Wild journey through the night

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Wilde Reise durch die Nacht is a novel first published in 2001 by the German author Walter Moers . Unlike most of Moers' other works, the book is not illustrated by Moers himself, but contains 21 wood engravings by the French artist Gustave Doré , which he created for various works (including Der raging Roland by Ludovico Ariosto , Der Rabe by Edgar Allan Poe , Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes and the Bible ) and which form the basis of the story told by Moers. The artist is also the main character in the novel, which Moers described as a homage to Doré.

action

For the cover of the novel used illustration from The mad Roland

Twelve year old Gustave Doré travels the sea as the captain of the ship Aventure . But he gets caught in a heavy storm and a Siamese twin tornado pulls his ship and crew up into the air. When the storm passed, Gustave was the only survivor to find himself in the badly battered ship, where he met Death and his mad sister, Dementia. Gustave learns that death demands his soul and wants to lock it up in a soul coffin. The soul should then be handed over to the sun so that its light is preserved.

But Gustave wants to go on living because his greatest dream is to become a great artist. Death then makes a wager with him: if Gustave manages to solve six tasks in one night, he'll spare him.

  • The first task: Gustave has to rescue a beautiful maiden from the hands of a dragon.
  • The second task: He must travel through the forest of goblins and behave as conspicuously as possible.
  • The third task: He has to guess the names of six giants.
  • The fourth task: Gustave has to pull a tooth from the most terrible of all monsters.
  • The fifth task: Gustave has to meet himself.
  • The sixth task: Gustave has to visit Death on the Moon.

While doing these tasks, Gustave learns a lot of new things. He also makes good friends who help him with his tasks: B. a griffin, a talking horse named Pancho Sansa (an allusion to the companion of Don Quixote) and time. In addition, Gustave falls in love.

expenditure

Others

The song This Will Never End by the band Blind Guardian (on the album A Twist in the Myth , 2006) is based on the novel, in particular on the role of death.

Secondary literature

  • Mareike Wegner: »Knowledge is night!«. Parodic procedures in Walter Moers' Zamonien novels and in Wilde Reise durch die Nacht. Aisthesis Verlag, Bielefeld 2016, ISBN 978-3-8498-1137-2 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Wilde Reise durch die Bilder , essay by Walter Moers