Inkworld trilogy
Encyclopedia
The Inkheart trilogy is a series of three fantasy novels written by German author Cornelia Funke
, comprising Inkheart (2004), Inkspell (2006), and Inkdeath (2008). The books chronicle the adventures of teenager Meggie Folchart whose life changes dramatically when she realizes that she and her father, a bookbinder named Mo, have the unusual ability to bring characters from books into the real world when reading aloud. Mostly set in Northern Italy
and the parallel world
of the fictional Inkheart book, the central story arc concerns the magic of books, their characters and creatures, and the art of reading.
Originally released in German-speaking Europe
, the English translation of the third book, entitled Inkdeath, by Anthea Bell
was released in October 2008. In 2004, Funke sold the film rights to all three books to New Line Cinema
; thus far, the first book has been made into a motion picture
, which was released in January 2009.
, discovers that her father Mortimer
, a professional bookbinder, has the unusual ability to transfer characters from books into the real world when he reads aloud. Scared by his own talents, Mo once brought four characters of a book entitled Inkheart to life while reading from the novel, including Dustfinger, his pet marten
Gwin; Capricorn, the book's villain; and Basta, Capricorn's right-hand man — in bitter exchange of his wife Teresa, who disappeared without a trace into the so-called Inkworld of the book. After many years Dustfinger returns to pay Meggie and her father a visit, advising them to flee the country to escape Capricorn and his followers who are in search of Mo and his Inkheart copy. The three of them eventually leave to hide at Meggie's great-aunt Elinor's house in Northern Italy but end up being dragged off by Basta and his companions to the near village of Capricorn where Mo is forced to read both treasure and Meggie as his hostage summons out the fabled monster known as "the Shadow" out of the book. Soon Meggie discovers she has the same talent as her father, and with the help of Inkheart author Fenoglio, her re-read mother, and 1001 Arabian Nights character Farid she helps kill Capricorn and his entourage with the power of her reading talent.
The Piper, the vicious servant of the Milksop, King of Ombra, where the characters are staying, kidnaps all of the children in the town and threatens to bring them to work to death at the silver mines. But Mo is returned to the world of the living with Dustfinger as well, and the two hatch a plan. Mo "The Bluejay" turns himself in to the Piper as his prisoner in exchange for the children, who are hidden by the Black Prince and his men in a cave. Violante, the Adderhead's daughter rescues him and brings him to the castle by the lake, where she used to live, because she wants the Bluejay to kill the Adderhead by writing the three words in the White Book, which Mo promised to heal, because he sabotaged it, and the Adderhead was rotting alive, in exchange for the children. The Adderhead goes after her while sending the Milksop after the children. The Black Prince however, learns of the Milksop's march, and moves the children to a giant tree in the forest, said to be a stronghold against giants, that was written by Fenoglio. They are attacked, but Meggie reads a Giant out of Fenoglio's words, and they are able to fend them off, and kill Sootbird, the fire-eater who took Dustfinger's place. At the castle, the Adderhead's men followed a secret passage to the inside, and Violante's child-soldiers get slaughtered, the BlueJay captured, and Dustfinger killed by a Night-Mare conjured up by Orpheus, who is now the Adderheads servant. Resa shape-shifts into a swift, using magical seeds that were used by Mortola to shape-shift, before she was killed by the Adderheads men, and searches for the white book along with Dustfinger, who came back to life again. Dustfinger pretends to betray Mo, to earn the Piper's trust, but really was leading the Adderhead on in an elaborate plan with Bluejay and Violante. Under the Piper's supervision, Mo works on a new White Book, to replace the Adderhead's, as slowly as possible, for it is plain that the book should never be finished. The Adderhead's grandson, Jacopo, steals the White Book from the Adderhead and secretly hands it to Mo. Mo writes the three words and the Adderhead dies. A short skirmish takes place, Dustfinger kills the Night-Mare, and Resa and Mo kill the Piper. Meanwhile, the Adderhead's bodyguard Thumbling, steals all of the Adderheads possessions and takes off.
The last part of the book explains that Orpheus runs away to the cold mountains, Farid goes traveling as a fire-dancer, Meggie instead stays with Doria and rejects Farid. Resa gives birth to a child and it is a boy. The child tells the story in the last chapter and he wishes he could see the world where his father, mother and sister were born in as he thinks it is much more exciting than his own, because of the stories told to him by Elinor, who was read along with Darius into the book earlier on. The boy and Resa both turn into birds every few night, as a side-effect of the seeds, but all in all it is assumed that the entire surviving cast lives happily forever after in Ombra, with Violante as their queen.
for children's fiction in Germany in 2004, and was selected as the best novel of the year in children's literature
by the Jury der jungen Leser in June of the same year. It was also awarded the Kalbacher Klapperschlange
and the Silberner Griffel, receiving nominations for the Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis
and the Rattenfänger-Literaturpreis. In June 2007 Inkheart was voted, in a composite online and phone poll-show named Unsere Besten
, organized by the ZDF
network
, as the eleventh best book of all time by the general public.
Follow-up Inkspell won the Book Sense Book of the Year Award
in the category "Children's Literature."
, and the Wuppertal
er Kinder- und Jugendtheater. In September 2006 a musical version
premiered at the Junges Theater Bonn
, involving over twenty actors and actresses and a live band.
In 2004, New Line Cinema
bought the film rights to all three books for a cinema adaptation, beginning with the production of the first novel, Inkheart
. Funke moved to Los Angeles, California in May 2005 after she had accepted the offer to participate as the film's producer alongside Barry Mendel
. Principal photography on Inkheart began on location in Liguria
, Italy on 8 November 2006, before moving to Shepperton Studios
in Surrey, England. Directed by Iain Softley
, the film is based on a screenplay by David Lindsay-Abaire
and involving an ensemble cast
, that includes Brendan Fraser
, Helen Mirren
, Paul Bettany
, Jim Broadbent
, Rafi Gavron
, Andy Serkis
and newcomer Eliza Bennett
, among others.
Cornelia Funke
Cornelia Funke is a multiple award-winning German author of children's fiction. She was born on 10 December 1958, in Dorsten, North Rhine-Westphalia. Funke is best known for her Inkworld trilogy, with the English translation of the third book, Inkdeath, released on 6 October 2008. Many of her...
, comprising Inkheart (2004), Inkspell (2006), and Inkdeath (2008). The books chronicle the adventures of teenager Meggie Folchart whose life changes dramatically when she realizes that she and her father, a bookbinder named Mo, have the unusual ability to bring characters from books into the real world when reading aloud. Mostly set in Northern Italy
Northern Italy
Northern Italy is a wide cultural, historical and geographical definition, without any administrative usage, used to indicate the northern part of the Italian state, also referred as Settentrione or Alta Italia...
and the parallel world
Parallel universe (fiction)
A parallel universe or alternative reality is a hypothetical self-contained separate reality coexisting with one's own. A specific group of parallel universes is called a "multiverse", although this term can also be used to describe the possible parallel universes that constitute reality...
of the fictional Inkheart book, the central story arc concerns the magic of books, their characters and creatures, and the art of reading.
Originally released in German-speaking Europe
German-speaking Europe
The German language is spoken in a number of countries and territories in West, Central and Eastern Europe...
, the English translation of the third book, entitled Inkdeath, by Anthea Bell
Anthea Bell
Anthea Bell OBE is a British translator who has translated numerous literary works, especially children's literature, from French, German, Danish and Polish to English...
was released in October 2008. In 2004, Funke sold the film rights to all three books to New Line Cinema
New Line Cinema
New Line Cinema, often simply referred to as New Line, is an American film studio. It was founded in 1967 by Robert Shaye and Michael Lynne as a film distributor, later becoming an independent film studio. It became a subsidiary of Time Warner in 1996 and was merged with larger sister studio Warner...
; thus far, the first book has been made into a motion picture
Inkheart (film)
Inkheart is a 2008 fantasy film directed by Iain Softley and starring Brendan Fraser, Eliza Bennett, Paul Bettany, Helen Mirren, Andy Serkis and Jim Broadbent. It is based on the novel with the same name by Cornelia Funke...
, which was released in January 2009.
Inkheart
In Inkheart, the twelve-year-old, MeggieMeggie Folchart
Meggie Folchart is a character in the Inkworld trilogy, by Cornelia Funke. She is the only daughter to Mo and his wife Teresa . Meggie serves as one of the protagonists of the series. In the Inkheart Films, Meggie is played by Eliza Bennett....
, discovers that her father Mortimer
Mortimer Folchart
Mortimer "Mo" Folchart is a fictional character in Cornelia Funke's Inkheart trilogy. He is a bookbinder and has the ability to bring fictional characters to life in the "real world" by reading aloud from books. He has a daughter named Meggie who also has the talent to bring characters out of...
, a professional bookbinder, has the unusual ability to transfer characters from books into the real world when he reads aloud. Scared by his own talents, Mo once brought four characters of a book entitled Inkheart to life while reading from the novel, including Dustfinger, his pet marten
Marten
The martens constitute the genus Martes within the subfamily Mustelinae, in family Mustelidae.-Description:Martens are slender, agile animals, adapted to living in taigas, and are found in coniferous and northern deciduous forests across the northern hemisphere. They have bushy tails, and large...
Gwin; Capricorn, the book's villain; and Basta, Capricorn's right-hand man — in bitter exchange of his wife Teresa, who disappeared without a trace into the so-called Inkworld of the book. After many years Dustfinger returns to pay Meggie and her father a visit, advising them to flee the country to escape Capricorn and his followers who are in search of Mo and his Inkheart copy. The three of them eventually leave to hide at Meggie's great-aunt Elinor's house in Northern Italy but end up being dragged off by Basta and his companions to the near village of Capricorn where Mo is forced to read both treasure and Meggie as his hostage summons out the fabled monster known as "the Shadow" out of the book. Soon Meggie discovers she has the same talent as her father, and with the help of Inkheart author Fenoglio, her re-read mother, and 1001 Arabian Nights character Farid she helps kill Capricorn and his entourage with the power of her reading talent.
Inkspell
A year has passed, but not a day goes by without Meggie thinking of Inkheart, a book that has characters that come to life. Resa is back, but she lost her voice. The fire-eater Dustfinger wants to go back into the story. When he finds a crazy storyteller, Orpheus, who can read him back into the book, he goes into the pages, but Orpheus doesn't read Farid back into the book like he was supposed to, because he leaves the name "boy" out. Soon Farid convinces Meggie to read him into the book so he can warn Dustfinger of Basta, and then becomes his apprentice once more. But this time, Meggie has figured out how to read herself and Farid into the book Inkheart. Suddenly, Mortola, Basta, Orpheus, and a "man built like a wardrobe" barge into Elinor's house, and take Mo, Resa, Elinor, and Darius prisoner, while Meggie and Farid have no idea what is happening in the other world. Orpheus reads Basta, Mortola, Mo, and Resa into Inkheart. Mortola gets a modern rifle, and shoots Mo, thinking that she has killed him and just leaves. However, Mo survived the shot. Resa discovers that her voice has come back to her. Resa and Mo are hiding with the strolling players, but now they have discovered that the injured Mo is the mysterious gentleman-robber, the "Bluejay", created by Fenoglio's words. Fenoglio is now living within his own story and he makes Meggie read Cosimo the Fair back into the story since he died, Meggie being kissed by Farid shortly after. Now the Adderhead is out to get him, and he is just waiting to hang him, or kill his family in front of him. Mo and Resa are captured, and Mo is unable to escape because of his fatal wound. Meggie, Resa, and Mo all end up in the Adderhead's castle (the Castle of Night), while Meggie has made a bargain with the Adderhead that she will bind him a book of immortality if he lets Meggie, Resa, Mo, and the other strolling players he has captured go. What doesn't tell the prince is that if three words are written in the book--heart, spell, death--the Adderhead will die instantly. In the meanwhile, Farid and Dustfinger have snuck into the castle using soot that causes invisibility, created by a combination of fire and water. Meggie and Farid fall in love. Farid is later killed by Basta, one of Capricorn's old followers, and then Mo kills him. Later, Dustfinger summons the White Women to bring Farid back to life, sacrificing himself. Roxanne, Dustfinger's wife, realizes this and is furious at Farid for taking away her love, but is powerless to do anything. Meggie reads Orpheus into the story using Fenoglio's words, although Orpheus refuses to believe that she reads him into the book. Farid agrees to work for Orpheus as a servant if he writes something to bring Dustfinger back to life. But Farid wonders, will he live up to the agreement and will Dustfinger ever come back?Inkdeath
Farid is the servant of Orpheus, and has been trying to convince the man to bring Dustfinger back from the dead. Orpheus agrees to read him back, but under one condition: Mo takes his place in death. Mo summons the White Women using words that Orpheus copied from Inkheart, and they bring him to the world of the dead, causing much commotion amongst those around him. In the world of the dead, Mo meets Death himself, and Death bargains with Mo. Mo must bring the Adderhead to death before Spring comes or Meggie and himself will die.The Piper, the vicious servant of the Milksop, King of Ombra, where the characters are staying, kidnaps all of the children in the town and threatens to bring them to work to death at the silver mines. But Mo is returned to the world of the living with Dustfinger as well, and the two hatch a plan. Mo "The Bluejay" turns himself in to the Piper as his prisoner in exchange for the children, who are hidden by the Black Prince and his men in a cave. Violante, the Adderhead's daughter rescues him and brings him to the castle by the lake, where she used to live, because she wants the Bluejay to kill the Adderhead by writing the three words in the White Book, which Mo promised to heal, because he sabotaged it, and the Adderhead was rotting alive, in exchange for the children. The Adderhead goes after her while sending the Milksop after the children. The Black Prince however, learns of the Milksop's march, and moves the children to a giant tree in the forest, said to be a stronghold against giants, that was written by Fenoglio. They are attacked, but Meggie reads a Giant out of Fenoglio's words, and they are able to fend them off, and kill Sootbird, the fire-eater who took Dustfinger's place. At the castle, the Adderhead's men followed a secret passage to the inside, and Violante's child-soldiers get slaughtered, the BlueJay captured, and Dustfinger killed by a Night-Mare conjured up by Orpheus, who is now the Adderheads servant. Resa shape-shifts into a swift, using magical seeds that were used by Mortola to shape-shift, before she was killed by the Adderheads men, and searches for the white book along with Dustfinger, who came back to life again. Dustfinger pretends to betray Mo, to earn the Piper's trust, but really was leading the Adderhead on in an elaborate plan with Bluejay and Violante. Under the Piper's supervision, Mo works on a new White Book, to replace the Adderhead's, as slowly as possible, for it is plain that the book should never be finished. The Adderhead's grandson, Jacopo, steals the White Book from the Adderhead and secretly hands it to Mo. Mo writes the three words and the Adderhead dies. A short skirmish takes place, Dustfinger kills the Night-Mare, and Resa and Mo kill the Piper. Meanwhile, the Adderhead's bodyguard Thumbling, steals all of the Adderheads possessions and takes off.
The last part of the book explains that Orpheus runs away to the cold mountains, Farid goes traveling as a fire-dancer, Meggie instead stays with Doria and rejects Farid. Resa gives birth to a child and it is a boy. The child tells the story in the last chapter and he wishes he could see the world where his father, mother and sister were born in as he thinks it is much more exciting than his own, because of the stories told to him by Elinor, who was read along with Darius into the book earlier on. The boy and Resa both turn into birds every few night, as a side-effect of the seeds, but all in all it is assumed that the entire surviving cast lives happily forever after in Ombra, with Violante as their queen.
Awards
The first volume, Inkheart, won the Phantastik-Preis der Stadt WetzlarWetzlar
Wetzlar is a city in the state of Hesse, Germany. Located at 8° 30′ E, 50° 34′ N, Wetzlar straddles the river Lahn and is on the German Timber-Framework Road which passes mile upon mile of half-timbered houses. Historically, the city has acted as the hub of the Lahn-Dill-Kreis on the north edge of...
for children's fiction in Germany in 2004, and was selected as the best novel of the year in children's literature
Children's literature
Children's literature is for readers and listeners up to about age twelve; it is often defined in four different ways: books written by children, books written for children, books chosen by children, or books chosen for children. It is often illustrated. The term is used in senses which sometimes...
by the Jury der jungen Leser in June of the same year. It was also awarded the Kalbacher Klapperschlange
Kalbach
Kalbach is a municipality in the district of Fulda, in Hesse, Germany. Kalbach is about 20 km south of the city of Fulda and 90 km east-northeast of Frankfurt. Kalbach encompasses the communities of Eichenried, Heubach, Mittelkalbach, Niederkalbach, Oberkalbach, Uttrichshausen and...
and the Silberner Griffel, receiving nominations for the Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis
Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis
The Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis is an annual award established in 1956 by the Federal Ministry of Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth to recognise outstanding works of children's literature. It is Germany's only state-funded literary award. In the past, authors from many countries...
and the Rattenfänger-Literaturpreis. In June 2007 Inkheart was voted, in a composite online and phone poll-show named Unsere Besten
Unsere Besten
Unsere Besten was a television series shown in German public television in November 2003, similar to the BBC series 100 Greatest Britons....
, organized by the ZDF
ZDF
Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen , ZDF, is a public-service German television broadcaster based in Mainz . It is run as an independent non-profit institution, which was founded by the German federal states . The ZDF is financed by television licence fees called GEZ and advertising revenues...
network
Television network
A television network is a telecommunications network for distribution of television program content, whereby a central operation provides programming to many television stations or pay TV providers. Until the mid-1980s, television programming in most countries of the world was dominated by a small...
, as the eleventh best book of all time by the general public.
Follow-up Inkspell won the Book Sense Book of the Year Award
Book Sense
Book Sense was a marketing and branding program of the American Booksellers Association, in which many independent bookstores across North America participated in order to better compete with the large book chains. Bookstores participating in the Book Sense program were expected to display the Book...
in the category "Children's Literature."
Adaptions
In October 2004, a series of various theatrical version of the first two books started with the world premiere of Inkheart at the Schauspielhaus Hannover. It has since been staged in several cities in Germany, notably at the Staatstheater StuttgartStaatstheater Stuttgart
The Staatstheater Stuttgart ' is an opera house in Stuttgart, Germany. It is also known locally as the Grosses Haus, having been the larger of two theatres of the former Königliche Hoftheater....
, and the Wuppertal
Wuppertal
Wuppertal is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located in and around the Wupper river valley, and is situated east of the city of Düsseldorf and south of the Ruhr area. With a population of approximately 350,000, it is the largest city in the Bergisches Land...
er Kinder- und Jugendtheater. In September 2006 a musical version
Musical theatre
Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...
premiered at the Junges Theater Bonn
Bonn
Bonn is the 19th largest city in Germany. Located in the Cologne/Bonn Region, about 25 kilometres south of Cologne on the river Rhine in the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, it was the capital of West Germany from 1949 to 1990 and the official seat of government of united Germany from 1990 to 1999....
, involving over twenty actors and actresses and a live band.
In 2004, New Line Cinema
New Line Cinema
New Line Cinema, often simply referred to as New Line, is an American film studio. It was founded in 1967 by Robert Shaye and Michael Lynne as a film distributor, later becoming an independent film studio. It became a subsidiary of Time Warner in 1996 and was merged with larger sister studio Warner...
bought the film rights to all three books for a cinema adaptation, beginning with the production of the first novel, Inkheart
Inkheart (film)
Inkheart is a 2008 fantasy film directed by Iain Softley and starring Brendan Fraser, Eliza Bennett, Paul Bettany, Helen Mirren, Andy Serkis and Jim Broadbent. It is based on the novel with the same name by Cornelia Funke...
. Funke moved to Los Angeles, California in May 2005 after she had accepted the offer to participate as the film's producer alongside Barry Mendel
Barry Mendel
Barry Mendel is a film producer. The first film he produced was Rushmore, directed by Wes Anderson which won IFP Independent Spirit Awards for Best Director Anderson and Best Supporting Actor Bill Murray. This was followed by The Sixth Sense, directed by M. Night Shyamalan, which was nominated for...
. Principal photography on Inkheart began on location in Liguria
Liguria
Liguria is a coastal region of north-western Italy, the third smallest of the Italian regions. Its capital is Genoa. It is a popular region with tourists for its beautiful beaches, picturesque little towns, and good food.-Geography:...
, Italy on 8 November 2006, before moving to Shepperton Studios
Shepperton Studios
Shepperton Studios is a film studio in Shepperton, Surrey, England with a history dating back to 1931 since when many notable films have been made there...
in Surrey, England. Directed by Iain Softley
Iain Softley
Iain Softley is an English film director. He was educated at St Benedict's School, Ealing, where he played the part of Thomas Becket in its 1975 production of T. S...
, the film is based on a screenplay by David Lindsay-Abaire
David Lindsay-Abaire
David Lindsay-Abaire is an American playwright and lyricist. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2007 for his play Rabbit Hole, which also earned several Tony Award nominations.-Early life and education:...
and involving an ensemble cast
Ensemble cast
An ensemble cast is made up of cast members in which the principal actors and performers are assigned roughly equal amounts of importance and screen time in a dramatic production. This kind of casting became more popular in television series because it allows flexibility for writers to focus on...
, that includes Brendan Fraser
Brendan Fraser
Brendan James Fraser is a Canadian-American film and stage actor. Fraser portrayed Rick O'Connell in the three-part Mummy film series , and is known for his comedic and fantasy film leading roles in major Hollywood films, including Encino Man , George of the Jungle , Dudley Do-Right , Monkeybone ,...
, Helen Mirren
Helen Mirren
Dame Helen Mirren, DBE is an English actor. She has won an Academy Award for Best Actress, four SAG Awards, four BAFTAs, three Golden Globes, four Emmy Awards, and two Cannes Film Festival Best Actress Awards.-Early life and family:...
, Paul Bettany
Paul Bettany
Paul Bettany is an English actor. He has appeared in a wide variety of films, including A Knight's Tale, A Beautiful Mind, and The Da Vinci Code...
, Jim Broadbent
Jim Broadbent
James "Jim" Broadbent is an English theatre, film, and television actor. He is known for his roles in Iris, Moulin Rouge!, Topsy-Turvy, Hot Fuzz, and Bridget Jones' Diary...
, Rafi Gavron
Rafi Gavron
Raphael Pichey "Rafi" Gavron is a British actor, known for his roles in the Anthony Minghella romantic-drama film Breaking and Entering , and the 2008 movies Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist and the fantasy Inkheart....
, Andy Serkis
Andy Serkis
Andrew Clement G. "Andy" Serkis is an English actor, director and author. He is popularly known for playing Gollum in The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, for which he earned several award nominations, including the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in The Two Towers...
and newcomer Eliza Bennett
Eliza Bennett
Eliza Hope Bennett is an English teen actress and singer. Her most notable roles were that of Meggie Folchart in the film Inkheart and Susan in From Time to Time.-Early life:...
, among others.