Ship Names of the Granbretan Fleet?

[Perssonicus]

Mike:

In "The Runestaff", the chapter "The Fleet at Deau-Vere", you named several of the ships of the Granbretanean fleet based on names from the island nation's past.....I was able to translate a few, but could you tell me the significance of some of the other names?

"Johne, Jhorg, Phowl, and Rhunga" - OK, easy, The Beatles.
"Chirshil" - Again, not too difficult, Churchill.

However, I can't figure out the origins of these names:
"Bjirin Adass"
"Jeajee Blad"
"Jh'Im Slas"
"Aral Vilsn" - The Roaring God of Granbretan: Harold Wilson? Significance?
"Skvese"
"Blansacredid"

Additionally, I had read somewhere that Hawkmoon was one of your least favorite of your creations. If true, why?

It is a true honor to ask of you some questions that have stayed with me for so many years!

[Michael Moorcock]

Brian Aldiss
J.G.Ballard
Jim Sallis
Harold Wilson (UK PM)
'Squeeze' (economic term much in use at the time)
Balance of Credit (reason for the squeeze...)


I never quarrel with a reader's preference but for me Hawkmoon never had quite the rounded feel as my other EC main characters.

[Perssonicus]

Thanks for the clarifications. And I'd have to agree on the well-roundedness of Hawkmoon. Ever think of revisiting this character, to make him more whole?

[Michael Moorcock]

Well, I tried a bit in The White Wolf's Son...

[Papi]

Originally Posted by Michael Moorcock

Brian Aldiss
J.G.Ballard
Jim Sallis
Harold Wilson (UK PM)
'Squeeze' (economic term much in use at the time)
Balance of Credit (reason for the squeeze...)


I never quarrel with a reader's preference but for me Hawkmoon never had quite the rounded feel as my other EC main characters.

Cool !

[David Mosley]

Originally Posted by Michael Moorcock

Harold Wilson (UK PM)
'Squeeze' (economic term much in use at the time)
Balance of Credit (reason for the squeeze...)

So, given the current re-issues from Tor I take it you weren't minded to revise the Hawkmoon books in line with the global credit crunch, Mike?

"Gerdn Brun" any one?

[Governor of Rowe Island]

Gerdn Brun? Isn't he the lying, curmudgeonly ogre from the Tragic Millenium the Granbretanians tell their kids tales of to frighten them?

When he fixes you with that awful fake smile and that squinty gaze...

[Michael Moorcock]

I decided to leave them unrevised because that way madness lies if I had to make revisions every few years.
I have to admit that when I wrote them I thought they'd appear once in the USA and that would be that. In Peter Weston's RELAPSE fanzine Tom Shippey remarked that those books have outlasted some of the stories in NW for which the Hawkmoon stories were originally done (to pay printer's bills). Ironic. I'm not complaining!

[In_Loos_Ptokai]

Originally Posted by Michael Moorcock

Brian Aldiss
J.G.Ballard
Jim Sallis
Harold Wilson (UK PM)
'Squeeze' (economic term much in use at the time)
Balance of Credit (reason for the squeeze...)


I never quarrel with a reader's preference but for me Hawkmoon never had quite the rounded feel as my other EC main characters.

J.G. Ballard was easy to guess Even though at the time I was reading Hawkmoon - c. 1993 - I'd never read The Kindness of Women, which I don't think had come out then.

[Nathaniel]

I have seen you say this before Mike, that HM is not your fave from your own work. I understand what you mean about the majority of the story, but I have always found some of the characters from Hawkmoon to have been amoungst the most "real" seeming from your work. Specifically (apologies for spelling) Dauvec, Hawkmoon himself and most particularly Count Brass. Not necissarily the most complex or whatnot, just the ones that without having to have too much time spent in exposition have the feel of having lives outside of the books. Admittedly Count Brass was played by Brian Blessed in my imagination, so I could be mistaking volume for characer development

[spaceroquer]

I only hope we won't have to sail on the bad ship Dividud Kumrune in the near future, or ever

[The English Assassin]

I got Aldiss and Ballard, but didn't have a clue as to the others...

[Michael Moorcock]

I think you'll find some references in all the fantasy books with the exception of Elric and Von Bek, from Kane and Hawkmoon.

[Marca]

I like these in-jokes and references that are dropped into your books, Mike, whether I (or anyone else) get them or not. Most fantasy works take themselves far too seriously.

[The English Assassin]

Not sure about recent fantasy but Lovecraft also littered his stuff with references to his pals Clark Ashton Smith and Robert E Howard too - although in fairness he was also quite serious in a 'life is a hideous thing' kinda way...

[GuyLawley]

Originally Posted by Michael Moorcock

Brian Aldiss
I never quarrel with a reader's preference but for me Hawkmoon never had quite the rounded feel as my other EC main characters.

Always my least favourite too, but reminded by the Tor re-issue that I hadn't re-read 'em in years, am currently 3/4 of the way through the Runestaff series, and curiously...

...enjoying them more than ever before.

Maybe I simply enjoy pure escapism more as I get older.

Maybe Mike Moorcock at his least brilliant is still just better than the rest!

[KevJo]

Hawkmoon isn't my favourite of Mike's characters, but Hawkmoon's world, a future Europe threatened by the Dark Empire of Granbretan, is a wonderful creation, one of my all time favourites, by any author.

I can still see in my mind's eye the pictures of the dark towers of Londra, the infinite marshlands of the Kamarg and the mighty Silver Bridge that those books conjured up when I first read them.

I was also delighted to find myself unexpectedly revisiting it, when I read 'White Wolf's Son'.

[Axeman]

I have to agree. Hawkmoon himself is rather bland but the setting and world more then make up for it. Rather like a mirror imageof the other characters and their worlds where the worlds are more bland but the characters are so fantastic. I found it to be a welcome exchange and to be honest, would-be writers who wish to write in the "worlds" of the eternal champion would find the hawkmonn world one of the easiest and most verdant worlds in terms of setting.

[In_Loos_Ptokai]

Originally Posted by Axeman

I have to agree. Hawkmoon himself is rather bland but the setting and world more then make up for it. Rather like a mirror imageof the other characters and their worlds where the worlds are more bland but the characters are so fantastic. I found it to be a welcome exchange and to be honest, would-be writers who wish to write in the "worlds" of the eternal champion would find the hawkmonn world one of the easiest and most verdant worlds in terms of setting.

I have to confess to being unimpressed by the Hawkmoon books, only catching on to the use of the Multiverse as a story-telling tool when I read the first Corum series, and then the Dancers at the End of Time series - both of which are absolutely brilliant IMO, Mike. I think you only bettered them when you wrote The Revenge of the Rose.

I thought Hawkmoon was a bit mawkish, but it may have been my general psychological state at the time ...

[dylerpillar]

Count Brass is the character I like best in that series.

Something about the feel of the end reminded me of how I get at the end of a long essay, when I just want to wrap it up and don't necessarily pick the best way to do it. And yet, I couldn't really say what I would do differently, and the next trilogy was certainly set up that way.