Fritz Leiber Studies: Swords In the Mist, Part 4

The Wrong Branch
Following “When The Sea King’s Away”, our lads are having problems with rough weather and sea monsters. They come to the conclusion that they’ve been cursed by the sea king. If they flee to land, they reckon, they’ll still have problems with rivers and rainfall, so they seek to have the curse removed. As Sheelba of the Eyeless Face lives close to Lankhmar, where they’re presumably still wanted by Pulg (with a guh) and Fafhrd may still be recognized for the Issek incident, they decide to seek out Ningauble of the Seven Eyes, deep in his/its caves. They find a note, telling them the sea king’s curse is lifted. It’s then that they realize that what they read as “sea king” was “Poseidon”, but it made perfect sense to them. They get lost for a while, and wander out into Alexandria. Their mmories change, and so far as they’re concerned they’ve always been on Earth, not Newhon, based from Alexandria, not Lankhmar.

This story was written in 1968 specifically for this collection. The next story, “Adept’s Gambit”, was the very first Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser story that Leiber ever wrote. He hadn’t envisioned the world of Nehwon (trivia: it’s “no when” spelled backward) or the city of Lankhmar yet, so it was set in the historical real world. Rather than re-write the story for this collection, Leiber added this framing sequence to explain the discrepancies.

Adept’s Gambit
This novella is broken into multiple parts. In the first, the women in Fafhrd’s life are pigs. They start as beautiful women, but are transformed into actual pigs, then back again. At first the Northman thinks it’s the Mouser playing with some hedge wizardry, but over his comrade’s protests (if he were trying to interfere with Fafhrd’s love life, the Mouser explains, it wouldn’t be the girls turning into swine) he comes to realize it may be some sort of curse. Then the Mouser’s women begin to transform into giant snails. There’s a humorous encounter with a Greek philosophy, and then the lads decide to seek out Ningauble for advice and assistance.

The lads travel and meet with Ningauble in his labyrinthine underground lair. He seems very old and frial, but obviously alien. We gt a glimpse of on of his eye stalks, which has a gem on the end of it rather than an actual eye. The Mouser insults him incessantly; Ning plays the poor, old, put-upon wizard. This is probably the most dialogue and character bits we get with this character in the entire series. Being mysterious, Ning reveals that he know who has put the curse upon them, that it is a man and one adept with magic, but will not reveal the culprit’s name. Instead he send them on a quest for rare, difficult to locate, and vaguely described items, including the cup from which Socrates drank his hemlock and a girl who will come when she is ready, assuring them it’s the only way.

They manage to find all of  the items, of course, but seem lost as to the identity of the girl who will come when she’s ready. It turns out to be a mysterious girl, Ahura, that they’ve seen and hear about, whom the Mouser has a mild crush on. She alternately says she came because Ningauble sent her, that she’s never heard of Ningauble, that she only showed up due to coincidence, and a variety of other contradictory things.  The lads find notes from Ning along their path, indicating that they should both keep their hands off her. This, of course, inspires them to make a pact with each other to do so, then grow suspicious that the other is hitting on her in secret.

“…Fafhrd remembered how once an unintroduced stranger had told him a tale about two fabulous adventurers who had aided mightily in the foredoomed defense of Tyre against Alexander the Great more than a hundred years ago. The larger had heaved heavy stone blocks on the attacking ships, the smaller had dove to file through the chains with which they were anchored. Their names, the stranger had said, were Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser.  Fafhrd had made no comment.”

That’s one of my favorite passages along the journey, and another indication that Leiber is both writing epic fantasy and making fun of it at the same time.

The lads managed to get everything and get where they’re going. The ritual to remove the curse actually awakens and revives an entombed adepts, who appears as a man with black hair and beard. This is Anra Devadoris, whom you’ll recall was mentioned in the roll call of legendary characters in Leiber’s intro to Swords and Deviltry. In the way of wizards, he first blames it all on Ningauble, telling Fafhrd and the Mouser that they’ve been deceived and that Ning wants the items they’ve collected. They don’t buy it, and engage him. He then offers to make them adepts like himself, and says that they’ve been lured because he seeks new avenues of knowledge, and presumably because they are well-traveled (between worlds, even) he chose them. They’re not interested. He proves to be more than a match for the Mouser in swordsmanship, but in the moment before a worn-down Mouser is defeated the girl Ahura, knocked unconscious by the ritual, awakens and distracts Anra.  Mouser runs him through.

“By Odin crucified,” Fafhrd muttered. “He was something of a man, even though he was an adapt”.

This again speaks to what we have seen of all adepts but hedge wizard’s in Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser’s experience:  they are alien creatures, not men. Although Anra Devedoris appeared as a man, he behaved as more, and the lads are a bit surprised that he could be killed like a man and did not transform into some other sort of being upon death. Of course, there are 40 more pages to go, and if you think a good villain shall stay dead that far from the ending, or not have some other contingency, well… I shan’t spoil the ending.

“Adept’s Gambit” was written in 1939,  although it was not published until 1947, when it appeared in the Leiber anthology Night’s Black Agents. That was Leiber’s first book, published by Arkham House. It originally contained far more Cthulhu Mythos references, but when Leiber sent a copy to H.P. Lovecraft to review, Lovecraft suggested taking them out. A copy of the Mythos-heavy draft is reported to exist, although it has never been published.

The story has heavy sexual content, which isn’t that unusual for Leiber’s Fafhrd and Mouser tales, but it makes me wonder at the more reserved lovecraft’s reactions. On top of the heavy innuendo and blatant womanizing the lads are known for, there’s a bit of gender ambiguity. Although attracted to her, in one extended sequence the Gray Mouser becomes convinced that she’s really a man. He’s got not sound basis for this, and observing her more closely only makes him more suspicious. Yes, she’s very feminine and behaves in a feminine manner, but he’s seen eunuchs that do the same and can nearly pass for female. While she’s sleeping he sneaks a peek at her breasts, which rather than resolve the issue makes him more convinced that this is a man in an amazingly clever disguise. The subtext, of course, is that the strange girl may not even be human, but yet another adapt, some creature in the form of a woman. I have visions of the quietly reserved and prude Lovecraft having an apoplectic seizure while taking this all in.

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