Gott will es! Zu Rezeption und Mythisierung der Kreuzzüge als gerechte Kriege in Fantasyromanen am Beispiel der ‚Elfenritter‘-Trilogie Bernhard Hennens

Abstract

The article analyses how contemporary fantasy reconfigures medieval ideas of war and peace, focusing on Bernhard Hennen’s ‘Elfenritter’ trilogy. It argues that medieval warfare concepts arose from classical, feudal, and Christian traditions, with Augustine’s doctrine of the bellum iustum providing a key framework for legitimising violence and underpinning the sacralisation of the Crusades. Hennen does not recreate the Crusades historically; instead, he adapts their semantics to the logic of heroic fantasy, merging historical and fantastical elements into an autonomous fictional world. Within this setting, the trilogy reassesses the moral justification of war. By rejecting simple good–evil binaries, it employs genre conventions to question medieval historiographical strategies. Intradiegetic documents introduce a metanarrative layer that highlights the selective and interest-driven construction of historical meaning. Thus, fantasy becomes a place not only for reimagining medieval narratives but also for reflecting critically on cultural memory, identity, and the political uses of the past.