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''Little Peter's Journey to the Moon'' (German ''Peterchens Mondfahrt'') is a German-language fairy tale written by Gerdt von Bassewitz. It was first performed as a theatre cosplay in Leipzig in 1912 and appeared in 1915 as a storybook for children with illustrations by Hans Baluschek. The story tells about a sad cockchafer named ''Mr. Zoomzeman'' (in German ''Herr Summsemann''), missing his sixth leg. He finds out that his leg now resides on the moon, but he can't travel alone. He must find two well-mannered children, who have never been mean or cruel against any animal before and which would be brave and kind enough to help him. After a fantastic and even dangerous journey, the three adventurers can rescue the missing leg. == Plot == Long ago, a thief, stealing wood in the forest, had accidentally cut off Mr. Zoomzeman’s great-great grandfather's leg. The thief was banished to the moon as punishment for his illegal wood cutting by the night fairy. Unfortunately, he took the leg with him and, since then, the Zoomzeman family suffered from the fife-legs curse. In present time, Mr. Zoomzeman has finally found a clue as to how to rescue his missing leg: he must find two well-mannered, well behaving children, who never ever had committed animal cruelty before. These children are little Peter and his younger sister Anneli (in German ''Anneliese''). Mr. Zoomzeman tells them his sad story and the children immediately promise to rescue the lost leg. Both children perfectly match the ideals told in the legends, but since they are humans, they can't fly. Thus, Mr. Zoomzeman teaches Peter and Anneli how to fly by singing and dancing a magical chant. Together they now fly toward the moon. Their first stop is the star meadow. There, the Sandman is looking after the star children. When the sandman encounters the travellers, he his first outraged, because their arrival has caused a ruckus amongst the star children. With his magical drum, he tries to scare Peter, Anneli and Mr. Zoomzeman off. But the children have brought sweet apples along as a travel supply. They give two apples to the sandman and apologize. Fortunately, the sandman enjoys apples a lot, he listens to Mr. Zoomzeman's story and then he summons the star girls of Peter and Anneli. Because the star crowns of their star girls always shine in brightest light (which means that the hearts of the children are purest), the sandman is impressed and offers to bring the three heroes to the tea round of the night fairy. They travel in sandman's celestial chariot, along the milky way, where the children learn everything about cosmic and aerial phenomena. Meanwhile, the night fairy has invited lots of celestial guests to her nocturnal midnight meeting. These include (in parenthesis the German original names): the thunder-man (''Donnermann''), the wind bride (''Windliesel''), the cloud-woman (''Wolkenfrau''), the lightning-witch (''Blitzhexe''), the rainy fritz (''Regenfritz''), the gale-giant (''Sturmriese''), the hale-hans (''Hagelhans''), Mother Hulda (''Frau Holle''), the ice-max (''Eismax''), the vodyanoy (''Wassermann''), Mary-of-the-dew (''Taumariechen''), the morning glory (''Morgenröte''), the afterglow (''Abendröte''), the morning star (''Morgenstern'') and the evening star (''Abendstern''). As soon all guests have taken place, all of a sudden the guardian of the milky way approaches and bitterly complains about the chaos, which the guests each had caused when travelling to the meeting. The guests apologize and besiege the guardian with fine goods. Finally, sandman and the adventurers arrive and cause a little ruckus: It is not only unusual to meet humans at the moon, normally the sandman is never late to any nocturnal meeting. His delay had worried the guests. But when they all listen to Mr. Zoomzeman's sad story, every celestial spirit promises help. The night fairy orders the milky way guardian to get the Big Bear, on which Peter, Anneli and Mr. Zoomzeman travel to the famous moon cannon. The cannon would catapult the adventurers to the great moon hill. On this hill, as the legend goes, Mr. Zoomzeman's lost leg is nailed to a sacred birch tree. When the children and their friend finally reach the moon birch, they encounter the Man-in-the-Moon and a fight for life and death breaks loose. The Man-in-the-Moon is anything but kind-hearted. In fact, he is cruel, violent and even cannibalistic. When he storms toward the children, in attempt to devour them (after he had already eaten Peter's jumping jack and even Anneli's beloved doll), all good celestial spirits intervene and protect the children's lifes. One by one, they smite down the Man-in-the-Moon, until Peter bravely takes his wooden toy sword, now attacking the evil giant in persona. Meanwhile, a despaired Anneli summons her's and her brother's star girl, who both blind the eyes of the Man-in-the-Moon. The evil giant loses sight and gets lost in the deep moon woods. Little Peter quickly climbs the moon birch and rescues the sixth leg of Mr. Zoomzeman. Anneli fixes the leg on the (unconciousness) cockchafer, then the children wake him up. Of course, Mr. Zoomzeman is overly happy, but time is running out: the morning glory approaches and admonishes the three to turn back to earth immediately - otherwise, they would be stuck on the moon forever. Mr. Zoomzeman conjures an old charm, that causes the moon's ground to open and the children fall back down to earth, straight into their bedroom. All stuff, the children had lost or sacrificed, has returned. The morning approches and the children release Mr. Zoomzeman into freedom. Then, the mother enters the bedroom and tells them, that "someone" hath brought them lots of gingerbread. File:Hans Baluschek, Illustration - Little Peter's trip to the Moon, Night.JPG|''The Night Fairy'' File:Hans Baluschek, Illustration - Little Peter's trip to the Moon, In der Kinderstube.JPG|''Meeting the children'' File:Hans Baluschek Peterchens Mondfahrt Sternwiese.jpg|''Star Meadow'' File:Peterchens Mondfahrt - Gemälde S. 52 -, Das Schloss der Nachtfee, engl. The Palace of the Night Fairy, Illustration von Hans Bartuschek, Verlagsanstalt Hermann Klemm.JPG|''The Castle of the Night Fairy'' File:Peterchens Mondfahrt - Die Mondkanone, engl. The Moon Cannon, Illustration von Hans Bartuschek, Verlagsanstalt Hermann Klemm K.G., Leipzig.JPG|''The Moon Cannon'' 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア(Wikipedia)』 ■ウィキペディアで「Little Peter's Journey to the Moon」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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