The Notorious Notebook – Du Sverdinvyrd

osten ard y

esterday, 30 years after The Dragonbone Chair was published I posted a few pages of the notebook that proceeded the book. Tad gave me the notebook this Summer when I visited him and Deborah for a few days and it was a true joy to browse through it, read here and there, look at long lists of names of language creation, timelines and the like. To me it was a true treasure and I excitedly read it for hours and hours … then I talked to friends about it and they were excited, too and a bit jealous, too so I asked if I could take pics and share them and Tad in his unlimited generosity agreed.

So this is what will happen here: in loose and unregular sequence the content of the notebook will be posted on this site. I’ll tweet (@ylvs) about new posts under the header  #TheNotoriousNotebook and if you want to be sure to miss nothing there is an email alert thingy somewhere on this  site.

And now without further ado, here is the rest of the notes about the three swords:

NissesENissesF

NissesG

I love how the last verse is seemingly hastily scribbled down and Tad not even bothered to write out the last line. I love that Du Svardenvyrd started out as Du Sverdinvyrd and how all the info from these pages made into MS&T yet in a very different form.

This is the most awesome and interesting part of the notebook as it is “story”, but for proper MS&T geeks like the runners of this site there is more rewarding stuff to come.

It was 30 years ago today …

osten ard n

ot that Sgt Pepper taught the band to play but that
THE DRAGONBONE CHAIR by Tad Williams hit the book stores for the very first time.
DBCpic

To adequately celebrate I’d like to start sharing a true treasure I was given when visiting Tad and Deborah this Summer:

Notebook Cover

This is Tad’s original notebook from the late 80’s containing everything he jotted down while writing Memory, Sorrow and Thorn! Ostenard.com has the privilege to share its content with our fellow Taddicts  – thank you so very much for this permission, Tad!

Let’s start with my favourite find. This is a bit of continous text on the making of the three swords. Enjoy!

NissesANissesBNissesC

To be continued very soon …