Sunday 10 July 2016

A Few Words

Poul Anderson, The Broken Sword (London, 1977), Chapter XXV.

"...towers where chough and merlin nested..." (p. 181)

"...troll chiefs sprawled in spilth and vomit." (p. 182)

(I have heard of "spill" and "filth" but not of "spilth.")

"The imp shrank aside, eyes and fangs agleam in the murk." (ibid.)

We have heard of imps but what are they exactly? How do they differ from other mythical beings? Do they have fangs?

Valgard wonders why the great elven strongholds captured by trolls are falling so quickly to the resurgent elves. The answer is that those strongholds house captured elven women who have been hospitable to their trollish conquerors but who will stab those conquerors in the back as soon as an elven army is at the gate.

Motivations impossible to mortals come easily to immortal and amoral elves.

1 comment:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

And the wise thing for the trolls to have done was to kill or expel those elven women when the castles were captured.

Sean