#hildegunst von mythenmetz

[snippit-crickit]

ah man this is stuff from about 1 year ago but i like coming back to it...

This is hildegunst von mythenmetz, a known Zamonian writer!! Basically, i wanted to redesign the books by hildegunst von mythenmetz Walter Moers in my style for uni....and these were the skecthes i did but to be fair i just wanted to draw more of Moerses characters xd

Ive known these books for a long time and its such a shame so little people know about them! Theyre mostly popular in germany and sadly they stopped translating them... Im not sure how i can sell you this series but City of Dreaming Books is great, it reminds me of grimms fairy tales but theyre humoristic as well, and moers did the illustrations for it himself... Recently a visual novel of the book i mentioned came out and its looking real pretty as well (also the books mostly feature non human characters which is cool for me i like creatures)

[2mucheyeliner]

I finally got into the Zamonia books and I love this little dinosaur man. I very much relate to his artistic crisis after reading the mysterious perfect manuscript haha :')

[mapo-leon]

Uh so a certain brain rot is back

Didn't expect that

Anyways so I read all the Zamonien books like 5 years ago and back then I wasn't as good at art as now so with the brain rot back I might be doing some fanart and I'm strating with Hildegunst of course because how else

[brsb4hls]

Time for niche posting:

New Walter Moers Zamonia novel arrived yesterday

It's over 600 pages with lots of great drawings

It's a Mythenmetz (Yarnspinner) novel, but since it's not the sequel to the Buchhaim books I'm looking forward to find out how it ties in.

[space-diablo]

I decided.. that it's finished and I like it.

[rockthistowninsideout]

Walter Moers, one day you will be the death of me!

Instead of giving us new information on Castle of Dreaming Books, he announced yet another book that was on nobody's radars.

The One-Horned Squirrel that wanted to live backwards (Twenty Zamonian Flables) will be released on September 4th.

Ein Einhörnchen, das lieber rückwärts leben möchte; ein Werwolf, der ein Wiewolf sein will; eine fleischfressende Pflanze, die gern Vegetarierin wäre; zwei Vampirgeierbrüder, die Aas verachten – etliche Bewohner des Kontinentes Zamonien haben Probleme mit ihrer Identität und daher kein leichtes Leben. Aber ob Dummwolf oder Schlaufuchs, ob Schmiegehäschen oder Halbtagsfliege, ob Froschling oder Buchling, sie alle finden ihren Weg in dieser Welt, in der die Fantasie und der Humor völlig außer Kontrolle geraten sind. Zwanzig zamonische Flabeln* über diverse Spielarten zamonischen Daseins aus der Feder von Bestsellerautor Hildegunst von Mythenmetz, kongenial übersetzt, illustriert und mit einem Nachwort – »Humor ist ein ernstes Geschäft« – von Walter Moers. *Die »Flabel« bezeichnet eine humorvoll-anarchische zamonische Kurzgeschichte und kennt, im Gegensatz zur klassischen Tierfabel, keinerlei Moral.

A One-Horned Squirrel that wants to live backwards; a Whowolf that wants to be a Howwolf; a carnivorous plant that wants to be a vegetarian; two vampire vulture brothers that despise carrion - several inhabitants of the continent Zamonia have issues with their identity and a hard life because of that. Whether Dumb Wolf or Clever Fox, Snuggle Bunny or Half-Day-Fly, Frogling or Bookling, they all find their way in this world where fantasy and humour have completely escalated.

Twenty Zamonian flables* about certain varieties of Zamonian lifeforms penned by bestselling novelist Hildegunst von Mythenmetz, congenially translated, illustrated and provided with a postscript - "humour is serious business" - by Walter Moers.

*A flable is a humorous-anarchistic Zamonian short story and knows, contrary to the classic fable, no moral.

[glowingtitle]

Hildegunst upon seeing Colossus:

[to-hel-and-back]

This is a cool new print that was recently added to the merch store. I might get this.

The store can be found on the official website (zamonien.de).

[lindwurmfeste]

Walter Moers art exhibition in Oberhausen (Germany). I had the chance to see it recently and I highly recommend it :)

22.09.24 until 19.01.25

[mask131]

The book of all books

If you are an avid reader, if you are a book lover, if you are a recurrent visitor of libraries and bookshops, if you are a collector of rare books, or if you are a fan of the hilarious literary comic strips of @myjetpack​ , this book is for you and I cannot advise you enough to try to read it at least once.

“The City of Dreaming Books”. A wonderful, hilarious, fascinating, bizarre fantasy adventure created by famous German author and illustrator Walter Moers. I read it in French, but an English translation exists - and you, lucky English-speakers, can even read the sequel to this wonderful novel, “The Labyrinth of Dreaming Books”, which is currently unavailable to non-German speaking Frenchies like me. Of course, if you can read German, I also suggest you try to enjoy these marvelous tomes in their original language - but even if you do not understand the text the bizarre, crazy, demented but deeply charming and hypnotizing illustrations of Moers are enough to plunge you into a twisted, inventive, genius world of puns, obsessions, beauties and treacheries. 

What is the story of “The City of Dreaming Books”? It is quite simple. They are the memoirs of an elderly lindworm scholar, Optimus Yarnspinner, retelling the greatest adventure he lived in his youth (I am using the English translations for the names - given everything is a pun in this world, the names change from language to language - in French it is Hildegunst Taillemythes, Hildegunst Myth-carver, and in German Hildegunst von Mythenmetz). As a young dinosaur-man of barely 77 years, Optimus is an avid bibliophile and aspiring author, who, on the death-bed of his mentor, inherits a manuscript. Not any manuscript: the manuscript of the best novel ever written in the history of the fantasy world of Zamonia. Reading this breaks you soul, makes you feel every emotions in the most intense way possible, and leaves you a forever changed being. 

This discovery prompts Optimus to search for the mysterious author of this manuscript - a brilliant young man that was last seen decades and decades ago, trying to have his novel published, in a town called Bookholm, where Optimus goes to investigate. Begins a exploration and investigation tale in this grand city at the center of the book industry, a quest of unnerving discoveries, hilarious encounters, heart-breaking tragedies, goofy plot twists and sordid crimes, in the beating heart of the literary arts - in the City of Dreaming Books, where reading can kill, and authors can become gods... or devils. 

The most intense pleasure brought by this novel is the universe of the titular City, the fabulous, fantastical, mind-blowing creation of Bookholm (Bouquinbourg in French, Buchhaim in German), a fantasy city that is all about books. Five hundred second hands bookshops, a million or so semi-legal book shops, with six hundred different publishing houses, fifty-five printing businesses and twelve paper factories. It is the city where all young authors go to get published, where all famous authors go to be recognized, praised and criticized, where all old authors go to die. All the books of history passed at one point by this wonderful city, where all the shops are centered around reading.

The opticians only give prescriptions for the best reading-glasses. All the alcohol and drugs sold are designe to enhance the reading experience. The pastries are shaped like books, the wood-carvers specialize in building bookshelves and book-holders, every pub has a public reading instead of an happy hour, and there are entire shops merely selling bookmarks. Linguists work in laboratories, dissecting words like animals, and book-binders are this city’s equivalent of trained surgeons. Scientists of Bookholm even go as far as to practice their psychological or biological projects in relation to literature - such as how one species’ literature was influenced by their biology, or the reverse. There are no big sports match - but rhyming competitions in literary salons. And the firemen are excepted to save the books first, the people afterward. 

The other great charm of this novel being the whimsical, medieval bestiary-like, borderline-surrealist fantasy world it takes place in. Zamonia is a recurring setting of Moers, who wrote other fantasy books taking place in this “time of myths and legends” supposedly taking place millenias and millenias before the history of the world as we know it today - when there was more continents than today, and when mankind was but a planetary minority believed to be more legend than reality. In this book every character is unique, ranging from talking animals, humanoid reptiles, yetis and giant worms to extremely alien and cartoonesque species that could be coming out of a UFO. Being familiar with the Germanic European folklore can help, since many mythological and fairytale creatures can be found back in those pages (the very protagonist is a lindworm, and in other places German bogeymen such as the rye-wolves can be encountered). All of course, with the unique and strangely superb illustrations of Moers, of which I offer you a quick sample. 

But let’s return to the books! Because this book is about books, all books, and literature, and book-selling, and the love and hate of books. Everything is described with such lavish details and such an imaginative mind - it is the most book-loving fantasy work I have ever read. And it is not without its dark side... Because in this world, there are demonology books, and cursed books, and trap-books designed to kill those that open them, and poisoned pages straight out of “The Name of the Rose”, and obscure literary-alchemists practicing strange editing experiences in the depths of the night, summoning golems of paper and demons of inks... And many of these forbidden and dangerous books are locked up in the catacombs below the city, a gigantic and ancient labyrinth that is regularly visited by the Book-Hunters, terrifying and deadly warriors trained to survive the treacherous paths and many deadly traps of the catacombs, so talented in their quest for books they can identify the nature of a tome merely by its smell. 

Because the catacombs of Bookholm are filled with some of the most precious treasures one can imagine. Books of times so ancient they are forgotten ; first editions thought to be lost to the world ; manuscripts that never saw the printing press ; prints with typos so rare they become worth a lot of money... These are precious treasures for a city where dubious dwarfs sell the blood of authors under their coat, and where the finest and most renowned book-shops sell books the same way high-class, luxury-brand clothes sell their products. 

And even beyond books, Moers keeps sliding here and there absolutely fantastic little stories, fleshing out the world - ghost legends and fairytales and imaginary geography - to keep us entertained while our sympathetic but also very unfit for adventure (he is a young author after all) has to make his way throughout scheming critics, bloodthirsty book-hunters, excentric dragon-witches, toasts of bees, haunted wines and criminal book-collectors.

And all that I describe... IS BUT THE FIRST PART OF THE BOOK!

I do not dare say more of it, out of fear of spoiling the surprise for you - but if you are a bibliophile, go check this beautiful novel. Let yourself sink in a world where books are law, justice, art, food, drugs and life, let yourself sink into a fantasy adventure with an ordinary bibliophile and aspiring author as a hero for once, and fall deep, deep into the depths of the labyrinthine catacombs of the books that dream but never die... 

[tante-litfass]

Auch für den Bau von Luftschlössern kann es nicht schaden, die Gesetze der Statik studiert zu haben, mein Lieber! 

— Hildegunst von Mythenmetz

[steinstrand]

„Hachmed, du kennst meine perverse Lust an der Selbstbestrafung […]“ Hallo?? Hildegunst?

Ja ja es geht darum sich durch langweilige Provinzmuseen zu quälen, aber musste das diese Formulierung sein? Generell bietet die Insel der Tausend Leuchttürme (didtl) interessante Einblicke in Hildegunsts Charakter…

Vom Briefwechsel (Herzzeit) zum Briefroman (Die Insel der Tausend Leuchttürme) - definitiv mit der selben Qualität

[space-diablo]

I'm not sorry.

[rockthistowninsideout]

Friends, FRIENDS! of all things Zamonia!

We have a release date for Insel der tausend Leuchttürme/Isle of a thousand lighthouses!

It's September 6th ! This year!

Fingers crossed that it'll stay this way.

Though the price will blow your socks off: ca. 42,00€! (My, there are a lot of exclamation marks in this post...)

It'll have about 650 pages in the hardcover edition and more than 100 black-and-white illustrations.

Here's the final cover shared a couple of days ago on Walter Moers' official facebook account:

[glowingtitle]

your honor, he’s neurotic

[filmola-de]

Eisspin der sehr Schreckliche - Team- und Filmuni Premiere am 25.9. in Berlin

Eisspin der sehr Schreckliche “Oben ist unten und hässlich ist schön.” — Motto der Ledermäuse “Eisspin, der sehr Schreckliche” ist das erste Kapitel von “Der Schrecksenmeister”. Ein kulinarisches Märchen aus Zamonien von Gofid Letterkerl. Neu erzählt von Hildegunst von Mythenmetz. Aus dem Zamonischen übersetzt von Walter Moers. Für die Leinwand adaptiert von Adrian Doll. Continue reading Untitled