Owen Glendower

[Havard]

The Wikipedia says:

Owain Glyndŵr (Welsh pronunciation: [ˈoʊain ɡlɨ̞nˈduːr]), or Owain Glyn Dŵr, (c. 1349 or 1359 – c. 1416) was a Welsh ruler and the last native Welshman to hold the title Prince of Wales (Tywysog Cymru). He instigated a fierce and long-running but ultimately unsuccessful revolt against the English rule of Wales.[1]

This may already be known to some of you, but it seems likely that this figure, anglicized as Owen Glendower in the works of William Shakespeare, is the inspiration for the name of the town of Glendower in Blackmoor.

Could there be more to this connection than the name?

-Havard

[Rafael]

Remember the Whiskey rule. :wink:

[Havard]

True, but could there be more than one source of origin for the same name? Also, I think there could be more to this Shakespeare/Welsh connection...

Arneson, the historian would not have overlooked this...

-Havard

[Rafael]

Coming back to this, so many years later:

Basically, I still can't confirm or deny this, as the naming structure of Blackmoor seems to have been fairly random/coming from such a variety of sources that it's impossible to track down from today's point of view, and without access to the original sources and libraries.

Now, the Norman invasion of Wales has always been a fairly popular topic among wargamers, so the connection seems reasonable - BUT at the same time, all we know from the origins of the first Fantasy Game (Islandic Cave campaign, etc.) doesn't seem to explicitely suggest this.

Like, for all we know, this could as well be a reference to Napoleonic wargaming:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Owen_G ... %281808%29


My personal, if romanticized origin of Blackmoor names shall remain the Whiskey rule. :wink:

[Dave L]

There are a bunch of Welsh names used on the DA3 map, so this could be a continuation of the theme from the use of Glendower on the original map.

[Rafael]

Well, structurally, Blackmoor is King Arthur meets '60s treatments of Tolkien meets High Crusade.

Given that TSR could not use the Tolkien angle, and that Poul Anderson and Jack Vance cooked in their own cauldrons back in the 1980s,
it seems logical that published Blackmoor drew more from that part of popular mythology. - Which is quite funny, because I myself expected
BM to be much more Arthurian (based on the first two DA modules), than it actually seems to have been if we listen to first-hand gaming reports
from the 1970s, as well as when we look at the actual FFC. The LFC, in that respect, was really more a product of published BM than of all the discussions
we had around here, because I was so wrapped up with everything I had read.

[Havard]

Glendower is one of the names we know were used in the original campaign, from the famous Battle of Glendower, where the Flying Monk earned his fame by burning down the forest.

Interestingly, Glendower was also one of the handful of names later appearing on the Greyhawk map, with a slightly modified spelling (Glendour).

I think Rafe is spot on about the general interest in medieval British history and historical battles, shared by Arneson (whose MA was in history), Gary and probably many other Wargamers as well. Someone suggested that one reason for the interest in this particular part of medieval history was simply the fact that there would be more books availble on it than say French or German medieval history.

I suspect that the Twin City gamers were also especially partial to the inclusion of Viking Raiders because of the Scandinavian heritage common in Minnesota.


-Havard