Zoltan the Magyar was a fictional Hungarian pirate, captain of the Charon, and associate of Sardinian gangster, Count Ugo Carnifex. The character served as both an antagonist and ally in Charlie Higson's 2006 Young Bond novel, Blood Fever.
Biography[]
Background[]
Zoltan the Magyar was born between 1899 and 1902 into a family of long-horned cattle farmers on the the Great Plain (Az Alföld), Hungary.[1] During the First World War (c.1915-1918), the sixteen-year-old Zoltan enlisted in the Austro-Hungarian Army and was sent to Italian front. While serving, he encountered a group of Sardinian soldiers taking refuge in a deserted palazzo. During the resulting shoot-out a hoard of treasure was unearthed and Zoltan made a pact with the remaining Sardinian, Ugo Carnifex, to bury the trove and retrieve it after the war. The disenchanted Hungarian would flee the war and travel through Albania into Greece; falling in with criminals, smugglers, pirates, murderers and deserters. He would subsequently acquire ownership of the Charon after drowning its former captain. Eventually he would return for the treasure, only to discover that the duplicitous Carnifex had returned first and claimed it for himself.
Blood Fever[]
In an uneasy partnership with Carnifex - now an ostensibly wealthy gangster and head of the Millenaria - the Charon and its crew raided vessels; smuggling pilfered art treasures and equipment to Sardinia. In late May 1933[3], one such act of piracy resulted in the murder of British aristocrat Sir Cathal Goodenough and the abduction of his daughter, Amy. In revenge, she plunged a diving knife into his left shoulder - a wound which would subsequently become infected. Initially planning on ransoming her, Zoltan grew attached to the girl; seeing her as an opportunity for redemption.
On returning to Sardinia tensions flared between the Magyar and Carnifex. Asserting his dominance, the gangster seized Amy from Zoltan with the aim of wedding her to solidify his aristocratic pretensions; callously murdering her tutor, Grace Wainwright. The pirate would subsequently cross paths with the young James Bond and aided him during a boxing match instigated by Carnifex. After Bond was caught helping Amy, the boy blamed Zoltan for informing him about her - hoping to kindle their feud. Eventually, the pact would deteriorate into open violence; resulting in Zoltan travelling to a Barbati village to rescue Bond from Carnifex's Scottish enforcer, Smiler. Realizing that Ugo is dishonest and bankrupt, the Magyar and his men take revenge by staging an attack on his Palazzo. Zoltan sacrifices his own men for the opportunity to destroy Carnifex's dam; destroying the Palazzo and killing the villain in the resulting deluge.
Despite his cynical nature, Zoltan would subsequently risk his life to protect Bond from a sword-wielding, masked rider - later revealed to be his Eton College professor, Peter Haight. Mortally impaled by Haight's blade and suffering from his infected wound, he requested they return him to the Charon. Acquiring a small boat they attempted to return the delirious pirate to his ship, but before they could he demanded they throw him overboard to drown. Despite Bond's protestations, Zoltan the Magyar fell overboard - it is left ambiguous as to whether it was by his own hand or Amy's.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Magyar is another word for a Hungarian.
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Higson, Charlie (5 January 2006). "Chapter 6: The Sailor Who Feared the Sea", Blood Fever, Young Bond (in En-UK). London: Puffin Books. ISBN 0141318600. “[Zoltan first sees the sea at the age of sixteen; after leaving his family farm and fighting with the Austro-Hungarian Army on the Italian front circa 1915-1918.]”
- ↑ Higson, Charlie (5 January 2006). "Chapter 5: The Tombs of the Giants", Blood Fever, Young Bond (in En-UK). London: Puffin Books. ISBN 0141318600. “I’m taking an expedition there at the end of the summer, to look at some of the monuments.”
- ↑ Higson, Charlie (5 January 2006). "Prologue: The Magyar", Blood Fever, Young Bond (in En-UK). London: Puffin Books. ISBN 0141318600.
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