Two by Tolkien — Foreign Editions of The Hobbit

I recently came across two foreign editions of The Hobbit  I haven’t seen before.

First, The Little Gnome.

I guess the translator didn’t think the made-up word “hobbit” was understandable to Portuguese audiences?

That said, I like the cover design. It’s whimsical if misleading — hobbits had nothing to do with mushrooms, except for eating them — but it does correctly show the hairy feet, pipe-smoking, and curly hair. The overall design reminds me of the 1960s graphic artist Saul Bass.

This French edition, in contrast, shows a very grown-up looking Bilbo, a hirsute Gallic one by his hairy feet and movie-star face with its Brylcreem ‘do. I have the feeling that if he took his striped shirt off, he’d reveal a very hairy chest as well. He squats before his hobbit hole which is undersized for his height while Gandalf gives him, or perhaps that dragon, some side-eye. Gandalf too is different from the usual depiction. His pointed hat has a truncated top and his robe is more of a  cape worn over boots and trousers.  His staff appears as a walking stick.

Smaug and Rivertown are depicted accurately as in the book.

If you’re interested, here’s another French edition here and a German one.

Dragonfeast

H A P P Y    T H A N K S G I V I N G

 

Worldbuilding Wednesday 11/27/24: Haughty, Horrible, and Hilarious Hs

H, to me, is a letter with an old-fashioned vibe similar to E — a Victorian feel, honorable as well as haughty, but with touch of horror, like Charles Addams’ old New Yorker series of Addams family cartoons, the creepy family of which obviously came from old money. But H can also be hip and high, as well as hilarious and hefty. H can also have a happy, comforting feel: house, home, happiness.

Names beginning with H, however, tend to be fusty, archaic. Harold, Hortense, Herman, Hilary, Hazel, Henry, Hayley, Hilda, Helga — have Germanic or Medieval English connotations. Needless to say, many are currently back in the style. Some parents are intent on their kids sticking out.

Below, some H character names. As with the rest of this series, these are for fantasy..

 

Character names beginning with H

Male

Habtur

Hanbolt

Halnant

Hanyas

Harach

Hardua

Hejiah

Hirgam

Hithras

Hotham

Hverus

Hyden

 Female

Halverina

Hamraia

Hanafle

Harysne

Hassla

Hazyra

Hesper

Hilfleida

Hiltra

Hilvina

Hrysha

Hylekka

 Surnames

Haach

Hallanocht

Hangemoon

Hasloom

Hatchleest

Hauphilter

Heldenzar

Hessfields

Hogenbraise

Houndwhess

Huskaskype

Husulram

Passing Obsessions 11-24

Former Korean actor now lives inside an amusement park he built himself. Sounds like an ideal life, myself!

The Rhunic language created for The Rings of Power on Amazon Prime (it’s a lot like Hungarian).

Author Diana Paxson pulled into the child sexual abuse reckoning taking place in the SCA, Berkeley, and Marion Zimmer Bradley writing circle.

How to make pita breads that are puffed up n’ proud.

3 cups flour
1 cup warm water
2 1/2 tsp yeast
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt

The flour can be regular flour or bread flour. It can also be a mix of 1 cup whole wheat flour to two cups white flour. Bread flour gives a more elastic dough.

First, you make the “starter.” Put the warm water in a bowl with the yeast and sugar and stir around until mixed. Add 1/2 cup of the flour and mix again. Let sit until it is foamy and bubbly, about 15 minutes.

Meanwhile in a larger bowl, mix the rest of the flour with the salt (at this point you can also add some herb mix or other add-ins if you want.) Pour the foamy, yeasty mixture in and blend and knead with your hands. The ideal texture of the bread should be moist and firm like a baby’s bottom. If too dry, add a little water. If too wet, sprinkle some flour in. When the texture is ideal, cover with a towel or a pot lid and let rise in a warm place until double in size.

Meanwhile heat the oven to 400 degrees.  On the bottom rack put in some metal baking pans or cast iron pans that the breads will cook on. It’s important that they be the same temperature as the oven.

When dough is doubled, pinch off little pieces that are the size of a bath bomb (about large enough to fit in your palm.)  Roll out on a silicon baking sheet on which flour has been sprinkled. You want to get a roughly circular shape that is thin as possible. It doesn’t need to be perfect — I try for a diameter of 6 or 7 inches. Put the bread in the oven right on the hot baking pan. When it has solidified (a minute or two) use tongs to place it on the top rack where it will continue to bake and puff up. The more it cooks here, the crispier it gets. Before it gets too brown, remove it with tongs and let it cool on a towel.

You will be opening and closing the oven all the time to put in new breads, move them, and take them out. That’s OK. You will wind up with 16 – 20 breads depending on how much you pinch at the beginning.

These are guaranteed to puff.

The Last Closet: The Dark Side of Avalon [Review]

The Last Closet: The Dark Side of Avalon

by Moira Greyland
Castalia House, 2018

The Last Closet: The Dark Side of Avalon is the book that grew out of the 2014 revelation that fantasy and science fiction and fantasy author Marion Zimmer Bradley abused her own children and knowingly protected and facilitated her husband Walter Breen’s pedophiliac activities. If you were reading SFF in the 1970s and 1980s it was a helluva blow. (Bradley, in case you don’t know, was also the author of the best-selling book The Mists of Avalon, a popular retelling of Arthurian myth from the viewpoint of its female characters, who were pagans as opposed to Arthur’s Christianity. In this post, I’ll call her MZB as she has been called in the SFF field.)

The book is an account from MZB’s daughter Moira Greyland of how she overcame her parents’ crimes and abuse; it also functions, in a rough way, as a biography of MZB, of whom no other published bios have been written. It’s also an indictment of the hippy-dippy atmosphere of Berkeley, California, where MZB came to eventually live and prosper. It also serves also as a larger indictment of SFF and Ren Fair culture and a much larger one of Baby Boomer sexual attitudes in general, though I think the last was unintended.

Greyland’s account is casually told and probably could have benefitted from more discipline and structure, though that was likely beyond her or her editor. It reads like an adapted set of transcriptions between Greyland and her therapist. This doesn’t mean that it isn’t readable, but it does lead to the question of Is this really true? from its readers, especially if they were fans during the decades in question. Greyland anticipates this with a set of transcripts from a civil lawsuit of MZB included at the end of the book – a lawsuit from the mother of one of the boys Walter Breen molested —  and it’s chilling in how it illustrates MZB’s unconcern about her then-husband’s activities. Personally, I feel that all the evidence is pretty damning.

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Worldbuilding Wednesday 11/20/24: Dog Magic

A page from The Book of Imaginary Canines

Since I’ve been doing dog breeds for the past two weeks, how about Dog Magic?

The first dog magic, of course, was the human domestication of dogs. From what I’ve read, the first dog was a now-extinct subspecies of wolf similar to the present-day Arabian Wolf, which roams the Middle East. In other words, a smallish wolf that, while still carnivorous, ate a more varied diet than its brethren and was prone to scavenging. The hypothesis was it hung around early humans to get at their discarded hunting scraps. As the story goes, it feared man less and less and “domesticated” itself.

I’ll also note here that wolves are one of the most adaptable of species, like humans. Over time they’ve differentiated into dozens and dozens of different subspecies and are still differentiating today. The Sea Wolves of Victoria Island, anyone?

There’s a Hollywood movie called Alpha that gives a romanticized and male-dominated view of wolf domestication. In prehistoric times, a young man bonds with an injured wolf he encounters while hunting; he nurses it back to health and they become partners. When he returns to his tribe, the wolf drops a litter of puppies – she was a lady wolf! Domestication proceeds from there.

I say, bunk. It’s far more likely the women of the tribe domesticated the scavenging wolves, raising the puppies alongside their own children to ensure loyalty. Perhaps they nursed the cubs, and the mama wolf, the infants. Such so the legend of Romulus and Remus was born. The bond was mystic, familial. These first dogs protected the tribe and their young ones and kept them warm at night. Their hunting function was perhaps secondary.

I’ll say, too, that perhaps wolf domestication was the reason Homo sapiens prevailed over Homo neanderthalis and denisova. The latter species just couldn’t get the hang of taming the wolf.

Anyway, here’s a bunch of canine-oriented spells and magic items.

 

Dog Magic

Spells
 Canine Landscape: Makes an area especially attractive to canines of all types. They will stray from their business or regular path just to check it out.

Dispel Barrowdog: Many ancient kings were buried with their beloved hunting hounds, and over the ages, the dogs became wights along with them. But unlike their masters, the dogs gave into their wild instincts and became free-roaming pack animals with others of their ghostly kind. This necromantic spell dispels the ghost dogs so they won’t attack.

Face of the Wolf:  Creates a subliminal image of the visage of a snarling wolf over the recipient’s own face. Instills respect and fear in anyone they have dealings with.

Frisky Husky: Makes the lead dog of a dogsled team start to caper and prance, sending the entire sled off on a wild goose chase.

Gerhnhardt’s Dog Water: This dastardly spell changes drinking water from tasting fresh to tasting like it came from a big dog bowl in a kennel that has been slobbered over for days. The amount transformed depends on the level of the mage.

Stazure’s Mutable Hound: Cast only on dogs. It lets the mage change their breed, as many times as the caster wants, for the length of the spell.

Wolfsteen’s Canine Commentary: When cast on a person giving a speech, all the local dogs will bay, bark, and howl as long as the person is talking. The spell must be cast in an area where there are dogs around, like a village or town, or it won’t work.
Magic Items
 Amber Dog Bone: Prized by royalty, this chew toy is not only indestructible, but entertains a royal pet for hours. It also magically maintains the dog’s teeth and gums.

Book of Imaginary Canines: Treatise detailing many different dog breeds, dog species, and dog/canine monsters… but none of them are real. The reader will be convinced they are, however.

Chain of Flying Dogs: Made of a light, silvery metal and used by a sled dog team, this harness makes a pack of running dogs literally fly over snowy and icy terrain so their feet barely touch the ground. Astonishing speeds can be thus generated. In addition, the dogs will use only 1/4 of the energy they normally would.

Mead of the Mastiff: An enchanted drink beloved by berserkers of some indigenous Northern cultures. It makes them fierce and brave as mastiff dogs and even gives them a biting attack at close quarters which can be extremely unpleasant.

Vision of the Goddess

AI Art

Very Maxfield Parrish, no?

Worldbuilding Wednesday 11/13/24: Toy Dog Breeds, Part 2

I am so cute aren’t I?

More Toy Dog breeds.

 

Toy Dog Breeds

Mostado-Michu Tricolor dog (white, black, brown – think beagle) with a strongly arched tail. It has drooping ears covered with soft, silky fur and its body fur is also soft to the touch, with no rough undercoat. Gentle and sensitive, they were prized by upper class townsfolk who sat them on a silk pillow while they entertained to show off the dog’s sweet nature.
Pulgo This breed is small but stocky, with heavy bones and strong muscles. They have small, neat paws. Pulgos can be of any dark color and are usually marked with white on their foreheads, bellies, and feet. Their coats are short and don’t need a lot of grooming.

Intuitive and sensitive, the Pulgo knows when its owner is feeling badly and will comfort them. Many circus acts used to feature this dog as part of their repertoire because of their amiable, clownish nature and ability to learn new tricks. These same abilities make it a good choice for a family pet.
Ründelmar A small dog with a short brindle coat and a long, expressive tail. They whimper but do not bark. Because of this they became known as the Baker’s Friend because they kept the cooks company early in the morning when they prepared the bread and didn’t wake up the townspeople by baying and barking.
Soft-coated Manchita Often called the badger-fox dog because of its low body, fluffy fur, and pointed snout and ears. The tail of a Manchita is especially long and full. The dogs range in color from dark gold to reddish-gold with a black nose and small, black eyes. Because of their loud, piercing bark they were often used as watchdogs by peasants and village shopkeepers.

This breed shows affection by lying down on the feet of its owner. Folklore says that if a Machita does so to a stranger, it is a sign the stranger can be trusted.
Volponischer A miniature greyhound with a long, thin, white snout, the Volponischer is active and sensitive. It was once kept by nobility for coursing contests. Now they make good family pets, requiring strong exercise only a few days a week. The fur of this breed is short and light, almost like suede; it can be either light or dark, but always has a grayish cast.

The Casual Gamer: Shelf Sort Games

Screen grab from Goods Match 3D – Triple Match

Since I’ve critted books, movies, and shared worlds, why not games?

I don’t mean immersive ones like Halo or Dragon Age. These require far too much investment for me. I prefer casual games, the kind players can download on their phone or iPad, try out, and delete if they don’t like them. Casually… just like the name says.

I’ve been playing them since the 2000s when I downloaded them through Big Fish Games (still in business and rockin’ it) to play on my Apple tower and, later, PC laptop. Since 2012, when I got my first iPad, it’s been mobile all the way. I’ve found these games are a good way to pass the time when you’re at the airport, on a break from work, or trying to fall asleep at night. The best of them are mini-masterpieces in in their own right and immersive as any console game. The best of them are cultural creations of their place and time, perfectly crafted to strike your dopamine receptors and soothe with a combination of sounds, graphics, and ease of playtime.

For this post, I’ll look at variations of Match 3 games.

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Worldbuilding Wednesday 11/6/24: Toy Dog Breeds, Part 1

Toy Dogs are a show class of the American Kennel Club referencing small, cuddly canines whose chief job is human companionship. They can be of various breeds — spaniels and terriers for example —  or shrunk-down versions of larger dogs like poodles. The one thing they all have in common is their diminutive size, which makes them easy to carry around.

Since I love dogs, and I loved making up dogs, here’s some breeds you can use for your world.

 

Toy Dog Breeds

Argier d’Jules Court Dog This breed has long light brown fur, small pointed ears, and a short pugged muzzle. Its eyes are large and soulful and can be either brown or blue; the most prized have one brown eye and one blue. Calm and observant, they are beloved by court ladies because they never bark or cause a fuss. At an average 10 lbs. in weight, they are easily carried in the lady’s silk muff.
Frigate Terrier A small dog once kept by ship’s captains to keep the rats in check, the frigate terrier has a cheerful, happy-go-lucky personality. It is black or blueish-gray in color with a wiry, rough double coat that sheds water and also makes it buoyant. Its ears are small and fold over. This breed has a muscular build with short powerful legs and webbed feet for swimming. The tail is curved and carried over the back when the dog is happy.

The Frigate Terrier has adapted well to city life and is known as a low maintenance breed because its hypoallergenic coat requires little care other than the occasional brushing.
Hairless Temple Dog Up to 14 pounds in weight, this hairless breed has a thin, athletic build and a narrow muzzle in proportion to its face. Its skin is a grayish brown in color and  on its belly it is pinkish white, with speckles of the grayish brown. There often is a white tip on the long, graceful tail. Its ears are pointed and small, and the  eyes are pale blue with a hypnotic stare.

The breed was once kept to rid temple complexes of vermin like mice. The largest temples could have  over 100 of these animals and it was considered a grave sin to kill or neglect one. These dogs are friendly and energetic, but have a strong prey drive, with a loud bark and a scratchy, wavering howl. As they have no hair, owners must be protect them from the elements. (In temples, they wore specially made little silk coats.)
Ishido Reddish brown with black eyes and nose, a short, straight tail, and a yodeling bark. Kept by nomads in their wagons to alert them of strangers. These dogs were fed on cooking scraps and encouraged to be fat so they could keep their owners warm in their beds at night. Their fur is short, but soft. If not allowed to become overweight they make fine companion dogs for the elderly.
Lapsian Singing Toy Dog Tiny pet favored once by royalty, it weighs no more than 8 lbs. It has a brindle coat, tufted ears, and a prominent underbite. It does not bark, but whines in a musical way.