crunchings and munchings

[asakiyume]

We interrupt posts about Bogotá for a post courtesy of a second year of defoliatory levels of gypsy moth caterpillars.

You can hear them eating and pooping in the trees overhead. The ground is covered in caterpillar poops and fragments of leaves. Munch munch munch. I found myself thinking of Gurgi in the Prydain chronicles, who is always eager for food--crunchings and munchings as he calls them. Or maybe he says munchings first. Munchings and crunchings.

This is how I imagined Gurgi when I was a kid.



Yes. I imagined Gurgi as Grover, from Sesame Street, complete with Frank Oz voice.

Those of you who read the Prydain Chronicles--how did you imagine Gurgi?

Comments

[sovay]

Yes. I imagined Gurgi as Grover, from Sesame Street, complete with Frank Oz voice.

I never imagined Gurgi as a Muppet, but I may not be able to see or hear anything else the next time I read those books.

[asakiyume]

Eeep! I didn't mean to overwrite your whole previous experience!

But it's easy to imagine Grover saying "crunchings and munchings," right?

[sovay]

Eeep! I didn't mean to overwrite your whole previous experience!

You don't need to apologize! I'm charmed!

[asakiyume]

phew!

[pameladean]

Gollum with goodness. Deagol rather than Smeagol, maybe.

I'm sorry about the infestation. That's nightmarish.

P.

[larryhammer]

This. Both parts.

[asakiyume]

Thank you! I appreciate the commiseration.

[boxofdelights]

Me too! Cuddlier Gollum.

[asakiyume]

Whoa, cuddlier Gollum is hitting me in the uncanny valley, but I think I can imagine it.

[asakiyume]

I like the alliteration of "gollum with goodness."


I think movie!gollum has overwritten whatever concept I had of Gollum before then, so that now I imagine him as all hairless, like in the movie--whereas I definitely imagine Gurgi as shaggy. But otherwise, I get what you're saying.

(And thanks for the sympathies. Nature, man!)

[sonia]

An animated pile of leaves and branches with eyes peering through. Definitely not electric blue in my mind, but the rest of Grover works fine.

Thanks for the smile!

[asakiyume]

Yeah I guess maybe I turned his fur color into something slightly more natural! I like your idea of an animated pile of leaves and branches.

[amaebi]

Like this, but more Johnny Hart style.

In fact, I thought I associated Gurgi with a character from B.C., but at least at first glance it looks like not.

[asakiyume]

Nice!! Did you draw that? I love it.

[amaebi]

Thanks! Yes.

[genarti]

Something like an Irish wolfhound of a hominid: all lanky limbs and shaggy tangling grey fur, with bright earnest eyes peering through the mop.

[asakiyume]

an Irish wolfhound of a hominid

--that's lovely, worthy of Lloyd Alexander himself.

[mrissa]

YES THIS.

Voice pretty Grovery but a little raspier, a little deeper.

[asakiyume]

I think we've arrived at a Gurgi that Lloyd Alexander would approve of!

[genarti]

I'd like to think that child-me had a strong sense of genre and place and thus picked a mental image in keeping with Prydain -- but, while that may be part of it, I think it also has to do with knowing some shaggy terriers at a formative age...

[asakiyume]

Awww, knowing shaggy terriers at the right time is an exactly-right way to end up with a perfect Gurgi. I knew no dogs at a young age... wait, that's not true: I knew a nice Irish setter at that age, but somehow I never went from her to Gurgi.

[genarti]

That works for me! I don't have a particularly auditory (aural?) brain, so I don't tend to 'hear' characters' voices in my head, but I have no quibble with that one.

[marycatelli]

More brown and hairy than that. Basically looking like a bunch of fur sticking out, with eyes.

[asakiyume]

Definitely more brown; I'm with you on that. And with twigs and leaves.

[conuly]

Gurgi, Grover - my god, he was hiding in plain sight this whole time!

[asakiyume]

:D

[missroserose]

When I was young, I had a stuffed snow monkey from the Smithsonian Institution that one of my grandparents had sent to me, and now that I think about it, I suspect that was my template for my mental image of Gurgi—long shaggy hair, a not-quite-human face, long arms with clever fingers.

I did love the Prydain Chronicles when I was growing up. When Brian and I first got together, I bought a paperback set to read to him, and he enjoyed them greatly, even if he did take to calling the main character "Taran the Useless" until about book four. At which point he became "Taran the Slightly Less Useless", and later, "Taran Who Is Finally Getting Himself Together." (The Hero's Journey, in three titles!)

[asakiyume]

LOL, yes, around Book 4 Taran does come into himself a bit ;-)

And I like the idea of Gurgi as a snow monkey!

[amaebi]

I was given The High King for my twelfth birthday, and only read the other books afterward. I found The Book of Three barely tolerable in consequence. :D

My favourite by far is Taran Wanderer.

I managed to get my son Chun Woo through those first four books, but he has refused to read The High King or, as was the case with the others, have them read to him.

Maybe he's a better critic than I was at the time. I never questioned the centrality of The Young White Man [even though he's ridiculous].

[asakiyume]

In retrospect, early-books Taran seems pretty dense, but at the time I didn't mind him.