Page 742…
I thought it sounded cooler if Bognok talked like that. It just felt right for the situation.
You guys don’t think it comes across wierd…do you?
Also…as for the Barnes and Noble, Borders, etc…
Some answers to the questions (in case you didn’t read my replies in the comments)…
1) The Dreamland Chronicles Book One is the SAME one that’s in the store on my site right now.
2) It’s 300 pages. The first 4 chapters. Just for the record. EVERY book is 4 chapters each. There will be 24 chapters. 6 books total.
3) Buying the book from the brick and mortar stores really helps us out. It shows that the fan base is there and that they need to order more. More book sales…more money to help pay for more Dreamland.
4) The books are NOT out in stores just yet. I haven’t found out the day. It could be today. Could be next week. But I will let everyone know when.
5) You can STILL order it. And I would suggest you please do. Please let friends know as well.
6) Book Two will hit stores next month. Book Three will hit stores in January.
7) For those of you out of the country. Please see what you can do in YOUR stores. If they can NOT order it…then you can order it from my store here. I will PERSONALLY ship out a copy to you and even sign and do a sketch in it.
Thank you all for helping to support us. It’s been almost 3 years of updating online and we’ve FINALLY got the books going into stores. So thank you for your patience and thank you for your support.
PS.
Just posted on the blog below about 20 years of being with Donna. Hope you like it…
The rest of the dwarves might have heard Nicodemus.
Does he intend to call them to his aid?
If so, whose side will the the dwarves take?
Bognok’s or Nicodemus’?
Doesn’t come across as weird to me, but that’s what’s great about fantasy/medieval settings. You can use those kind of words 🙂 Also, I just want to say I came into reading your comic about two months ago, and it’s really kept me sticking around. I love it, keep up the great stuff.
I’m SO ordering your books for my nieces and nephews. And cousins. And neighbors. My daughter already has her copies. 🙂 Thanks for such a fun time!
*Has been cheering for the past three comics or so* Bognock, Bognock, he’s our man! If he can’t do it…er…Nastajia can? Whatever! GO BOGNOCK!
Hi, er…
I am an reader of your side since like a year,
and i am from Germany.
But mainly i just wanted to tell ya that the Dreamland Chronicles Books are also avaiable on the German Part of Amazon wich is Amazon.de.
And i think i just ordered Book 1. ^^
For the love of it. ^^
Everything sounds cooler in Olde English.
“Likest thou jelly within thy donut?”
“Nay, but prithee, with sprinkles ‘pon it instead, and frosting of white.”
“Nay, but prithee, with sprinkles ‘pon it instead, and frosting of white.”
Where did you learn Modern English*? Ren Fairs? Shakespeare?
“Nay, but perhaps chanced to dine on thy doughed-rings with sprinkled confection; in stead of thy traditional jelly offerings. But of course, forgetting not delectable white frostings.”
Getting back to the comic: I think it does sound odd, the typical voice for dwarfs is normally those of the industrious north (England) such as Yorkshire. Down to earth language for down in the earth folk. Although I guess he’s a nob(ility) so perhaps he took elocution lessons.
* As opposed to contemporary English or middle English.
It works for me. Everyone talks differently depending on the circumstances. You don’t usually say “What up?” to authority figures, but friends meeting at the local hang out would give you odd looks for say “Hello, how are you today?”
Using more formal language gives the situation gravity that action alone might not catch.
Just because they work in the earth doesn’t mean they aren’t Educated! Jebus!
I thought everyone knew that most dwarves talked in the olde tongue, especially when you insult their ancestors and tell them that you were their murderer. All the rune schoolin’ kicks in and that’s a pretty formal language. ho ho ho.
😉
Well, if you wanted to go for standard dwarf, you might want to go for a more Scottish accent. So, in terms of spelling, perhaps the same minus swapping the ‘thee’ for ‘ye!’ Perhaps it is just me, but I think it flows better.
aaaaaaaaaaaaahyeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!
speak that ancient tonque, jolly green dwarf! lovefist that dragon!
isn’t it AN usurper? 😀
The dwarf king just became my favorite character. Put a whuppin’ on that dragon!! 😀
… and no, the current text is correct. It is “a usurper”, not “an usurper”.
The usage rule is “a + singular noun beginning with a consonant sound: a user (sounds like ‘yoo-zer,’ i.e. begins with a consonant ‘y’ sound, so ‘a’ is used); a university; a unicycle” … otherwise yes, any word beginning with a vowel with a vowel sound is preceded by the article ‘an’.
I don’t think it needs to be the stereotypical Scottish accent in order to be a dwarven accent.
While I didn’t notice it upon first read (which means my brain didn’t register it as out of place by itself) I also didn’t see it after just having seen all the other pages where he speaks like you would in a book. It would seem a little out of place if he doesn’t always speak with thee and thy.
I don’t like to be a killjoy, but someone gonna get fried…
i think i know nic’s next line: “you will have your vengeance upon me??”
just check it out, he’s questioning everything the dwarf does so far ^^ (you demand? you hit me?)
made me think of Samuel L. Jackson’s speech from Pulp Fiction, actually. haha, go Bognok!
i hope the dwarf-king will survive
Great story, man. I’ve been reading for quite a while now, eagerly awaiting each new page.
One thing I would like to see are back and forward buttons at the top of the page, instead of below the comic. Sometimes, I can’t check the comic for a few days, and end up spoiling the plot twists for myself when I click back a few pages to the last one I read, because I have to scroll down past the comic to get to the back button.
Not weird at all. Now, “Hello! My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to DIE.” would be a little over the top, but Bognok’s doing just fine. It’s probably too early for Nic to get mashed, but one can wish.
Just bookmark the page each time you’ve finished reading, Dave. Removing the page numbers of course.
When he uses the old form of speech, it sounds more like a rote, or a phrase that has been commonly used in these situations in dwarven tradition. With things like that, the language doesn’t tend to update quickly, if at all.
When I imagine Bognok with John Rhys-Davies’ voice, it sounds fine. 🙂
You asked: You guys don’t think it comes across wierd…do you?
No, not wierd. Rather, it lends an air of dwarven stalwartness. Or stubborness. It shows that they value tradition. That’s very dwarven.
That said, it is also important that he be consistant. I didn’t go back very far, but he did address Nico as “you” earlier. That, in itself, isn’t an inconsistency, because in old English “thee” and “you” were analogous to the German “Du” and “Sie”. So “you” could be used for addressing more than one person at a time, or it could be used to address a single person as a sign of respect. In the previous strips, addressing Nico this way shows that he still has some loyalty to the “king”. But after Nico’s self-incriminating monologue, he now knows the truth. And by addressing Nico as “thee”, he shows a lack of respect.
Ironically, people today seems to think that “thee” shows repect because it’s old and has mystique. But when “thee” was really still in common usage, it showed just the opposite.
this is great!!! the wording works (thoug I do agree with Tyege… I hear a Scottish voice in my head when Bognok speaks).
Doesn`t sound weird to me…he`s fighting for the honour of his forefathers so he can use language like that. 😛
I allready have the books but I could tip my local store. They have some webcomics as well so dreamland should defenately be in it. 🙂
Penn addressed the king with thee. didn’t make him too popular.
Yeah, it works. It is more formal, and does sound more … ritualized. But it could also be a man reverting to a different tongue through anger — i.e. this is how dwarves talk amongst themselves.
Scotch accent definitely better for dwarves. Pittsburghese for orcs.
What? you’ve seen what Mordor was based on, haven’t ya?
The Elizabethan (not old) English worketh fine; I just hope Bognok remembers that “thou” is subjective, “thee” is objective, and “thy” is possessive (“thy” becometh “thine” before a vowel, much like “a”/”an” and “my”/”mine”). I mention this only because an otherwise excellent story by Theodore Sturgeon was once rendered terribly awkward when the characters mixed up the cases of their pronouns.
I think it works………Indeed!
Omg yet another great comic. It just keeps getting better and better, and i think its appropriate for Bognok to speak in such a manner.
Heh… c’mon guys… perfect setup. Good ‘ole Nicky gets in a lucky shot, is about to fry the dwarf, and in comes the original gang to the rescue. The trinket gets knocked loose, Nicky has to retreat and now the group has got a strong ally.
Besides, it ALSO serves to help set up the seeds of doubt in Nicky’s little reptilian brain. He’ll now be, what, 0 for 4? What if he worries that he CAN’T beat them directly. How much more desperate will he get?
Perfect author-fodder, if you ask me. 🙂
Hey,
Just found your site yesterday morning, and yes, I did read the whole thing in a little more than a day. It was quite addicting. This is probably my new favorite webcomic. I’m so glad I found it! I will DEFINITELY be buying your books.
Awesome webcomic. I’ve been enjoying this now for the last few months. I came in when Bognok says “You want to hear the voices of the dead? So be it” or something like that. I’ve read the entire archive twice now, and it’s funny how, each time I read webcomic archives, I notice things I didn’t before. It happens with all the webcomics I read. I love your webcomic, and I can’t wait to read what happens in the next 12 chapters. I especially can’t wait to see who “the guardians” are, and what happens when they run into them. Keep it up, and I would SO buy your books for my nephew if I had the money…McDonalds doesn’t pay much, especially when they are closing for 2 weeks for a remodel…
Miako wrote: “Penn addressed the king with thee. didn’t make him too popular.”
Precisely. “Thee” was not the proper form of respectful address (he was expected to use the formal “you” instead). But Penn was a Quaker, and they believed in plain, unpretentious speech. Hence his conscience made him address even the head of state with “thee”.
Today, “thee” seems more formal and ritualised, but that’s only because it’s fallen out of usage and you only hear it in limited circumstances (two examples being Shakespeare and the KJV Bible). Yet in the time it was still in usage, the exact opposite would be been the effect. So for Bognok to address Nicodemus this way indicates his contempt for the Usurper.
His dialogue seems a bit off seeing as he’s not a particularly verbose character, but it does seem to fit the mood of the comic right now :]
It (Bognok’s language) works for me. And it just shows why you don’t want to give a Dwarf a legal excuse to rebel, and at the same time make him mad by telling him how you killed his ancestors or predecessors. 😛
Hes about to go “Thor” on his ass!!
I have a raelly bad feeling about this…
I only hear “thee” and the like in old Bible translations (KJV and Douai), in older hymns, and in Shakespeare. Sometime, when “thou” or “thee” is used as a rhyme, you can’t easily change it in a hymn.
Ooh…cue the pulp-fiction theme.
Nastajia: Jen Taylor
Alex: Shia LaBoeuf
Nicodemus: Brad Dourif
Bognok: John Rhys-Davies
Paddington: Kevin Grevieoux
Kiwi: Sarah Michelle Gellar
Bognok’s choice of words is a lot classier than what I would likely be saying here …
😉
you never explain even the little things
Finally! Someone used the “U” word!
It actually comes across as more right in a way,
”Thee” was the old english word for singular ”you”, and ”you” was a plural words. Like in most languages in the area, the plural form was used for polite, and the polite version simply ”ate” the singular form of the word.
In other words, it kind of sounds very right for him to ”lower” Nicodemus’ status in such a way as to go away from the polite form and call him a mere ”thee” even though he’s king.
/end babble
I think most people have used John Rhys-Davies’ voice for dwarves since December 2001.
Note that he said “Thee” rather then “you”. Medival speech ftw!
Harry Dresden FTW!
I second Jen Taylor as Nastajia, and especially Sarah Michelle Gellar as Kiwi (I think she’d be perfect), but Shia LeBoeuf… I differ with you there, WolfDude. 😛
The comments pages are really too long now… Feels like getting lost in a crowd.