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118-420: Fafhrd is a very tall (nearly 7 feet (2.1 m)) and strong northern barbarian , skilled at both swordsmanship and singing. The Mouser is a small (not much more than 5 feet (1.5 m)) mercurial thief, gifted and deadly at swordsmanship (often using a sword in one hand and a long dagger or main-gauche in the other), as well as a former wizard's apprentice who retains some skill at magic. Fafhrd talks like

236-628: A multiverse when Fafhrd and the Mouser join forces with a German explorer named Karl Treuherz who is looking for his spacecraft, which he uses to cross the boundaries between parallel dimensions in his hunt for new animals to feature at a zoo. Technology in Nehwon varies between the Iron Age and medieval. Leiber wrote of Lankhmarts: "They may be likened to the Romans or be thought of as, if I may use such

354-529: A barbarian, or to hold with the barbarians. Plato ( Statesman 262de) rejected the Greek–barbarian dichotomy as a logical absurdity on just such grounds: dividing the world into Greeks and non-Greeks told one nothing about the second group. Yet Plato used the term barbarian frequently in his seventh letter. In Homer 's works, the term appeared only once ( Iliad 2.867), in the form βαρβαρόφωνος ( barbarophonos ) ("of incomprehensible speech"), used of

472-663: A certain admiration, perhaps unwilling, for the rude force of these peoples or simpler customs. In a somewhat related example, Mencius believed that Confucian practices were universal and timeless, and thus followed by both Hua and Yi, " Shun was an Eastern barbarian; he was born in Chu Feng, moved to Fu Hsia, and died in Ming T'iao. King Wen was a Western barbarian; he was born in Ch'i Chou and died in Pi Ying. Their native places were over

590-555: A constant motif, sometimes minor, sometimes very major indeed. They figure prominently in the Shang oracle inscriptions, and the dynasty that came to an end only in 1912 was, from the Chinese point of view, barbarian." Shang dynasty (1600–1046 BC) oracles and bronze inscriptions first recorded specific Chinese exonyms for foreigners, often in contexts of warfare or tribute. King Wu Ding (r. 1250–1192 BC), for instance, fought with

708-540: A direct takeoff. American author Michael Chabon 's Gentlemen of the Road (2007) is a "swashbuckling adventure" novel set in the kaganate of Khazaria (now southwest Russia) around AD 950. It features two similarly physically built adventurers who have a working relationship similar to Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser's – Amram, a hulking Abyssinian proficient with an axe, and the slightly-built swordsman Zelikman, who

826-421: A frequent Astounding contributor, appeared in the final issue with "The Book of Ptath" (later expanded into a novel). Isaac Asimov , despite multiple attempts to write for Unknown , never appeared in the magazine. On his sixth attempt, he sold " Author! Author! " to Campbell, but the magazine was canceled before it could appear. It eventually appeared in the anthology The Unknown Five . In addition to

944-753: A hand). The Mouser, who in one story is called "the best swordsman in the World", also fights with a pair of weapons: a "slim, curving" sword or sabre called Scalpel, and a dagger called the Cat's Claw, the latter usually hidden in the small of the Mouser's back, and the original of which had a very subtle curve. (It was a straight-bladed weapon by the events of Lean Times in Lankhmar .) As the pair are often divested of their property, these are names they apply to any of their appropriate weapons and not necessarily names of specific ones. They are absolutely not magic weapons: both

1062-444: A horror story. Horror stories, he said, had a place, but "horror injected with a sharp and poisoned needle is just as effective as when applied with the blunt-instrument technique of the so-called Gothic horror tale". Campbell insisted on the same rational approach to fantasy that he required of his science fiction writers, and in the words of Clareson, this led to the destruction of "not only the prevalent narrative tone but also most of

1180-673: A hundred years after Paul's time, Lucian – a native of Samosata , in the former kingdom of Commagene , which had been absorbed by the Roman Empire and made part of the province of Syria – used the term "barbarian" to describe himself. Because he was a noted satirist, this could have indicated self-deprecating irony. It might also have suggested descent from Samosata's original Semitic-speaking population – who were likely called "barbarians by later Hellenistic, Greek-speaking settlers", and might have eventually taken up this appellation themselves. The term retained its standard usage in

1298-602: A letter to Leiber in September 1934, naming at the same time their home city of Lankhmar . In 1936, Leiber finished the first Fafhrd and Gray Mouser novella, "Adept's Gambit", and began work on a second, "The Tale of the Grain Ships". At the same time, Fischer was writing the beginning of " The Lords of Quarmall ". "Adept's Gambit" would not see publication until 1947, while "The Lords of Quarmall" would be finished by Leiber and published in 1964. His second story, "The Tale of

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1416-630: A man who discovers that all women are secretly witches, was the lead story in the April 1943 issue. The protagonist, a university professor, "is forced to abandon scepticism and discover the underlying equations of magic, via symbolic logic", in critic David Langford's description. Leiber also contributed "Smoke Ghost" in October 1941, described by Ashley as "arguably the first seriously modern ghost story". Another writer whose first story appeared in Unknown

1534-542: A reminder of the Celts' defeat, thus demonstrating the might of the people who defeated them, and a memorial to their bravery as worthy adversaries. As H. W. Janson comments, the sculpture conveys the message that "they knew how to die, barbarians that they were". The Greeks admired Scythians and Galatians as heroic individuals – and even (as in the case of Anacharsis ) as philosophers – but they regarded their culture as barbaric. The Romans indiscriminately characterised

1652-585: A romantic, but his strength and practicality usually wins through, while the cynical-sounding Mouser is prone to showing strains of sentiment at unexpected times. Both are rogues, living in a decadent world where only the ruthless and cynical survive. They spend a lot of time drinking, feasting, wenching, brawling, stealing, and gambling, while are seldom fussy about who hires their swords. Still, they are humane and—most of all—relish true adventure. The characters were loosely modeled upon Leiber himself and his friend Harry Otto Fischer . Fischer initially created them in

1770-697: A rough garment in wool"). The region, still known as " Barbagia " (in Sardinian Barbàgia or Barbàza ), preserves this old "barbarian" designation in its name – but it no longer consciously retains "barbarian" associations: the inhabitants of the area themselves use the name naturally and unaffectedly. The statue of the Dying Galatian provides some insight into the Hellenistic perception of and attitude towards "Barbarians". Attalus I of Pergamon (ruled 241–197 BC) commissioned (220s BC)

1888-560: A similar training to that described in the short story " Ill Met in Lankhmar ". Playing off the visit of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser to Earth in Adept's Gambit (set in second century B.C. Tyre), Steven Saylor 's short story "Ill Seen in Tyre" takes his Roma Sub Rosa series hero Gordianus to the city of Tyre a hundred years later, where the two visitors from Nehwon are remembered as local legends. The Gray Mouser's dirk "Cat Claw" has appeared as

2006-405: A simplified board game entitled simply Lankhmar which was released by TSR in 1976. This is a rare case of a game adaptation written by the creators of the stories that the game is based on. Nehwon, and some of its more interesting inhabitants, are described in the early Dungeons & Dragons supplement Deities and Demigods , and the stories themselves were a significant influence on

2124-534: A small ink drawing usually accompanying the summary of each story, in an attempt to make the magazine appear more dignified. The cover art came almost entirely from artists who did not contribute to many science fiction or fantasy magazines: six of the sixteen paintings were by H. W. Scott ; Manuel Islip, Modest Stein , Graves Gladney , and Edd Cartier provided the others. Cartier was the only one of these who regularly contributed to SF and fantasy periodicals; he painted four of Unknown ' s last six covers before

2242-588: A statue to celebrate his victory (ca 232 BC) over the Celtic Galatians in Anatolia (the bronze original is lost, but a Roman marble copy was found in the 17th century). The statue depicts with remarkable realism a dying Celt warrior with a typically Celtic hairstyle and moustache. He sits on his fallen shield while a sword and other objects lie beside him. He appears to be fighting against death, refusing to accept his fate. The statue serves both as

2360-487: A term, southern medievals." On the topic of his Eastern Lands, he wrote: "think of Saracens, Arabs, Parthians, Assyrians even. They ride the camel and elephant, and use the bow extensively." The series includes many bizarre and outlandish characters. The two who most influence—and, some would say, cause the most trouble—for Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser are their sorcerous advisers, Ningauble of the Seven Eyes and Sheelba of

2478-549: A thousand li apart, and there were a thousand years between them. Yet when they had their way in the Central Kingdoms, their actions matched like the two halves of a tally. The standards of the two sages, one earlier and one later, were identical." Unknown (magazine) Unknown (also known as Unknown Worlds ) was an American pulp fantasy fiction magazine , published from 1939 to 1943 by Street & Smith , and edited by John W. Campbell . Unknown

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2596-582: A war of conquest against Persia as a panacea for Greek problems. However, the disparaging Hellenic stereotype of barbarians did not totally dominate Hellenic attitudes. Xenophon (died 354 B.C.), for example, wrote the Cyropaedia , a laudatory fictionalised account of Cyrus the Great , the founder of the Persian Empire , effectively a utopian text. In his Anabasis , Xenophon's accounts of

2714-451: A water gnome; in its whimsicality and naturalistic merging of a modern background with a classic fantasy trope, "Trouble with Water" was a better indication than Sinister Barrier of the direction Unknown would take. Campbell commented in a letter at the time that Sinister Barrier , "Trouble with Water", and " 'Where Angels Fear ... ' " by Manly Wade Wellman were the only stories in the first issue that accurately reflected his goals for

2832-619: A weapon in several role-playing video games, including early installments of the Final Fantasy series. In Baldur's Gate , the name "Fafhrd" appears as a password needed to gain entrance into the Thieves' Guild. In Bethesda 's The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim , when visiting the Ratway in the city of Riften, the first enemies the player meets are a sneaky-looking fellow and a barbarian type called Drahff and Hewnon Black-Skeever. Drahff

2950-539: A whole literature arose in Europe that characterized the indigenous Indian peoples as innocent, and the militarily superior Europeans as "barbarous" intruders invading a paradisical world. Historically, the term barbarian has seen widespread use in English. Many peoples have dismissed alien cultures and even rival civilizations, because they were unrecognizably strange. For instance, the nomadic Turkic peoples north of

3068-555: Is Frankish . This pair – both of Jewish origin – become embroiled in a rebellion and a plot to restore a displaced Khazar prince to the throne. Two characters created by Michael J. Sullivan , Hadrian and Royce, also share a similar relationship to Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser and have similar characteristics and personalities. Sullivan wrote a trilogy of books, Riyria Revelations , originally published as six novellas or books in 2011 and 2012. A thief character created by Christopher Buehlman in his novel, The Blacktongue Thief , undergoes

3186-492: Is a mysterious being with a manipulative character, as described in this passage from Adept's Gambit : Some said that Ningauble had been created by the Elder Gods for men to guess about and to sharpen their imaginations for even tougher riddles. None knew whether he had the gift of foresight, or whether he merely set the stage for future events with such a bewildering cunning that only an efreet or an adept could evade acting

3304-541: Is also dim-witted, while cultures, customs and practices adopted by peoples and countries perceived to be primitive may be referred to as " barbaric ". The term originates from the Ancient Greek : βάρβαρος ( barbaros ; pl. βάρβαροι barbaroi ). In Ancient Greece , the Greeks used the term not only for those who did not speak Greek and follow classical Greek customs, but also for Greek populations on

3422-615: Is an anagram of Fafhrd, "Black-Skeever" is a play on "Gray-Mouser", and Hewnon is an anagram of Nehwon, the world in which Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser live. In Dodge Roll's Enter the Gungeon , the player can encounter a pair of characters named Frifle and the Grey Mauser, styled to look like the eponymous heroes. In Jack L. Chalker 's And the Devil Will Drag You Under , two characters resembling Fafhrd and

3540-470: Is described as "a world like and unlike our own". Theorists in Nehwon believe that their world may be shaped like a bubble, floating in the waters of eternity. Sundered from us by gulfs of time and stranger dimensions dreams the ancient world of Nehwon with its towers and skulls and jewels, its swords and sorceries. Nehwon's known realms crowd about the Inner Sea: northward the green-forested fierce Land of

3658-537: Is referenced in other Leiber works such as The Wanderer , where Baba Yaga is the name of a lunar lander. Fafhrd commonly uses a sword which he names Graywand, a two-hand sword that he's able to use one-handed too (in later stories by necessity). He also carries a poignard named Heartseeker and a short hand-axe which has never been named. For combat at a distance, he often carries a bow and arrow which he wields effectively even while on horseback or at sea, and which he's able to use despite his final handicap (he loses

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3776-504: Is related to Sanskrit barbaras (stammering). This Indo-European root is also found in Latin balbutire / balbus for "stammer / stammering" (leading to Italian balbettare , Spanish balbucear and French balbutier ) and Czech blblati "to stammer". The verb baṛbaṛānā in both contemporary Hindi (बड़बड़ाना) as well as Urdu (بڑبڑانا) means 'to babble, to speak gibberish, to rave incoherently'. In Aramaic, Old Persian and Arabic context,

3894-411: Is taciturn, choosing his/her words as if they were valuables to be disbursed parsimoniously. That the stoic Fafhrd is paired with the voluble Ningauble, while the story-loving Mouser with the laconic Sheelba is doubly ironic. Sheelba's sigil is an empty oval (presumably signifying an empty hooded face). Sheelba's gender is ambiguous: Harry Fischer , who first conceived of the character, claimed Sheelba

4012-469: The Conan comic series. The pairs of characters were very much alike and Roy Thomas , who wrote the original Conan comics, made no secret that it was his intention to create characters that were a tribute to Fritz Leiber's creations. In 1937, Leiber and his college friend Harry Otto Fischer created a complex wargame set within the world of Nehwon, which Fischer had helped to create. Later, they created

4130-745: The Guifang 鬼方, Di 氐, and Qiang 羌 "barbarians." During the Spring and Autumn period (771–476 BC), the meanings of four exonyms were expanded. "These included Rong, Yi, Man, and Di—all general designations referring to the barbarian tribes." These Siyi 四夷 "Four Barbarians", most "probably the names of ethnic groups originally," were the Yi or Dongyi 東夷 "eastern barbarians," Man or Nanman 南蠻 "southern barbarians," Rong or Xirong 西戎 "western barbarians," and Di or Beidi 北狄 "northern barbarians." The Russian anthropologist Mikhail Kryukov concluded. Evidently,

4248-679: The Black Sea , including the Pechenegs and the Kipchaks , were called barbarians by the Byzantines . The native Berbers of North Africa were among the many peoples called "Barbarian" by the early Romans. The term continued to be used by medieval Arabs (see Berber etymology ) before being replaced by " Amazigh ". In English, the term "Berber" continues to be used as an exonym . The geographical term Barbary or Barbary Coast , and

4366-641: The Carians fighting for Troy during the Trojan War . In general, the concept of barbaros did not figure largely in archaic literature before the 5th century BC. It has been suggested that the "barbarophonoi" in the Iliad signifies not those who spoke a non-Greek language but simply those who spoke Greek badly. A change occurred in the connotations of the word after the Greco-Persian Wars in

4484-692: The Greek language throughout the Middle Ages ; Byzantine Greeks used it widely until the fall of the Eastern Roman Empire , (later named the Byzantine Empire ) in the 15th century (1453 with the fall of capital city Constantinople ). Cicero (106–43 BC) described the mountain area of inner Sardinia as "a land of barbarians", with these inhabitants also known by the manifestly pejorative term latrones mastrucati ("thieves with

4602-531: The Huai River region, and generalized references to "barbarian; foreigner; non-Chinese." Lin Yutang's Chinese-English Dictionary of Modern Usage translates Yi as "Anc[ient] barbarian tribe on east border, any border or foreign tribe." The sinologist Edwin G. Pulleyblank says the name Yi "furnished the primary Chinese term for 'barbarian'," but "Paradoxically the Yi were considered the most civilized of

4720-763: The Pythonesque . The stories have been collected in the "Swords" series: In 2009, Benjamin Szumskyj's Strange Wonders included the first few chapters of "The Tale of the Grain Ships", written in the 1930s. This unfinished fragment depicts the Gray Mouser in Rome during the reign of the Emperor Claudius . Several omnibus editions have also been published: In 1972, Fafhrd and the Mouser began their comics career, appearing in Wonder Woman #202 alongside

4838-569: The Yao people , for instance, was changed from yao 猺 "jackal" to yao 瑤 "precious jade" in the modern period. The original Hua–Yi distinction between Hua ("Chinese") and Yi (commonly translated as "barbarian") was based on culture and power but not on race. Historically, the Chinese used various words for foreign ethnic groups. They include terms like 夷 Yi , which is often translated as "barbarians." Despite this conventional translation, there are also other ways of translating Yi into English. Some of

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4956-749: The "Other" as those who do not speak one's language; Greek barbaroi was paralleled by Arabic ajam "non-Arabic speakers; non-Arabs; (especially) Persians ." In the ancient Indian epic Mahabharata , the Sanskrit onomatopoeic word barbara- referred to the incomprehensible, unfamiliar speech (perceived as "babbling", "incoherent stammering") of non-Vedic peoples ("wretch, foreigner, sinful people, low and barbarous".) The term "Barbarian" in traditional Chinese culture had several aspects. For one thing, Chinese has more than one historical "barbarian" exonym . Several historical Chinese characters for non-Chinese peoples were graphic pejoratives . The character for

5074-469: The "civilized" gentes barbaricae such as in Armenia or Persia , whereas bishops were appointed to supervise entire peoples among the less settled. Eventually the term found a hidden meaning through the folk etymology of Cassiodorus (c. 485 – c. 585). He stated that the word barbarian was "made up of barba (beard) and rus (flat land); for barbarians did not live in cities, making their abodes in

5192-459: The 'Four Barbarians,' north, west, east, and south." Professor Creel said, From ancient to modern times the Chinese attitude toward people not Chinese in culture—"barbarians"—has commonly been one of contempt, sometimes tinged with fear ... It must be noted that, while the Chinese have disparaged barbarians, they have been singularly hospitable both to individuals and to groups that have adopted Chinese culture. And at times they seem to have had

5310-524: The 1930s had established itself and was regularly publishing science fiction (SF) as well as fantasy. Weird Tales was the first magazine to focus solely on fantasy, and it remained the pre-eminent magazine in this field for over a decade. In the meantime, science fiction was starting to form a separately marketed genre, with the appearance in 1926 of Amazing Stories , a pulp magazine edited by Hugo Gernsback . In 1930 pulp publisher Clayton Publications launched Astounding Stories of Super Science , but

5428-464: The Dungeons and Dragons role playing game. In 1986, Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser were featured in a 1-on-1 Adventure Gamebook set, Dragonsword of Lankhmar . One player controlled Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, who were trying to find a magical sword beneath an altar (just which one, they were not sure) in Lankhmar. The other player controlled assassins from the local thieves' guild, who were trying to kill

5546-768: The Eight Cities, eastward the steppe-dwelling Mingol horsemen and the desert where caravans creep from the rich Eastern Lands and the River Tilth. But southward, linked to the desert only by the Sinking Land and further warded by the Great Dike and the Mountains of Hunger, are the rich grain fields and walled cities of Lankhmar, eldest and chiefest of Nehwon's lands. Dominating the Land of Lankhmar and crouching at

5664-645: The Eyeless Face (see Ningauble and Sheelba , below). These two lead the heroes into some of their most interesting and dangerous adventures. The first story, "Two Sought Adventure", appeared in Unknown in August 1939; the last in The Knight and Knave of Swords in 1988. Although Leiber credited his friend Harry Otto Fischer with the original concepts for his characters, it was Leiber who wrote nearly all

5782-462: The Grain Ships", would become the prototype for "Scylla's Daughter" (1961) and, later, the novel The Swords of Lankhmar (1968). The stories of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser respectively were only loosely connected until the 1960s, when Leiber organized them chronologically and added additional material in preparation for paperback publication. Starting as young men, the two separately meet their female lovers, meet each other, and lose both their lovers in

5900-503: The Gray Mouser appear briefly in a tavern with one repeating out loud slightly similar names to Ningauble and Sheelba. Barbarian A barbarian is a person or tribe of people that is perceived to be primitive, savage and warlike. Many cultures have referred to other cultures as barbarians, sometimes out of misunderstanding and sometimes out of prejudice. A "barbarian" may also be an individual reference to an aggressive, brutal, cruel, and insensitive person, particularly one who

6018-559: The Gray Mouser stories, "The Two Best Thieves in Lankhmar" (1968) and "Under the Thumbs of the Gods" (1975). In Terry Pratchett 's The Colour of Magic (1983), Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser are parodied as Bravd and the Weasel. Although Ankh-Morpork bears more than a passing resemblance to Lankhmar, Pratchett, known for the use of pastiche in his early works, has been quoted as not intending

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6136-592: The Gray Mouser's patron warlock, Sheelba, Ningauble often sends his servant on ludicrous missions such as recovering the Mask of Death or stealing the very stars from the highest mountain. Ningauble's mysterious cavern has obscure space-time portals, which prevent Fafhrd and the Mouser from being sent into other worlds. Ningauble is referred to as the "gossiper of the gods", because of his fondness for stories of an unusual nature (whether or not they are true seems irrelevant) or his sometimes bizarre spies and informants. Ningauble

6254-755: The Greeks, after the Persian wars, the Persians), including the Germanic peoples, Persians, Gauls, Phoenicians and Carthaginians. The Greek term barbaros was the etymological source for many words meaning "barbarian", including English barbarian , which was first recorded in 16th century Middle English . A word barbara- (बर्बर) is also found in the Sanskrit of ancient India, with the primary meaning of "cruel" and also "stammering" (बड़बड़), implying someone with an unfamiliar language. The Greek word barbaros

6372-636: The Persians and other non-Greeks whom he knew or encountered show few traces of the stereotypes. In Plato 's Protagoras , Prodicus of Ceos calls "barbarian" the Aeolian dialect that Pittacus of Mytilene spoke. Aristotle makes the difference between Greeks and barbarians one of the central themes of his book on Politics , and quotes Euripides approvingly, "Tis meet that Greeks should rule barbarians". The renowned orator Demosthenes (384–322 B.C.) made derogatory comments in his speeches, using

6490-482: The Roman Empire from the coming Dark Ages; Edwards and Clute comment that the story is "the most accomplished early excursion into history in magazine SF, and is regarded as a classic". Also highly regarded is Wellman's "When It Was Moonlight" (December 1940), a story about Poe. The first sixteen issues of Unknown had cover paintings, but from July 1940 the cover style was changed to a table of contents, with

6608-560: The alleged root of the word bárbaros , which is an echomimetic or onomatopoeic word. In various occasions, the term was also used by Greeks, especially the Athenians , to deride other Greek tribes and states (such as Epirotes, Eleans, Boeotians and Aeolic-speakers) and also fellow Athenians in a pejorative and politically motivated manner. The term also carried a cultural dimension to its dual meaning. The verb βαρβαρίζω ( barbarízō ) in ancient Greek meant to behave or talk like

6726-413: The barbarian tribes at first had individual names, but during about the middle of the first millennium B.C., they were classified schematically according to the four cardinal points of the compass. This would, in the final analysis, mean that once again territory had become the primary criterion of the we-group, whereas the consciousness of common origin remained secondary. What continued to be important were

6844-456: The change to a text-heavy design. Unknown was, along with Weird Tales , an important early influence on the fantasy genre. In the foreword to From Unknown Worlds , in 1948, Campbell commented that fantasy before Unknown had been too much infused with "gloom and terror"; his approach in Unknown had been to assume that the "creatures of mythology and folklore" could be characters in an amusing tale as easily as they could be made part of

6962-416: The change to bedsheet size; it remained at 25 cents when the size changed back to pulp. It had 164 pages when pulp-sized and 130 pages while it was bedsheet-sized. It began as a monthly and switched to bimonthly from December 1940 on. The volume numbering was regular, with six volumes of six numbers and a final volume of three numbers. The title began as simply Unknown . In December 1940 " Fantasy Fiction "

7080-482: The company's bankruptcy in 1933 led to the acquisition of the magazine by Street & Smith . The title was shortened to Astounding Stories , and it became the leading magazine in the science fiction field over the next few years under the editorship of F. Orlin Tremaine . At the end of 1937, John W. Campbell took over as editor. By 1938, Campbell was planning a fantasy companion to Astounding : Weird Tales

7198-534: The conquering Spaniards. Montaigne argued that Europeans noted the barbarism of other cultures but not the crueler and more brutal actions of their own societies, particularly (in his time) during the so-called religious wars . In Montaigne's view, his own people – the Europeans – were the real "barbarians". In this way, the argument was turned around and applied to the European invaders. With this shift in meaning,

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7316-462: The earlier DC title, and pencilled by Mike Mignola , whose Hellboy comic book often has a similar feel to Leiber's work. Mignola also did the jacket covers and interior art for the White Wolf collection. This series was collected by Dark Horse Comics in a trade paperback collection published in March 2007. Marvel Comics created their own version of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, when they introduced Fafnir of Vanaheim and his companion Blackrat to

7434-437: The earliest days of the characters, called Sheelba "she-he (or it)". Fischer may have created Sheelba as a tribute to his wife Martha. While Ningauble dwells in caverns, Sheelba's house is a small hut which strides about the swamps not far from Lankhmar on five chicken leg-like posts, which bend and scuttle like the legs of a great crab or spider. Sheelba's hut is similar in description to the Russian legend of Baba Yaga , which

7552-505: The examples include "foreigners," "ordinary others," "wild tribes," "uncivilized tribes," and so forth. Chinese historical records mention what may now perhaps be termed "barbarian" peoples for over four millennia, although this considerably predates the Greek language origin of the term "barbarian", at least as is known from the thirty-four centuries of written records in the Greek language. The sinologist Herrlee Glessner Creel said, "Throughout Chinese history "the barbarians" have been

7670-431: The factors of language, the acceptance of certain forms of material culture, the adherence to certain rituals, and, above all, the economy and the way of life. Agriculture was the only appropriate way of life for the Hua-Hsia . The Chinese classics use compounds of these four generic names in localized "barbarian tribes" exonyms such as "west and north" Rongdi , "south and east" Manyi , Nanyibeidi "barbarian tribes in

7788-399: The famous rogues for operating in the city without permission from the guild. Ningauble of the Seven Eyes and Sheelba of the Eyeless Face are two wizards who serve as patrons for Fafhrd and the Mouser. Patron warlock of Fafhrd, Ningauble is so named due to his seven (usually only six visible) glowing eyes, seen roving within, and sometimes projecting from, the hood of his cloak. Along with

7906-608: The fantasy elements in a story be developed logically: for example, Jack Williamson 's Darker Than You Think describes a world in which there is a scientific explanation for the existence of werewolves . Similarly, L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt 's Harold Shea series, about a modern American who finds himself in the worlds of various mythologies, depicts a system of magic based on mathematical logic. Other notable works included several novels by L. Ron Hubbard and short stories such as Manly Wade Wellman 's "When It Was Moonlight" and Fritz Leiber 's " Two Sought Adventure ",

8024-413: The fields like wild animals". From classical origins the Hellenic stereotype of barbarism evolved: barbarians are like children, unable to speak or reason properly, cowardly, effeminate, luxurious, cruel, unable to control their appetites and desires, politically unable to govern themselves. Writers voiced these stereotypes with much shrillness – Isocrates in the 4th century B.C., for example, called for

8142-442: The first half of the 5th century BC. Here a hasty coalition of Greeks defeated the vast Persian Empire . Indeed, in the Greek of this period 'barbarian' is often used expressly to refer to Persians, who were enemies of the Greeks in this war. The Romans used the term barbarus for uncivilised people, opposite to Greek or Roman, and in fact, it became a common term to refer to all foreigners among Romans after Augustus age (as, among

8260-399: The first in his Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser series. Unknown was forced to a bimonthly schedule in 1941 by poor sales and canceled in 1943 when wartime paper shortages became so acute that Campbell had to choose between turning Astounding into a bimonthly or ending Unknown . The magazine is generally regarded as the finest fantasy fiction magazine ever published, despite the fact that it

8378-438: The form بربر ( barbar ), and used as an exonym by the Arab conquerors to refer to the indigenous peoples of North Africa, known in English as Amazigh or Berbers , with the latter thereby being a cognate of the word "barbarian". The Ancient Greek name βάρβαρος ( bárbaros ) 'barbarian' was an antonym for πολίτης ( politēs ) 'citizen', from πόλις ( polis ) 'city'. The earliest attested form of

8496-492: The former to a bimonthly schedule as well. The last issue was dated October 1943. Campbell's plans for Unknown were laid out in the February 1939 issue of Astounding , in the announcement of the new magazine. He argued that "it has been the quality of the fantasy that you have read in the past that has made the very word anathema ... [ Unknown ] will offer fantasy of a quality so far different from that which has appeared in

8614-653: The fringe of the Greek world with peculiar dialects. In Ancient Rome , the Romans adapted and applied the term to tribal non-Romans such as the Germanics , Celts , Iberians , Helvetii , Thracians , Illyrians , and Sarmatians . In the early modern period and sometimes later, the Byzantine Greeks used it for the Turks in a clearly pejorative manner. The Greek word was borrowed into Arabic as well, under

8732-533: The growth of chattel slavery – especially in Athens . Although the enslavement of Greeks for non-payment of debts continued in most Greek states, Athens banned this practice under Solon in the early 6th century BC. Under the Athenian democracy established ca. 508 BC, slavery came into use on a scale never before seen among the Greeks. Massive concentrations of slaves worked under especially brutal conditions in

8850-478: The magazine. Under Campbell's editorial supervision, the fantasy element in Unknown stories had to be treated rigorously. This naturally led to the appearance in Unknown of writers already comfortable with similar rigor in science fiction stories, and Campbell soon established a small group of writers as regular contributors, many of whom were also appearing in the pages of Astounding . L. Ron Hubbard , Theodore Sturgeon , and L. Sprague de Camp were among

8968-526: The manuscript of his novel Sinister Barrier , about aliens who own the human race. Unknown ' s first issue appeared in March 1939; in addition to Sinister Barrier , it included H. L. Gold 's "Trouble With Water", a humorous fantasy about a New Yorker who meets a water gnome . Gold's story was the first of many in Unknown to combine commonplace reality with the fantastic. Campbell required his authors to avoid simplistic horror fiction and insisted that

9086-569: The modern genre of fantasy, though commercial success for the genre had to wait until the 1970s. Clareson also suggests that Unknown influenced the science fiction that appeared in Astounding after Unknown folded. According to this view, stories such as Clifford Simak 's City series would not have appeared without the destruction of genre boundaries that Campbell oversaw. Clareson further proposes that Galaxy Science Fiction and The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction , two of

9204-748: The most important and successful science fiction and fantasy magazines, were direct descendants of Unknown . Unknown is widely regarded as the finest fantasy magazine ever published: Ashley says, for example, that " Unknown published without doubt the greatest collection of fantasy stories produced in one magazine." Despite its lack of commercial success, Unknown is the most lamented of all science fiction and fantasy magazines; Lester del Rey describes it as having gained "a devotion from its readers that no other magazine can match". Edwards comments that Unknown "appeared during Campbell's peak years as an editor; its reputation may stand as high as it does partly because it died while still at its best". Unknown

9322-612: The most prolific. Hubbard contributed eight lead novels including Typewriter in the Sky , Slaves of Sleep , and Fear , described by Ashley as a "classic psychological thriller"; SF historian and critic Thomas Clareson describes all eight as "outstanding". De Camp, in collaboration with Fletcher Pratt , contributed three stories featuring Harold Shea , who finds himself in a world where magic operates by rigorous rules. The title of one of these, "The Mathematics of Magic", is, according to SF critic John Clute , "perfectly expressive of

9440-510: The name of the Barbary pirates based on that coast (and who were not necessarily Berbers) were also derived from it. The term has also been used to refer to people from Barbary , a region encompassing most of North Africa . The name of the region, Barbary, comes from the Arabic word Barbar, possibly from the Latin word barbaricum, meaning "land of the barbarians". Many languages define

9558-547: The non-Chinese groups. On the one hand, many of them harassed and pillaged the Chinese, which gave them a genuine grievance. On the other, it is quite clear that the Chinese were increasingly encroaching upon the territory of these peoples, getting the better of them by trickery, and putting many of them under subjection. By vilifying them and depicting them as somewhat less than human, the Chinese could justify their conduct and still any qualms of conscience. This word Yi has both specific references, such as to Huaiyi 淮夷 peoples in

9676-615: The non-Chinese peoples. Some Chinese classics romanticize or idealize barbarians, comparable to the western noble savage construct. For instance, the Confucian Analects records: The translator Arthur Waley noted that, "A certain idealization of the 'noble savage' is to be found fairly often in early Chinese literature", citing the Zuo Zhuan maxim, "When the Emperor no longer functions, learning must be sought among

9794-415: The odds fifty to one against her?" "I'd like to know that myself," Ningauble assured him. "And how do I get to the temple when the streets are crammed with warfare?" Ningauble shrugged once again. "You're a hero. You should know." The Mouser's patron, Sheelba of the Eyeless Face, is named for the featureless darkness within his/her hood. In contrast to Ningauble's love of often pointless storytelling, Sheelba

9912-572: The original, too many copies were returned for the publisher to be willing to revive the magazine. The issue was reprinted in Britain in 1952, reduced in size to 7 by 9.5 inches (180 mm × 240 mm) and cut from 130 pages to 124; it was priced at 2/6 (two shillings and six pence). Part of the run was issued in a hardcover binding at a higher price. One story from the U.S. version was omitted: "One Man's Harp" by Babette Rosmond . Three anthologies of stories from Unknown were published in

10030-475: The overlap between the writers of Unknown and Astounding , there was a good deal of overlap between their readerships: Asimov records that during the war, he read only these two magazines. SF historian Paul Carter has argued that the spectrum of fantastic fiction from Weird Tales through Unknown to Astounding was far less cleanly separated than is sometimes assumed: many stories in the early science fiction magazines such as Wonder Stories were more like

10148-430: The part given him. The relationship between Fafhrd and Ningauble of the Seven Eyes is captured well in this exchange from The Swords of Lankhmar: Ningauble shrugged his cloaked, bulbous shoulders. "I thought you were a brave man, addicted to deeds of derring-do." Fafhrd cursed sardonically, then demanded, "But even if I should go clang those rusty bells, how can Lankhmar hold out until then with her walls breached and

10266-433: The past as to change your entire understanding of the term". The first issue, the following month, led with Russell's Sinister Barrier , the novel that had persuaded Campbell to set his plans for a fantasy magazine into motion: the plot, involving aliens who own the human race, has been described by SF historian Mike Ashley as "a strange mixture of science fiction and occult fantasy". Campbell asked Russell for revisions to

10384-635: The root refers to "babble confusedly". It appears as barbary or in Old French barbarie , itself derived from the Arabic Barbar , Berber , which is an ancient Arabic term for the North African inhabitants west of Egypt. The Arabic word might be ultimately from Greek barbaria . The Oxford English Dictionary gives five definitions of the noun barbarian , including an obsolete Barbary usage. The OED barbarous entry summarizes

10502-650: The same night, which explains both their friendship and the arrested adolescence of their lifestyles. However, in later stories, the two mature, learn leadership, and eventually settle down with new female partners on the Iceland-like Rime Isle. The novels have many picaresque elements, and are sometimes described as picaresque on the whole. The majority of the stories are set in the fictional world of Nehwon ("nehw on", or "Nowhen" backwards: contrasted to Samuel Butler 's 1872 Erewhon ). Many of them take place in and around its greatest city, Lankhmar . It

10620-407: The schedule became quite irregular, with two or three issues appearing each year until 1949. The volume numbering initially followed the corresponding U.S. editions, with some omitted numbers in 1942 and 1943, and then disappeared for four issues; from the twenty-eighth issue (Spring 1945) the magazine was numbered as if it had been given volumes of twelve numbers since the start of the run. The title

10738-551: The semantic history. "The sense-development in ancient times was (with the Greeks) 'foreign, non-Hellenic,' later 'outlandish, rude, brutal'; (with the Romans) 'not Latin nor Greek,' then 'pertaining to those outside the Roman Empire'; hence 'uncivilized, uncultured,' and later 'non-Christian,' whence 'Saracen, heathen'; and generally 'savage, rude, savagely cruel, inhuman.'" Greek attitudes towards "barbarians" developed in parallel with

10856-767: The silty mouth of the River Hlal in a secure corner between the grain fields, the Great Salt Marsh, and the Inner Sea is the massive-walled and mazy-alleyed metropolis of Lankhmar, thick with thieves and shaven priests, lean-framed magicians and fat-bellied merchants—Lankhmar the Imperishable, the City of the Black Toga. In The Swords of Lankhmar , it is revealed that Nehwon is just one of many worlds in

10974-427: The silver mines at Laureion in south-eastern Attica after the discovery of a major vein of silver-bearing ore there in 483 BC, while the phenomenon of skilled slave craftsmen producing manufactured goods in small factories and workshops became increasingly common. Furthermore, slave-ownership no longer became the preserve of the rich: all but the poorest of Athenian households came to have slaves in order to supplement

11092-487: The sound of a foreign language but also for foreigners who spoke Greek improperly. In the Greek language, the word logos expressed both the notions of "language" and "reason", so Greek-speakers readily conflated speaking poorly with stupidity. Further changes occurred in the connotations of barbari / barbaroi in Late Antiquity , when bishops and catholikoi were appointed to sees connected to cities among

11210-524: The south and the north," and Manyirongdi "all kinds of barbarians." Creel says the Chinese evidently came to use Rongdi and Manyi "as generalized terms denoting 'non-Chinese,' 'foreigners,' 'barbarians'," and a statement such as "the Rong and Di are wolves" ( Zuozhuan , Min 1) is "very much like the assertion that many people in many lands will make today, that 'no foreigner can be trusted'." The Chinese had at least two reasons for vilifying and depreciating

11328-402: The stories. Ten thousand words of "The Lords of Quarmall" were penned by Fischer early in the development of the series; the story was completed by Leiber in 1964. Fischer also wrote "The Childhood and Youth of the Gray Mouser", published in 1978. The stories' style and tone vary considerably, but nearly all contain an often dark sense of humor, which ranges from the subtle and character-based to

11446-466: The story to emphasize the fantastic elements but still demanded that Russell work out the logical implications of his premises. This became a defining characteristic of the fiction published in Unknown ; in Ashley's words, Campbell "brought the science fiction rationale to fantasy". The first issue also contained Horace L. Gold 's "Trouble with Water", a comic fantasy about a modern New Yorker who offends

11564-485: The terms under which magic found easy mention in Unknown ". Other Astounding writers who wrote for Unknown included Robert A. Heinlein , whose "The Devil Makes the Law" (reprinted as " Magic, Inc. ") depicts a world where magic is a part of everyday life. Heinlein also contributed " The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag " and " They ", described by Ashley as "perhaps the ultimate solipsist fantasy". A.E. van Vogt ,

11682-508: The title character and Catwoman in a story scripted by award-winning SF writer Samuel R. Delany . In 1973, DC Comics began an ongoing series, Sword of Sorcery , featuring the duo. The title was written by Denny O'Neil and featured art by Howard Chaykin , Walt Simonson and Jim Starlin ; the well-received title ran only five issues. Stories included adaptations of "The Price of Pain-Ease", "Thieves' House", "The Cloud of Hate", and "The Sunken Land", as well as original stories. This series

11800-582: The trappings that had dominated fantasy from The Castle of Otranto and The Monk through the nineteenth century to Weird Tales ". Unknown quickly separated itself from Weird Tales , whose fantasies still primarily aimed to produce fear or shock. The closest predecessor to Unknown was Thorne Smith , whose prohibition-era "Topper" stories also mixed fantasy with humor. Before Unknown , fantasy had received little serious attention, though on occasion writers such as James Branch Cabell had achieved respectability. In Ashley's opinion, Unknown created

11918-460: The two protagonists' relationship is "depicted with a tortured (and still haunting) erotic frankness unusual in genre literature of the 1940s". In addition to the Harold Shea pieces, de Camp published several other well-received stories, including "The Wheels of If" (October 1940) and " Lest Darkness Fall " (December 1939), an alternate history story about a time-traveler who attempts to save

12036-484: The various Germanic tribes , the settled Gauls , and the raiding Huns as barbarians, and subsequent classically oriented historical narratives depicted the migrations associated with the end of the Western Roman Empire as the " barbarian invasions ". The Romans adapted the term in order to refer to anything that was non-Roman. The German cultural historian Silvio Vietta points out that the meaning of

12154-593: The wielders are just very able in their use. The Mouser is also an expert with the sling . The Mouser, having been an apprentice magician, can do some very small enchantments, especially while dueling. Joanna Russ was familiar with and appreciative of the Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser series, and in addition to critical reviews of Leiber, also referenced Fafhrd in her The Adventures of Alyx (1976) sequence as one of Alyx's former lovers in "The Adventuress" (1967; aka "Bluestocking"). Leiber then included Alyx in two Fafhrd and

12272-658: The word "barbarian". In the Bible's New Testament , St. Paul (from Tarsus ) – lived about A.D. 5 to about A.D. 67) uses the word barbarian in its Hellenic sense to refer to non-Greeks ( Romans 1:14 ), and he also uses it to characterise one who merely speaks a different language ( 1 Corinthians 14:11 ). In the Acts of the Apostles , the people of Malta , who were kind to Paul and his companions who had been shipwrecked off their coast, are called barbarians (Acts 28:2) . About

12390-513: The word "barbarous" has undergone a semantic change in modern times, after Michel de Montaigne used it to characterize the activities of the Spaniards in the New World – representatives of the more technologically advanced, higher European culture – as "barbarous," in a satirical essay published in the year 1580. It was not the supposedly "uncivilized" Indian tribes who were "barbarous", but

12508-587: The word is the Mycenaean Greek 𐀞𐀞𐀫 , pa-pa-ro , written in Linear B syllabic script. The Greeks used the term barbarian for all non-Greek-speaking people, including the Egyptians , Persians , Medes and Phoenicians , emphasizing their otherness. According to Greek writers, this was because the language they spoke sounded to Greeks like gibberish represented by the sounds "bar..bar..;"

12626-432: The work of their free members. The slaves of Athens that had "barbarian" origins were coming especially from lands around the Black Sea such as Thrace and Taurica ( Crimea ), while Lydians , Phrygians and Carians came from Asia Minor . Aristotle ( Politics 1.2–7; 3.14) characterises barbarians as slaves by nature. From this period, words like barbarophonos , cited above from Homer, came into use not only for

12744-473: The works of Edgar Allan Poe than they were tales of scientific imagination. Fritz Leiber 's first published story was "Two Sought Adventure", which appeared in the August 1939 issue of Unknown ; this was the first story in his long-running Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser series about a pair of adventurers in a sword and sorcery setting. Four more Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories appeared in Unknown in as many years, and Leiber's novel Conjure Wife , about

12862-421: Was James H. Schmitz , whose "Greenface" appeared in the August 1943 issue. Other notable stories that appeared in Unknown include Jack Williamson's "Darker Than You Think" (December 1940), which provides a scientific basis for a race of werewolves living undetected alongside human beings. Expanded into a novel in 1948, it remains Williamson's best-known fantasy, and SF historian Malcolm Edwards comments that

12980-459: Was a companion to Street & Smith's science fiction pulp, Astounding Science Fiction , which was also edited by Campbell at the time; many authors and illustrators contributed to both magazines. The leading fantasy magazine in the 1930s was Weird Tales , which focused on shock and horror. Campbell wanted to publish a fantasy magazine with more finesse and humor than Weird Tales , and put his plans into action when Eric Frank Russell sent him

13098-473: Was a monthly at first, but poor sales forced a switch to a bimonthly schedule beginning in February 1941. In December 1940, the subtitle Fantasy Fiction was added, and in October 1941, the main title was changed to Unknown Worlds ; both changes were intended to make the genre of the magazine clearer to potential readers. When wartime paper shortages became severe in late 1943, Campbell chose to keep Astounding monthly and cancel Unknown , rather than switch

13216-457: Was added as a subtitle, and from the October 1941 issue the title became Unknown Worlds . The first six U.S. issues were available directly in the UK, but thereafter an abridged British reprint edition was issued by Atlas Publications , beginning in September 1939. It was pulp-sized, and priced at 9d (nine pence ) throughout. It appeared on a regular monthly schedule until December 1940, after which

13334-438: Was changed from Unknown to Unknown Worlds with the March 1942 issue. In 1948, Street & Smith reprinted several stories from Unknown in a bedsheet-sized magazine format, priced at 25 cents, with the title From Unknown Worlds . This was an attempt to determine if there was a market for a revived Unknown . Street & Smith printed 300,000 copies, against the advice of John Campbell, but although it sold better than

13452-698: Was collected by Dark Horse Comics in a trade paperback collection published in June 2008. In 1991, Epic Comics published a four-issue comic book adaptation of seven of the stories: "Ill Met in Lankhmar" (issue 1), "The Circle Curse" and "The Howling Tower" (issue 2), "The Price of Pain Ease" and "Bazaar of the Bizarre" (issue 3), and "Lean Times in Lankhmar" and "When the Sea King's Away" (issue 4). The comics were scripted by Howard Chaykin, who had drawn several issues of

13570-510: Was edited by John W. Campbell and published by Street & Smith Publications throughout its run. It was pulp-sized from its launch through August 1941, and then bedsheet -sized from October 1941 to April 1943. The last three issues were pulp-sized again. Street & Smith had planned to switch it to digest size with the December 1943 issue, but it was canceled before that issue appeared. The price began at 20 cents and rose to 25 cents with

13688-463: Was female, while to Fischer's surprise Leiber referred to Sheelba as male beginning in The Swords of Lankhmar . In fact, Leiber refers to Sheelba as "he" throughout the six books of the series, switching to "she" for the first time only in the last book, The Knight and Knave of Swords , without explanation. Leiber's friend, Frederick MacKnight, who introduced Leiber to Fischer and was involved in

13806-481: Was not commercially successful, and in the opinion of science fiction historian Mike Ashley it was responsible for the creation of the modern fantasy publishing genre. In May 1923, the first issue of Weird Tales appeared, from Rural Publications in Chicago. Weird Tales was a pulp magazine that specialized in fantasy stories and material that no other magazine would accept. It was not initially successful, but by

13924-420: Was still the leader in the fantasy genre, though competitors such as Strange Stories were also being launched. Campbell began acquiring stories suitable for the new magazine, without a definite launch date in mind. When Eric Frank Russell sent him the manuscript of his novel Sinister Barrier , Campbell decided it was time to put his plans into action. The first issue of Unknown appeared in March 1939. It

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