The Satanic Mill
Encyclopedia
Plot
Set in the late 17th century, the story follows the life of Krabat, a 14-year old Wendish (i.e. SorbianSorbs
Sorbs are a Western Slavic people of Central Europe living predominantly in Lusatia, a region on the territory of Germany and Poland. In Germany they live in the states of Brandenburg and Saxony. They speak the Sorbian languages - closely related to Polish and Czech - officially recognized and...
) beggar boy living in the eastern part of Saxony
Saxony
The Free State of Saxony is a landlocked state of Germany, contingent with Brandenburg, Saxony Anhalt, Thuringia, Bavaria, the Czech Republic and Poland. It is the tenth-largest German state in area, with of Germany's sixteen states....
. For three consecutive nights, he is called through a dream to a watermill
Watermill
A watermill is a structure that uses a water wheel or turbine to drive a mechanical process such as flour, lumber or textile production, or metal shaping .- History :...
near the village Schwarzkollm. Upon heeding the call and arriving at the mill, he begins his apprenticeship
Apprenticeship
Apprenticeship is a system of training a new generation of practitioners of a skill. Apprentices or protégés build their careers from apprenticeships...
as a miller's
Miller
A miller usually refers to a person who operates a mill, a machine to grind a cereal crop to make flour. Milling is among the oldest of human occupations. "Miller", "Milne" and other variants are common surnames, as are their equivalents in other languages around the world...
man. He soon joins the secret brotherhood, composed of journeymen
Journeyman
A journeyman is someone who completed an apprenticeship and was fully educated in a trade or craft, but not yet a master. To become a master, a journeyman had to submit a master work piece to a guild for evaluation and be admitted to the guild as a master....
and apprentices, and discovers that the skill he is meant to learn through this apprenticeship
Apprenticeship
Apprenticeship is a system of training a new generation of practitioners of a skill. Apprentices or protégés build their careers from apprenticeships...
is Black Magic
Black magic
Black magic is the type of magic that draws on assumed malevolent powers or is used with the intention to kill, steal, injure, cause misfortune or destruction, or for personal gain without regard to harmful consequences. As a term, "black magic" is normally used by those that do not approve of its...
. The first magic powers Krabat acquires are rather harmless, such as the ability to turn himself into a raven. Other peculiarities of this watermill
Watermill
A watermill is a structure that uses a water wheel or turbine to drive a mechanical process such as flour, lumber or textile production, or metal shaping .- History :...
include the lack of any outside visitors, including farmers who would have brought grain
Cereal
Cereals are grasses cultivated for the edible components of their grain , composed of the endosperm, germ, and bran...
. The only visitor to the mill is one Goodman
Goodman (title)
Goodman was once a polite term of address, used where Mister would be used today. A man addressed by this title was, however, of a lesser social rank than a man addressed as Mister. Compare Goodwife....
, who may be the devil
Devil
The Devil is believed in many religions and cultures to be a powerful, supernatural entity that is the personification of evil and the enemy of God and humankind. The nature of the role varies greatly...
, although this is never made explicit.
The senior apprentice Tonda, Krabat's best friend and older brother figure, dies, ostensibly of an accident, on New Year's Eve
New Year's Eve
New Year's Eve is observed annually on December 31, the final day of any given year in the Gregorian calendar. In modern societies, New Year's Eve is often celebrated at social gatherings, during which participants dance, eat, consume alcoholic beverages, and watch or light fireworks to mark the...
in Krabat's first year at the mill. Tonda offers strangely little resistance to his own death. Krabat's suspicions of foul play are further reinforced when another journeyman and friend, Michal, dies the following New Year's Eve
New Year's Eve
New Year's Eve is observed annually on December 31, the final day of any given year in the Gregorian calendar. In modern societies, New Year's Eve is often celebrated at social gatherings, during which participants dance, eat, consume alcoholic beverages, and watch or light fireworks to mark the...
. He soon realizes that the master is bound in a pact to the Goodman: the master must sacrifice one journeyman every year on New Year's Eve
New Year's Eve
New Year's Eve is observed annually on December 31, the final day of any given year in the Gregorian calendar. In modern societies, New Year's Eve is often celebrated at social gatherings, during which participants dance, eat, consume alcoholic beverages, and watch or light fireworks to mark the...
, or perish himself.
Wishing to take revenge for his friends' death, Krabat secretly trains to increase his magical strength so he can fight the master. His quest is aided by a girl from the nearby village, a church singer, “Kantorka”, whose name is never mentioned (“Kantorka” meaning just ‘little chorister’). Krabat learns that to end the spell, his lover must challenge the master for him; then whoever loses the challenge, the master or the two lovers, will die. The master offers Krabat another solution: He will retire and let Krabat inherit the mill, along with the pact to the Goodman; but Krabat refuses to perpetuate the evil pact. So the challenge goes ahead, and the girl's task is to distinguish Krabat from the rest of the journeymen, all dressed identically and standing motionless in a lineup, while she is blindfolded. She manages to pick him out by the fact that he fears mainly for her life, while the others fear mainly for their own. Ultimately, she rescues Krabat from death, and they and the journeymen escape the mill. The master is left to die in the burning mill on New Year's Eve
New Year's Eve
New Year's Eve is observed annually on December 31, the final day of any given year in the Gregorian calendar. In modern societies, New Year's Eve is often celebrated at social gatherings, during which participants dance, eat, consume alcoholic beverages, and watch or light fireworks to mark the...
, while the survivors lose all their magic powers and are now simple millers who have to provide for themselves through normal hard work.
Characters
The characters of this novel provide a stark distinction between good and evil. Krabat, his love interest Kantorka, Tonda, Juro and Michal stand for the side of the good, whereas the master of the mill, the Goodman and the one journeyman who betrays his brothers stand for the bad. There are, however, a few journeymen who are indifferent or ambiguous to the ongoing struggle, and who neither support nor oppose the master.Interpretation
Although the story is quite close to the original WendishSorbs
Sorbs are a Western Slavic people of Central Europe living predominantly in Lusatia, a region on the territory of Germany and Poland. In Germany they live in the states of Brandenburg and Saxony. They speak the Sorbian languages - closely related to Polish and Czech - officially recognized and...
tale of Krabat that dates back to the 18th century, Preußler himself also considered it to tell the story of himself, his generation, and all young people who encounter power and its temptations and get ensnarled by it.
Adaptations
The story was adapted into a 1977 Czech animated film, Čarodějův učeňKrabat - The Sorcerer's Apprentice
Krabat – The Sorcerer's Apprentice is a 1978 Czechoslovak cutout animated dark fantasy film directed by Karel Zeman, based on the 1971 book Krabat by Otfried Preußler, and the Sorbian folk tale upon which the book is based...
(The Sorcerer's Apprentice), directed by Karel Zeman
Karel Zeman
Karel Zeman was a Czech film director, artist, production designer and animator. Because of his creative use of special effects and animation in his films, he has often been called the "Czech Méliès."-Life:...
.
The band ASP
ASP (band)
ASP is a German rock band from Frankfurt am Main formed in 1999. The name is basically identical with the pseudonym of the Band's leader Asp and to be pronounced as one word.-Biography:...
started with a musical version of the story, in 12 parts, in 2006
2006 in music
This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 2006.-January:*January 10 – Eric Burdon releases his album Soul of a Man and begins touring with a new band....
. In 2008 they finished the project with a 15 tracks album (on two CDs) called Zaubererbruder (i.e. "Sorcerer-Brother").
Marco Kreuzpaintner
Marco Kreuzpaintner
Marco Kreuzpaintner is a German film director and screenwriter.-Life:Kreuzpaintner was born March 11, 1977 in Rosenheim in Bavaria, Germany. He studied History of Art in Salzburg. He is a self-taught filmmaker with a background in film, advertising and music video production. He was the assistant...
's adaptation of Otfried Preußler's book also named Krabat
Krabat (film)
Krabat is a 2008 German fantasy film directed by Marco Kreuzpaintner from a screenplay by Michael Gutmann and Kreuzpaintner, based on Otfried Preußler's novel of the same name. The plot is about a boy, Krabat , who learns black magic from a sorcerer...
was released in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
on October 9, 2008.
Other books
Krabat is also the main character of three novels, written by the Sorbish writer Jurij BrězanJurij Brezan
Jurij Brězan was a Sorbian writer. He lived in East Germany.- Life and work :Brězan was born in Räckelwitz near Kamenz. He attended school in Bautzen and then studied political economics. After 1933, he worked illegally for Domowina and was active in a Sorbian resistance group. In 1937-38, he...
, published in 1968, 1976 and 1993.
External links
- Author's Official Site (English & German)
- Photo album of international book covers