Blood Brothers

Old Shatterhand has just about two reasons for doing anything:

It is the right thing to do.

It would be really, really entertaining.

I agree, but it's rarely also:

3. You really fucking annoyed him.

If this applies to you, run. The narrative is out to get you.

myzetauniverse

:-D :-D Yes! I totally agree here! Do not try to annoy Old Shatterhand. Ever. He does not hold grudges, he does not enjoy any kind of revenge, but you will regret pissing him off. Always. I particularly enjoy the scene in Satan and Iscariot novel where he squeezes the arm of Martha's drunken husband so hard there surely are gonna be bruises and warns him that so far this is only a "seal" of Old Shatterhand, and that if he will not stop abusing Martha, next time he can expect more :-D :-D Yep, I love his "dark" part when he takes things matter-of-factly, for example when he has nothing against punishment of Old Wabble and The General in the form of them having to give each other some beating, or when he stoically tells Rattler that nothing can be changed on the death penalty verdict except if he apologizes to Charlie, the death will be quick, but if he doesn't, it will be agonizing torture...

Just. The fact that I need to make the original novels less gay in order to write gay fanfic.

Brought to you by me wanting them to pine while being separated in the books and not, as in canon, kiss. This is now a kiss on the cheek. They will pine.

The struggle be real...

PS: Has anybody else the impression that every single adaptation is somehow less hornier than the original? Even 'Der Schuh des Manitou' pales in comparison.

Yes. I'm still waiting for an adaptation where they kiss to greet each other and say goodbye.

Or one that portrays Winnetou's descriptions accurately, focusing on his luscious locks and kissable lips lol

In Winnetou 2, as they part at the end, my older translation said they embraced. A more recent translation says that Winnetou bent down and kissed Charlie, before riding into the sunrise. There is no clarification of what kind of kiss it was, Karl May usually says so when they're kissing on both cheeks. So I'm just going to assume Winnetou kissed him on the lips and bolted after Santer. It would be almost funny to include that at the end of a movie, no explanation given. Watch everyone not familiar with the books go "wtf?!"

Does anybody have a good (online) source for the Chiricahua/Mescalero Apache language? The only dictionaries I can find have like 20 words in them...

I need it for reasons.

This is the best one, but it's the 'wrong' nation:

Dilzhe'e Apache Dictionary

I was like: "Oh, if I could simply ask KM about it."

Then I realized I *could*. And I didn't even need to drive 500 km and break into the Villa Shatterhand. All I had to do was to go to the Germanistic section of my local university library:

If you zoom in, you'll realize why. They also had this wonderful tome:

It is the catalogue of Karl May's personal library. Yes. I went to the library to check out the catalogue of another library. Fight me.

It has some amazing things. Like "Pyrotechics" (The last one on the list).

But it also has a list of his language books (definitive list of all languages spoken by OS incoming). Here, the page with the Native American languages:

There is only one entry about the Apache specifically, which translates to this entry:

My library does not have these books. But google books does. Not exactly this issue, but the super special all-in-one compendium.

A study of the traces of the Aztec language in Northern Mexico and North America with a comparison of the people and languages of Mexico and

I found it, I guess.

myzetauniverse

This is absolutely amazing!!!! You have found a holy grail!

This is wonderful! 🥳🥳🥳

Somewhere out there, Karl May is fist-pumping the aether in pride and joy! His legacy is alive and well. 🥰🥰🥰

expressions-of-nature

Yellowstone National Park by David Wessels

marysmirages

Starry Night over the Dunes (Bedouin with Arabian Horse) 2023

Old Shatterhand has just about two reasons for doing anything:

It is the right thing to do.

It would be really, really entertaining.

I agree, but it's rarely also:

3. You really fucking annoyed him.

If this applies to you, run. The narrative is out to get you.

Ah yes, Charley is such a kind man, such a ray of sunshine *pushes the scene in which he tortured a man using a technique that causes intense fear and even psychosis in the victim under the carpet with my foot* yes what an absolute sweetheart

It's in the South America novels, I think in the "In the Cordilleras" volume, but I don't have the books at hand to check.

I agree, that scene is very telling. I actually enjoy Charlie's bastard moments. He has a similar moment in the latter part of the Oriental cycle, where he's surprisingly impervious to the bad guy's pleading for mercy.

The South American cycle also has some good moments where the characters talk about certain aspects of their life as Germans, including persecutions and discrimination back in Europe, that are providing a very good historical context for these people and their reasons for travelling so far from home.

Kara ben Nemsi should have been woken up by a muezzin at least once. (The first prayer is at sunrise!) He does not strike me as a morning person and I bet it would be hilarious.

I almost fell out of bed. Somebody somewhere was shouting, causing me to awake with a startle. In such a big city as Bagdad, a fire would never be out of the ordinary. Alarmed, I ran to the little window with the bars in front of it and forced it open. Gladly, there was no smell of fire. However, the shouting was now louder.

I listened to the words and realized that I had acted like an idiot foreigner. I sighed and returned to my bed. Naturally, my panicked actions had woken up my dear friend Halef as well.

"Sidhi, has the muezzin scared you?", he laughed, quite amused by the spectacle. I could not disagree with him. However, my eyes were already falling shut again. I just grunted deeply.

"You are so much of a Christian, habibi. Nearly falling out of your bed from the words of Allah.", Halef kept on laughing. I ignored the endearment and soon was sleeping soundly again. I always held that the early morning was never good for any activities.

I just remembered that "Satan and Ischariot" exists. imagine a similar scene with Winnetou and Charley in Alexandria. I believe that would include Winnetou saying: "I think even Manitou is still asleep." Charley would want to argue that God never sleeps, but being too tired to actually do so.

there's a paragraph in Old Surehand about how Charley was made fun of by his friends for "being the biggest sleeper seen in all of the west" because he slept in so thoroughly one morning

Charley is one sleepy man headcanon accepted

There's one scene in "Winnetou's Heirs" where a side character wakes Charlie up, because everyone else, including Charlie's wife was already awake and making breakfast. Side character thought it wouldn't do for Old Shatterhand to sleep in, but Old Shatterhand disagreed.

whencyclopedia

Sioux

The Sioux are a native North American nation who inhabited the Great Plains region of, roughly, modern Colorado, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming. They are one of the many nations referred to as Plains Indians who lived in the region for approximately 13,000 years before the arrival of the Europeans in the 17th century.

wildwithlight

Winnetou and Old Shatterhand definitely use the Mescalero Apache dialect to talk shit about people right in front of their face.

Imagine if Winnetou learned German and they made some sort of a terrifying frankenmoster of a secret language that literally nobody else can understand

Does anybody have conclusive evidence that Winnetou can or cannot speak German?

Against:

In Satan and Ischariot, KM complains that he can't use German to secretly communicate with him. He literally says 'so sad that he can't speak German'.

For:

At the end of 'Captain Kaiman', somebody almost steps on Winnetou in the darkness. This scene is set in Germany. The person is of course surprised and asks who is lying there. And Winnetou answers that it's him. Would you use a different language if you are surprised?

In 'Schatz im Silbersee', Hobble-Frank makes a joke in German dialect. Everybody laughs. Winnetou is there, so I would guess he got the joke too?

I would also like to add here that Winnetou has a talent for languages. He speaks about five(?) canonically. Why would he not pick up something from Klekih-Petra and Old Shatterhand?

Wait since when is there a Germany scene in Captain Kaiman?

In "Winnetou's Heirs", Charlie finds some notebooks written by Winnetou. They were written in English, with words in Mescalero and occasionally in German, which made Charlie very misty-eyed. So it seems he learned some words and expressions from Charlie, but not nearly enough to follow a conversation. As mentioned above, in "Satan and Ischariot", there are at least 2-3 situations where he can't follow a conversation in German, though he does deduce a lot from context and Charlie's general body language (the conversation with Franz Vogel in Charlie's home).

Alright! Everybody please reblog this with/comment your nationality (if you're comfortable doing so), because looking at just where May's books have reached fascinates me to no end.

I'm Czech!

Romania here. 👋👋👋

If it helps, from what I saw in the memoirs of the previous generations, Karl May has been translated into Romanian since 1935, at least. Older generations were learning German in schools, so it's likely they were simply reading them in the original German. And it hit the peak around the '60s-'70s (thank you, Pierre Brice). My parents' generation all had at least the "Winnetou" trilogy in their bookshelves. Now the older editions are incredibly expensive to buy, but I'm doing my best to rebuild my dad's collection. And they translated some books that weren't translated before, like "Satan and Ischariot". So I'd say it's definitely seeing an upsurge in popularity again.

2206fireworksandsnowflakes2212

I'm strangely taken by the idea of Charley singing sea shanties.

I know he's mostly painted as an introvert in the books, but I like to imagine him as the sort of man that can find human connection almost anywhere. On his voyages, he has probably met hundreds of sailors, and even befriended some—does anybody here know of Turnerstick?—so I don't think it's out of pocket to think he probably knows a lot of shanties.

banned-from-existence

I mean, we know he sings in a choir and is well educated in music, so I can definitely see him sing sea shanties. I love the idea of him singing sea shanties with others for fun and loosening up a bit. Just him singing with friends in a relaxed enviroment!!

Where did you read this??? Omg, I must have missed it

banned-from-existence

I believe it is mentioned in a few instances, but the first ones that come to mind are these:

(I read the german books, so please excuse me if my translations are off)

In Satan and Ischariot 2, the third chapter called "a millionair", Winnetou visits Charley in Dresden. There he meets him in a "Gesangsverein", a singing club (this is what I meant with choir, though I don't know what differentiates them?) that Charley is a member in.

In Winnetou 3, they visit Helldorf-Settlement. There the settlers sing a song, Ave Maria, that Charley wrote. (Sadly, I couldn't find proof wether he wrote it as a song or just as a poem that someone turned into a song. Also, this shows less that he sang himself, but more that he is educated in music)

In the story "at the calm ocean" Charley and Tirnerstick visit a town in china and Charley makes a bet with a priest that he can play different instruments better than him (it's a bit of a weird scene...). He then proceeds to play different chinese instruments (with european tuning) very well.

Karl May also uses a lot of musical terms in his writing. This, of course, does not necessary mean that Charley knows and uses them as well, but I do think it fits him.

I believe there were even more scenes like these, but I couldn't find them fast enough. Anyway, I hope I managed to help^^

2206fireworksandsnowflakes2212

Oh, I'ven't read "Satan and Ischariot" 2.🤦😅

YOU ARE MISSING OUT OMG THAT'S LIKE ONE OF THE BEST???

Please go read it? And let us know what you think of The Scene Which Involves A Big Rock And A Lot Of Sand (it is a very good scene I promise).

Oh yes the scene with a big rock and a lot of sand is certainly incredibly memorable XD

I'm seconding that recommendation.

myzetauniverse

The scene with the big rock and Charlie nearly suffocating in the sand, and Winnetou lamenting "the sun of the Apache went out in a distant land..." There should be tons of fanfictions about that! Seeing Winnetou behaving like a normal person who loves Charlie so dearly, and at the very moment he does not give a damn that Emery is standing next to him. This is so very human you can feel the deep grief, horror and pain he is consumed by! TT_TT

daguerreotyping

Tintype of very relatable man who refuses to leave his bearskin burrito even at gunpoint, c. 1880s

bastianpae-deactivated20231219

Winnetou in the morning vibe.

In the year 1908. Here an original photo of the author Karl May at the grave of Seneca Indian chief Sagoyewatha or Red Jacket at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Buffalo, New York. This visit was after he had written the famous novels about his fictional identity Old Shatterhand and his fictional Apache chief friend Winnetou

transsexualgriffith

the scene where charley finds out about ribanna is such comedy gold to me. it literally goes like this

old shatterhand: yeah so winnetou doesn't like women huh

old firehand: well actually there was that one time where—

old shatterhand: HE QUEERBAITED ME??

Also:

Old Firehand's son Harry is like 12 or 14 years old.

That scene is probably set in 1862.

Winnetou was born in 1840, which makes him 22 years old.

22-12=10 (-> I think I know why Ribanna preferred Old Firehand.)

Ribanna must be at least six years older than Winnetou. The movie does not take that into account.