Little free men

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Little Free Men (English title: The Wee Free Men ) is a fantasy novel by Terry Pratchett . It is the thirtieth Discworld novel. Little Free Men was published in 2003 . The place of the action is the chalk land. Little Free Men is one of the witch stories, although Grandma Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg only play a minor role and the main burden of the story rests on nine-year-old Tiffany Weh . After Maurice, the Kater , it is the second novel to be subtitled "A fairy tale from the Discworld". Four more novels follow that accompany Tiffany Weh's aging and her witch training: A Hat Full of Stars , The Winter Blacksmith , The Midnight Dress and The Shepherd's Crown .

In the English original, Terry Pratchett based the language of the Little Free Men (in the original: Nac Mac Feegle ) on Scottish English . The translator Andreas Brandhorst reproduces this in colloquial language tinged with North German (“Hey jimmy, ha 'ye no got a french fries for an ol' pal?” - “Hey boy, don't hate french fries for an old buddy?”).

German editions

  • Little free men
( 2005 ) Manhattan , Hardcover, ISBN 978-3442545865
( 2006 ) Goldmann , paperback, ISBN 978-3442463091

action

Little Free Men is the opening novel of the Tiffany Pentalogy , which in turn is a subset of the Discworld witch stories. It tells the story of the nine-year-old Tiffany Weh (English: Tiffany Aching ) from the chalk country . She is the twentieth granddaughter of the recently deceased Sarah Weh , the unsurpassed best shepherdess in the country. Grandma Weh was probably a witch who never told anyone she was.

Tiffany herself is pretty good at making cheese, but shows no special magical skills. Which does not prevent her from wanting to become a witch, especially since the fawn-colored eyes and hair definitely deny her the role of princess. This clear mindset probably also drives her when she, armed only with an iron frying pan, drives the fairy queen from her land. With that she saves, rather reluctantly, her sticky little brother Willwoll and Roland , the baron's stupid son. Granted, she has support in this dangerous endeavor, but there are people who consider these supporters to be more adventurous than the adventure itself.

A clan of We are the greatest! , as they call themselves, lives near Grandma Weh's Hüttenplatz. These little free men are about six inches tall goblins. They wear kilts , have blue tattoos all over their bodies and prefer to deal with fights, alcohol and theft, whereby no priorities are set and preferably everything is pursued at the same time. The We are the greatest! So have a reputation, and a damned bad one, as Rob Anybody , the Great Man of the Clan, proudly points out. However, her kelda , a kind of queen, is dying and determines Tiffany , if only for a short time, to be the new kelda. Your boys cannot be without the strict guidance of a logically thinking woman's brain for a minute. For a short time Tiffany is Rob Anybody's fiancée and for a long time her status changes fundamentally to the point that she will never again be without the observant support of the clan.

The little free men are there so that you go in the fight against the Fairy Queen at hand. They are almost predestined for this, after all, the Nac Mac Feegles used to work for the queen themselves until they were thrown from the fairy kingdom by her, allegedly because of permanent drunkenness. Of course we are the greatest! her own version of this story, but since lying is also one of her favorite pastimes, she lacks some credibility.

In the final showdown, however, the goblins no longer have their fingers in the game. When the fairy queen actually dares to enter the old country, it becomes clear that Tiffany's career aspiration cannot be so wrong. The magic of the chalk land itself manifests itself in her wish in the form of Grandma Weh and her sheepdogs. She sweeps the vain fairy queen back into her parasite universe with a casual wave of the hand.

After it's all over, the witch seeker Fraulein Tick appears with the promised help in the form of Nanny Ogg and Esme Wetterwax . She can’t believe what’s going on here. According to current theory, soft chalk can neither produce a witch nor support her in her actions. She has to be instructed by Ms. Weatherwax that the core of the chalk in the chalk land is the hardest flint . That is where Tiffany’s obvious power rests.

In the end, almost everyone is happy and satisfied. The sticky brother Willwoll is in his mother's arms, the baron has his lost Roland back and proudly tells how his brave son saved the poor children, and Tiffany bites his tongue. Nobody would believe her anyway if she tried to correct the story. Ultimately, she doesn't care, because as soon as she gets a little older, she has the guarantee of a training contract with another witch. She proudly wears her new, invisible hat - a present from Ms. Weatherwax that will cause a lot of trouble again.

Audio book

  • Abridged version, speaker Boris Aljinovic , Random House Audio, Germany (2008)
  • Unabridged version, speaker Michael-Che Koch , Random House Audio, Germany (2013)

reception

In 2004 the novel received the Locus Award in the “Young Adult Book” category.

Web links

supporting documents

  1. ↑ List of the Locus Award winners ( Memento of the original from September 29, 2014 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. , as seen on March 8, 2010 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.locusmag.com
Books by Terry Pratchett


The colors of magic (1983, German 1985) • The light of fantasy (1986, German 1989) • The legacy of the magician (1987, German 1989) • Grim Reaper (1987, German 1990) • The Magic Hat (1988 , Ger. 1990) • MacBest (1988, Ger. 1992) • Pyramiden (1989, Ger. 1991) • Wachen! Guards! (1989, German 1991) • Faust Eric (1990, German 1992) • Full in the picture (1990, German 1993) • Alles Sense (1991, German 1994) • Totally bewitched (1991, German 1994) • Simple divine (1992, German 1995) • Lords and Ladies (1992, German 1995) • Helle Barden (1993, German 1996) • Rolling Stones (1994, German 1996) • Really magical (1994, German 1996) • Mummenschanz (1994, German 1997) • Hollow heads (1996, German 1998) • Schweinsgalopp (1996, German 1998) • Flying scraps (1997, German 1999) • Hot hops (1998, German 1999) • Calm blood (1998, German 2000) • The Fifth Elephant (1999, German 2000) • The Full Truth (2000, German 2001) • The Time Thief (2001, German 2002) • Wahre Helden (2001, German 2001) • Maurice, der Kater (2001, German 2004) • The Night Watchmen (2002, German 2003) • Little Free Men (2003, German 2005) • Women's Regiment (2003, German 2004) • A hat full of stars (2004, German2005). 2006) • Off the Post (2004, German 2005) • Klonk! (2005, German 2006) • The winter smith (2006, German 2007) • Schöne Scheine (2007, German 2007) • The Club of Invisible Scholars (2009, German 2009) • The Midnight Dress (2010, German 2011) • Stiff pinch (2011, German 2012) • Great steam ahead (2013, German 2014) • Die Krone des Schäfers (2015, German 2015)

Scholarly Fiction
(with Ian Stewart & Jack Cohen )

The Scholars of the Disc World (1999, German 2004) • The Philosophers of the Round World. More from the scholars of the Discworld (2002, German 2004) • Darwin and the Gods of the Discworld (2005, German 2006) • The Last Judgment. The Science of Discworld 4 (2013, German 2013)

Other books

The Disc World from A – Z (with Stephen Briggs ; 1994, German 1996) • The Disc World Album (1996, German 2001) • GURPS Disc World (with Phil Masters ; 1998, German 1999) • Nanny Oggs Cookbook (1999, German 2001) . 2001) • GURPS Discworld Also (with Phil Masters ; 2001) • The Art of Discworld (2004, German 2006) • Where's my Cow (2005) • Wit and Wisdom of Discworld (2007, German 2010) • Myths and legends the Discworld (with Jacqueline Simpson ; 2008, German 2009) • The World of Poo (2012) • Fools, Thieves and Vampires - The best of ten years of Discworld calendars (with Stephen Briggs ; 2012, German 2012)

Discworld maps

The Streets of Ankh-Morpork - A Discworld Map (1993; Ger. 1996) • The Discworld Mapp (1995) • A Tourist Guide to Lancre - A Discworld Mapp (1998) • Death's Domain - A Discworld Mapp (1999) • More complete and indispensable Ankh-Morpork city guide (2012, German 2013) • Mrs. Bradshaw's most useful handbook for all routes of the Hygienic Railway Ankh-Morpork and Sto Plain (2014, German 2015)

Trucker (1989, German 1992) • Wühler (1990, German 1992) • Wing (1990, German 1992)

The Johnny Maxwell trilogy

Only you can save humanity (1992, German 1994) • Only you can understand it (1993, German 1995) • Only you have the key (1996, German 1997)

Long Earth
(with Stephen Baxter )

The Long Earth (2012, German 2013) • The Long War (2013, German 2015) • The Long Mars (2014, German 2015) • The Long Utopia (2015, German 2016) • The Long Cosmos (2016, German 2017)

Standalone novels

The Carpet Peoples (1971, German 1972) • The dark side of the sun (1976, German 1977) • Strata (1981, German 1992) • The common house cat (1989, German 1991) • A good omen. The friendly and accurate prophecies of the witch Agnes Spinner (with Neil Gaiman ; 1990, German 1991) • An Island (2008, German 2009) • Dark Scoundrels (2012, German 2013) • Jack Dodger's London Guide (2013; German 2009) 2014)

Short story collections

The whole madness (2004, German 2007) • Big words (2012, German 2018) • Twisted dragon (2014, German 2015) • The vacuum-sucking fright screw (2016, German 2018)