Children of Judas

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Children of Judas is a vampire novel by the German writer Markus Heitz , which was published in 2007 by the Munich publishing house Droemer Knaur . The novel is around 702 pages long and is divided into four parts: The Maiden, Aeterna, Discoveries and Death .

The book deals with the involuntary introduction of a young girl into the secret society of the Children of Judas, a brotherhood of powerful vampires. The story takes place in Serbia in the 17th and 18th centuries and is interwoven with a parallel storyline from contemporary Leipzig .

action

1st narrative thread

17th and 18th centuries , Ottoman tribute land (later Habsburg territory): Jitka lives with her mother in a shabby hut in the town of Gruza. She has had a blood red mark on her forearm since she was born. Because of this devil's mark and her evil eye, she is avoided by the villagers. One day Turkish soldiers, Janissaries, come to the village to look for a boy who is said to have stolen some of the village taxes. It turns out that the boy is hiding in the attic of Jitka's house of all places. Janja, Jitka's mother, is forcibly taken away by the soldiers and later falls down a cliff in the prison carriage. But her daughter can flee and finds shelter with the large farmer for whom the mother worked.

After a period of sadness, she is picked up by a man named Karol Illciz, who looks very wealthy and claims to be her father. After he has shown her half of an amulet, the other half of which the mother owned, she follows him. Karol takes her to a mill on the edge of the forest, where she is to live from now on. Jitka's father, it turns out, is a passionate scientist and teaches his daughter research, languages ​​and knife fighting. Jitka, who wants to avenge the death of her mother, therefore renames herself Scylla (after a Greek mythical figure who thought about revenge). She later learns that her father belongs to a secret science association: it is the so-called cognatio (from Latin, translation: consanguinity ) that researches for the benefit of humanity. They also call themselves children of Judas .

In her youth Scylla falls in love with a shepherd boy named Giure and enjoys her first sexual experiences, which are not without consequences. Karol notices the love games, stuns Scylla, takes her child and kills Giure. Just as Scylla notices that her fetus is swimming in a glass in the laboratory , the villagers who want to avenge Giure's death attack the mill. They kill Karol and Scylla. But Karol's daughter, who, unlike her father, died for the first time, wakes up as an undead (because she is an Aeterna, a vampire) and retreats into the forest, where she indiscriminately indulges in her bloodlust, and gradually after killing those who murdered their father.

After a while she finds peace again and uses her feminine charms with princes and nobles to make a nicer, more comfortable life and not have to live as a vampire in the forest. Much time passes that she spends in bed with men, drinking blood and intriguing, but then she meets Marek, who is a member of the children of Judas . With his help, she regains contact with the scientists. Despite the resistance of many barons (members of the children of Judas ), Scylla is accepted into the select circle of the Cognatio. But she soon notices that the secret society is doing anything but researching for the benefit of mankind. It consists of Aeternan, a type of vampire that was created by Judas and seeks eternal life. Therefore Scylla, being particularly strong, decides to destroy the children of Judas . In the bitter fight between the other 12 Aeternan and Scylla, the latter is supported by her lover Viktor von Schwarzhagen, a vampire researcher. Together with other species of vampire who also seek the end of the children of Judas , they can kill a few. But Scylla's infinitely loved Viktor also dies - he is bitten by the vampire Irina, who makes him one of her kind. Scylla doesn't have the heart to kill her lover, this is what Marek takes from her, who decapitates Viktor. Marek, who survived the fight, looks especially for Scylla's life, because she loved Viktor, a normal person, rather than him. Scylla then flees to Western Europe.

2nd narrative thread

21st century , Leipzig, Germany (November 20-December 31): .

View over the German city of Leipzig , where the novel is partly played out.

As usual, Theresia Sarkowitz sits at a patient's bed in the hospital. This time it's Thea, a young girl with cancer at the age of eight. Theresia, who is called Sia by most, feels and knows at the same time that Thea will not survive this night, because she has the gift of feeling death. Sia has the task of accompanying people to death in the hospital. The girl is asleep and the doctors think that she will recover from the operation, but fate will not. While Thea is resting, Sia philosophizes about the melody of life, atheists and herself. Suddenly the girl wakes up and asks for a glass of water. But it doesn't come to that anymore: death has already entered her and has taken her soul with it. Thea passed away.

Sia notifies the little ones' doctors and parents and sets off to cage fighting to vent. She is still undefeated in this discipline. Your first opponent is Monsoon . Sia can defeat him and suffers only a few wounds that heal by themselves, because she is a vampire, a child of Judas: the former Scylla. Sia lives in Leipzig and has given up her thirst for blood. After the bloody fight, she goes to her third job: doorman in front of a nightclub. There she meets her mortal enemy, whom she has not seen for a long time: Marek. The conversation with him is not going very well. Sia decides to write down her past: the story of Scylla (first narrative thread).

She is challenged by Madman in a new cage fight . Sia thinks she can defeat him with ease, but he is also a vampire, sent by Marek. The show ends in a single bloodbath among the audience. Marek manages to lure Sia to the mill, where she used to live with Karol. The building is just a ruin. The last Judas child is waiting for them there. Marek wants to bring the cognatio back to life. But the two are surrounded by all sorts of vampires. Among them is Irina, who killed Sia's beloved Viktor a long time ago. It comes to an insane, brutal, decisive battle in which, among others, Irina and Marek die. Sia returns to Leipzig and wants to rename herself again: Jitka von Schwarzhagen.

main characters

Jitka (Scylla or Sia)
Ottoman Tribute Land (1670-1732): Jitka is the main character of the novel. She was born in 1662 and had a childhood with few friends, as she was avoided because of her devil's mark. When her mother, Janja, is later abducted by soldiers, her father picks her up and trains her to be a scientist and fighter. Jitka looks for a new name: Scylla, a Greek legendary figure. During this time you can experience the complete life story of Scylla, so to speak: How she transforms from a small, curious girl into a powerful, attractive woman, how her character gradually develops: Scylla becomes stronger, more adult and more rebellious. You also have their first sexual experiences. Later she discovered her true love: Viktor von Schwarzhagen. In the end, however, he is bitten by Irina, a vampire. Scylla is infinitely sad, but she continues to hope for a future together. However, this hope is taken from her by Marek, her half-brother, who beheads Viktor and thus kills him for good.
Present, 2007 (November 20 to December 31): Scylla now lives in Leipzig under the name Theresia Sarkowitz (abbreviation Sia) after she fled to Western Europe from the secret society. She has three jobs at the same time: death attendant, bouncer and fighter in a fight club. But then she meets Marek again, a Judas child (the last one with her). He lures Scylla to her father's mill to get her to re-establish the cognatio with him. Suddenly they are attacked by all sorts of vampires, led by Irina. Marek succumbs to his injuries and dies. Scylla then returns to Leipzig.
Karol Illciz
He is Scylla's father. Karol belongs to the cognatio and in the mill guards the formula for eternal life, which the other members are desperately looking for. Later, after Janja is killed by the Janissaries, he takes his daughter to live with him and teaches her different languages, how to dissect and research. He kills her friend Giure and takes the child she has from him. But Karol is killed by the villagers who want to avenge Giure.
Viktor von Schwarzhagen
Viktor, a young man who came from a family of traders, travels to Eastern Europe to suppress memories of his deceased lover and to establish trade relationships with the fur hunters there - at least that's the variant he tells his father. The real reason for his trip are the horrific stories about the living dead (vampires) who are supposed to be up there. He develops into a vampire hunter, researches and kills the undead at the side of cigaros (gypsies). He gets to know Scylla and enjoys love. But that way he gets into the sights of the children of Judas faster than he would like . He is later bitten by Irina, a Tenjac (a type of vampire who chooses people who then seduce or torment them in their sleep). When he is very wounded as a result and experiences his "first" death, he turns into a vampire. But shortly afterwards he is killed by Marek.
Marek
Marek is Karol's son and therefore Scylla's half-brother. He shows himself to be charming and heroic at first, before it turns out that he has sexual intentions: He wants Scylla to himself. Marek, who once saved her from death, becomes a mortal enemy and pursues his half-sister for centuries until he destroys her whole life in 2007, drives her into a blood frenzy and finally lures her to the mill to fight all kinds of vampires. But he succumbs to his injuries after the decisive fight in the mill.

review

The Siegener Zeitung thinks that Heitz elicits new facets from the supposedly well-worn vampirism and gains new, soulful pages from the brutal bloodsuckers. A captivating read that you would like to read through in one go.

Phantastik-News.de writes a lot of riddles, mysteries, fights and revelations, action and speed. It would read like a movie in your head, full of drive and tension. Fast-paced reading that pulls the reader to the side and really doesn't need to shy away from being compared to Anglo-American competitors.

useful information

In the afterword of the novel, Markus Heitz reserves the right to write further books on the subject of vampires:

“ The challenge of tracing the real historical context of the 18th century and integrating it into the story was a lot of fun while writing this book. I will by no means rule out that I will deal with the vampires again. They are too complex and too puzzling for that. "

Various types of vampires appear in Heitz's novels, most of which are based on Eastern European traditions:

  • Aeterna - The name of the children of Judas. Aeterna is the Latin word for "forever".
  • Dhampires - Half- vampires , especially those of Zingarian descent, made by talented vampire hunters. The dhampire as a half-vampire comes from the vampire folklore of Albania .
  • Murony - vampires active in black magic. The Murony is a vampire form from the mythical world of Romania .
  • After- eaters or "eaters" - vampires who eat their own corpse in the grave. Nachzehrer and Aufhocker come from the German-speaking legend area.
  • Nex - vampires that spread disease and disease among people. Nex comes from the Latin word for "death".
  • Tenjac - " aufhocker seduce" the people in their sleep. The Tenjac is a vampire variant from Croatia .
  • Umbrae - shadowy beings with only a short lifespan. Umbra was the name given to the shadows or spirits of the dead in Roman mythology.
  • Upire - lower vampires with no special skills. Upir is the Ukrainian and Polish word for vampire.
  • Viesczy - vampires who descended from witches and like to take on animal form. The Viesczy come from the legendary world of Russia .

Literature and audio book version

Web links

proof

  1. ↑ Reviews of the book ( Memento of the original from February 17, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.droemer-knaur.de
  2. ↑ cf. Reviews ( Memento of the original from February 17, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.droemer-knaur.de
  3. ↑ Heitz, Markus: Children of Judas , (afterword) page 701