Puzzles around

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Rätsel um ... (Original title: The Barney Mysteries ) is a children's book series by Enid Blyton . The six original books, often also called Barney "R" Mysteries, appeared between 1949 and 1959. The titles all began with an "R". From 1961 onwards, 8 volumes appeared in Germany. Volume 7 Riddles about the Deep Cellar is a paraphrase of the single story The Mystery That Never Was (1961) and did not belong to the Mystery series. Volume 8 Rätsel um die Falschmünzer (1977) is not based on an original. This is probably the translator Brigitte Blobel's own work. Therefore, the tape not authorized by Darrell Waters Limited was later withdrawn from trading. The protagonists are the siblings Robert and Dina, their cousin "Stubs" and their friend Barny. Stub's dog Lümmel and Barny's little monkey Miranda round off the quartet. Similar to the secret around series of "6-Spürnasen", the names have been changed in the translation. Robert is originally called Roger, Diana is Dina, Peter "Stubs" is Stuby and the dog Lümmel is originally called Loony. Miss Pepper is originally Mrs Pepper. Compared to the other Blyton series, the protagonists appear as mature youngsters. The adventures are characterized by ingenious secrets. Since Barny lives separately from the Lyntons, it took a while for the friends to get together as a group.

Characters

  • Robert (15 years in Volume 1) and Dina Lynton (13 years in Volume 1) are siblings. They both go to boarding school and only see each other during the holidays.
  • Stubs , actually Peter, so called because of his snub nose (11 years in volume 1), is the cousin of the two. His parents have died, so he always has to go to one of his aunts on vacation. He likes it best with Robert and Dina. He likes to annoy others, such as Dina, his teachers and other people. He likes to show off and pretend he's very brave when he isn't. He is intelligent, but very lazy at school.
  • Barny (actually Barnabas Hugo Lorimer; 14–15 years in Volume 1) is (initially) without parents. His mother walked away from his father, an actor, three months after the wedding and went back to work at a circus. Barny grew up believing his father was dead. It was only shortly before his mother's death that she told him about his father, a Shakespearean actor. Barny still does not know his father's name, as his mother had taken her maiden name again. So Barny goes in search of his father and works at circuses and fairs to earn a living. When he's around Robert and Dina, they meet. In Volume 4, Riddles about a Secret Haven , he finally finds his father, Barnabas Martin.
  • Lümmel is Stubs' dog, a black spaniel. He lives up to his name and takes every shoe and hairbrush away.
  • Miranda is Barny's monkey. She can do many tricks.
  • Miss Pfeffer is the old, very short-sighted teacher of Robert and Dina's mother, with whom she and Stubs sometimes travel. She is known to wink behind her thick glasses.

Volumes

Content of the individual volumes

Riddle of the Abandoned House (1949)

Because their parents are traveling, the siblings Robert and Dina spend the holidays together with their cousin Stubs and Miss Pfeffer in a rented holiday home in Rockingdown. A tutor, Herr König, is supposed to help them make up for the school hours they missed because of a scarlet fever disease at Easter. In their free time they get to know Barny and his little monkey Miranda. Barny, whose mother died the previous year, keeps afloat by doing odd jobs at circuses. He's looking for his father, whom he only knows is an actor. On their explorations of the area, they discover the vacant Rockingdown mansion, whose basement sometimes makes strange noises. Smugglers use the cellars as interim storage for their goods, which they transport across the nearby river. While exploring the underground passages, Barny is discovered and held captive by the smugglers. After Robert and the other children first suspected Mr. König as an assistant to the smugglers, they discover that he is a detective. Miranda is able to send Robert, Stubs, and Dina a message from Barny informing them of his capture. With the help of the children, the police and Herr König manage to free Barny.

Riddle of the Green Hand (1950)

Robert and Dina spend the holidays at home and look forward to visits from Stubs and Lümmel, their parents are also expecting Mr. Lynton's uncle Johann to visit. Without knowing it, the two arrive in the same train compartment, and when Uncle Johann, with a worried expression, tells of a mysterious theft in which valuable documents were stolen without anyone being able to explain how the thief got into the room, Stubs invents a hair-raising one Story of an international gang of criminals who would be after him, so he is a little embarrassed when he realizes who he has tied this bear to. A few days later, another puzzling theft of historical documents occurs and this time a green glove is found at the crime scene. Dina notices that the same circus was performing in both places at the time of the crime. As the circus is next in their area, they decide to drive by there and of course hope to see their friend Barny again there. At the circus they actually meet Barny and Miranda, and the children get to know the trainer Zorko with the two trained chimpanzees Tu (who loves sweets) and Mult (who loves stuffed animals) as well as Tonneur, the mostly bad-tempered boss of the circus. After a few days the circus moves on to the neighboring town and Uncle Johann tells the children that rare documents and stuffed animals are also exhibited in the manor house there. They tour the exhibition together, and they notice that another visitor with full hair and a thick beard is studying the documents. The children suspect ringmaster Tonneur of having something to do with the thefts and watch the castle at night. On the second night, Stubs thinks he can see a barely visible shadow climbing up the gutter of the mansion, but when nothing more happens, he falls asleep. Nothing is stolen that night, only some of the stuffed animals are in the park in the morning. The solution to the riddle is that it was the trained chimpanzee Mult who penetrated the rooms through chimneys and other small openings and stole the papers that the actual client, costumed with a wig and beard, with a fragrant one the day before Had marked substance.


Mystery of a Secret Corridor (1951)

Because Robert, Dina and Stubs are supposed to recover from the flu, they take Miss Pfeffer to her cousin in the town of Glockenburg. When visiting the castle, you can take a look into the famous secret passage, but not enter it, allegedly it ends after a short distance at a wall anyway. Dina writes to Barny where they can relax and he hitchhikes to them with Miranda, but the last driver who takes her behaves very strangely: He lets Barny and Miranda get off many kilometers before Glockenburg because it is supposedly not on his route, but when they finally walk to the village after midnight, Barny sees the driver come out of the dark castle and drive on with his truck. Barny discovers an open window on the first floor of the castle, climbs up the ivy and sleeps in a state bed. The next day he meets Robert, Dina and Stubs, they tell him that a very old man has told them that the secret passage actually existed and that 'Mother Barlow' knew about it. The following night the children steal into the castle and examine the secret passage: after a few curves it actually ends in front of a solid wall. The old man's daughter allows you the next day to rummage through an old chest that belongs to her father, there you will find a map in an old book that shows that the secret passage ends at a house in the middle of the Glockenburger Wald. Naomi Barlow, the resident of the house, does not know about a secret passage, but remembers vaguely that someone drowned there when she was a small child. From this, Barny concludes that the secret passage must end in the well shaft in front of the house and in fact they find rungs there that lead down to the mouth of the secret passage! When Barny, Robert and Stubs explore the secret passage from there, they come to a point just before the lock, where the ceiling has collapsed and the passage is almost completely buried. Behind them they hear a person coughing: Criminals have kidnapped Mr. Rawlings, a police inspector who was on their heels, and are holding him there. He tells the children that the gangsters want to interrogate him again this evening at 11am, so Barny, Robert and Stubs decide to wait in the castle that evening until the criminals have entered the secret passage, block the entrance and then call the police. When they come to the castle in the evening they are surprised by the gang and try to escape: Robert hides in an old chest, is discovered and locked in it; Stubs hides in a small alcove in the vent of a large fireplace and Barny climbs into the bell tower with Miranda. There he got the idea to ring the bells and thus call the police, which also works because the gang has now entered the secret passage and cannot hear the bell ringing. The gangsters noticed the police anyway and barricaded themselves in the secret passage with the sick inspector. The children explain to the police where the second entrance of the corridor is, climb into the corridor with shovels over the well, clear the collapsed soil and surprise the gang from behind.

Mystery of the Secret Harbor (1952)

Since the Lyntons are planning a trip to America, they entrust the children Dina and Robert as well as their cousin Peter, called Stubs, to the old educator Miss Pfeffer, who wants to spend a quiet and relaxing holiday in the seaside resort of Rubadub. Stubs is thrilled when he learns about the secret navy port there. On the train ride to the village, he meets two marines, whom he curiously questions. But the two men hardly give an answer. Stubs only remembers that someone has a crippled little finger. In Rubadub they live in the three men in one barrel inn, where they meet many interesting roommates: old Professor James, the magician Marvel, the singer Iris Nachtigal, the talkative Miss Trill and the house servant Dummy. Powerful detonations shake the place, and the children discover a skylight in the house, from which one can see the secret harbor. But they find out that they are not the only ones using this lookout, and one day the door to the attic is locked and the key is missing. In the meantime, her friend Barny has also arrived with his little monkey Miranda. As he is used to working in a circus, he quickly finds work at a small local fair, but the magician Marvel also shows interest in Barny’s collaboration. He even promises to be able to track down his father thanks to his connections. After a strong detonation in the night, rumors spread in the village that this was an act of sabotage by foreign spies. Policemen appear, but disappear again without success. The children suspect old Professor James, who behaves very conspicuously and is also not as deaf as he is supposed to be. Then the magician Marvel Barny confesses that he is an agent who should protect the port from sabotage and espionage. He has now also discovered his father, who works with him in the secret naval port and protects the submarines there. You could meet him at night. So that night Barny rows the magician Marvel to the meeting point on a rock by Rubadub Strudel. There he meets the man who is supposed to be his father and receives a package that he hands over to the magician Marvel. Then he wants to talk to his supposed father, but is only laughed at because the man is not his father, but a foreign spy. Barny learns that the magician Marvel, who has since rowed away, is also a spy. Barny can save himself from the rising tide on land and expose the magician. Ironically, the grumpy old Professor James turns out to be a policeman who can arrest the spy. Thanks to the good observation skills of stubs, the helper can also be identified by his crippled little finger. - It turned out earlier that the house servant knew Dummy Barny and his late mother from the circus. He can now remember the name of the father, which is then found. At the end of the book, Barny and his real father meet on the beach at Rubadub.

Mystery of the Forbidden Cave (1959)

Robert and Dina want to spend the holidays in a caravan with their mother and Miss Pfeffer. When her sister, Aunt Pat, had an accident, Mrs. Lynton went away to take care of her sister and brother-in-law. Fortunately, Barny's father, Mr Martin, offers to drive the children to a lovely spot on the coast of Wales where they can spend their holidays under the care of Miss Pepper. Stubs, who was originally supposed to spend the holidays with Aunt Pat, also comes here. In a small coastal town, the children, Barny and Miss Pfeffer, lodge in an inn high above the cliffs. When the stubs disguised as a fisherman reads a secret letter from a school friend, it is stolen from him by a man who turns out to be one of two other boarders. Stubs succeeds the real messenger, a fisherman boy, in receiving the correct letter. Barny learns from his father over the phone that the two men are not the well-known scientists they claim to be. With the help of the inquisitive son of the inn, David, the four protagonists discover that the two men are doing crooked business with some fishermen and that they have hidden something in the forbidden cave on the beach. While trying to explore the contents of the hidden boxes, they are surprised by the incoming tide, but they manage to climb through a shaft that ends in Miss Pepper's room. Finally, the police arrest the two men and the fishermen involved and secure the stolen money in the boxes. With this volume the series “Rätsel um” in the original comes to an end.

Mystery of the Deep Cellar (1961)

Stubs spends the holidays with Aunt Susanne, Uncle Richard and their children Dina and Robert, with whom he has already had some adventures. At first, the holidays are boring, until her uncle Bob, a detective, announces himself to be visiting. But her beloved Uncle Bob is overworked and is really just looking for rest and relaxation. So Dina, Robert and Stubs invent a riddle by drafting a coded secret message and passing it on to their uncle. But he sees through their plans and does not believe them even when they can actually observe light signals from an old ruined house at night. In the meantime, her friend Barny has also arrived with his little monkey Miranda, whom they already know from previous adventures. While Dina is looking for blueprints in the library and Robert is waiting for his sister, Barny and Stubs examine the spacious cellar corridors under the ruined house with Miranda and Lümmel. They are discovered by three men who are looking for a gold statue in the cellars and locked in a vault. During the fight, one of them was bitten by Stubs' dog Lümmel and is now being taken to the doctor by his two companions. Robert and Dina discover the second exit from the cellar and find their friends who have since discovered the gold statue. Since Robert and Dina cannot free their friends alone, they call on their uncle Bob, who doesn't really want to believe them even now. But eventually he can free the prisoners and take a look at the gold statue himself. The police then informed can arrest the three criminals.

Radio plays

From 1976 to 1980 some of the books appeared as radio play LPs or MCs from Europe. 7 episodes released:

  1. Enid Blyton - riddle about the green hand
  2. Enid Blyton - Mystery of the Secret Harbor
  3. Enid Blyton - Riddle of the Abandoned House
  4. Enid Blyton - mystery of the underground passage
  5. Enid Blyton - Riddle of the Forbidden Cave
  6. Enid Blyton - Mystery of the Deep Cellar
  7. Enid Blyton - riddle about the counterfeiters

Web links

References and comments

  1. ↑ The Barney Mystery Series in the English language Wikipedia
  2. ↑ fuenffreundefanpage.at
  3. ↑ enidblyton.net
  4. ↑ enidblyton.net