Wikipedia
Krabat is a fantasy novel by Otfried Preußler, a German-speaking author born in Liberec (Reichenberg), Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic). It's a story based on a Wendish legend. The book was first published in 1971. The English translation first was published as The Satanic Mill from 1972 to 1991, then republished in 2000 as The Curse of the Darkling Mill, in 2011 as Krabat and in 2014 as Krabat and the Sorcerer's Mill. It is the basis of the 1978 Czech animated feature film The Sorcerer's Apprentice and the 2008 live-action Krabat (the 1975 television film Die schwarze Mühle is based on a different novelization of the same folk tale).
The book deals primarily with black magic and the lure of evil. Other themes include friendship, love, and death. It won the Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis (Prize for Literature for Young People) in 1972.
Krabat is a 2008 German fantasy film directed by Marco Kreuzpaintner from a screenplay by Michael Gutmann and Kreuzpaintner, based on Otfried Preußler's novel of the same name. The plot is about a boy, Krabat (played by David Kross), who learns black magic from a sorcerer (played by Christian Redl). A DVD-Video encode of the film is distributed in the United Kingdom as Krabat and the Legend of the Satanic Mill.
It premiered in the US at the Seattle International Film Festival in 2009.
Krabat (probably from Croatian Hrvat, which means Croatian person) is a mythical hero of the Sorbs. His legend is centered around the area of Lusatia, most notably the settlement of Čorny Chołmc, which today is a district of the city of Hoyerswerda, where Krabat is said to have learned his sorcerous powers. Over the course of time, the figure of Krabat has changed from an evil sorcerer to a folk hero and beneficial trickster.
The Krabat story has been adapted into several novels notably:
- Mišter Krabat (Master Krabat) (1954) by Měrćin Nowak-Njechorński.
- Čorny młyn (The Black Mill) (1968) by Jurij Brězan, on which the film Die Schwarze Mühle was based.
- Krabat (1971) by Ottfried Preußler, which inspired the Czech film Čarodějův učeň (1977) and the German film Krabat (2008). The Krabat album by German Goth band ASP is also inspired by this version of the legend.