Tips for Zimiamvia
July 2, 2017 5:30 PM Subscribe
One of my favorit works of fantasy fiction is The Worm Ouroboros, by Eric RUcker Eddison. It's a weirdly archaic, but very readable high fantasy story. This question isn't about that, but rather Eddison's other fantasy work, the Zimiamvian Trilogy.
I've started trying to read it with Mistress of Mistresses, and have found myself bogging down quite a bit. Does anybody have tips, resources, references? I had hoped to find an annotated version of the tale, in the same way as some recen versions of TWO, but I can't seem to.
I realize it's entirely possible these books aren't for me, but I'd hope to at least give them a fair shake. I found the style in Worm very dense in places, but it had a great narrative which helped pull me through.
I realize it's entirely possible these books aren't for me, but I'd hope to at least give them a fair shake. I found the style in Worm very dense in places, but it had a great narrative which helped pull me through.
But your question now has me planning a reread of TWO, and a retackling of the other books.....thanks for the question!
posted by pushing paper and bottoming chairs at 9:43 AM on July 3, 2017
posted by pushing paper and bottoming chairs at 9:43 AM on July 3, 2017
Response by poster: I'm glad it isn't just me, I guess. I think part of the problem might very well be that I'm reading the books with text-to-speech, which chokes quite a bit on the early-modern English. There's an excellent Braille version of Worm, but I didn't see one for MoM or the others. I'll have to look again.
posted by Alensin at 9:54 AM on July 3, 2017
posted by Alensin at 9:54 AM on July 3, 2017
Response by poster: As an update, I DID find a Braille copy of Mistress of Mistresses. This will hopefully help make the book easier to parse, even if the language is still dense and flowery. I'm glad i have access to a Braille display :)
posted by Alensin at 2:51 PM on July 3, 2017
posted by Alensin at 2:51 PM on July 3, 2017
Best answer: I like The Worm Ouroboros, but I love Mistress of Mistresses even more, and a large part of the reason is that long ago in a second-hand bookshop in Tel Aviv I chanced upon a galley proof of this Dell edition. It has extensive, erudite footnotes by Paul Edmund Thomas, as well as a lengthy introduction. If you're reading the Overture and wondering where the Raftsund or Troldtinder are, what orichalc is, or where the quote "Shall the earth-lice be my bane, the sons of Grim Kogur?" is from, this is what you need.
posted by hoist with his own pet aardvark at 5:56 PM on July 3, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by hoist with his own pet aardvark at 5:56 PM on July 3, 2017 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: hoist with his own pet aardvark: This looks exactly like what I want. I loved the annotations to The Worm, which I first encountered in Braille. Sadly, I can't find this collection available in an accessible format anywhere. The electronic version i have is the much less edifying "Complete Zimiamvia," which compiles all the books but fails to include footnotes, as far as I can tell.
Thanks for confirming that it exists, at least. I'll keep poking around for a copy somehow.
posted by Alensin at 7:41 PM on July 3, 2017
Thanks for confirming that it exists, at least. I'll keep poking around for a copy somehow.
posted by Alensin at 7:41 PM on July 3, 2017
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posted by pushing paper and bottoming chairs at 9:38 AM on July 3, 2017 [1 favorite]