Monsters

[vilakins]

I read China Mieville's The Scar a couple of weeks ago, and though I've been able to recognise the mythical origins of several Bas Lag species like the vodyanoi (Russian for watery ones), I thought Mieville's avanc had its own original name.

I'm now reading Silver on the Tree, the last of Susan Cooper's Dark in Rising series, one I never came across as a kid, and whaddaya know, here on page 69, Bran says that "Arthur is supposed to have pulled an afanc, a monster, out of a lake up there," and since F is said as V in Welsh, I recognised it. Cool! I'll have to look up some of the other creatures.

Speaking of F being V, it wasn't till I came back--and it had fallen apart--that I realised that I'd gone all round Wales with my Fila shoulder bag. I might have to find another one so I can be fannish in Welsh. ;-)

Comments

[zoefruitcake]

Fila/Vila :0)

[vilakins]

Yep! In fact, Welsh for "villa" is "fila".

[emerald-happy.livejournal.com]

Yay for Dark is Rising! I meant to reread those last summer but never did.

*thoroughly approves of Vila fannish-ness*

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I'm enjoying them except that Will Stanton creeps me out a bit, being an adult in a child's body.

And can I find a Fila satchel now I want another one? :-P

[emerald-happy.livejournal.com]

Yes, suddenly the shop which sold Vila clothes no longer has them in stock!

If I see one, I'll let you know.

Also, I know you've seen this but it is the CUTEST THING EVER so I am reminding you of it: http://entropy-house.livejournal.com/1042201.html#cutid1

*dies of teh cuteness*

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I know: so cute, and in the same profession. :-)

[viciousdisorder.livejournal.com]

*snerk about the idea of being unwittingly fannish* Nothing wrong with that at all.

I'm curious now though about how many languages make use of the "v" sound naturally... Partly because of my name I pay a lot of attention to it, but it seems to be one of the most common sounds (from the IPA) to be missing in languages other than English.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I wish I'd realised at the time! :-P

Hey, lots of languages have the V sound, most of the ones I've learned anyway: German, French, Latin, Hebrew, Italian, Russian... and I know Czech, Finnish, and Hungarian have it too. :-) But then those are mostly European; I don't know much about African and Asian languages.

[linda-joyce.livejournal.com]

The afanc is the Welsh equivalent of the Loch Ness Monster, it looks like a cross between a Hippopotamus and a crocodile and has the disposition of a hungry lion with toothache. It can raise storms and make rivers flood and is a thoroughly disagreeable creature. Is the avanc in the book any thing like that?

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Silver on the Tree certainly describes its afanc as looking rather like Nessie with a long neck, and its sentient and evil. The Bas Lag avanc wasn't described apart from its huge size. I imagined something vaguely whale-like, but truly enormous and rather slow-witted.

[jaxomsride.livejournal.com]

Will Stanton was one reason I prefer "Over Sea Under Stone" in the Dark is Rising Sequence.

That and Merriman Lyons.
Though I had him more looking like Galen from "Crusade" than Ian McShane

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I'm glad someone else feels the same about Will Stanton. I don't like him. I don't dislike him; I just don't like him, and I do like the Drews.

I imagine Merriman as being tall with black eyebrows and eyes and lots of wild white hair, like the eccentric professor he sometimes is. I didn't see Ian McShane's take on him, but Merriman is, well, hawkier than McShane, much as I liked him as Lovejoy.