse unscathed and the nobleman’s battle ax sinks deep into the musty ground during the subsequent close combat. Nevertheless, Bolligru and Schwarzherz force Oblong to participate in the tournament by catching him with a pitfall. The dragon actually appears on the day of the tournament, but the knight can cut off the tip of its tail, whereupon the dragon flees.
- 4th chapter
In order to take action against common junkers, the church must first be rebuilt, then the court, according to Sir Oblong-Fitz-Oblong. The mayor proposes the knight at a council meeting as the new justice of the peace. Bolligru calls Dr. Dalmatius, professor of wickedness and treachery, and his assistant, Jackdaw Rapotkin, to the castle to enchant the knight so that he is impossible for this post. The professor puts magic powder on an apple that the knight eats for breakfast, which forces him to carry out all of Bolligru's orders. In front of the councilors, Oblong throws a stone into the mayor's shop window and steals a box of chocolates. Dolfus poses as Rapotkin and steals the magic powder. Thus the knight can bring Bolligru to a confession and Oblong becomes justice of the peace.
- 5th chapter
In addition to Oblong, Bolligru and Schwarzherz are judges. At court hearings, Oblong is always outvoted in favor of them and their friends. This is also the case in a case in which an egg seller cannot pay a fine and this is increased every week because the corporal of the city guard breaks the eggs with impunity because he has targeted the egg seller's property. Oblong catches the corporal red-handed next time. Bolligru tries to send rats to help the corporal, but to no avail. When the knight threatens to refer the whole matter to the duke's upper court, the baron agrees with the mayor as fourth judge.
- 6th chapter
Bolligru and Schwarzherz search the islanders' mail for secrets, food and money. There you will find the announcement of the Duke's visit to Knight Oblong. They withhold the letter and send Oblong-Fitz-Oblong to the dragon's cave at the time of the visit and the dragon to the ruined church at the same time, where a poisoned mutton is waiting because the dragon Bolligru has become a nuisance. The baron serves the duke, who has brought one of the dragons tamed by Oblong, one story of lies after another about the fat little knight. Dragons have very fine noses. Therefore, the tamed dragon soon finds oblong and reports everything to him and the black dragon smells the rat poison in the mutton, which is why it storms into the palace full of anger. Oblong saves the Duke at the last second.
- 7th chapter
The duke reports misdeeds to the king of Bolligrus. He determines Oblong as the new lord of the island and castle. Bolligru and Schwarzherz barricade themselves in the castle and even call the dragon for support. However, he has not forgotten the poisoned mutton and wants to eat them both. You can save yourself by jumping into the moat. The villagers and animals help the baron defeat the dragon after he has signed a treaty for far-reaching changes on the island. The dragon sinks into the sea after a panicked escape.
Filming by the Augsburger Puppenkiste
The story of the little fat knight was filmed in black and white by the Augsburger Puppenkiste in 1963 . Six half-hour episodes were created. The first broadcast was on November 3, 1963 on German television .
Individual evidence
- ↑ The fat little knight German National Library
- ↑ Review of the book Thomas Lawall, 2004 on home.arcor.de/tomary/Literatur
- ↑ the fat little knight Worldcat.org
- ↑ 1963 - The Little Fat Knight ( Memento from January 22, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) hr-online
- ↑ The fat little knight Oblong Fitz-Oblong stars-an-faeden.de