Guardian of the Dragon
Guardian of the Dragon is a novel written by Carole Wilkinson in 2003 . In 2005 the book came onto the German market for the first time. It was translated by Peter Knecht . The book is from Dressler Verlag and has a length of 348 pages. The original is called Dragonkeeper . The two sequels are named In the Garden of the Purple Dragon and In the Sign of the Dragon Moon , the three novels together form the dragon trilogy.
content
It is winter and in Huangling the slave girl has to feed the animals. She was sold by her parents to the current dragon keeper Lan. However, this one is very lazy and lets them do all the work. The slave girl does not know her name, she only has a small bamboo pendant with a character scratched into it, but she cannot read. The girl also has to take care of the two dragons, but she doesn't like these animals very much because they just lie around lazily. Her best and only friend is the rat Hua.
One day the girl wants to feed the dragons with taro and millet, but they disdain this, she simply takes it with her because she hardly gets enough food from Lan herself. The next day she feels guilty about the stolen food, which is why she brings the dragons a bowl of goat milk. Suddenly a dragon starts roaring. Lan appears and the two discover that the other animal is dead. The slave girl and Lan heave the carcass out and take it out and insert the body parts, since the components of a dragon are very valuable. After this cruel night, the girl wants to take better care of the last dragon and she begins to clean the pit in which the dragons lived, when she discovers a purple stone. Suddenly a voice appears in her head, telling her to let go of the stone.
One day the girl broke into the palace to steal some wine for Lan, but the emperor unexpectedly comes to visit. She has to hide behind the screen, since slaves are not allowed to enter the palace. While doing so, she overhears the emperor trying to sell the dragons to Diao, a dragon hunter. He wants to kill her and sell the parts. The emperor does not yet know that one of the animals is dead. Suddenly the slave girl notices that the pickled dragon meat is being served to the emperor. Hua smells all the scents of the food and tries to escape, but is held back by the girl. The rat bites her and she has to cry out, that's how everyone will notice her. She runs away and escapes with the kite.
On the run, the girl notices that she can communicate with the dragon. He tells her his name is Long Danzi and reads to her what's on the wooden tag. It's her name. The girl now knows that her name is Ping. Danzi has taken the stone and wants to travel to the sea from now on. He takes ping. On the way to the sea, Ping learns that dragons have the ability to change shape. Danzi teaches the girl to mobilize her Qi, the spiritual energy. One day Danzi notices that the stone has changed its appearance. He realizes that it is Ping's iron knife.
Now they have to go to Chang'an. There they meet Wang Cao, a herbalist whom Danzi knows from earlier times. He takes care of Danzi and the stone. The journey can now go on. But the two meet Diao in Fengjing. He arrests her, but both can escape him. But unfortunately they realize too late that Diao stole the stone. Danzi is very sad about this, but the journey continues. The two arrive at the yellow river. There they go with the skipper Jiang Bing. They arrive in Wucheng, where Danzi wants to get the stone back, but they meet a necromancer, a black wizard who has the stone. Ping steals him and she and Danzi flee with Jiang Bing. However, the skipper is really angry and works with the necromancer. The girl and the dragon can escape them.
You continue by boat and meet the new emperor in Ming Yang. Ping and Danzi have a really good time there. But then Danzi flees with Wang Cao. Ping then meets the two of them again in a battle with Diao on the Thai Shan. The girl manages to save Danzi and the stone, but Wang Cao dies trying to protect them. Ping then flies to the sea with Danzi, accidentally dropping the stone, it breaks. But actually it wasn't a stone at all, but a dragon egg from which a little purple dragon has now hatched. He is called "Long Kai Duan". From now on, Ping has to take care of him, because Danzi flies with Hua, who has injured himself, to the island of the blessed to get healing there.
Awards
- 2004 Aurealis Award, category "Young Adult Novel"
- 2004 Queensland Premier's Literary Awards, Children's Book Award - Mary Ryan's Award
- 2004 The Children's Book Council of Australia (CBCA), category "Younger Readers"
- 2006 Kalbach rattlesnake
review
Karin Hahn writes on kinderbuch-couch.de about Guardian of the Dragon that the author combines "masterfully historical facts with the central myth about China's most symbolic figure - the dragon" . On fantasyguide.de Heike Rau praised the novel as "magical and very fascinating." The main character Ping would take an "interesting development." The reader will "often wowed" , "very positive" drop "the lovingly designed details" on.
swell
Individual evidence
- ↑ Guardian of the Dragon. Dragon Trilogy, Volume 1. (No longer available online.) Www.buch.de, formerly in the original ; Retrieved August 28, 2010 . ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Karin Hahn: The guardian of the dragon by Caroline Wilkinson. www.kinderbuch-couch.de, accessed on August 29, 2010 .
- ↑ Heike Rau: Guardian of the Dragons by Carole Wilkinson. fantasyguide.de, accessed on August 29, 2010 .
