#roger zelzany

[mask131]

Fantasy read-list: B-1.5

Next in our series of articles detailing fantasy works, is one from André-François Ruaud, covering Shakespeare, his work, and his work’s great influence over the fantasy genre. Given I already talked about Shakespeare’s work proper in my main post, here I will detail the list of work influenced by or shaped thanks to Shakespeare in the fantasy world.

# We will begin with one of the most straightforward and oldest Shakespeare retellings there are: Tales from Shakespeare, by the Lamb couple (Charles and Mary). This book was actually a retelling of Shakespeare’s plays, aimed at young children (for example it removed all sexual references, omitted many subplots, removed some plays deemed too historical for kids to understand), and a massive success, still in print today. Even though today’s kids find this book a bit hard to read… Because it was written in the beginning of the 19th century, and does an effort to keep as much of Shakespeare’s quite outdated language, in an effort of faithfulness.

# Rudyard Kipling’s Puck of Pook’s Hill. In this collection of short stories, Puck (from A Midsummer Night’s Dream) summons different characters from various parts of English history so they can tell their fantastical tales to two children…

# Caliban’s Hour, by Tad Williams. 20 years after the events of Shakespeare’s “The Tempest”, Miranda is imprisoned by a vengeful Caliban who wishes to kill her… but not before she hears the story of his life, the reason of his wrath, the truth behind his curse, and his true relationships to the sorcerers Prospero and Sycorax, putting the events of “The Tempest” under a new light.

# Not a book, but a movie this time: Prospero’s Book by Peter Greenaway. An avant-garde and very stylistic retelling of Shakespeare’s The Tempest as a complex story where Prospero preparing his revenge and Shakespeare preparing his play become one and the same…

# Elizabeth Willey’s A Sorcerer and a Gentleman, a fantasy novel about various fictional countries being threatened by a possible open-war, resulting of the centuries-old conflict between Avril, “usurper emperor”, and his sorcerous brother, Prospero.

# Roger Zelazny’s major fantasy series, The Chronicles of Amber, heavily reference the plays of Shakespeare, borrowing names, places and sentences from the playwright’s work (Oberon, “To sleep, perchance to dream…”, the forest of Arden, “Ill-met by moonlight”, Osric, “Good night, sweet Prince”…). Ruaud also mentions in his article Zelzany’s work “A Night in the Lonesome October”, even though to my knowledge there is no actual overtly Shakespearian theme in it? (I guess it might be a mistake due to the French title having been translated as “A Mid-october night’s dream”.

# Ruaud doesn’t talk about Macbeth’s influence over Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings (despite it being very famous – the defeat of the Witch-King and the march of the Ents both being influenced by Shakespeare’s tragedy), but he mentions how Gollum can remind one of Caliban, while Prospero was a model for the “archetypal wizard” of which Gandalf and Saruman are two prominent examples. [Personal note: From what I gathered, despite Tolkien referencing Shakespeare, he did not like his works at all, in fact most of the time Tolkien referenced Shakespeare not out of an “homage” but to “correct” what he felt was poorly used - as with how the march of the Ents is meant for Tolkien to get over his disappointment at Macbeth’s not having actual trees walking).

# Ruaud also mentions among the example of “archetypal wizards” inherited from Prospero, Belgarath, the main sorcerer of The Belgariad by the Eddings couple. From the Belgariad universe, Ruaud points out that the character of Silk is actually part of a tradition in fantasy of the “clownish member of the hero’s party”, that can date back to Touchstone from As you like it. 

# Ruaud suggests that the character of Ariel from The Tempest was an inspiration for Neil Gaiman’s Islington in Neverwhere (I cannot check this, because I know barely anything about Neverwhere, though I do plan on reading it one day).

# Ruaud, of course, also mentions Terry Pratchett’s Wyrd Sisters, a fantastical and hilarious parody of Shakespeare’s Macbeth (and additional plays) inside the humoristic fantasy universe of the Discworld series. I will personally add another book, which is actually the second sequel to Wyrd Sisters (between it and this one, there is Witches Abroad, which is a fairytale parody) – Lords and Ladies, a darkly funny deconstruction of both Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Tolkien’s elves, inspired by traditional British fairy folklore (and which went on to influence the view of what people call “the true fae”).

# S.P. Somtow’s Riverrun Trilogy. I have to admit I forgot why Ruaud mentioned it among the Shakespearian influenced work – I didn’t take my notes when reading the article. But it is in the list, so…

# Ruaud claims that the archetype of the “fantasy inn”, actually comes from Shakespeare. The Prancing Pony from The Lord of the Rings, The Silver Eel from Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, Pratchett’s The Broken (then Mended) Drum from Discworld, the inn from Beagle’s The Innkeeper’s Song… According to Ruaud all those fantasy inns are inheriting from the inn in which most of Shakespeare’s Henry V takes place. Ruaud also mentions two authors that both deconstruct the “fantasy inn” archetype: Neil Gaiman, with the Sandman’s arc Worlds’s End (see below), and before him Poul Anderson with his Shakespeare-rewriting novel A Midsummer Tempest.

# While appearing on the list of the works deconstructing the “fantasy inn” archetype, Anderson’s A Midsummer Tempest deserves its own place in the list, being a fantasy novel where all of the events of Shakespeare’s play happened simultaneously, during the era of Cromwell and Charles I – A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Tempest unfolding simultaneously between the English Civil War and the Industrial Revolution.

# Sarah A. Hoyt’s Ill-Met by Moonlight. A fantasy story retelling William Shakespeare’s life under the influence of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Young William Shakespeare discovers his wife and daughter were taken away by elves in their fairyland, and to get them back he will have to deal himself with the descendants of the legendary fairy rulers Oberon and Titania.

# Not a book, but a literary and highly praised comic that can be read as a book – the famous Sandman series by fantasy author Neil Gaiman. The comic was heavily influenced by Shakespeare’s plays, and actively references them several times. The issue “Men of Good Fortune” has the main character, the titular Sandman, lord of dreams, sleep and nightmares, meet a young William Shakespeare and make a deal with him to provide the playwright inspiration… This sets up the next Shakespearian issue, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, an homage, deconstruction, meta-retelling of Shakespeare’s play. And to conclude it all – “The Tempest”, the very last issue of the series, which invites the reader to take a second look at the final arcs of the story under the light of Shakespeare’s play.

# To conclude this long list, let’s have one French name around here. Fabrice Colin’s work, “Or not to be”. A Shakespeare-obsessed amnesiac young man is released from a mental institution after his mother forced him there due to a suicide attempt. Attempting to rediscover and puzzle back his past, he goes on a visit of England, tracking down William Shakespeare’s own life path, through a narration oscillating between pure imagination and schizophrenic madness… Until he stumbles upon a mysterious village he saw many times in his dreams and that does not appear on any map: Fayrwood, whose surroundings seem haunted by Pan himself…  

[doormouseetcappendix]

My 2020 Summer Audio-Book Log Pt 2. 

Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff (2016) read by Kevin Kenerly 

The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones (2020) read by Stephen Graham Jones 

Darkly: Black History & America’s Gothic Soul by Leila Taylor (2019) read by Leila Taylor 

The Night Land by William Hope Hodgson (1912) read by Drew Ariana 

The Sandman by Neil Gaiman (1989) read by Neil Gaiman, James Macavoy, Riz Ahmed, Samantha Morton, Andy Serkis, Micheal Sheen, Bebe Nuewirth, Taron Eagerton, Kat Dennings 

A Peculiar Peril: The Misadventures Of Jonathan Lambshead by Jeff Vandermeer (2020) read by Raphael Corkill 

I’m Thinking Of Ending Things by Ian Reid (2016) read by Candace Thaxton 

The Sunken Land Begins To Rise Again by M. John Harrison (2020) read by Max Dowler 

Frankenstein In Bahgdad: A Novel by Ahmed Saadawi (2013) read by Eduardo Ballerini & Kaleo Griffith 

On A Night In Lonesome October by Roger Zelzany (1993) read by Salome Strangelove 

[dreamsandimagination]

Childhood for the royal family of Amber

Corwin tells how an Amberite seems to take longer to mature compared to us tiny mortals. So despite the siblings being born at different Shadows, they were childish for a long period of time together, despite most of them already physically reaching adulthood. So, these Amberite shenanigans would most definetely have happened:

Random looked up to Bleys and Corwin both. The little runt of the litter would take most of his misschief from Bleys, and was such a nuisance to Corwin that he broke down and taught the boy to swordfight.

Benedict had the most difficulty teach Gérard swordfighting since he relied on his strength too much. 

Eric was irritated as hell whenever corwin was practising  and writing down his ballads. Said papers would often be used for the hearth 'cause he didn't know those scribbles were music notes'.

Caine would sneak up on Random to scare him whenever Random pulled a prank on him. 

Brand and Llewella would be lending books and read in complete silence next to one another. 

Deirdre and Fiona get along as much as Eric and Corwin could - often the room ended with sword cuts in the wall and little fires everywhere. 

Speaking of Deirdre - Corwin nearly lost his head when he said "Girls don't wield swords" when she wanted to fence too. 

[elminx]

Books that I found more useful for understanding magic than 90% of the books written about magic out there: (And I'm not even exaggerating - I have found most books on magic to be complete shit)

The Wheel of Time Series by Robert Jordan - though I am critical of the choice to make the male and female access to the One Power different, I still think that Robert Jordan's explanations of Weaving hold very true for me and his writing about the Dream World has been hands down better information that any advice I've ever read on the subject other than "record your dreams". The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss - if you want an AMAZING look at the concepts of Sympathetic Magic and Naming Magic, this book is for you. Also, the idea of the alar and being able to split it to increase your magical proficiency is spot on, too. The Great Book of Amber by Roger Zelzany is a very interesting look into psychic travel whether through the astral, meditation, or dreamwork. The Word For World is Forest by Ursula K. Le Guin - If there is a book that affected my worldview, it would be this book. Though it's been at least two decades since I read it, it still strongly resonates with my beliefs that we are nature and that we ignore environmentalism and conservation at our own peril. With the exception of the last book, the magical theory represented in the other volumes has had a great influence on how I practice magic and I have taken actual magical techniques as represented within them with a high level of success. This isn't to say that any of these authors can up with a magical system that was unique and revolutionary but they each seem to, at least at times, tap into the actual usage of magic. They describe how magic should feel - how you interact with it, etc. Even, in some cases, how magic would interact with science (most Rothfuss for that one).

Tumbles,

I'm very curious - how many of you took pieces of your spiritual worldview from books that were not inherently spiritual? I'm mostly talking fiction here. If you're willing to share, I'd love to know what books and why.

[tediousreviews]

Asimov’s Science Fiction (March 1996)

Three Novellettes and two short stories this time. The stand out for me is Suzy McKee Charnas’ Beauty and the Opera of the Phantom Beast, which instantly became my headcanon for the Phantom of the Opera when I first read it. Although that’s probably because I’ve never directly engaged with the source material.

There’s also an essay by Silverberg about the deaths of Roger Zelzany and John Brunner. I get what he was trying to say, but there’s a level of pedantry that swerves into sheer dickery when you compare and contrast the deaths of two of your friends to illustrate the proper use of the word tragedy.

Novelettes

Amends, John Brunner

Three hapless losers in near-future China attract the attention of a Triad by finding a priceless artifact. They’re on their way to what will probably be very short, bloody careers as new hires to organized crime when a corpse with debt to pay finally makes amends.

I can’t help but feel I’ve seen this movie. Or this episode. Several times.

Beauty and the Opera or the Phantom Beast, Suzy McKee Charnas

What if Christine stayed with the Phantom for 5 years and Raoul left forever? Well apparently we’d get a content warning from Asimov’s because cunnilingus performed by an ugly man is ‘disturbing to some’. 

I’m always confused by the sexual content warnings in this magazine, because we get rape (statutory and otherwise) without the warnings but lesbian sex, menstruation, and cunnilingus are apparently beyond the pale. Well, ok, that’s a lie. I’m not confused. The pattern is pretty damned clear. I just disagree with it.

The Road to Reality, Phillip C. Jennings

A man who long ago left his original body behind finds himself the target of seriously underhanded and murderous politicking by a woman named Midori. He dies a few times, but after a few centuries pass, he finds himself temporarily alive and in a position of power.

I had a hard time staying with this story. There’s no real twists and turns, just a continuous stream of vindictive evil from a person who is completely convinced that their actions are justified. It kind of kicks me out of a story when the antagonist is a political rival who just happens to be completely amoral and wrong about everything but still inexplicably successful.

Short Stories

The Joys of the Sidereal Long Distance Runner, Tony Daniel

Running will like blow your mind man. And give you superpowers. Or something. Plus math and marriage.

The Age of Mud and Slime, Steven Utley

A time travel story. Or, more accurately, a story about a group of men taking a break and messing with each-other’s heads while they just happen to be on an expedition to the past.

Final Thoughts

Not bad. Not great, but not bad.

[amberproblems]

REALIZING THAT ALL OF THE EXISTENCE RELIES ON A GLOWING SQUIGGLE IN YOUR BASEMENT

(Photo Source. Made with this.)

[yearsofsomething]

Book 9: Guns of Avalon

Title: Guns of Avalon

Author: Roger Zelzany

Pages: 156 (More of a novella, really)

Notes: Love the series

Weather: Bright sunshine and unusual warmth

Food/Drink: Water

Started: January 8, 2013

Finished: January 10, 2013

Total Pages: 2257

[mask131]

The arduous path to French fantasy

If you recall, not too long ago I posted a rough translation of an article by the BNF (National French Library) called "A cosmogony of French fantasy", taking a look at the fantasy genre in French literature. Well I just discovered something that blew my mind.

The journal this article was part of, was actually one of a series of journal-reviews published by the BNF entirely centered around fantasy. The article "Cosmogony" was from the issue centered around "Worldbuilding", but I found another article talking about the history of the fantasy genre in French literature, this time coming from an issue of "BNF - Fantasy" with for theme "Modern success".

So here is the rough translation of: Fantasy in France, a long road... Originally written by Anne Besson

Fantasy has been present in France for numerous decades, but it had to wait until the turn of the 21st century to actually be recognized as its own genre, thanks to the work of fans and of independant publishing houses.

The main reason fantasy arrived quite "late" in French literature was due to a lack of identification. Numerous fantasy works were already published in France for a long time - but there was no specific collections dedicated to fantasy, and the very name "fantasy" wasn't used. For example, J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings was translated in France in 1972-1973, by the publishing house Christian Bourgois - which is VERY late compared to other European countries, that had done a translating work long before. Other main works of fantasy only came in France under the shadow or as satellites of other literary genres. First, under the fantastique genre, with the collection "Aventures fantastiques" (Fantastical adventures) by Opta, then under the science-fiction genre. [Note: I said it before, but "fantastique" is a genre of French literature centered around a supernatural element arriving into a mundane and realistic setting very similar to our own. Dracula is "fantastique", for example] The works of Jack Vance were translated by the "Club du Livre d'Anticipation" (The Anticipation Book Club), Roger Zelzany's Chronicles of Amber was found originally in "Présence du futur" (Presence of the future), then in "Folio SF". In fact, for a very long time the term "science-fiction" will dominate the French edition, used as a general category for many non-realistic work - even what was identified by the 80s as "heroic fantasy" was named by French editors "science-fiction".

It is only at the end of the 1990s, and at the beginning of the 2000s that the word "fantasy" appeared - it was when specific collections and specialized publishing houses also formed themselves, such as Nestiveqnen or Mnémos, all derived from the editing industry of role-playing games. In 2000, the publishing house Bragelonne will decide to translate the works of David Gemmell and Terry Goodkind, great fantasy authors that hadn't been translated in French yet, and which were massive successes that helped the expansion of the fantasy industry in France.

Fans are definitively those that make fantasy live the most in France. Alongside the fantasy boom of the 90s-2000s, numerous actors appeared in what was called the "micro-edition", a very dynamic but very fragile world. Numerous festivals started popping out everywhere, and fandoms appearing thanks to the Internet became the main sources of information about the genre.

The growing importance of this sector, and the apparition of "experts" of fantasy, is translated by a new care for fantasy as a genre. Numerous classical authors ignored until this point get translated (such as William Morris, by "Aux forges de Vulcain", "In Vulcan's forge"). Numerous "integral" editions are offered by Bragelonne, Pocket or J'ai Lu. You also have several re-translations, offering a new French text closer and more respectful towards the originals (Patrice Louinet reworked on Robert E. Howard, while David Camus offered new H.P. Lovecraft translations, and Daniel Lauzon completely redid the French Tolkien works).

But truly French fantasy works - as in, French-written fantasy works created by francophone authors - were for a long time considered as "secondary" works. Late to the party, they had a hard time imposing themselves among the many translations of English-works. But today, we can consider that the French creation reached a level of "full maturity". In fact, we re-discover today an old French fantasy that had been forgotten by previous generations - Les centaures by André Lichtenberg in 1904, re-edited by the Callidor editions in 2017 ; or the duology Khanaor by Francis Berthelot in 1983. But, again, it was at the end of the 90s that the "New French School" of fantasy appeared, embodied by the trio of Mathieu Gaborit (Les Chroniques des Crépusculaires, 1995-1996, The Chronicles of the Dusk-people), Fabrice Colin (Arcadia, 1998 or Winterheim, 1999-2003) and Henri Loevenbruck (La Moïra, or Gallica, both starting in 2001).

Editors started accepting in their ranks authors with very unique, peculiar or demanding imaginations. Among these specific works we can find the Horde du contrevent (Horde of the counter-wind) by Alain Damasio, in 2004, by the house La Volte, or Jean-Philippe Jaworski's works (Récits du vieux royaume, Tales of the old kingdom, 2007, or Rois du monde, Kings of the world, 2013) in the house Les moutons électriques.

Other independant editors (note: In English I don't know if you can say "indie publishing houses" or if the "indie" term is only applied to video games and animation) also started imposing themselves. Scrinéo published Gabriel Katz, ActuSF published Karim Berrouka, Critic's published Estelle Faye and Lionel Davoust. Finally the "historical" actors of the domain, the "ancients" of the fantasy genre, also started encouraging the growth of French talents: L'Atalante published Régis Goddyn, Mnémos published Adrien Tomas and Charlotte Bousquet. As for Bragelonne they have Pierre Pevel, who is the great example of a fantasy inspired by the old French feuilletons - his Les Enchantements d'Ambremer (The Enchantments of Ambersea, 2003) are inspired by Arsène Lupin, while his Les Lames du Cardinal (The Blades of the Cardinal, 2007), reference and pay homage to Alexandre Dumas. About this last series: it was actually the very first French fantasy series to ever be translated in the United-States!

[dreamsandimagination]

Random of Amber: Character study

Roger Zelazny derived a lot from Norse, Arthurian and Celtic mythology. For example, Tir Na Nogh is the Celtic eternal realm of the fae. Lance(lot) from “Guns of Avalon” clearly stems from Lancelot de Lac from the Arthurian legends. And so forth. Now though, I am focusing on one particular character, namely Random.

The paralells to the Norse Trickster god Loki is quite obvious. Corwin, who is accompanied by a Raven called Hugi(nn) and who loses his eye(s) in return for wisdom, mentions in the first book that Random is his full brother. Pretty much how Odin saw Loki as his bloodbrother, when they clearly were not related at all by blood.

Loki is quite the help for the norse gods, preventing a war with the frost giant Skadi for example, or supplying Odin and Thor with the spear Gungnir and the hammer Mjolnir. Likewise, Random provides Corwin his own power - guiding him towards the Pattern in Rebma and therefore allowing Corwin to regain his memory.

The similarities don’t stop there. Loki has a very special connection to fire and heat in general, like some norse version of Prometheus you could almost say. Random’s colors are the very colors of heat: red, yellow and orange. Loki derives from the indo-european word “Leuk”, meaning “Flashing light”.

Another Trickster god too, is connected to this word: “Lugh” or “Lugus”, the celtic god of arts, harvest, trade, oaths, trickery and kingship. Random loves to trade very much with cards. He loves to drum, which is an art on itself and takes his promises seriously (His marriage to Vialle, his promise to find/avenge Martin).

To take it one step further, Lugh is very reminiscent of Hermes, the greek god of yes, you guessed it, also of trickery, trade, contracts... and who acts as a shining light, a guide to the underworld for the dead. It seems, we are going full circle now.

More connections between these three trickster gods, are that they are all represented with snakes. Both Lugh and Hermes are carrying a spear. Random doesn’t have a snake as a pet nor does he use a spear as weapon, but consider this.

The spear, for all three trickster gods, is used to heal. Hermes’ staff Caduceus is winged and encircled with snakes, the very symbol for the doctors. In norse and celtic myth, both Lugh and Loki use a spear to strike down a fellow sun god to tame their power.

For Loki, it was Baldr (the god of light), for Lugh it was Balor. Both trickster gods cause a massive change through these actions. Loki, by killing Baldr, causes Ragnarok to happen, the end of all things. For Lugh, on the other hand, one has to look at the word “Lúghnasadh”, which is “a blistering summer day on which thunderstorms with plentiful rain are expected and welcomed”. The rain provide a respite from the fierce summer heat that endangers the crops and encourages insect pests. 

One of Lugh’s many names is “Fierce striker”. The spear he uses to kill Balor, is the lightening. Balor’s Evil Eye is the unforgiving scorching sun, and Lugh himself is the blessing rain and storm. Anointed literally by Storm, both Random and Lugh become king of their respective realms after defeating their enemy.

It is clear that, while they are all tricksters, what they do is bring a fresh air of well-needed change, kindly given guidance and firey enlightenment. Everything that Random embodies perfectly, in my opinion. 

[dreamsandimagination]

Some Random/Vialle fanons:

When Random and Vialle hug, Random always pulls her up so they are the same height, and Vialle’s feet dangle above the ground. Oh, and he swirls her around whenever he was away for quite some time.

Random is a workaholic as king. Vialle literally drags him out of office whenever he’s staying up too late.

Random threatens death for anyone who dares to break or steal his drumsticks. The whole palace was once in panic when they were lost - Martin quickly provided new ones before Random found out.

Vialle loves to try and eat new food. In Rebma, you only have fish after all.

Vialle basically like your every Grandmother. She'll ask if you have had enough food and if you say "no" - oh you'll get some extra snacks with you to be sure!

Vialle is the only one to ever make Benedict laugh.

If you want a painful death, go and make fun of the Queen’s blindness. The very first fool was also the very last one to ever do that. Within an hour, the guy was found by Julian, beaten up by Caine and brought before a very pissed Random, who nearly skewered him alive had his wife not pleaded for mercy. 

[dreamsandimagination]

Gérard: you two should fight one another for the honor of leadership!

Fiona: that sounds fair.

Eric: ....

Corwin: ....

Eric: It is not necessary.

Caine: I got some knives if you don't want to use your fists.

Flora: Oh yes please, use knives!

Eric and Corwin *glance at one another, begin to laugh very fake*

Corwin *trying to sound deeper*: Oh, no definetly NOT necessary.

Eric: there will be no kniving one another. Everyone knows who's in charge.

Corwin *glances at Eric*: Me.

Eric *pretends to be deaf*

Corwin: right?

Eric: Yes, yes off course. *pats Corwin on the shoulder and gives a silent death stare* Off course.

[dreamsandimagination]

Llewella: You feel love. Random *akwardly*: yeah, I guess- yeah, I guess you could say I have a general, unselfish love for everyo- Llewella: No, sexual, romantic love.... Random: -No, no I dont- Llewella *points with finger*: for Vialle! *two seconds of silence* *Vialle becomes red* *Random turns his eyes down* Caine *begins to laugh*: She just told everyone your deepest darkest secret! Random: Caine, you are overreacting. Caine: YOU MUST BE SO EMBARRASSED! *begins to laugh uncontrollably*

[dreamsandimagination]

For someone who has had such an impact on Random, there isn't much known about Vialle or how her relationship with Random came to be. Set during Corwins four years of darkness in Nine Princes.

[dreamsandimagination]

Rein: So you two are on a date?

*Vialle and Random responds simultaniously*

Vialle: Yes!

Random: No!

Both:.....

Vialle: We are not?!

Random: We are?!

[dreamsandimagination]

Corwin: We need a divertion to stop Brand! Random: What do you want us to do, dress in drag and do the hula?! Corwin:..... Random:.....fine.

[dreamsandimagination]

Corwin: IS THAT THE BEST YOU CAN DO?!

Stryggwaldir *getting teary eyed* Why yes, I am actually trying really hard here and....

Corwin: oh...I didnt mean to be rude. Gosh. You need a shoulder?

Stryggwaldir * gets pulled in a hug by Corwin and is crying a river*

Corwin: there, there. Feeling better?

Stryggwaldir: yeah, thanks.