The Trumpeter of Krakow
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| Author | Eric P. Kelly |
|---|---|
| Illustrator | Janina Domanska |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Historical fiction |
| Published | 1928 (Macmillan Publishing Company) |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover) |
| Pages | 236 |
| ISBN | |
| OCLC | 22683171 |
The Trumpeter of Krakow, a young adult historical novel by Eric P. Kelly, won the Newbery Medal for excellence in American children's literature in 1929.
Centered on the historical fire that burned much of Kraków in 1462, The Trumpeter of Krakow tells the fictional story of a family of Joseph Charnetski, a Polish noble family from Kresy (modern day Ukraine), who fled to Kraków, Poland, in 1461 after their home is burned to the ground by the Cossack-Tartars of Bogdan Grozny, commonly known as "Peter of the Button Face" because of the button-shaped pockmark on his cheek.
After seeing a spy lurking around his house in Ukraine, Andrew Charnetski hastily removes his family to a safe location. While away, Peter of the Button Face, acting under the orders of Ivan III of Russia, burns the Charnetskis' village to the ground in search of the "Great Tarnov Crystal", a mysterious Tarnov crystal that has caused many wars over the millennia and had, a few centuries previously, been entrusted by the city of Tarnów to the Charnetski family for safeguarding until its discovery by others, at which time it was to be given to the current king of Poland.
Realizing that someone must have been after the crystal, and finding himself homeless, Andrew takes his family to Kraków, where his cousin Andrew Tenczynski lives, in order to give the crystal to King Kazimír Jagiełło. However, upon his arrival he finds that Tenczynski has been murdered and that his estate is under the control of Elizabeth of Austria, the queen of Poland. Destitute, Charnetski camps his family in the middle of the city for the day.
Charnetski's fifteen-year-old son Joseph explores the city, passing the Church of Our Lady St. Mary, from which a trumpeter plays an unfinished song called "the Heynal" [in Polish: Hejnał mariacki] four times every hour, once to each direction (north, east, south, and west). Joseph ends up saving an alchemist named Nicholas Kreutz and his niece, Elżbietka, from a wolfdog (even though the book said a dog). Kreutz offers Joseph and his family an apartment just below his on the unsavory Street of the Pigeons, a street near Kraków University where scientists and magicians often live.
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