Old Shatterhand

This article is about the fictional character. For a film based on the fictional character, see Old Shatterhand (film).
Old Shatterhand
Created by Karl May
Portrayed by Lex Barker
Information
Gender Male
Nationality German

Old Shatterhand is a fictional character in Western novels by German writer Karl May (1842–1912). He is the German friend and blood brother of Winnetou, the fictional chief of the Mescalero tribe of the Apache. He is the main character in the Eurowestern by the same name from 1964, starring Lex Barker.

Characterisation

Old Shatterhand is the alter ego of Karl May, and May himself maintained that he experienced all the adventures in person, even though in fact he did not visit America until after he wrote most of his well-known Western stories, and never traveled west of Buffalo, NY. Most of the stories are written from a first person perspective, and Winnetou often calls Old Shatterhand my brother Scharli ('Scharli' being a German phonetic approximation of 'Charlie', and ultimately meaning Karl in German). May also wrote stories about the same character traveling the Orient, where he is known as Kara Ben Nemsi.

May attached the prefix Old to the names of several of his characters, considering it to be typically American and a sign of the characters' great experience. In the stories, Old Shatterhand is given the name by his friend Sam Hawkens (who also originates from Germany but is already an old-timer in the American West), as he was able to knock his opponents unconscious with a single punch from his fist aimed at the head (specifically the temple).

Bärentöter (center) and the Henrystutzen (right), in the Karl May Museum.

Old Shatterhand owns two famous rifles, the Bärentöter (Bear Killer) and the Henrystutzen (Henry carbine), both made by a fictional gunsmith called Henry in St. Louis (based on gunsmith Benjamin Tyler Henry 1821–1898). The Henrystutzen was able to fire 25 shots without reloading, probably a hyperbolic reference to the Henry rifle. Old Shatterhand rode a horse called Hatatitla (Lightning), which he got from Winnetou, who rode the horse's brother, called Iltschi (meaning Wind).

The tales may have been an influence on the creation of the Lone Ranger media franchise.[1][2]

Original German Old Shatterhand stories

Travel stories

Stories for youth

In some early stories (Old Firehand (1875), Im fernen Westen (1879), Der Scout (1888/89)) there is an anonymous first-person narrator, who was changed to Old Shatterhand in a revision of Winnetou II.

In the story Im Reiche des silbernen Löwen IV (1903) Kara Ben Nemsi says he was Old Shatterhand.

Movies

The character of Old Shatterhand was played in the German Karl May movies of the 1960s by American actor Lex Barker.

In contrast to the stories in the movies Unter Geiern (1964) and Der Ölprinz (1965) Old Surehand (starring Stewart Granger) was the hero instead of Old Shatterhand. Old Surehand is another character created by Karl May. Karl May dedicated three volumes to him, who is like Old Shatterhand a renowned Western hero and best friends with the Native Americans. Unlike Old Shatterhand, Old Surehand is a half-blood Native himself, though raised in a white family.

English translations of Karl May's works

Prose sequels

In the 1990s British writer B.J.Holmes produced two prose sequels featuring the character: A Legend Called Shatterhand, and Shatterhand and the People.[3]

References

  1. ↑ Lone Ranger Radio Broadcasts (The Lone Ranger), Modesto Radio Museum
  2. ↑ The Road to War: Portraying the Indian, continued..., American Indians in the Great War: Real and Imagined, Diane Camurat, online in the Karl May Gesellschaft website
  3. ↑ Bernard A. Drew, Literary Afterlife: The Posthumous Continuations of 325 Authors Fictional Characters, McFarland & Co Inc, 2009, p.320
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