German and/or Scandinavian fantasy

[For_The_Good_Of_The_Realm]

Hello everyone !

For quite some time I've been wondering why we don't hear about german and scandinavian fantasy very much, especially considering how rich and beautiful their epos and mythology are. A good percentage of contemporary fantasy draws inspiration from those legends and I suppose (!!!) that there is a number of local authors who, so to speak, carry on their heritage. I, personally, could name only Bernhard Hennen, whom I about to start reading as I just discovered that a decent number of his books was translated to russian.

Hence, a small request for my european fellows. With your help I would like to break the boundaries of ignorance and discover as much as possible. Tell us about your authors, what they write about and why you like them. Thank you in advance.

[Jo498]

Astrid Lindgren is filed (properly) under children's books, but apart from some shorter fairy tale like stories, at least The Brothers Lionheart and Ronia the robber's daughter qualify as fantasy in some sense. They are readable for adults, especially the latter (and this movie is also very well done).

The great modern fantasy classic by a German author is probably still "The Neverending Story" by Michael Ende.

Wolfgang Hohlbein became famous in the 80s and I read some of his books, but it is too long ago. I didn't care much about one about a boy traveling into some fantasy world (Märchenmond) and becoming a badass fighter. The other one I remember was more of a horror story (about some world behind mirrors and/or a magician's mirror) that was pretty good.

Hennen was involved in the German RPG system "Das schwarze Auge" and the only books of his I read (his first three where he cooperated with Hohlbein) take place in the main world of this RPG system. It's standard fare, rather gritty about a city beleaguered by orcs.

A decent novel (but by American author Stephan Grundy) taking up some of the myths you mention is "Rhinegold". The author apparently wrote some more (sequels?) books with nordic/germanic themes, but I have only read this one.

[Calibandar]

Bernard Hennen, Wolfgang Hohlbein and Markus Heitz are a few of the German fantasy authos whose works have een translated in my native Dutch. This is how I know them. I believe only Heitz has had his works translated in Eglish by a major publisher.

None of these guys are world-beaters, it's all acceptably but midlist level Fantasy of which there exists a great deal in native English as well. Likewise Pierre Pevel from France.

[Yersinia]

Bernard Hennen, Wolfgang Hohlbein and Markus Heitz are a few of the German fantasy authos whose works have een translated in my native Dutch. This is how I know them. I believe only Heitz has had his works translated in Eglish by a major publisher.

None of these guys are world-beaters, it's all acceptably but midlist level Fantasy of which there exists a great deal in native English as well. Likewise Pierre Pevel from France.

I was curious about Hohlbein but could hardly find anything of his that had been translated into English. Do you know a good source for the Dutch translations? That's the only other language I can easily read.

[Night's_King]

I guess first of all, you have to say that it is really hard for a german fantasy author to get a book out. German publishers usually don't want to take risks and rather buy the books of famous english-speaking authors and translate them, than publish a risky book by an unknown german author.

The big living authors have mostly been named. I have read many books of Hohlbein and Heitz (they have a really big output and I like to call Hohlbein the german King and Heitz the german Sanderson). They have written great books but also a lot of bad books.

Hennen is my favourite german fantasy author, I think. I really loved his elves series and I also do like his DSA-books (DSA is short for Das Schwarze Auge which means The Black Eye and is a german tabletop RPG), because I really do love to play DSA.

The first woman that comes to mind is Cornelia Funke. I think her Inkworld-trilogy is pretty famous and she has a couple of more books which I really liked as a child

Recently deceased authors of fantasy books (children's and YA) are Ottfried Preußler (died 2013) and Michael Ende (died 1995).

ETA: I totally forgot Christoph Marzi's Uralte Metropole (Ancient Metropolis). It's a series which I read not so long ago and I did pretty much like it.

Also I discovered that there actually are a few unknown german authors which seem to write readable and even good books. Thank you Goodreads!

[Buckwheat]

I have been wanting to read some German fantasy for some time too. What is interesting is that the German-speaking posters on LonCon recommended completely different authors to me than were mentioned in this thread: Oliver Henkel, Andreas Eschbach, Andreas Brandwurst - does anybody know those?

I have to admit I have not had time to start reading any of them though. I have been reading Cornelia Funke when I was younger and reread Ende's Neverending Story (in Slovene translation) some months ago, but have not read any adult German fantasy.

Astrid Lindgren is filed (properly) under children's books, but apart from some shorter fairy tale like stories, at least The Brothers Lionheart and Ronia the robber's daughter qualify as fantasy in some sense. They are readable for adults, especially the latter (and this movie is also very well done).

The great modern fantasy classic by a German author is probably still "The Neverending Story" by Michael Ende.

Awww, I loved Brothers Lionheart, so pretty. Thanks for reminding me of them. ;)

I do not remember what makes Ronja fantasy? I thought it was without any fantastical elements. It has been a long time since I read it, care to remind me?

I second Neverending Story, and add Momo by the same author. Neverending Story can be interesting both for children and adults, has postmodern elements and is all around a beautiful story.

The first woman that comes to mind is Cornelia Funke. I think her Inkworld-trilogy is pretty famous and she has a couple of more books which I really liked as a child

Recently deceased authors of fantasy books (children's and YA) are Ottfried Preußler (died 2013) and Michael Ende (died 1995).

Funke's Inhdeath was the first book ever that I read in German language since the first two were published in Slovene then, but this one was not yet. It took quite a long time (that was in high school and my knowledge of the language was way worse than now), but I managed. :smug:

I also read her Dragon Rider and The Thief Lord, out of which enjoyed Thief Lord more. But the Inkworld trilogy is her best work, I think.

[farseer2]

I have been wanting to read some German fantasy for some time too. What is interesting is that the German-speaking posters on LonCon recommended completely different authors to me than were mentioned in this thread: Oliver Henkel, Andreas Eschbach, Andreas Brandwurst - does anybody know those?

I have read the Spanish translation of Die Haarteppichknüpfer, by Andreas Eschbach. According to Goodreads, it's been published in English as The Carpet Makers. I thought it was quite good, and would not hesitate to recommend it. It's a beautifully-written SF novel with a fantasy feel.

As a child I fell in love with The Neverending Story, by Michael Ende. I read it in a wonderful Spanish edition, with the real-world parts printed in green ink and the fantasy-world parts in red ink. I think that it would be enjoyable for adults too, but the best moment to appreciate this magnificent story is when you are near Bastian Balthazar Bux's (the main child character's) age. It's at the level of the very best books for children ever written, in any language. Momo, a different novel by the same author, is good, but not at that impressive level.

[Buckwheat]

As a child I fell in love with The Neverending Story, by Michael Ende. I read it in a wonderful Spanish edition, with the real-world parts printed in green ink and the fantasy-world parts in red ink.

I think the editions in different languages of this novel are pretty much the standard; my Slovene edition has the same colour combination and this cover. The illustrations in the beginnings of the chapters are the same as in this German edition, see the same cover. Apparently there is also an English edition with the same illustrations, I cannot find out if there is an edition with the same cover though. Did your edition have the same style?

EDIT: I am not saying there are not any different editions, this German one does not have the same cover nor pictures.

[farseer2]

I think the editions in different languages of this novel are pretty much the standard; my Slovene edition has the same colour combination and this cover. The illustrations in the beginnings of the chapters are the same as in this German edition, see the same cover. Apparently there is also an English edition with the same illustrations, I cannot find out if there is an edition with the same cover though. Did your edition have the same style?

EDIT: I am not saying there are not any different editions, this German one does not have the same cover nor pictures.

Yes, the style of the Spanish edition I have is similar. The cover is similar (same drawing) but with different colors:

http://www.leemaslibros.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/historiainterminable.jpg

Out of curiosity, is there any ebook version that tries to differentiate between the real-world and fantasy-world parts, perhaps with two different fonts?

[Buckwheat]

Walter Moers is German too. 13 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear and other tales from the land Zamonia.

It is more for children/teenagers, but quite funny and in some cases ridiculous. It does not try to be some super serious fantasy, but is entertaining to read.

[Nabarg]

There are three kinds of nonhuman creatures in Ronja. In swedish they are called "vildvitttror", "grådvärgar" and "rumpnissar".

[Nabarg]

And there is always the question of translation, good books is not always translated. If you can read swedish I would recomend you to check out Erik Granström and Anders Björkelid.

[Galactus]

For older (19th century) some of Selma Lagerlöf's stuff would probably qualify as fantasy, or at least magical realism.

I'm pretty much out of the loop on swedish fantasy authors. I know there's a bunch of tie-in stuff, there's Niklas Krog (who started YA-ish and then went younger, an unusual trajectory, into outright children's books) there's... Bertil Mårtensson who had a really odd fantasy trilogy written in the late 70's/early 80's. (he also wrote some more traditional SF stuff).

[lojzelote]

Oh heck, The Carpet Makers. I read that one at the tender age of twelve and it has made such a profound impression on me that nowdays I'm afraid to reread it in case it wouldn't hold up.

[Recovering forum addict]

Olof Högberg's Den stora vreden has some fantasy elements, though it's mostly an alternate history about northern Sweden in the late 1600s and early 1700s with the Russian war and the reformation of the local administration as the main features. It was published in 1906 and is written in an intentionally archaic language. I don't know if it's ever been translated to English or any other language.

[Calibandar]

The big living authors have mostly been named. I have read many books of Hohlbein and Heitz (they have a really big output and I like to call Hohlbein the german King and Heitz the german Sanderson). They have written great books but also a lot of bad books.

Hennen is my favourite german fantasy author, I think. I really loved his elves series and I also do like his DSA-books (DSA is short for Das Schwarze Auge which means The Black Eye and is a german tabletop RPG), because I really do love to play DSA.

For Hennen, the whole Elves series has been translated in Dutch, I have not yet read much of it.

For Wolfgang Holhbein, they have just started translating his "Thor" series, to give you an idea of what they are releasing here. The Dwarves series by Heitz as well as some other novels of his ( such as The Collector) are also out now.

[Little Valkyrie]

Walter Moers is German too. 13 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear and other tales from the land Zamonia.

It is more for children/teenagers, but quite funny and in some cases ridiculous. It does not try to be some super serious fantasy, but is entertaining to read.

I've been meaning to read some Walter Moers to 1) improve my reading non-scholarly German oh my god that stuff is hellish to slog through 2) enjoy something else by the guy who did Adolf, which is just plain amazing.

[Jo498]

Ronia has a few magical creatures: dangerous flying harpy-like ones (vildvitttror, in German Wilddruden) and at two kinds of trollish/gnomish ones; I guess the "grådvärgar" are in German Graugnomen (grey gnomes) and also somewhat dangerous and the "rumpnissar" (Rumpelwichte) are rather harmless, but stupid.

There is another more fairy tale like (but quite poetic) "fantasy" story by Lindgren: "Mio, my son" (Mio, min Mio).

I forgot about Moers. He is amazing, very probably the most intelligent and eloquent German language fantastic writer of today. But his stuff is quite different from you standard fantasy and it must be hell to translate or even to read without very good command of the language. He is very fond of wordplay and anagrams, his books are full of allusions to all kinds of stuff. (So I think most of his is very suitable for adults, and children, even teenagers might miss quite a bit.)

He even "re-did" a short fantastic novella of 19th cent. Swiss author Gottfried Keller (Spiegel das Kätzchen) as a sprawling fantasy novel set in his world (Der Schrecksenmeister). Like "The name of the rose" was historical fiction about books and Fforde's Thursday Next series (which I gave up after the 2nd book) is alternative history/SF about books, several of Moers are fantasy about books.

I also forgot Preussler because he was mainly a (very good and extremely popular) children's author. His opus magnum, though is more YA and very suitable for adults: Krabat. There's a movie that missed about all the poetry and magic of the original. The story is based on slavic folklore about a "black mill" (with the miller as a magician serving the devil).

I probably should read Funke, should I?

[Buckwheat]

I read Moers in translation. The translator of the City of the Dreaming Books got a prize for her translation. I agree, it must have been really really hard to translate it because of all the references, word plays, humour and neologisms.

I still have to read Schrecksenmeister, I had no idea it was whole a reference to Keller.

Yes, you should read Funke. :P

[Jo498]

You can find "Spiegel das Kätzchen" online at some of the Gutenberg sites. It is far shorter, but the main plot element is identical: A cat (or zamonian talking cat) sells his fat (= his life) to an ominous alchimist and has somehow to get out of this fatal bargain. Moers is a huge fan of Keller, the Zamonian analogue to Keller is known by his anagram "Gofid Letterkerl" ("letter" as in English, "Kerl" means something like "guy", "bloke"). I probably should read more Keller as well; I read a few of his shorter pieces in my youth, but especially for teenagers looking for the more spectacular (like hysterical and murderous Kleist or grotesque Hoffmann), Keller's stuff may seem rather old-fashioned and trite. Both "Kleider machen Leute" and "Romeo and Julia auf dem Dorfe" (this is probably internationally his best known "A village Romeo and Juliet", there's even an opera!) are more or less standard/obligatory high school fare in Germany (or used to be 25 years ago).

I might be missing something, but there is not such a strong tradition of the fantastic in German literature as in the Anglosphere. The most important writer predates most of the English tradition of the Gothic, though: ETA Hoffmann, but this is more "black romanticism" than alternative worlds or adventure novels. Other romantics were more into fairy tales, of course there is some spooky/gothic stuff there, but not nearly as much or as prominent as in English literature.