Xanth

This article or the following section is not adequately provided with supporting documents ( e.g. individual evidence ). Information without sufficient evidence could be removed soon. Please help Wikipedia by researching the information and including good evidence.

The saga of the magical land of Xanth is a fantasy - adventure cycle of Piers Anthony with a total of 43 novels , of which so far (as of January 2016) 22 novels into German were translated.

The land of Xanth

Xanth is a magical land that is inhabited by many magically gifted people and mythical creatures . The magic is, by most residents who do not know the true nature of magic as a natural raw material considered and taken for granted. Magic is ubiquitous, but distributed in a certain pattern. A being either has a magical talent , is magical itself (pillow bush, polygreen tree, dragon , unicorn and many others) or possesses intelligence; but it can also combine two of the three conditions. However, this basic condition seems to be in a state of upheaval with the second novel ( Magic Quest ), since the intelligent centaurs also develop magical talents like humans. It is believed that centaurs have become natural inhabitants of Xanth over the millennia.

In the human representatives, the innate talent is based on strict rules: Each talent is unique, does not repeat itself (but modifications are possible) and the most powerful and diverse talents are assigned the magician status and entitle them to vote as king.

The residents are aware that they live in a special country and that there is a world outside of theirs. The world outside of Xanth, without magic and magical beings, is called Mundania and for them it is the epitome of everything terrible.

Stories about Xanth

Each novel tells the story of a specific main character and only rarely is a character in several volumes the main character. Although the individual fates are in the foreground, the salvation of the country is also often discussed. It is typical of almost every novel that the main character initially travels to the castle of the information magician Humfrey to ask him a question (real life partner, type of magical talent, help with problems of a magical nature). The solution to the often tricky problem leads the hero in the course of the adventure ( quest ) to the most diverse, sometimes craziest places and mythical creatures. He has to survive dangers (carnivorous tangled trees, nickel feet and others), but often wins the friendship of the beings he meets until he finally gets the solution to his problem and also solves the problems of others. Even if every novel is about an individual fate, they nonetheless tie in with one another and old and popular characters appear again and again.

geography

The geographical shape of Xanth is basically similar to that of Florida , i.e. it forms a peninsula surrounded by the sea with a connection to the mainland in the north or northwest. This connection, also called istmus , is at the same time the fixed border between the magical Xanth and Mundania.

Due to the magical properties of Xanth, the istmus can in principle lead to any point (and at any time) in Mundania . There are examples in which you get to Italy or Korea .

Approximately in the middle of the peninsula extending columns canyon , a huge trench having a width of about 800 meters and a depth of about two kilometers, the to the eastern extends from the western border and of the columns kite is spouting, a superheated steam country dragon guarded . The western sea coast - from the Spaltenschlucht to almost the southern tip of the peninsula - is lined with several small islands. In front of the southern tip of Xanth is the somewhat larger Centaur Island, the headquarters of the Centaurs, even if there are other Centaur villages inland. In front of the eastern, labyrinthine foothills of the Spaltenschlucht lies the Island of Illusions , the former residence of the sorceress Iris.

About two days' march (or a centaur day ride) north of the fissure is the north village in the west near the coast. Also north of the rift, on the east coast, the domains of dragons , goblins , griffins , birds and finally the ogres run one after the other to the Istmus . To the west of it are the sharply defined, circular regions of the elements air , earth , fire , water and emptiness .

To the south, about half a day's journey from the rift, in the middle of Xanth is the castle of the good magician Humphrey. To the west of it, also about half a day's journey, is the almost 900-year-old Roogna Castle, the old and new rulers' seat of the magical kings of Xanth.

In the southern center of the peninsula is the region of the magical dust , the superficial source of magic, together with the nearby village of the same name, whose villagers have taken on the self-imposed task, with the help of tamed magical animals ( Rokhs , Hephalumphe and others) the magical dust and so that the magic spread all over Xanth.

Another day's march southeast of this region is the Ogersee, which is also the home of the curse monsters (people with the common ability to cast devastating, magical curses). In the underwater castle of the same is the starting point of a huge vortex of water that leads to the subterranean home of the brain coral . The city of demons , the cave of the gemstone nymph Juwel and the abode of the great demon X (A / N) ^th , the actual source of the magic that the demon unconsciously emits like human vapors, are also underground .

The magic

The great demon X (A / N) ^th is the reason the land of Xanth is magical. It also charges the region of the magical dust above it strongly, but even without its distribution, the power of X (A / N) ^th 's extends somewhat beyond the natural borders of Xanth.

This magic was unknowingly stopped at the time of the Storm King (1st Cameleon magic ) by a magical shield stone at the national borders, which was deadly for living beings and which was supposed to protect against waves of Mundane conquest. His successor, the Transformer King Trent, abolished this shield, however, as it did more harm than good to the country. Only much later (18th water spear ) it turns out that Xanth is partially cut off and protected from the rest of the world by a magic shield that has existed since the early days of human settlement.

The Grand Demon is initially involuntarily present (until the end of the spell search ), as he is in the game for power with other Grand Demons such as V (E \ N) ^us , E (R / D) ^e , JU (P / I) ^ter and others lost and has to serve a game penalty. After being liberated by Bink, he disappears for a short time, leaving the land without magic. However, X (A / N) ^th voluntarily returns to his place to reflect due to changes in the rules of the game. As a condition for his stay and the associated return of magic and the survival of the Xanthic population in the familiar magical conditions, the demon demands absolute privacy when thinking. A condition that King Trent can fulfill with the help of the former shield stone. Since then, this has been protecting the above-ground access to the cave of the demon, which the demon tore during his escape.

interpretation

In the course of the cycle, Anthony likes to combine fiction and reality , for example by having a story play in Mundania in which the characters walk past a shop window and see a Xanth novel (11th / 12th Himmels-Taler , Welt-Reise ). When reading the novels, however, the author's intention becomes clear, which is not to portray the struggle of good against evil. The fictional world of Xanth with its "reality" turned puns serves Anthony as a means to depict American society in a satirical way.