The seven heads
The Seven Heads is a historical novel from 2004, which was created as a joint effort by various German authors.
Historical background
The novel is set in the Saxon area of the time in 1223. Parts of the action take place at Anhalt Castle , Nienburg Monastery , Schmöckwitz and Meißen Castle. The plot is based on the search of different people around the warring rulers Heinrich I and Albrecht I for a little bag of black powder , called "dragon seeds", which found its way from distant Cathay to Saxony, where it was lost and the owner lost power promises over the world.
Acting persons
- On the side of Heinrich I.
- Ludger von Repgow: nephew of Eike von Repgow , minstrel at the court of Heinrich I.
- Johann and Otto von Brandenburg: nephews of Heinrich I.
- Thaddäus von Hildesheim: Benedictine monk and educator of Johann and Otto
- Irmgard von Thuringia: wife of Heinrich I.
- On the side of Albrecht I.
- Bernhard von Aken: Castellan in the service of Albrecht I, his confidante
- Roswitha von Eichholz: his lover
- In the Nienburg monastery
- Abbot Gernot: Abbot of the Nienburg Monastery
- Hagatheo: Senpekte, monk in the Nienburg monastery
- Dobresit: Zupan and village elder, administrator of the land for the Nienburg monastery
- Tezlaw: his companion, thief
- In Schmöckwitz
- Jakob von Klosterbruch: Lord of the castle at Köpenick Castle and Lord of Schmöckwitz
- Pribislaw: grandson of the Sprewan prince Jaxa von Köpenick
- Budiwoj: Fischer and Triglaw priest in Schmöckwitz
- Petrissa: his daughter and secret lover of Pribislav
- Kruto: Village elder from Schmöckwitz
- More people
- Ethlind: peasant girl who takes care of the wounded Matteo
- Archbishop of Magdeburg
content
In the village of Repgow in Saxony, the peasant girl Ethlind is nursing a mysterious stranger who was apparently traveling as a messenger. He is carrying a sack with unknown contents, which she hides for him in the manor house of Eike von Repgows , who is currently working here at the Sachsenspiegel . In the meantime, the disappearance of the messenger near Repgow was noticed at Meißen Castle. Bernhard von Aken, Albrecht I's confidante, is supposed to find the messenger named Matteo and the goods he was carrying, a sack with so-called "dragon seeds". His lover Roswitha, who knows her way around the area, offers herself as a spy , as Bernhard promises to marry her on a successful mission and make her a respectable woman. In order to be unrecognized, Roswitha disguises herself as a man and pretends to be Konrad von Rietzmeck.
Thaddäus von Hildesheim, a powerful Benedictine monk at the court of Heinrich I, also heard about the messenger and his valuable cargo. He sends the minstrel Ludger von Repgow on a mission to find the "dragon seed". Although Ludger initially refuses, Thaddäus blackmailed him because he knew of a relationship between Ludger and Irmgard von Thuringia.
Ludger and Roswitha meet in Repgow, where, after initial disputes, both decide to go in search of the messenger and thus the dragon seed. Ethlind and Matteo, however, are no longer in the village, but have gone to the Nienburg monastery, where Ethlind hopes that Matteo will be cured. However, he is tortured by the local abbot Gernot, as a valuable relic was stolen from the monastery , which was on the way to Nienburg. With it the abbot, who was blinded by Albrecht I and lost part of his tongue, hoped to recover. Matteo is suspected of stealing the relic.
Ludger and Roswitha come to the monastery, into which Roswitha, again disguised as a woman, sneaks in. She hears from monk Hagatheo that a sack was stolen from the seedy Dobresit and his friend Tezlaw after a fight and thrown into a well near Kleinzerbst . She draws Hagatheo's attention to Ludger, who is waiting for her in Grimschleben . She herself goes to the well, where she meets Tezlaw. She is forced by him to fetch the sack - which apparently does not contain any dragon seed - from the empty well. Tezlaw then leaves them in the well. Not until three days later is she rescued by the men around Irmgard von Thuringia who happened to be passing by and brought to the manor of Eike von Repgows. Irmgard von Thuringia accompanies the young Johann and Otto von Brandenburg to the Archbishop of Magdeburg. Both are the archbishop's wards.
Ludger was meanwhile hunted by Hagatheo and his men and finally nursed to health in Schmöckwitz. Here the Slavic Pribislaw hope to have found in him the man whom Triglaw , the god of war, prophesied as a stranger, with whose help Pribislaw will establish a large empire between the Spree and Dahme . Hagatheo, who tracks down Ludger in Schmöckwitz, is murdered by Pribislaw's men. Ludger himself is used as a hostage to extort ransom from Heinrich I. Heinrich's men free him and burn Schmöckwitz.
Ethlind manages to escape from the Nienburg monastery. After a long walk, she arrives in Repgow, where she is looking for the hidden bag of dragon seeds in the manor house of Eike von Repgows. However, it is no longer in place. Bernhard von Aken, who has made his way to Repgow in order to look for the little bag of dragon seeds, meets Roswitha, who has managed to escape from the Eike von Repgows manor. There Thaddäus von Hildesheim has meanwhile been able to take the sack with the dragon seed that Johann and Otto von Brandenburg discovered by chance while playing. He goes to Anhalt Castle with his treasure. During his first experiments with the gray powder, he was injured by the explosion, but he suspected the power of the powder, but he did not know how to use it. He is able to elicit the use of the powder from the injured Matteo in the Nienburg monastery and releases him together with Ethlind, who was meanwhile a prisoner at the manor house of Eike von Repgow. Ethlind and Matteo become a couple.
Roswitha and Ludger meet in a small tavern - Roswitha comes from the Nienburg Monastery, where she hoped to find clues about Ethlind and Matteo's whereabouts, but was unsuccessful. Ludger met Thaddäus on the way to Anhalt Castle, who reprimanded him for the failed mission so that he did not dare to return to the castle. Roswitha reveals to Ludger that she is not Konrad von Ritzmeck, but a woman.
Bernhard has disguised himself as a monk in search of Roswitha in the Nienburg monastery, where Count Heinrich I, Thaddäus and his men appear a short time later with Roswitha and Ludger. Heinrich I is initiated into the power of the dragon seed by Thaddäus, Heinrich I in turn forgives Ludger for the failure of his commission and entrusts him with a new task: he is to bring a gift to the Archbishop of Magdeburg on his behalf . What Ludger does not know is that it is a box of black powder that he is supposed to light in front of the archbishop and his wards in order to kill all three. Heinrich I could then incorporate the lands of Johann and Otto von Brandenburg.
While Ludger is on the way to the Archbishop in Magdeburg, Roswitha and Tetzlaff are kidnapped from the monastery by Abbot Gernot's men. Tetzlaff had brought Abbot Gernot the little sack fetched from the well, which was supposed to contain the bones of a saint, but Gernot did not cure his blindness. Bernhard manages to save Roswitha with a trick. Both go to Magdeburg to prevent the planned attack on the archbishop. Thaddäus also arrived in Magdeburg to see his plan implemented. Finally, there is an explosion in which Thaddäus and Ludger are killed. Roswitha, who loved Ludger and Bernhard, can now choose Bernhard. During a final visit to Irmgard von Thuringia, who tells her about the death of her lover Ludger, she can get Ethlind and Matteo employed at the court.
Structure and creation
The novel consists of a prologue, an epilogue and 21 chapters. A total of eleven authors and a duo of authors were involved in the novel, each of whom usually wrote two full chapters:
- Prologue: Guido Dieckmann
- Chapters 1 and 2: Rebecca Gablé
- Chapters 3 and 4: Titus Müller
- Chapters 5 and 6: Helga Glaesener
- Chapters 7 and 8: Horst Bosetzky
- Chapters 9 and 10: Tessa Korber
- Chapters 11 and 12: Mani Beckmann
- Chapters 13 and 14: Malachy Hyde (= Ilka Stitz and Karola Hagemann )
- Chapters 15 and 16: Ruben Wickenhauser
- Chapter 17: Guido Dieckmann
- Chapters 18 and 19: Richard Dübell
- Chapters 20 and 21: Belinda Rodik
- Epilogue: Tanja Kinkel
The novel was initiated by the historical novel Quo Vadis , to which all authors of the novel belong. It was the first community novel initiated by the group of authors. Overall, the circle of authors has published two more novels with The Twelfth Day (2006) and The Third Sword (2008). The seven heads have so far seen seven editions. The cover adorns Giulio Clovio's work Calling John from the Colonna Missale, written around 1532 .
Criticism, sequels
Die Welt described The Seven Heads as a “successful literary experiment” that was written by “masters of the historical genre”.
The group of authors continued to write "The Twelfth Day," 2006, and "The Third Sword," 2008 (in a partially different composition).
literature
- Titus Müller, Ruben Wickenhäuser (Ed.): The seven heads . Structure, Berlin 2004, ISBN 3-7466-2257-3 .
Web links
- Interview with Titus Müller and Guido Dieckmann on The Seven Heads ( Memento from November 17, 2004 in the Internet Archive )
Individual evidence
- ↑ Lavina Meyer-Ewert: In a nutshell : The seven heads . In: Die Welt, October 9, 2010.