Talk:Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser

This page is a labour of love. Everything is cut from whole cloth - there has been no reference to external websites except for ISFDB which I've used as my source work for publishing details (still to be added).

Clearly the sections on Nehwon and Lankhmar can be greatly expanded, and probably need a page of their own. It was not my intent here to major on those subjects - the main thrust here is to provide precis (what's the plural of precis? My mind's gone blank) of the F&GM stories in the context of the published canon which sets them out in order, before I put the books up for sale on ebay.

Once I've done this I may move on to Conan. Take that, if you please, as a Dire Warning. ;-) I'm having incredible fun here. --Matthew Simon Quartermain 09:55, 1 May 2010 (UTC)

Without bothering to look it up, I would say that the plural of precis is precis. Or précis, if we wanna be fancy. Hayford Peirce 20:05, 2 May 2010 (UTC)

pronunciation

Mouser is easy enough to figure out, but all my life I've been baffled by Fafhrd, and I don't hang around people who talk about these guys. I suppose I could have asked Anderson or Silverberg or someone like that back when I lived in the Bay Area, but I never thought to. Could you maybe, even in the article itself, give us a clue as to how this really weird-looking name might be pronounced? Thanks! (In fact, now that I think of it, *especially* in the article, this info should be known.) Hayford Peirce 20:03, 2 May 2010 (UTC)

Of course! On the case. Might take me a while to find the appropriate references, but consider it done. --Matthew Simon Quartermain 21:46, 2 May 2010 (UTC)

Very interesting info that you've written. But even though we have *far* more leeway than the WPers do, we really can't say "The opinion of this author is that it goes something like "Faf-rrrrd" where the "rrrr" is a throaty rolled R in the manner partway between that of the Scots and the French; that is, as he would imagine it in the throat of the Norsemen of a thousand years ago." I think we could get away with "Some feel that it might be "Faf etc etc." Hayford Peirce 22:38, 2 May 2010 (UTC)

You don't know how strong the fences are till you rattle them! Unfortunately I think the "some" in that last sentence would be the "some" in the mathematical sense, i.e. "at least one, erm, well actually, just one, er, me". No matter. --Matthew Simon Quartermain 22:43, 2 May 2010 (UTC)

Well, it's one of the "weasel words" as our confreres at WP call it, I think, but it was just an off-the-top-of-my-head suggestion. If we actually *had* some Lit Editors who were active here, and any of them had strong feelings about this sort of thing, I'd let *them* worry about it. As it is, in Lit sorta stuff like this, User:Ro Thorpe and I are the most usual wordsmiths or tinkerers.... Ro keeps a keen eye out for the over-usage of hyphens (I do too, but less), and I'm the "which-that" guy. In this particular case I'd hate to lose your info just because we can't pin an exact citation on it. As far as citations and footnotes go here at CZ, I myself simply use them more or less the way I recall being taught to a million years ago at school. Certainly far, far less than the zealots at WP do.... Hayford Peirce 23:20, 2 May 2010 (UTC)

Feel free to tinker. I'm of the opinion that entertainment trumps information, as long as the latter is not compromised by the former. It helps the kiddies learn (and that, after all, is the most important thing of the lot). I'm more than happy to put the words up - as I say, if what I write doesn't fit with policy then it's your call. --Matthew Simon Quartermain 23:39, 2 May 2010 (UTC)

It must rhyme with Trafford, surely. Ro Thorpe 23:37, 4 May 2010 (UTC)

Sort of. But putting that in would beg the reader to know how Trafford is pronounced.... ...said Matthew Simon Quartermain (talk)

I don't even know how Hayford is pronounced. If I introduce myself to someone and they squint their eyes and look baffled, I say, slowly, "Hay-ford", clearly and with perfect enunciation. If I'm calling Eaux Noble Rheault on the phone, I'll say, "Hey, Ro, it's Hayferd", one sort of slurred syllable. But I come originally from darkest, downest Down East, in Bangah, Maine, and once in a while I'll get a call from a cousin back there (who has never left, and who still talks the way I did 55 years ago), and he'll say, "Hiya, Hay-fit, it's Cousin Dan here." I had entirely forgotten the Hay-fit business until he called several years ago.... Hayford Peirce 18:44, 5 May 2010 (UTC)

Bangah, Maine? Is thet in Sithefrica? Ro Thorpe 19:24, 5 May 2010 (UTC)

kor, oi douw nouw, oi kaaan understaan a wurrd yuu be sayin ... --Matthew Simon Quartermain 19:53, 5 May 2010 (UTC)

(Start again far left, too many indents) ... Hayfhrd and the Ro Thorper, anyone? --Matthew Simon Quartermain 20:34, 5 May 2010 (UTC)

(unindent) - you've figured this out perfectly, Matthew -- we start at the very left and write (unindent) at the very beginning. Ro is probably more of a Portuguese Waterdog than a Mouser, I would assume.... Hayford Peirce 20:44, 5 May 2010 (UTC)