Planets and places from the novel The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

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In the five-volume novel series The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams are occurring planet largely fictional nature, but also partly real existing places in the actions to be installed. This article is devoted to depicting the various settings of the novels.

Planets

Antares

Home of the Antarctic parakeet glands. In reality, Antares is the name of the brightest star in the constellation Scorpio.

Argabuthon

Argabuthon is the seat of a court whose scepter of justice is part of the Krikkit key. A witness named Prak is given an overdose of a truth drug there; then he begins to tell the whole truth - "strange, terrible things," as one observer reports. The courtroom is therefore cleared and hermetically sealed. Arthur Dent and his companions go there immediately, but are too late - Prak is already done. There is "not nearly as much truth as people imagine". Yet he has almost forgotten everything, but remembers the place where one finds God's last message to his creation.

Barteldan

A planet similar to Earth at first sight, on which Arthur Dent spends some time in Volume 5. At second glance, a subtle kind of mental lifelessness irritates. The residents, for example, have no use for the phrase "have a nice day". Books without a climax always end on page 400 with the 100,000th word, and it never occurs in these books that people want something or strive for something.

Betelgeuse Five

Birthplace of Ford Prefect, which people have claimed to be from Guildford . In reality, Betelgeuse is Orion's shoulder star, a single star.

Betelgeuse Seven

The population of Betelgeuse Seven, and with it their complicated accent, were wiped out all but one man by the Great Hrung Blast; Ford's father survived it by a strange coincidence that he was never able to explain satisfactorily.

Bethselamin

Bethselamin is a fabulously beautiful planet made of the finest cheese that is so concerned about its ever-rapid loss of weight, to which ten trillion hungry tourists are to blame, that one finds the net difference between the amount you eat and the amount you during of the stay on the planet is eliminated again, is surgically deducted from the body weight before departure. That is why it is so important to get a receipt every time you go to the bathroom.

Brequinda in the Forth of Avalars

A fictional planet where the demonic Fuolorani fire dragons lived. This planet was an erotic paradise even before the arrival of the Sorth of Bragadox. It was almost impossible to stay Virgo there. Many hitchhikers visit the planet for the romantic description of the hitchhiker. If you visit the planet now, you'll find out that today's modern Brequinda in the Forth of Avalars is nothing more than concrete, striptease bars and dragon burger bars.

Damogran

A remote, hot and uninhabited planet of the galactic empire on which the Heart of Gold was built.

Eadrax

Headquarters of the complaints department of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation .

earth

The earth is described in the introduction to the hitchhiker as follows:

Far out in the unexplored wasteland of a totally out of fashion extension of the galaxy's western spiral arm, a little yellow sun shines unnoticed . Orbiting them at a distance of about ninety-eight million miles is an absolutely insignificant little blue-green planet, whose ape-derived bioforms are so amazingly primitive that they still think digital clocks are an incredibly wonderful invention.

In accordance with their apparently minor importance and the widespread ignorance about them, the article in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy on Earth consisted of only one word: harmless. However, Ford Prefect , stranded on earth, had sent a new article. In the version shortened by the publisher, the article now reads: Mostly harmless. And accordingly hardly anyone cares that this planet is blown up by a Vogon construction fleet to make way for a hyperspace bypass .

However, as history progresses, some of the claims made in the quote turn out to be false:

  • The earth was in truth not some insignificant planet, but the largest computer in space and time, which was built by highly developed transdimensional creatures - disguised as mice - to find the question of all questions about life, the universe and everything, to which the answer is 42 (that is actually the true background of the destruction of the earth - the profession of philosophers arranged its destruction in order to prevent this dangerous search for the meaning of life). It was destroyed just five minutes before the end of the program.
  • Humans are not descended from apes, but from a third of the Golgafrincham population . The cavemen are extinct. As a result, the program was disrupted long before the Vogons arrived. As a Scrabble experiment conducted by Arthur Dent revealed, the question the program found was, "How much is six multiplied by nine?"

There is one more claim that led to the classification as harmless: the Senate of the Peoples debated individual underdeveloped planets; When they come to the topic of earth, they notice that people are constantly upset about small, green notes and that these make people sad. The funny thing is that these little green notes are not the ones who are sad ...

According to the novel, the earth (along with other suns and planets) is in the galactic sector ZZ9 Plural Z Alpha. This has the unpleasant consequence for the residents that they run the risk of simply disappearing in a hyperspace jump.

Eroticon VI

Home planet of the three-breasted whore Eccentrica Gallumbits .

Fintelwudelwix

Name of the Golgafrinchamians stranded on earth for the earth.

Frog star B

On this planet is the total transparency vortex , the worst torture in the universe. He shows the victim his incredible smallness and insignificance in the universe. The only one who has ever survived the total transparency vortex unharmed is Zaphod Beeblebrox - but only because he (involuntarily) visited him in an artificial second universe. Since this second universe was created especially for him, the vortex showed him what he thought he knew (but in relation to the correct universe) for a long time: That he was absolutely the most important man in the universe.

In the novel version of The Hitchhiker, this is also the planet on which the restaurant at the end of the universe was built.

Gagrakacka

The home planet of the band Desaster Area.

Golgafrincham

The residents of Golgafrincham were divided into three classes.

  • Class A were the scientists, brilliant leaders and important artists.
  • Class B were the film producers, telephone sanitizers, hairdressers, business consultants and insurance agents.
  • In class C came the people who did all the work.

In order to get rid of the completely superfluous part of the population B, it was shot into space in a spaceship, the Ark B, on the pretext that the entire population of Golgafrincham had to be evacuated. This stranded on the prehistoric earth, on which the people who had lived there until then - who are incorrectly referred to by the Golgafrinchams as "cave men" because they "look like cave men" - died out. The ancestors of modern man are therefore part of the population B of Golgafrincham.

The remaining residents of Golgafrincham eventually died of an epidemic caused by a phone that was not disinfected.

Han Wavel

An exotic vacation planet and one of the wonders of the galaxy.

Han Wavel is a planet largely made up of fabulous ultra-luxury hotels and casinos, all of which were created by natural erosion from wind and rain. The chances of something like this happening are about one too infinite. Little is known about how it came about because none of the geophysicists, probability statisticians, metreoanalysts or bizarrologists who are so keen to research it can afford to stay there.

Krikkit

The sight of the sky from Krikkit is the most boring sight in the entire known universe: you don't see any stars. This is due to a cloud of dust that completely surrounds the planet.

The inhabitants of this planet are a pack of really nice guys. However, ever since they found out that they are not alone in the universe, they have wanted to kill anyone who is not Krikkit's to fix this problem. Therefore it is unfavorable to live with them in the same galaxy. In a 2000 year war they tyrannized the galaxy according to their beliefs in peace, justice, morality, education, sport, family life and the annihilation of all other forms of life. In this war, 2 grilled creatures were killed.

As a countermeasure, the planet Krikkit has been enclosed in a slow-motion envelope that will only be lifted when all other life has died out.

Lamuella

A planet that the “absolutely normal critters” enter on their hike and the home of the “sandwich maker” (Arthur Dent).

Magrathea

Planet in the Horsehead Nebula , in orbit around the double stars Soulianis and Rahm.

Magrathea's economy is based on only one, but extremely profitable, branch of the economy: the planning and construction of planets, especially luxury planets for the richest of the rich. So extraordinarily productive that Magrathea became not only the richest planet of all time, but so rich that it impoverished the rest of the galaxy and the economy of the universe collapsed. During the great galactic stock market crash, however, the inhabitants of Magrathea decided to simply wait in a long hibernation until the economy had recovered sufficiently and the galaxy could afford its services again.

Magrathea had long since been forgotten and was only viewed as a myth, a "story that parents tell their children in the evening if they want them to become economists later," when Zaphod Beeblebrox rediscovered the planet and a race of hyper-intelligent, pandimensional beings who previously lived as mice on earth and wakes the residents from hibernation for a special assignment.

The mice wanted to commission a second earth. Already the first copy of the earth had been built by them with the help of Magrathea as a planet-sized computer in order to search for the last question, the question of all questions, the question of life, the universe and everything. Answer 42 had already been calculated by Deep Thought . However, just five minutes before the end of the program, the Earth was destroyed by Vogons to make way for the construction of a hyperspace bypass.

Slartibartfaß designed the coast of Norway and received an award for the fjords. His signature on a glacier helps Arthur Dent and Ford Prefect later (or earlier) realize that they landed on prehistoric earth.

In the radio play version , Magrathea is also the planet on which Milliways , the restaurant at the end of the universe, stands.

Maximegalon

Maximegalon is one of the most important cultural centers in the known world. Famous is the University of Maximegalon, which also publishes the ultra-complete Maximegalonian dictionary of all languages . On Maximegalon there was also the billions gargantuhirn , a computer that can count all the atoms of a star within a millisecond. It also houses the Museum of Morbid Ideas.

Oglarun

A large forest planet in a corner of the galaxy's eastern arm. The thoroughly intelligent population of Oglarun lives permanently on a single rather small and densely populated walnut tree. The only Oglarunians ever to leave the tree are those who are thrown down the tree for a heinous crime, which is to wonder whether there might be other inhabited nut trees as well.

Prelium camo

Preliumtarn orbits a sun named Zarss, which hangs in the midst of the gray compulsory fiefs of Saxaquine, which lie beyond the boundless fields of light of Flanux. On the planet, the Quentulus-Quazgar Mountains are located south of the Great Red Plain of Rars in the land of Sevorbeupstry. On the summit, God's last message to his creation is engraved in fire letters ten meters high. It reads in the English original "We apologize for the inconvenience", literally "We apologize for the inconvenience". At English road construction sites there is often such a sign (usually with any instead of the ), the content of which corresponds to the German “We thank you for your understanding”.

Kingdom-of-the-King

A desert world on which the King's Realm Snack is located. In the snack bar, the King sings for a tip for which - as a rule of thumb - Switzerland would get. The fact that the King sings Heartbreak Hotel and uses a chrome-plated pink spaceship suggests he is supposed to be Elvis Presley.

Rupert or Persephone

Rupert is the common nickname of the planet Persephone, the (fictional) tenth planet in our solar system. (In reality there is only one main belt asteroid, (399) Persephone ). Aliens land on the planet who unfortunately cannot remember who they are and what their mission was, and out of boredom they destroy the earth again. Of course, this time too, the Vogons are behind it.

annotation
After the discovery of a Trans-Neptunian object half the diameter of Pluto in October 2002 ( Quaoar ), the proposal was made to name this celestial body in honor of Douglas Adams ' Rupert.

Santraginus V

"Part of the water from the seas of Santraginus V" is an important ingredient in the cult drink Pangalactic Gargle Blaster

Saqua Pilia Hensha

A planet with a constant carnival atmosphere. In his will, King Antwelm decreed that all his fortune should be used to have a big celebration every year, with good food, lots of dancing and silly games like "Hunt the Wocket".

The headquarters of the travel guide “The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy” was also relocated to this planet by the Vogons after the travel guide was bought by Infini Tumb Enterprises.

Squornshell Beta

... "two worlds further inside, seen from the mattress mud," is inhabited by pillows, "which lively enjoy when you snuggle up to them". (Vol. 4, Chapter 22)

Squornshell Zeta

Swamp planet inhabited by mattresses , all called zem . Marvin once gave a speech at Squornshöllisch Zeta about the opening of a bridge over the marshes. The bridge then self-destructed. Marvin then chatted with a mattress until he was finally kidnapped by Krikkit robots. The Dentrassi cooks of the Vogon fleet use Squornshöllisch Zeta mattresses in their quarters; these "are very carefully killed and dried before they are used." (Vol. 1, Chapter 5)

Ursa Minor Beta

The Anhalter-Verlag office building is on Ursa Minor Beta. The planet itself is characterized by the fact that " due to an inexplicable and somehow suspicious topographical mood it consists almost exclusively of subtropical coast " and it is almost always Saturday afternoon there, just before the beach bars close, due to an equally suspicious mood of the temporal reluctance. "

It is believed that Ursa Minor Beta was built on Magrathea.

In reality, Ursa Minor Beta is the Little Bear's second brightest star . He bears the name Kochab .

Viltvodl VI

The Jatravartids live on the planet Viltvodl VI with their leader Humma Kavula .

Visissitus III

Vississitus III is home to the Haggunenons, an extremely belligerent race of shapeshifters who despise all “like-beings” (beings who cannot change their shape).

Vogsphere

A planet of great beauty, with fauna and flora that are also of exceptional beauty. At the same time, however, Vogsphere is also the home world of the Vogons .

WassIssn

A dirt hole that lies on the space-time coordinates of the earth. At the airport of NaDann, the capital of WassIssn, passengers are greeted with a sign that reads “Traveling aimlessly is better than arriving here”. Except for the Wassissnschen mud pigs, all other animal species died long ago of desperation.

Xaxis

Ford Prefect manipulates the computer of a huge Xaxisian war spaceship in order to hitchhike to earth from a bitter space battle and land in the middle of the City of Westminster. Xaxis is a very old democracy: people choose lizards as their government, and the lizards rule the people. When Arthur asked why the Xaxisians would still vote at all, Ford replied: if they don't vote, the wrong lizard could take the helm.

Ysolldins

Ysolldins is the star that most of the major insurance companies are, or rather have been, around. A spectacular media event of the time was the supernova to which the planet Ysolldins fell victim.

Other places

Han Dold City

Ford Prefect ends up in his “Hitchhiker's Guide” field research in Volume 4 to this nasty place, where civil war-like clashes between rock groups, their members, producers, record companies and unleashed police units are the order of the day. After a dangerous adventure in the “Zum alten rosa Hund” bar, he meets an animation lady with an economics degree, to whom he wants to show his “hitchhiker” entry about the earth, which is threatened with deletion. To his surprise, all of his posts appear in the “Hitchhiker” update. Then he makes the long way back to the (supposedly destroyed) earth.

los Angeles

LA is the place of residence of Wonko the Understandable and his wife Arkanum Jill - even if Wonko insists on living in the outside of the madhouse and rarely goes into it. Arthur and Fenchurch visit him, but take the usual tourist program with them beforehand and marvel at the sunset, "which no one with a bit of sensitivity would have dreamed of building a city like Los Angeles in front of."

Milliways

Milliways is the restaurant at the end of the universe. It is "one of the most extraordinary ventures in the entire history of the hospitality industry" (quote from The Restaurant at the End of the Universe ).

It was built on the remains of the planet Magrathea (radio play version ) or Frog Star B (novel version), enclosed in a time bubble and projected into the time when the universe ends. You can travel there into the future at any time and enjoy the tastiest and most expensive dishes. To pay the exorbitant bill you only need to pay a penny into an account in your own time, by the end of the world the interest-bearing capital will far exceed the bill of the restaurant.

Stavromula Beta

Stavromula Beta (actually Stavro Mueller Beta ) is the place where, according to Agrajag Arthur will kill him one more time. This then searches for this (non-existent) planet, since according to the laws of logic it cannot die before it has reached Stavromula Beta. In the fifth book, Once Rupert and Back , Arthur gets lost in the club of the "Greeks with a German father" Stavro Müller: Stavro Mueller beta or, in other words, Stavromula beta. Agrajag's reincarnation dies there dramatically.

Taunton

Arthur Dent apparently lives near the town in Somerset. He hitchhikes Fenchurch to the train station there. While they wait in the station pub for Fenchurch's train to London, they get closer - although they are constantly interrupted by an elderly lady selling lottery tickets.

The longest and most devastating of any party ever held

A group of drunk astro engineers once started this party, which has since floated in a building above an unnamed planet. This has been going on for several generations, and many guests are grandchildren of the first generation of guests. Since then, the soon-to-be-armed party has plundered and ruined the planet in the desire for more and more cheese crackers, avocado dips and alcohol. Nobody makes a move to leave, even if, as they say, armed conflicts are already taking place above the clouds between various carpet cleaning companies who hope for big business at the end of the party. Arthur Dent ends up at this party on his mission to save the universe. However, when shortly after its appearance it was attacked by combat robots on its mission to destroy the universe and a considerable number of the guests were killed, the mood spread among those who remained that it was now time to go and see if a taxi couldn't be found anywhere.

Stars

Alpha Centauri

In real life, Alpha Centauri is the closest star to the sun. In the novel there is the local planning office for the area in which the earth is located. Important matters - such as the impending demolition of the earth - are posted there.

Barnard's star

In reality, Barnard's Arrow Star is a near-Earth star with high proper motion. A fulcrum for galactic space travel in the novel. It is the first target of the Vogon construction fleet after the destruction of the earth.

Betelgeuse

Betelgeuse is actually the second brightest star in the constellation Orion. In the novel, Ford Prefect grew up on one of their planets called Betelgeuse V.

Sun

The sun is the star of supercomputer earth . Compared to Betelgeuse, it is a medium-sized dwarf .

Soulianis and cream

These two fictional stars are orbited by the planet Magrathea.

See also

literature
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams


The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy  • The restaurant at the end of the universe  • Life, the universe and all the rest  • Take care and thank you for the fish  • Rupert and back  • And something else, by the way… (posthumously by Eoin Colfer )