I'm sorry this is rather late, but I haven't been around here for a while, and I didn't know that there was a coordinated M,S,& T reading.

Anyway, I recently came across the "real world" legend of Prester John, also called Presbyter Johannes.  This brings in two further shadings of meaning to the character of the same name in M,S, & T.

First: It points out (before Simon has any idea) that the old king had a venerated object. The Earth version of the Presbyter has him as the keeper of the Holy Grail. In Osten Ard, John has Minneyar, which he's renamed Bright-Nail.

Second: Tad's choice to name the old king of Osten Ard after a myth whose existance had no factual basis really highlights the further deceptions that John founded his kingdom on. This Prestor John was not the idyllic leader -- he was a liar and a fraud!

Any way . . . my thoughts.

interesting observation...but what if somebody else also likes blue and yellow...lol..just being a pain, but it's possible i guess, although nothing ever indicates that Jiriki personally knew morgenes

Aditu knew Morgenes.....She says he was a pretty young man, which Simon finds hard to imagine!  *grin*

*remembers spoiler gap this time*
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Originally posted by Neemo:
nothing ever indicates that Jiriki personally knew morgenes

You're right.
I remembered Jiriki telling at the hunting lodge about knowing someones master and thought it to be Morgenes.
It was Ookequk, of course. 

Still, nice suit of armor ;-)

Better do some spoilers Better do some spoilers Better do some spoilers Better do some spoilers Better do some spoilers Better do some spoilers Better do some spoilers Better do some spoilers

Aditu said she was in the Sithi hunting lodge - pretty small space to just "see" someone, espcially when you are as curious as Aditu is.

I've finally started to reread MST (instead of just a few pages here and there, as I do occasionally). And this time I'll try to read the reread threads, too - maybe I'll have something to contribute, too.

When I opened DBC last night and started reading, I realized again how much I love this book - not just because it's so well written... they're also so comfortable. Reading it is like like snuggling up in a soft and comfortable armchair. That sounds a little silly when I write it down, but really... I can feel my whole body relax and a smile creeping onto my face... and my old, battered copy does remind me a lot of my old, battered armchair. :)



One thing that I noticed - and am a little surprised that nobody has posted about it, considering that the Arthurian legends got mentioned a couple of times in this thread - is the story about Sir Fluiren working in the scullery. Thank god for google, because I had no idea where I had read this before, or what the guy's name was, but I found it:

According to Malory's tale Gareth comes to Camelot in disguise as a kitchen boy and is set to work by Kay, who always gives him difficult work, teases him as a lowly kitchen boy and nicknames him "Beaumains" or "Good Hands" (alternatively "Beautiful Hands" or "Fair Hands").

(from wikipedia)

Neemo wrote:

Curiously, in chapter 3, while Rachel daydreams, she remembers Simon's birth and his mother mentioning Simon's fathers name, Eahlferend, and how no one knew much about him but Morgenes. (Correct me if I'm wrong but doesn't Saint Eahlstan turn out to be Simon's grandfather?) I think it's pretty cool to have such an obvious hint to Simon's heritage so soon. And the closeness in spelling of grandfather's (Eahlstan) and father's (Eahlferend) names makes me feel kinda dumb for not picking up on it before. Now Seoman (waiting) really makes sense. Also in the Appendix, Eahlstan is named "The Fisher King" and Eahlferend is "Simon's fisherman father", I can't believe I've never noticed before!

I don't think it's anything to feel dumb about. "Eahl-" might just have been a common part of Erkynlandish names. I mean, if you heard of two guys called Albert and Alfred, you wouldn't assume they were related. Names with Germanic roots do that a lot, which fits in with the Old English feel of Erkynlandish language and names.
Another one of the many things I love about MST - one of my pet peeves with books is names that seem to come from different languages all mashed together, but in MST each culture has a distinct sound.

ylvs wrote:

Could not agree more ... I started this habit with all the Eo-names of Rohan back in the early eighties ...

How did you get Tolkien to go along with it?

ylvs wrote:

Magpie wrote:

Another one of the many things I love about MST - one of my pet peeves with books is names that seem to come from different languages all mashed together, but in MST each culture has a distinct sound.

Could not agree more ... I started this habit with all the Eo-names of Rohan back in the early eighties ...

Hehe, I read DBC years before LotR, so I was spoiled long before I got to Rohan.

Funny that you mention it, though, because I was thinking about Rohan earlier today, because some of those names follow the same "two-part" pattern as Erkynlandish ones. (And then I had to laugh at myself, because I was thinking about "Dernhelm", and I'd always thought it was so obvious that it was really Éowyn, and it wasn't until today that I realized that it wouldn't be that obvious for everyone - because in the Austrian dialect I speak, "Dirndl" means "girl", with the "-dl" just the ending for a diminutive, and "Dirn" is almost the same as "Dern"... that's probably not where Dernhelm comes from, but it made me laugh. Especially since it took me ten years to notice it.)

Last edited by Magpie (2013-01-25 12:55:33)

Does your e-book have the ability to search key words? If so, that could be a reason to re-read MS&T electronically. If, for example, you read about, say, Breyugar, and didn't recollect his name prior to that chapter, you could do a search to see if he'd already been introduced in a previous chapter.

To me, that would be the only reason to get a e-book version. I much prefer my old analog books.

A kind of dragon. And don't ask me why I knew that (because I knew before I looked it up!) - I have no idea.

Where was this - on one of the banners?

I thought so, too (about Magical Beasts), but I just checked (yay for books that are within arm's reach of the couch!), and it's not there.