Tales of Nevèrÿon
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 Cover of paperback edition |
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| Author | Samuel R. Delany |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Sword and Sorcery |
| Publisher | Wesleyan University Press |
| Released | 1979 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover & Paperback) |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-553-12333-5 |
| Followed by | Neveryóna |
Tales of Nevèrÿon collects a preface (to the entire series) and five sword and sorcery stories by Samuel R. Delany; and finally an appendix. The stories are "The Tale of Gorgik," "The Tale of Old Venn," "The Tale of Small Sarg," "The Tale of Potters and Dragons," and "The Tale of Dragons and Dreamers." It is the first of the four-volume Return to Nevèrÿon series. This article discusses the five stories collected in the book. Discussions of overall plot, setting, characters, themes, structure, and style of the series are found in the main series article.
[edit] The Tale of Gorgik
In his youth Gorgik is one of the “brown, respectable” people of Kolhari, the major port of Nevèrÿon. (“His mother from time to time claimed eastern connections with one of the great families of fisher women in the Ulvayn Islands: she had the eyes but not the hair. His father was a sailor, who, after a hip injury at sea, fixed himself to the port of Kolhari, where he worked as a waterfront dispatcher.” So opens “The Tale of Gorgik” [1976].) Because of a radical takeover of the government when he is sixteen, Gorgik is captured and taken as a slave to work in an obsidian mine—not all the slaves are blond, blue-eyed barbarians. But the ones who are darker skinned generally fair better than those who are not. Soon Gorgik is a mine foreman. When he is twenty-one, Gorgik is purchased by the Vizerine Myrgot as her catamite, and is taken to live in the castle of the Child Empress Ynelgo, back in Kolhari, where he gets his first taste of the advantages (and disadvantages) of life among royalty. Eventually the Vizerine frees him and secures him a commission in the army. Finally, however, Gorgik becomes an outlaw, for a while even working as a guard for a slave pen. But he is so disgusted by what he sees there that he goes back to being an outlaw, working to free all the slaves of Nevèrÿon, no matter their color. To this end, he makes use of some of the friendships he made while living at the court.
[edit] Further tales
By the end of the first five stories (Tales of Nevèrÿon [1976–78]), there have already been a number of swerves away from the traditional pattern of sword and sorcery tales. We know, for instance, that, while a muscular giant of a man, Gorgik is also bisexual. Commentators have always noted that there tends to be a strong homosexual subtext—rather like that in professional wrestling today—in most traditional sword and sorcery tales. But Delany is the first one to bring it conscientiously to the surface, not for comedic purposes, but to examine it seriously (in "The Tale of Small Sarg" [1978]). As he ages, Gorgik’s sexual preferences move completely to men. At court he has to service not only the Vizerine, but her eunuch steward, in order to thrive. Not only is Gorgik bisexual, but he is specifically sexually stimulated by the sadomasochistic accoutrements of slavery, the chains, the whips, and the slave collars that mark the institution—as are, indeed, many in the land of Nevèrÿon. In “The Tale of Small Sarg” (1978), we even see him purchase a young barbarian for a slave, whom he more or less coerces into having sex.
What, Delany asks, are the effects of such things on Gorgik’s political goal to end slavery? Can the two be reconciled—and if so, how?
A sister land to prehistoric Nevèrÿon is the Western Crevasse—an Amazonian culture where the power structure between genders is the reverse of the one we are used to today. One of the most interesting characters in the series is Raven, a masked adventuress from this Amazon culture, who is exploring Nevèrÿon. Raven’s account of her own culture’s creation myth to a bunch of Nevèrÿon sailors, in the fourth story, “The Tale of Potters and Dragons” (1978), has, for twenty-five years, now, made this tale a favorite with university teachers of classes in gender studies.
