Lady Miggea (& other anagrams)

[mishofsydenham]

Hi Mike,

would the blonde, mad lord of law be a parody of Maggie Thatcher by any chance? I've only spotted you use anagrams once or twice (Pharl of the Heavy Palm, Prince of Skrenaw being the most obvious - snork!) and I wonder if there are others which I have simply been too unobservant to notice.

Glad to hear/read that Elric is to go cinematic. It's got to be more satisfying intellectually and emotionally than You Know What. I'd love to see Eternal Champion/Dragon in the Sword be given the same treatment - not least for providing ample scope for parodying current attitudes to loyalty and blatant political opportunism. The Baron Captain would look lovely in a USAF pilot's outfit.

ATB
Mish

[Michael Moorcock]

Yeah, there are quite a few, though I tend to forget them myself. Quite a few in the Hawkmoon books, I think. Not so many in the Elric books.
Dragon in the Sword probably had the most.

[Anonymous]

Anagrams

The only one that really jumped out at me in MM's works was Tanglebones/Gnatbeelson (Elric's and Cornelius's respective trusty servants), because of the obvious parallels in the particular stories and characters. Would love to hear of more, less obvious ones!

[GuyLawley]

Miggea also turned up as Lady Ratchet in the Multiverse comic.

Gnatbeelson is a favourite of mine too, but John Davey told me the best Moorcock anagram, IMHO...

One of the Eternal Champion's sword-wielding incarnations is an anagram of Jerry Cornelius, but only if you use his full name of Jeremiah and the fantasy character's full name as well.

(We're well on our way to a crossword here!)

[GuyLawley]

I vaguely remembered some amusing anagrams in one of Edward P Bradbury's colossally brilliant Mars novels, but I'd forgotten how liberally one chapter was sprinkled with them. And in what a fiendishly complex manner Mr Bradbury had constructed his anagrams, using a variation of the Sdrawkcab principle first developed in Smolensk between the Wars.

We are in Chapter Two of Barbarians of Mars. Michael Kane and his companion Hool Haji are flying off on a quest in their airship. now read on:

--------------------------------------------------------

The journey to the Yaksha city in the desert was not to be without interruption, however, for on the second day of our trip the engine began to falter. I was surprised, for I trusted my engineers.

I turned to Hool Haji. My friend was looking down at the country far below. It was a predominantly yellow landscape, of great flowers similar to gigantic irises, swaying below us as if in a graceful, though monotonous, dance. Every so often the sea of yellow flowers was broken by effusions of blue or green, each splash of colour a bloom like a marigold in general appearance. Even at this distance above them, they sent up languorous scents that delighted my nostrils. Hool Haji seemed entranced by this beauty and had not even noticed the change of note in the engine.

"It looks as if we might have to land," I informed him.

He glanced up at me. "Why, Michael Kane? Would it not be unwise?"

"What do you mean, unwise?" I asked. -He pointed downwards.

"The flowers."

"We could find a clearing."

"That is not what I am trying to say. Have you not heard of the Flowers of Modnaf? They are attractive at a distance but highly dangerous when you come close to them. Their scent from here is pleasant, but when approached more closely it induces first a lethargy, then a creeping madness. Many have been trapped by these flowers and their vitality sapped, leaving them dry of everything human, to become mindless creatures wandering eventually to the Quicksands of Golana, where they are sucked down slowly and never heard of again.

I shuddered. "No human being should suffer such at fate!"

"But many have! And those who have survived have become little more than walking dead men."

"Then let us steer a course away from both Modnaf and Golana and hope that our motor does not give up until they are far behind us," I said, making up my mind to avoid the dangers below us at all costs, even if it necessitated drifting in the wind until we had passed them by.

As I nursed the engine along, Hool Haji told me the story of an old, desperate man who had once dreamed of power, one Blemplac the Mad, who was still supposed to wander below. He had imbibed so much of the scents that they no longer affected him as they did others and he had managed to survive the quicksands because he had been their original creator. Apparently he had once been a benevolent and beneficent man who had acquired a little scientific knowledge from somewhere and had dreamed of greatness. Knowing little of what he handled, he had tried to use his knowledge to build a vast, gleaming tower that would inspire men with its beauty and grandeur. The foundations had been laid and it had seemed for a long time that he would succeed. Sadly, something had gone wrong and his mind had become affected. His experiment had gone out of control and the result was the quicksands, which had peculiar and unnatural properties found nowhere else.

At length, and with a feeling of tremendous relief, we passed over the flowers and the quicksands. I had only observed the quicksands at night, by the light of the moons that hurtled above, but the glimpse was enough to tell me that Hool Haji had not exaggerated. Strange cries had risen from the slowly shifting muck below, insane ravings that sometimes seemed to be words, but I could make no sense out of them, nor did I try very hard.

By morning we were crossing a series of deep, gleaming lakes dotted with green islands and the occasional boat scudding across the vast expanse of water.

I remarked on the welcome contrast to Hool Haji and he agreed. While we had crossed the previous territory he had been more disturbed than he had admitted. I asked if it was sensible to try to land, since the engine was now working in fits and starts and was soon bound to give up altogether. He said it would be safe, for these were the islands of enlightened and intelligent folk who had the ability to entertain and delight any visitor to the lakes. He pointed out names as we passed over them. There was one lush island, set somewhat apart from the rest.

"It is an island called Drallab," Hool Haji explained.

"Its folk have only rare contact with their neighbours, but though they appear to play little part in the activities of the other islands they exert a great artistic influence on them and are really extremely benevolent. They entertained me once, when I travelled the islands, and I enjoyed every moment of my stay."

Another island appeared. This was a strange-looking place of peculiar contrasts for so small an island. I could make out a small forest, a mountain, a barren area and other features. This was K'cocroom, Hool Haji informed me, an island that had only in the last few years emerged from the lake and was still largely unpopulated, though the few people who lived there seemed a folk of strange contrasts, sometimes friendly to strangers, sometimes not.

We decided not to land there and passed over several other islands, with Hool Haji naming them all with great affection. There was S'Sidla, a gentle landscape of strong, straight trees and rich, dark glades, and Nosirrah, a rugged, healthy looking place with, Hool Haji informed me, great treasures yet unmined.

I was eager to hear all this, even though part of my attention was on the engine, for everything I heard told me more about a world I had still only partially explored, and the more I knew the better t would be equipped to survive in it.

At length we had managed to nurse the airship over all the islands and saw ahead of us on the mainland - which we decided was a better place to land in case the engine proved unrepairable - a city which was called, Hool Haji told me, Cend-Amrid. The people, he said, were well known for their craftsmanship and skill with the few technical devices in circulation on Mars. They would help us more than the islanders, though the islanders were possibly more friendly.

I manipulated my controls and we began to drop down towards Cend-Amrid.
Later I was to regret not landing on one of the islands, for Hool Haji was to find Cend-Amrid changed from the place he had known when, as a wandering outcast, he had spent some time in the city.

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There's just one thing I don't understand: what is Cend-Amrid?

My mind raced (damn cider!) as I tried to work this out, with the help of Mr Nice Dad. Better sleep on it. Will I dream CND?

[Mikey_C]

Re: Lady Miggea (& other anagrams)

would the blonde, mad lord of law be a parody of Maggie Thatcher by any chance?

Now why didn't I notice that? Wasn't the real Lady Hatchet, though, also an agent of Chaos in her own evil way? (deregulation of the labour market, etc). Puts me in mind of the themes currently being explored in the "law as a good thing" thread.

[Typhoid_Mary]

Re: Lady Miggea (& other anagrams)

would the blonde, mad lord of law be a parody of Maggie Thatcher by any chance?

Now why didn't I notice that?

I didn't notice it either. Most of that kind of thing goes whoosh straight over my head.

Blemplac the Mad. Very funny. :lol:

[Dead-Air]

I missed it too, just not as obvious as the political parodies in the Bastable books I guess. I have a hard time thinking of Thatcher as an agent of Chaos in the real world though. I suppose that's sort of what deregulators are, but most major politicos weild the law as a source of their own power even if they claim to hate "big government."

[CandyFlossCow]

One of the Eternal Champion’s sword-wielding incarnations is an anagram of Jerry Cornelius, but only if you use his full name of Jeremiah and the fantasy character’s full name as well.
(We’re well on our way to a crossword here…)

I would never have guessed... It's Corum Jhaelen Irsei, isn't it? Wow! :D

As for Cend-Amrid, it might just be Cen Madrid... :?

I remember spotting Gnatbleeson... I think I did notice some more MM anagrams, but can't recall them now (and I'm sure I missed a load, too). :x

[Marca]

I have to admit I've never been much good at working out anagrams - I never get the Countdown conundrum, for example. A great deal of my pleasure from the fantasy books is seeing where 'real' names have been woven into the alternate universe e.g. Kroiden, Chirshil and, erm, Aral Vilsn...

[Typhoid_Mary]

And there's Coromcko from The City in the Autumn Stars...

[GuyLawley]

One of the Eternal Champion’s sword-wielding incarnations is an anagram of Jerry Cornelius, but only if you use his full name of Jeremiah and the fantasy character’s full name as well.
(We’re well on our way to a crossword here…)

I would never have guessed... It's Corum Jhaelen Irsei, isn't it? Wow! :D

As for Cend-Amrid, it might just be Cen Madrid... :?

Well deduced! When John told me the Corum anagram I thought, "30 years reading these books and I never spotted that! What kind of Moorcock fan am I???" But maybe I'm not alone!

I've googled Cen Madrid but it's all in Spanish, wot I don't speak. Please can you let me know the meaning? I wonder if that's what MM had in mind?

[Michael Moorcock]

Mystery to me, mate.
Might not be an anagram at all.
I've racked my brains. I know all the others, so it's possible this one wasn't an anagram at all!

[GuyLawley]

Yus, I think with Cend-Amrid we have emerged from the zone of SF in-jokes and are back in the Martian world where names like Hool Haji are just made up (?).

Apart from providing a few laughs, the passage above shows that you had the notion to embrace literary criticism within your fiction years before Jerry C started having a go at Kingsley Amis and the like.

[Mikey_C]

'Michael Moorcock' => 'Mock Comical Hero' :lol: