Blackmoor reading list

[Havard]

This is exactly what I am after; there's, ever since Gary Gygax canonized fantasy literature for D&D nerds, an in the end, very narrow talk, and only on a few selected authors: Selected, for no good reason than that the crew at TSR liked them, and/or was involved in promoting products related to their works.

Well, I sort of agree, but OTOH, is it not true that Gygax' list is fairly extensive compared to what was available at that time? As Greg has mentioned elsewhere, the Twin Cities gamers would read anything they could get their hands of when it came to sci fi and fantasy. The main difference between Arneson and Gygax seems to be Gygax' attempt at distancing himself from Tolkien.

For example - Dune, really? I am mid-through the first novel, and I cannot say that I see any similarity to any aspect of Blackmoor; except maybe the crystals/shards being somehow equivalent to spice; but apart from that, really none.

I hadn't thought of the Spice/Crystals analogy, but that is interesting. However, when I read the description of "The Nomad" in the FFC and Peshwah Na Shepro in DA1, I could not help think about the Fremen and Paul Atreides, even if Shepro is only Paul on a very small scale (yet).

The same for Cthulhu - I read a bunch of those novels over the last year, and, okay, you have fish-people in Innsmouth - but apart from that? I think the similarities between some very marginal aspects of D&D and the whole Lovecraft material stem from either early 80s reception of Warhammer, and, more importantly, from D&D's reception of Michael Moorcock's Eternal Champion series. - Which is unfamiliar to most of us today, but was in it's heyday in the 70s, and contains nearly all the kind of motifs that we have in BKM, including forces of Chaos, etc.

Moorcock is probably in there, but I would not rule out the Cthulhu Mythos. This manifests itself not only in the Fish People/Frog people, but also in the idea of dark gods lurking below. The Egg of Coot rising from beneath the waves is a clear R'lyeh analogy, even though it might be filtered from Zimriel. The idea of a Froglike deity seems very likely to have been derived from Tsaothoggua. Keep in mind that the elements from the mythos could also have come from Howard/Ashton-Smith as much as Lovecraft himself. I don't see Blackmoor as a Lovecraftian setting, but much more the Mythos as presented by the two others, though Lovecraft created the Mythos.

- Which is one of the reasons why I am inclined to discard Leiber as a primary source for Arnesonian D&D; Greyhawk was essentially Lankhmar already, and, so far, there is no direct indicator for a reception by Mr Arneson.

Remember your chronology here. Greyhawk was not Lankhmar already, since Blackmoor predates Greyhawk. I am seriously beginning to wonder if Maus could not be a direct reference to the Grey Mouser. OTOH, I agree that Greyhawk has a stronger Lankhmar feel than Blackmoor. In Blackmoor, it is just one of many influences.

Rather than that, I'd like to know the impact of stuff he actually is sure to have known - like, probably "Thieves World", given the AiF angle, or stuff he directly references to, like the Beagle.

I'm not really familiar with Thieves World at all, so I can't comment much. Seems likely though.

My idea behind all this is that I am somewhat stalling with my understanding of the setting as is, and this I attribute mostly to the sources commonly named being false ones;

Not really sure what that means? Are you looking for the objective truth to what Blackmoor was? In Arneson's mind, or in that of his players? Is that possible, or even useful?

for example, I am so going to grab those Horseman books at some point.

Jorkens over at the Piazza recommended getting the GURPS Horseclans sourcebook, which I now have in my shelf. I need to spend more time going through it though. I just recently got the book, but it seemed easier than getting all the books.

-Havard