Sorry I'm so late getting back to this - the rest of life has been a bit demanding.
There are two major writers of children's fantasy relevant to discussion above: Edith Nesbit and Walter de la Mare. Edith Nesbit wrote the Bastable books referred to in TMN, of course, but also much fantasy of the 'ordinary children encounter magic' kind. In terms of her inventing non-human hnau, there's Five Children and It, whose non-human character is sharp and cynical and fun.
De la Mare wrote the brilliant, neglected fantasy The Three Mulla-Mungars, aka The Three Royal Monkeys, which posits a spiritual world for the title characters which goes deeper than that in The Hobbit,and posits a language for them too. Here's the beginning of a footnote, from the book, about the meaning of the word Tishnar
"Tishnar is a very ancient word in Munza, and means that which cannot be thought about in words, or told, or expressed. So all the wonderful, secret, and quiet world beyond the Mulgars' lives is Tishnar — wind and stars, too, the sea and the endless unknown. But here it is only the Beautiful One of the Mountains that is meant...."
It's an extraordinary and truly visionary animal fantasy. Hhhmmm.... time I reread it, I think!
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Date: 2015-03-22 11:42 am (UTC)There are two major writers of children's fantasy relevant to discussion above: Edith Nesbit and Walter de la Mare. Edith Nesbit wrote the Bastable books referred to in TMN, of course, but also much fantasy of the 'ordinary children encounter magic' kind. In terms of her inventing non-human hnau, there's Five Children and It, whose non-human character is sharp and cynical and fun.
De la Mare wrote the brilliant, neglected fantasy The Three Mulla-Mungars, aka The Three Royal Monkeys, which posits a spiritual world for the title characters which goes deeper than that in The Hobbit,and posits a language for them too. Here's the beginning of a footnote, from the book, about the meaning of the word Tishnar
"Tishnar is a very ancient word in Munza, and means that which cannot be thought about in words, or told, or expressed. So all the wonderful, secret, and quiet world beyond the Mulgars' lives is Tishnar — wind and stars, too, the sea and the endless unknown. But here it is only the Beautiful One of the Mountains that is meant...."
It's an extraordinary and truly visionary animal fantasy. Hhhmmm.... time I reread it, I think!
(btw, about Saussure.)