[F&GM] Two Sought Adventure

[Finarvyn]

I got a copy of the 1957 "Two Sought Adventure", which is a compillation of the early Fafhrd and Gray Mouser stories.


The stories in this book include:
* Induction (More of an intro than an actual story)
* The Jewels in the Forest
* Thieves' House
* The Bleak Shore
* The Howling Tower
* The Sunken Land
* The Seven Black Priests
* Claws From the Night

One thing that I noticed of interest to me was that each of the seven stories has a short paragraph introduction, and that these don't seem to be in my Ace paperback or SFBC hardback editions. (If anyone has magazine versions of these stories, I'd be interested in finding out if they are published there or not. They probably were written in by Leiber 1957 in order to string the stories together into a single narrative.)

I thought I would share them for anyone interested, as I get around to typing them up.

[Finarvyn]

Intro to "The Jewels in the Forest"

Little is known of the earliest shared exploits of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, although Sheelba refers to a conquest achieved among the boldest rats and it may have been during this period that they encountered Ningauble of the Seven Eyes. Certainly they were well-tempered companions, wise in each other’s ways, when circumstances led them southward from Lankhmar City across the grasslands in the general direction of the Lakes of Pleea and the mystery-haunted region of Quarmall.

[Finarvyn]

Intro to "Thieves' House"

Lankhmar is always the loadstone of Fafhrd’s and the Mouser’s wanderings, again and again they are drawn back to it. Most civilied and most corrupt of Nehwon’s cities, Lankhmar has made subtlety a way of life and treachery a tradition, from the intrigues of the black-togaed overlords and the scandalmongering of its skalds to the swindles of its merchants and the double-dealings of its Thieves’ Guild, most hidebound of Lankhmarian organizations.

[Finarvyn]

Intro to "The Bleak Shore"

The ports of men rim the Inner Sea reassuringly: Ool Hrusp and Kearch Nar of the Eight Cities, Sarheenmar and Ilthmar the white-domed and desert-girded, Rhun near the Smoking Rocks, Lankhmar herself. But to the west lies the uncharted and monster-quickened Outer Sea, where Lankhmar’s black galleys turn back and only the northerners’ longships coast cautiously and there is sometimes rumor of a yellow sail from tropic Klesh.

It occurs to me that at the time of this writing (1957) there probably weren't any published maps of Nehwon. Of course, Leiber and Fischer had their unpublished Lankhmar board game and it had a map, but the above might represent one of the earliest attempts to describe the world of Nehwon.

[Finarvyn]

Intro to "The Howling Tower"

Five sleeps southward from the Black Cliffs, Fafhrd and the Mouser fought and made friends with a shepherd tribe, camping with them through the winter months and learning their language, which was oddly akin to that spoken in the Ghoulish Hills, half a world away. But hearing rumors of forests and towns and even a seaport to the south, the old nostalgia for Lankhmar returned to them with the spring and they found themselves a guide and pressed on.

[Finarvyn]

Intro to "The Sunken Land"

The exploits of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser on the transmarine continent are in general the most sketchily reported by Sheelba of the Eyeless Face, while Srith of the Scrolls is silent. All we know is that they reached a meager river-port -- the name Darkwater has been mentioned -- whose sailors were even more reluctant and less prepared than the Lankhmarians to venture on the Outer Sea. It was at best a patchwork craft that the two adventurers must trust for the long homeward voyage.

[Finarvyn]

Intro to "The Seven Black Priests"

North of the Eight Cities and even Illik-Ving, the Trollsteps mount to the freezing plateau-land of the Cold Waste. Northwest the Cold Waste climbs higher yet to the Mountains of the Ice Gnomes and the Bones of the Old Ones. Thence the crags drop precipitously to the northern waters of the Outer Sea, forming a grim icy coast from No-onbrulsk to the Claws. A formidable path for any travelers to attempt, although the Cold Waste was Fafhrd’s home.

[Finarvyn]

Intro to "Claws From the Night"

Lankhmar is rightly called the Imperishable. Legend has it that its towering black walls have endured sieges of three, thirty-eight, seventy-five, and a hundred and twenty-three years. Ningauble hints that its deepest foundations were dug by the devils who misshaped Earth in the abyss before the gods. Unquestionably Lankhmar has seen the birth and slow death of a thousand cults and divinities, and its deserted temples and ruined fanes were as numerous as its taverns and pleasure gardens in the Time of the Decadence, which was also the time of the Gray Mouser and Fafhrd.

[geoffrey]

Wow. I've never read those. Interesting stuff!

[Finarvyn]

Well, I figured that few others had, which is why I posted them. At least, I know that I hadn't, and I've been a fan of the series since the 1970's.

I'm finding that starting the series with these stories is quite refreshing. I'm not a big fan of either "Snow Women" or "Unholy Grail", so leaping right into "The Jewels in the Forest" was kind of a cool experience. It felt a lot more "right" somehow, since I didn't have to go back to the before-they-knew-each-other stuff and could go right into the action.

[geoffrey]

Here's a list of the Fafhrd and Gray Mouser stories in order by original publication:

•"The Jewels in the Forest" aka "Two Sought Adventure" (August 1939), Swords Against Death
•"The Bleak Shore" (November 1940), Swords Against Death
•"The Howling Tower" (June 1941), Swords Against Death
•"The Sunken Land" (February 1942), Swords Against Death
•"Thieves' House" (February 1943), Swords Against Death
•"Adept's Gambit" (1947), Swords in the Mist
•"Claws from the Night" aka "Dark Vengeance" (Fall 1951), Swords Against Death
•"The Seven Black Priests" (May 1953), Swords Against Death
•"Induction" (1957), Swords and Deviltry
•"Lean Times in Lankhmar" (November 1959), Swords in the Mist
•"When the Sea-King's Away" (May 1960), Swords in the Mist
•"The Unholy Grail" (October 1962), Swords and Deviltry
•"The Cloud of Hate" (May 1963), Swords in the Mist
•"Bazaar of the Bizarre" (August 1963), Swords Against Death
•"The Lords of Quarmall" (January and February 1964), Swords Against Wizardry
•"Stardock" (September 1965), Swords Against Wizardry
•"The Two Best Thieves in Lankhmar" (August 1968), Swords Against Wizardry
•"Their Mistress, the Sea" (1968), Swords in the Mist
•"The Wrong Branch" (1968), Swords in the Mist
•"In the Witch's Tent" (1968), Swords Against Wizardry
The Swords of Lankhmar (1968)•"Ill Met in Lankhmar" (March 1970), Swords and Deviltry
•"The Snow Women" (April 1970), Swords and Deviltry
•"The Circle Curse" (1970), Swords Against Death
•"The Price of Pain-Ease" (1970), Swords Against Death
•"The Sadness of the Executioner" (April 1973), Swords and Ice Magic
•"Trapped in the Shadowland" (November 1973), Swords and Ice Magic
•"The Bait" (December 1973), Swords and Ice Magic
•"Beauty and the Beasts" (January 1974), Swords and Ice Magic
•"Under the Thumbs of the Gods" (April 1975), Swords and Ice Magic
•"Trapped in the Sea of Stars" (September 1975), Swords and Ice Magic
•"The Frost Monstreme" (August 1976), Swords and Ice Magic
•"Rime Isle" (May and July 1977), Swords and Ice Magic
•"Sea Magic" (December 1977), The Knight and Knave of Swords
•"The Mer She" (December 1978), The Knight and Knave of Swords
•"The Curse of the Smalls and the Stars" (March 1983), The Knight and Knave of Swords
•"The Mouser Goes Below" (1988), The Knight and Knave of Swords

link: panglott.blogspot.com/2010/08/for-re-reading-of-nehwon.html

[Finarvyn]

Also here:
odd74.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=fiction&action=display&thread=4051

[Deleted]

Thanks for posting this. I had heard about TWO SOUGHT ADVENTURE in another thread and was going to spend big money to buy one, but it sounds like I can read the same thing alot cheaper if I find a recent printing.

Recent printing + this thread = TWO SOUGHT ADVENTURE.