The Journal Entries Trivia

created by inio

(idea) by everyone (3.3 mon) (print) ? (I like it!) Wed Feb 21 2001 at 10:14:59

Miscellaneous trivia from Elf Sternberg's The Journal Entries of Kennet R'yal Shardik, et. al., and Related Tales. Not much here yet, will be adding more.

Ken has a dog-like "securor-droid", Voll, (referred to as a "Seeing Eye dog" in Goodbye, Kris, 000/0000), who can function as a communicator with the local AI. This may be a reference to K-9 from the BBC television series Doctor Who.
"Nyano Handele" (from the Planetfall series) translates to "Rat's Intellect" in Quenya (and presumably Quen). The Neo-Rat captain's (who's name escapes me at the moment) previous ship was named "Rat's Asking".
"P'nyssa Traken" is named after the character Nyssa of Traken, also from Doctor Who (see above).
The odd script on the front page is Tengwar, which has several possible pronoucnciations. In the english mode this text is something along the lines of "chen-et r-eye-all zhar-dich". In the Sindarin mode it is more like "ken-et r-eye-all ghar-dik". The later matches as good as is possible in that mode (there is no sh sound available), but a more accurate match would be possible in the english mode by changing a few symbols.
NEW! Elf has posted some more background information on his page at http://www.drizzle.com/~elf/ including inspiration and some explanation of some of the more obscure references.
NEW! Two 1992 usetnet postings have been discovered and noded. They can be found at the Journal Entries FAQ and the Journal Entries: A Historical Reference.
NEW! The earliest journal entry on record in google's new expanded usenet archive is "Journal Entries of Elf Shardik, Entry 136 / 0068" from Oct 1990. Yep, thats right, Elf Shardik. Iiiinteresting. Elf: if you ever read this: How does this relate to the 1992 posting?
NEW! Based on the new Google archives, The First Journal Entry turns out to be an early version of The Kittenin'.

(idea) by Frater 219 (5 y) (print) ? (I like it!) Thu May 31 2001 at 1:48:48

Some more trivia:

A couple of Pendorian species have disappeared, as it were, in later editions of the Journal Entries. Among these are the Gerion and the Tellakelvar. The Gerion were "a semi-feline race with serpentine lower torsos," according to an 1991 FAQ issued by Elf Sternberg. They are named after the monster Geryon, who appears in Greek mythology and Dante's Inferno. The Tellakelvar remain yet more mysterious, though the same FAQ translates their name as "The Last, The First to Run."
Elf says he got the idea for the Tindals from a picture in Heavy Metal magazine, which depicted a blue-skinned woman with tentacles for arms. The general facial structure of the Tindals is never described in the stories, though their fur-markings and large batlike ears are. (I, for one, imagine them as slightly feline.)
"Uncia" was originally "Unczia".
Regarding those Tellakelvar ... a 1991 version of "Unmask!" refers to a Tellakelvar with the pronoun "hir", and uses the gender-noun "cir" similarly to the way "fem" and "mel" are used for other species. Therefore, it may be taken as read that the 'Kelvar are herms -- or, at least, do not have the same sexes that most Pendrii do. The same story refers to a Tellakelvar as having a mane.
Donna's nickname of "Hyzen" comes from the Lapine language of Richard Adams's novel Watership Down, and means "shining". Richard Adams also wrote a novel entitled Shardik, about a tribe who worship a bear named Shardik as their god. However, Elf has said that he's never read the latter novel, and came up with the name independently. (I don't blame him. Shardik, unlike Watership Down, is quite tedious and not very enjoyable.)
The first two Centaurs on Pendor were named Paul Lewis and Carroll Lewis. Lewis Paul was an 18th-century inventor. Lewis Carroll ... well ... that much should be obvious.
The name Pendor itself has two possible origins. In Tolkien's original Quenya, the word "peldor" would be a close approximation to "ringworld"; the name of Shardik's ringworld may simply be a linguistic variation in Pendrii Quen. However, there is also a Dragon named Pendor in the Journal Entries -- whose name, I suspect, comes from an island in Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea novels; an island populated by dragons.
How about those Tellakelvar again? Later editions of the stories which refer to them have them replaced with other species -- most often Tindals, but not always; the "Tellakelvar cir" of "Unmask!" became a femSsphynx.
The two common types of powered armor on Pendor -- Shirow and Stark -- are named for manga artist Masamune Shirow and comic-book character Tony Stark aka Iron Man. Shirow is one of Japan's most famous mangaka, creator of Appleseed and Ghost in the Shell -- both of which got mangled badly when produced as anime. Shirow powered armor on Pendor appears to be modeled after the Appleseed "Landmate" designs.
Kennet Shardik's title is Vatare ilyé Pendoro. Contrast this with Ilúvatar, literally "All-Father", a name of God in Tolkien's works. Shardik is the "Father of All Pendor," and not the "All-Father of Pendor," which would be Ilúvatar Pendoro.
Older versions of the stories, such as the 1991 versions referenced above, are available in the sex-story archives of some porn Web sites. A Google search for any Pendor-related term should turn up plenty. I suggest that you disable JavaScript/ECMAscript in your Web browser before clicking through, however: many of these sites use abusive JavaScript tricks.

printable version
chaos

Goodbye, Kris	The Journal Entries	The Journal Entries: A historical reference	Behind the Journal Entries
Quenya	Ken Shardik	the Journal Entries FAQ	Aimee
Pendorian Calendar	Masamune Shirow	Iron Man	Ursula K. Le Guin
Elf Sternberg	Doctor Who	AI	Tengwar
Tindal	neuralgia	Lewis Carroll	abusive JavaScript
The 5 Year Journal	ECMAScript	Hir	Heavy metal

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