Artemis Fowl II
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- For the first book in the series, see Artemis Fowl (book). For the series itself, see Artemis Fowl (series).
Artemis Fowl II (born September 1, 1989) is the title character of the Artemis Fowl series of children's books by Irish author Eoin Colfer.
His birthday is mentioned as "01/09" in “The Lost Colony”, and in the first book it is said of Juliet Butler (born 1985) that she is four years older than Artemis.
Artemis Fowl II, a criminal mastermind and, intellectually, a child prodigy and a polymath, is twelve years old in the first book of the series. He was born into a rich, prominent and above all criminal Irish family, the Fowls, and is accustomed to an obscenely wealthy lifestyle. He resides in Fowl Manor with his father, Artemis Fowl I (famed crimelord), his mother, Angeline and the two Butlers, Domovoi and Juliet Butler.
Artemis' name comes from Artemis, the Greek goddess of hunting (among other things). In the third book in the series, Artemis admits that his name is generally a female name, but says that it is the name of a great hunter, and that every once in a while a man comes along who has such a talent for hunting that he has the right to have that name, and that he is such a man.
He is rather hard to fathom, thanks to his lack of expressions. He prefers to mask his emotions.
Artemis is said to have inherited his father's deep blue eyes, and has black hair, but in The Lost Colony, Holly and Artemis exchange an eye, so he has one hazel and one blue.
At his young age, he has 'rediscovered' a lost Mozart opera, which, of course, he has written himself. At the age of thirteen, he is showing signs of an intellect greater than that of any human since Mozart, beaten European chess champion Evan Kashoggi in an online tournament, patented over 27 inventions, won the architectural competition to design Dublin's new opera house, forged over a dozen Impressionist paintings, and had written a computer program that diverted millions of dollars from Swiss bank accounts to his own. He also forged and auctioned the Lost Diaries of Leonardo Da Vinci. He has also written articles on human psychology which were referred to by his own school counsellor. It might be interesting to note that the pseudonym he employed was "Dr. F. Roy Dean Schlippe", a pun on the phrase Freudian Slip. A pseudonym used in Opal Deception, Sir E. Brum, a pun on cerebrum, the largest part of the brain. A pseudonym he used for posting articles on the internet is "Emmsey Squire", which seems like a pun for E=mc²(E=mc squared). Another pseudonym in Lost Colony, Dr. C. Niall DeMencha, a pun on senile dementia, is the first time someone has gotten the pun: Minerva Paradizo.
And yet, despite all his intellect, he is fairly pathetic when it comes to social skills, implying that he may suffer from Asperger's Syndrome. He isolates himself from his 'lesser-minded' peers as much as possible and prefers the company of Domovoi Butler, who plays the role of Artemis' bodyguard and best friend. One might even find him (Artemis) quite strange, as all he wears are designer suits and he speaks with the vocabulary of a powerful adult. He can hardly be classified as a child. He is ambidextrous, although his left hand has slightly greater precision. Artemis has grown three years older after the events of The Lost Colony, due to the tunnel of time. He has also taken quite a liking to Minerva.
Artemis has the highest tested IQ in Europe.
He enjoys caviar, Irish springwater, and Earl Grey tea. Badly tailored suits irk him, cracking knuckles is a habit he detests (interestingly, he cracks his knuckles in the first novel while preparing to decode the fairy Book), and he suffers from a slight dust mite allergy. His family motto is Aurum potestas est (Latin for "gold is power"), while his personal motto is "Know thine enemy."
[edit] Background
The Fowl family is an Irish criminal family going back at least to the Norman Conquest, which has amassed a fabulous fortune through both legitimate and illegitimate means. These fortunes have been placed in danger by Artemis's father, Artemis Fowl I, who invested a huge amount of the Fowl fortune in founding new shipping lanes to the country of Russia, following the breakdown of communism there. Artemis Fowl I is injured and held hostage following an attempt on his life by the Russian Mafia.
Artemis, who was around eleven at the time his father disappeared, decides to regain the Fowl fortune. Following leads on the Internet, Fowl discovers the existence of an underground world of fairies, and at age twelve attempts,and succeds, to steal their gold.
[edit] Books
There are currently five books in the series: Artemis Fowl, in which the twelve-year old Artemis attempts to steal fairy gold; Artemis Fowl: The Arctic Incident, in which Artemis discovers that his father is still alive and, with help from the fairies, tries to rescue him from the Russian mafia; Artemis Fowl: The Eternity Code, in which Artemis, in what he considers to be his last criminal act before his father completely recovers, attempts to create a device using fairy technology he stole in the first book, and to use this device to sell to American businessman Jon Spiro;Artemis Fowl: The Opal Deception, in which the now fourteen-year old Artemis helps the fairies to thwart an evil plan to expose the magical world; and Artemis Fowl: The Lost Colony in which Artemis helps the fairy people to rescue the eighth family of fairy kind (The Demons), prevent them from being exposed to human beings and rescue young imp (the larval stage of a Demon) from another child genius (and Artemis' possible love interest) called Minerva Paradizo. In this book, Artemis is able to steal some fairy magic while going to the demon island of Hybras. Artemis is able to make the fairies think that he lost this magic on the way back from Hybras, but he still has some of the stolen magic.
A Branch out book, The Artemis Fowl Files, has also been published. This book contains two short stories: "LEPrecon" and "The Seventh Dwarf," as well as several tests and quizzes designed by the author, and a key to the Gnommish alphabet.
In the fifth Artemis Fowl novel, Artemis Fowl: The Lost Colony Artemis Fowl travels to the island of Hybras (along with Holly Short and two demon-warlocks called Qwan and No1), an island inhabited by Demons which has been literally lifted out of time into Limbo. The island is stuck in a time tunnel and when Artemis returns, although he spent less than one hour on Hybras, three years have passed. He is reunited with Butler (who had to inform Artemis' parents everything he knows about fairy-kind to explain the criminal mastermind's 3 year absence, though they are reluctant to believe him) and at the end of the book Butler refers to Artemis as a "big brother" and makes reference to "the twins" implying that the Fowls have had more children since Artemis disappeared.
The Lost Colony also contains a humorous sub-plot involving Artemis' struggle with puberty, and a new character is introduced who may well become a girlfriend for Artemis in the form of 12 year old (or when Artemis returns from his 3 year mission on Hybras, 14 going-on 15 year old) Minerva Paradizo. A young genius apparently Artemis's intellectual equal. At the end of the book Butler informs Artemis that she has been visiting regularly, talking repeatedly of Artemis. This suggests she will return in the next (and final, according to Eoin Colfer) Artemis Fowl book.
Colfer has also said that he plans to release one more Artemis Fowl book after "The Lost Colony," but nothing else is known of this so far.
[edit] Film
Moved to: Artemis Fowl (film).
