“Little Ghost” ( German: Das kleine Gespenst ) is a fairy tale by the German writer Otfried Preusler about a ghost from an old castle that unexpectedly becomes daytime and is constantly forced to encounter people. The tale was published in 1966 by Tinemann Publishing House with illustrations by Franz Joseph Tripp .
| Little Ghost | |
|---|---|
| Das kleine gespenst | |
| Genre | fairy tale |
| Author | Otfried Preusler |
| Original language | Deutsch |
| Date of first publication | 1966 |
| Publisher | Tinemann |
| Previous | Little Baba Yaga |
The fairy tale completes a peculiar trilogy about small representatives of supernatural beings, which also includes the stories Little Baba Yaga and Little Watery , written in the late 1950s. It has been translated into dozens of languages and has been repeatedly filmed.
Content
Story
In the Oilenstein castle near the city of Oilenberg lives the Little Ghost. It wakes up at night and wanders around the castle, and falls asleep at dawn. Once he (that is, the Ghost) wanted to find out what the world looks like during the day, but despite trying to wake up at another time, he does not succeed. In addition, the best friend of the Little Ghost, an eagle owl Shuhu, warns him against daylight: Shuhu himself almost died one day before he could return to the hollow in the afternoon.
However, once the unexpected happens: Little Ghost wakes up not at midnight, but at noon. It flies out into the street and becomes black from sunlight. He (that is, the Ghost) is noticed by people, and it begins to hide in the underground passages, crawling out in unexpected places in the city and scaring the inhabitants. The ghost turns into daylight and can no longer wake up at night. And when the city celebrates the 325th anniversary of the removal of the Swedish siege, Little Ghost flies out and drives away the Swedish army - just as it did 325 years ago.
It does not know that the Swedish soldiers are disguised citizens at a historic holiday. However, soon from the conversations of the children, the Ghost learns of its mistake. He becomes ashamed, and it decides to return to the castle. Children learn that recently the clock on the city tower was being repaired and they were 12 hours behind. This was the reason that the Ghost began to wake up at noon.
The guys ask the watchmaker to move the clock forward again. The ghost returns to the castle and again becomes night, having regained its original white color.
Translations
There are two translations of the fairy tale into Russian (with the same name). For the first time in Russian, the fairy tale was published in the Murzilka magazine in 1981 (No. 3-8) in translation (retelling) by Yuri Korints and Natalya Burlova, with drawings by Lev Tokmakov. Another translation belongs to Elvira Ivanova ; both translations have been reprinted several times [1] [2] .
Screenshots
- In 1969, a puppet film of the same name was staged in Germany (in two episodes) [3] .
- In 1987, on the Leningrad television, the film-production “The Ghost from the City of Oilenberg ” based on the works of Preusler (director Anatoly Slyassky) was staged. The role of the Ghost was made by Anatoly Ravikovich [4] .
- In 1992, in Germany, director Kurt Linda shot the eponymous 86-minute color cartoon based on a fairy tale [5] .
- In 2013, another full - length animated film was released from the book with the same name [6] .
Other adaptations
- According to the tale, radio plays and audio books were published, which are still being reprinted [7] [8] .
- In 2005, based on the tale, a board game was published for children (for 2-4 people over 5 years old) [9] [10] .
Notes
- ↑ Works of Otfried Preusler (inaccessible link) . Date of treatment July 30, 2014. Archived on August 11, 2014.
- ↑ Fiction Archive
- ↑ SWR Media Services - TV Lizenz Archived on November 9, 2013.
- ↑ Ghost from the City of Oilenberg - YouTube
- ↑ Das kleine Gespenst (1992) - IMDb
- ↑ Das kleine Gespenst (2013) - IMDb
- ↑ Otfried Preußler - Release-Detail - Das kleine Gespenst (1) - (CD album) - Karussell unopened (link not available) . Date of treatment July 30, 2014. Archived on February 2, 2015.
- ↑ Otfried Preußler - Release-Detail - Das kleine Gespenst (2) - (CD album) - Karussell unopened (link not available) . Date of treatment July 30, 2014. Archived on February 2, 2015.
- ↑ Infos zu Das Kleine Gespenst
- ↑ Das Kleine Gespenst | Board Game | BoardGameGeek
Links
- Information about the book on the author’s website (German)
- Little Ghost on the Fantasy Lab website
- Das kleine Gespenst (excerpt from the book) (German)