From my children's book cabinet - Der kleine dicke Ritter

Today's book is "Der kleine dicke Ritter". Inside it says it's based on an audio play based on a play called "The Thwarting of Baron Bolligrew" by the British author Robert Bolt.

Before telling you about "the little fat knight" named Oblong-Fitz-Oblong, however, I have to tell you about the "Augsburger Puppenkiste".
Augsburg is a city in the Bavarian part of Swabia and "Puppenkiste" translates to "puppet chest".

Public domain via Wikimedia Commons

The "Augsburger Puppenkiste" is a marionette theater whose predecessor was founded in 1943 and revived under the now known name in 1948. It performs plays for children, but also for adults, even operas.
We grew up with the "Puppenkiste", but not because we went to Augsburg to see it, that would have been out of the question, but because it gained popularity thanks to their TV productions (Liz, in case you read this, there are even two series of the Moomins from 1959/60 that I had never heard about before! I'm looking forward to watching those even if I don't know the books.).

In short, we grew up on stories from the "Puppenkiste", such as the "Jim Knopf" ("Jim Button") series based on the books by Michael Ende, the "Urmel" ("Impy") series based on Max Kruse's books, and among others also "Der kleine dicke Ritter" in 1963 (which obviously means I saw the reruns).
Watching those today still evokes a special childhood feeling in me, the familiar voices of the puppet players, the typical marionette movements, and the melodies. They were classic Christmas programs for example.

I think I knew the puppet version even before the book and even later than that I was really aware that it had originally been a play.
Here's the timeline and it's confusing.
The play came out in 1962 and translated into German by Marianne de Barde. Her translation was used by German writer Carl Mandelartz to retell the story under the pen name Carl Schanze in form of a novel which was published in 1963.
Also in 1963, the TV adaptation of the play of the "Augsburger Puppenkiste" was on air in Germany.
The BBC broadcasted the English audio play on Christmas 1964.

There were bound to be differences between original play and book, so I read the play as well which was quite a surprise.
Let me put it nicely, I guess it was Mandelartz who was very generous with the material and the puppet play was then based on the book. I couldn't find any information on that, though.

Maybe it's about time to tell you a bit about the plot.

The Duke and his knights want to get rid of Oblong-Fitz-Oblong because he's a bit too good a knight for them. After all the dragons in the area have been killed, he wants to move on to where they are needed. The Duke and knights, on the other hand, would prefer a little breather. They dream of sleeping in, some light jousting, and big meals.
So they send Oblong to the Bolligrew Islands as a Royal Knight Errant to stand up to the evil Baron Bolligrew and the dragon on the island. I think I don't give away too much when I say that he succeeds. First he has to gain the trust and help of the peasants on the island and deal with being hit by a magic spell which gives Bolligrew power over him.

Both in the play and the book, Oblong loves animals. One reason for him to accept the task is when he hears that the Baron is hunting all the animals.
In the play, however, he has killed at least one small pink dragon himself although he didn't like doing it and brings its tail tip for proof. In the book, he can't get himself to kill the dragon and instead of the tail tip he brings the whole pink dragon, tames him, and calls him Bonzo - and after him two more dragons!
When the Duke visits the Islands himself at the end, he even brings Bonzo along on the trip with him.

When Baron Bolligrew wants Oblong
out of the way for the Duke's visit,
Bonzo finds him and takes him
back to see the Duke just in time.

The dragon on the Bolligrew Islands is so evil, by the way, that not even Oblong wants to let him live in the book.
The play's dragon is black and has red eyes. In performances, that allows for him to be represented just by two red lights as he's sitting in his cave where he gets shot in the end. In the book he's black and has two tails and in the end he's dying in the ocean.
Bolligrew has an agreement with the dragon, each of them gets half of the island. When the dragon has ravished his half, he wants Bolligrew's half, so the Baron tries to get rid of him.
In the book he offers him poisoned mutton which the dragon is too smart to take.
The wizard putting the spell on Oblong uses an apple in the book, but in the play it's his mantle. The apple he's giving Oblong makes him poisonous, so the dragon will die if he eats him!

The evil dragon in the puppet play

And there are more animals. When Oblong leaves the castle, he takes all the jackdaws from the castle tower with him, including his friend Dolfus. You must know that the Duke's favorite dish is filled jackdaw and Oblong fears for his friends. Dolfus plays an important role when Oblong is put under the magic spell.
In the play, there are no jackdaws. Oblong meets Mike the magpie on the island and it's Mike who helps him with the spell. Also a badger plays a much bigger role in book and puppet play.

So essentially, the plot is the same, but the book and puppet play add more details.
There is a video of a school performance on YouTube. Maybe I should have a look at that sometime, just to see what it could look like on stage.
I will always prefer our version. I have loved it for over 50 years and I hear the voices of the marionettes when I read the book.
It was definitely interesting to find out about the differences, though, not something I had expected!