German writer and actor, Peter berling, the famous author of the pentalogy started with Children of the Grail, passed away on the 20th at 83 years. Fame with this series of novels came to him in the 90s when Berling had already turned 60. It was also audiovisual producer and food critic.

He had the courage to present this 881-page work set in the Crusades and publish it in 1991 in Germany to become a literary phenomenon of the historical genre. Today I review his work as a tribute to his figure.

Beginnings

Berling He was a man of television and cinema. Had worked in more than 100 films and with great avant-garde directors of the Germany of the 70s as Fassbinder and Herzog. A cult reputation was cultivated that it shared with literature. This is how they arrived Children of the Grail and the success was so great that he devoted himself full time to it.

Cinema

Berling He starred in several German productions and was also secondary in others of importance. Among his titles are Fitzcarraldo with Klaus Kinsky, Green Snake y Aguirre, the wrath of god also with Kinski and with the direction of de Werner Herzog. With Fassbinder I work in Maria Braun's marriageY. And also with Martin Scorsese, with whom he participated in The last temptation of Christ y New York gangsters.

In 1986 he collaborated in the production of the French director Jean-Jacques Annaud, that I was going to adapt to the cinema The Name of the Rose, the great success of the Italian Umberto Eco and the first great door that opened to the medieval world. Berling He was one of the brothers of the Benedictine delegation that goes to the Abbey of Crime. That experience with the Middle Ages must have marked him for his later work.

Children of the Grail

Timely timing publication example that harnessed the wake of the globally acclaimed The pillars of the earth (from Welsh Ken Follett, published in 1989) and a little before The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown). But the appeal of the Middle Ages exists since the literary world is the literary world. There was the mentioned precedent of Umberto Eco and also from the creator of Brother Cadfael, the British writer Ellis Peters. And of course we could go back to the so-called medievalism fantastic of, for example, Tolkien and his trilogy of The Lord of the Rings (1954)

But Berling opted for developing a universe of bloodlines destined to reign and produce heroes. Suddenly, the protagonists were not prodigious detectives unraveling mysteries in remote abbeys, but had Knights Templar, hospitallers, Cathars, the Assassins, more secret societies or enigmas wrapped in a historical universe. Children of the grail could be framed or considered the link between that principle of elves, hobbits and orcs of Tolkien and the last and equally worldwide phenomenon that has now been Game of Thrones and that A song of ice and fire de George RR Martin, started in 1996.

Children of the grail tell the story of two brothers with royal blood who separate their vital paths, but have the destiny of dozens of kingdoms. Both traveled through a Europe heavily influenced by religion, steeped in wars and full of conspiracies. The success after its publication encouraged Berling to continue writing and thus completed four more volumes. The result is that long saga of adventures for all audiences but, at the same time, with the touch of cult best sellers. It mixes the historical and intrigue novel with a very detailed setting thanks to an elaborate documentation.

The series books

Blood of kings, The crown of the world, The black chalice and The Kelim of the princess They make up the four more titles in the series, but as often happens, it is always the first title that gets all the glory.

More titles

Berling also published Iesi's night, The Bishop and his Saint, The Children's Crusade, The heretic countess or The Knights of the Holy Sepulcher. The latter describes the intrigues and power struggles that preceded the first crusades and narrates the events that occurred just before The children of the Grial.