Are Gnolls Derived From Any Real Mythology?

[Gez]

The Displacer Beast looks like a creature from the Voyage of the Space Beagle, by Van Voght. This chapter was published as a stand-alone with the title "Black Destroyer". The creature was called a Couerl, IIRC. (And a Zorl in the French translation, don't ask me why, Couerl would have been fine.)

Kobold is just German for "goblin". Kobolds were supposed to be keepers of the burried treasures -- like ore in a mine, for example. You were well inspired to leave gifts to kobolds, so that they would lead you to rich veins of ore. Otherwise, they would punish your stinginess with firedamps or cave-ins.

"Kobold" has the same etymology as "cobalt". This blue metal was thought to be "goblin silver".

 

[Zaster]

And I also thought the Ettin was a creation of Gygax or Arneson until I heard the word mentioned in Beowulf. Anyone know the deal with that?

Probably the anglicised prononciation of Jotun (the old Norse word for giant), but I'm just guessing there.

 

[Sherlock]

I believe that the Gnoll was taken from the fantasy writer Lord Dunsany. I will have to look deeper to make sure.

 

[Tonguez]

Probably the anglicised prononciation of Jotun (the old Norse word for giant), but I'm just guessing there.

It is Ettin = Jotun = Giant

 

[Gez]

I believe that the Gnoll was taken from the fantasy writer Lord Dunsany. I will have to look deeper to make sure.

Read the post numbered #10.

 

[Filby]

I think the ettin/jotun connection is more or less right, though ettins as two-headed giants come from Scotland. I recall reading a Scottish fairy tale called 'The Red Ettin' featuring a giant with not two but three heads.

Also, I might note that 'ettin' is the word from which Tolkien derived 'ent', and also used it to refer to Trolls and other giants, and it survives in the name of the Ettenmoors, the rugged land north of Rivendell.

 

[Excalatus]

The "oll" in gnoll is pronounced like the one in "toll", right?

I hate pronunciation. You can never be sure how to say something without hearing it first.

 

[DonaldRumsfeldsTofu]

I always pronounced it as if it rhymed with "troll", but I doubt it really matters. My friends still pronounce "Drow" as if it rhymed with "snow"

 

[nikolai]

Gnolls come - very indirectly - from Dunsany. See in the Book of Wonder, How Nuth would have practised his art upon the gnoles.

http://www.sff.net/people/DoyleMacdonald/d_nuth.htm

Dunsany's stories, being short and self-contained, make ideal stand-alone scenarios; there is more often than not a character, location, or plot-idea in each one that would enrich any fantasy campaign. His specific contributions to D&D are harder to trace, aside from his providing the name of the gnolls (acknowledged by Gygax and Arneson in the "Monsters & Treasure" booklet for the first-edition D&D game [1974] -- although Dunsany's own "gnoles" were quite different, and far more dangerous and impressive)...

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=books/main/classicsdunsany

 

[diaglo]

if you look in your OD&D booklets. you will find gnolls are troll / gnome crossbreeds.

the thread on trolls in general will give you more info on where trolls came from.

the gnoll was derived from the same basis.

edit: here is the troll thread: http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=76271