In Poul Anderson's
Ensign Flandry,
A Circus Of Hells and
The Game Of Empire, there are scenes where Merseians converse among themselves. I think that, on screen, CGI-generated Merseians speaking to each other in English would not be credible. The dialogue would have to be in Eriau with subtitles. Unlike Tolkien, Anderson did not create any nonhuman languages so that someone else would have to invent some Eriau, Planha etc. And, of course, Merseian, Ythrian etc voices must not sound human.
The Gethfennu is Merseian organized crime, therefore comparable to the Mafia. However, having just read:
Joseph D. Pistone with Richard Woodley, Donnie Brasco: My Undercover Life in the Mafia (London, 1997) -
- I can confidently assert that the psychology of individual Merseian criminals would not be remotely like that of the Italian-Americans described by Pistone! (That guy is still alive. What an achievement!)
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
I am not sure how best to handle any filmed versions of Merseians conversing amongst themselves. Aside from a few invented words of Eriau, titles for military ranks, "Roidhun," etc., we don't know much. Anderson had to render conversations between Merseians in a language we Anglic speaking humans would understand. With the sometimes unspoken implication being that we should understand them as speaking in Eriau.
As for Merseian criminals, the Gethfennu, my view is that they would not be all that different from human Mafia gangsters: very bad people.
Ad astra! Sean
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