tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post5596326869787934069..comments2024-03-29T00:32:33.920-04:00Comments on GROGNARDIA: Pulp Fantasy Library: The Man Who Sold Rope to the GnolesJames Maliszewskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00341941102398271464noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-80781522529646014592020-10-19T20:21:05.101-04:002020-10-19T20:21:05.101-04:00I remember reading this story in one of the Alfred...I remember reading this story in one of the Alfred Hitchcock Presents collections and it made a big impression on me. Misha Burnetthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16050644222308563279noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-43253965051158223592020-10-19T11:02:09.462-04:002020-10-19T11:02:09.462-04:00You're very welcome! Dunsany based all the tal...You're very welcome! Dunsany based all the tales in The Book of Wonder on Sime's illustrations, I think. It was an unusual collaboration in which the writer asked the illustrator for inspiration and then wrote stories to expand on the pictures. <br /><br />Yes, that makes lots of sense. I find it interesting that in OD&D, they're all essentially a collective thesaurus entry for 'goblin' but by the time of the Monster Manual, they've become animal-people of various sorts (kobolds=dog-men, orcs = pig-men, hobgoblins = mandrill- or ape-men, gnolls = hyena-men). Only goblins are left as the folkloric or Tolkienesque original (D&D's goblins are much closer to Tolkien's orcs than its own orcs). Bugbears were already a bit bear-like to start with.JChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17964744140140515737noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-84302014418064376072020-10-19T08:56:14.571-04:002020-10-19T08:56:14.571-04:00Read this story in 1972 (I was six) in a sf/fantas...Read this story in 1972 (I was six) in a sf/fantasy compilation I bought at a grade school book sale. In hindsight, it might not have been wholly appropriate for my age, but the story certainly sticks in my mind after all this time. Also recall being quite confused about the furry savage gnolls of D&D/AD&D when I ran into them a few years later, although I admit I'm fond of what their lore eventually became. Who doesn't like demon-worshipping fiend-blooded hyena-men?Dick McGeehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14521293874696659063noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-38873825828975045862020-10-19T06:57:22.279-04:002020-10-19T06:57:22.279-04:00Thanks for the Sime's reference. I was complet...Thanks for the Sime's reference. I was completely unaware of it.<br /><br />Re: OD&D humanoids, I believe that Gygax said somewhere that they were created to fill out a hit die progression. His goal was to ensure there were monstrous humanoids for a wide variety of levels. OD&D itself says very little about most of them otherwise.James Maliszewskihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00341941102398271464noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-78303036567268875212020-10-19T04:42:57.552-04:002020-10-19T04:42:57.552-04:00It's perhaps worth noting that although Dunsan...It's perhaps worth noting that although Dunsany doesn't describe the gnoles, he based the story on Sidney Sime's illustration (http://www.victorianweb.org/art/illustration/sime/7.html), which shows the same house that St. Clair describes and some burly, hunched humanoids in silhouette.<br /><br />Of course, St. Clair's description of the gnoles differs wildly from this, but I suspect D&D's original gnoles did not; the illustration of a gnoll in the original books isn't a million miles away from Sime's; it's burly and hunched in a simlar way.<br /><br />It seems to me that the humanoids of OD&D are divided almost more into classes or levels than species. After all, their names are more or less synonyms: goblin, orc, hobgoblin, gnoll (Sime's gnoles anticipate Tolkien's orcs with their long arms) and, later, bugbear. I wonder if they were distinguished much or at all in appearance before the Monster Manual, and I'd see them more as equivalents to fighter levels. The fact that they tend to have leaders and bodyguards who are mechanically identical to the larger sorts supports this, I think.<br />JChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17964744140140515737noreply@blogger.com