What's the Name of That Book??? discussion

Genera: Early (50's or 60's) Fantasy, adult or young adult fiction

Set in a fantasy world very similar to that of "Wizard of Earthsea" by Ursula K Le Guin, where the main character is a wizard and uses the "true" names of things to make magic.

Biggest clue: I distinctly remember that the word for Fire was very similar to the word "Brisingr"- the word for fire in the book Eragon by Christopher Paolini. (I figured Paolini intentionally stole the word.)

The book isn't a particularly obscure fantasy novel considering my school library had it, and one of my friend's parents had read it when they were younger.

I recall the book as a paperback, with a front cover that's medium brown and has a distant wizard standing on a hill with a staff in his hand. The book was medium length, definitely not thick.

It's possibly a book written by Ursula K Le Guin, but definitely is not "Wizard of Earthsea."

Thanks for your help! This has been driving me crazy for 10+years!

Maybe The Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander?

First book The Book of Three.

First published in the 1960s, it was inspired by Welsh mythology and uses names and terms from there.

Doesn't look right, upon preliminary inspection. Thanks for the suggestion though. The time period is definitely similar.

However, nothing from the series sounded familiar, and from what I can tell, the books don't employ the name-magic system that I mentioned.

Over Sea, Under Stone deals with the concept of true names. And I think something like that was also used in Witch World series but I could be mistaken. There is also The Weirdstone of Brisingamen - many names in the Tales of Alderley series are inspired by Old-Norse.

I second the Weirdstone of Brisingamen - I remember noticing the similarity in the words when Brisingr came out.

I doubt it is The Weirdstone of Brisingamen or any of the related books by Alan Garner. Apart from the similarity of name none of the OP's description matches. The main character(s) is(are) NOT wizards and the "true" names of things to make magic doesn't appear anywhere.

I read plot summaries, and it's definitely none of those books, but that's interesting to know that there's a book that has Brisingr in it's title! Thanks for the suggestions everyone!

I think the book fits into the High Fantasy genera, but since my recollection of the plot is mixed with others, I'm not certain. I'm very sure about all the other facts though.

If you scroll down to popular culture maybe one of those will wring a bell?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/True_...

Thank you Aubrey, that's a very useful compilation!

None ring a bell for the book I'm looking for, but it has brought me to another beloved, yet forgotten, book-The Amulet of Samarkand. I've decided that I'm going to re-read it for old time's sake!

Thanks!

Hanna wrote: "Thank you Aubrey, that's a very useful compilation!

None ring a bell for the book I'm looking for, but it has brought me to another beloved, yet forgotten, book-The Amulet of Samarkand. I've decid..."

Sorry it wasn't helpful to the thread but I'm glad u found an old book u like.

Btw have you read kingkiller yet? I just started it and I am in love the author is either a genius or he did ALOT of research for his book either way it is totally unexpected with its twists and turn.

Is the book you're looking for called "Jarvis: The Sorcerer's Apprentice," by Jesper Ejsing?
The cover I'm thinking of doesn't match your description and I can't remember how thick it is, but the magic premise in the book matches.

Jarvis: The Sorcerer's Apprentice by Jesper Ejsing for ML's suggestion.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Farthest-...

Or maybe something from David Eddings?

Aubrey wrote: "Btw have you read kingkiller yet? I just started it and I am in love the author is either a genius or he did ALOT of research for his book either way it is totally unexpected with its twists and turn. "

Yes, the Name of the Wind is probably my most favorite book. I wasn't as impressed with the second book in the series, but I'm still a big fan of the Kingkiller Chronicles. I'm sure he'll seal the deal with an epic third book....whenever it comes out.......

ML wrote: "Is the book you're looking for called "Jarvis: The Sorcerer's Apprentice," by Jesper Ejsing?
The cover I'm thinking of doesn't match your description and I can't remember how thick it is, but the ..."

"Jarvis: The Sorcerer's Apprentice" is way too contemporary to be the right one- but thanks for checking! That book was published in 2008.
At the ABSOLUTE latest, the book I'm looking for was published in the 80's. But almost assuredly it was even earlier than that.

I checked out David Eddings and I'm fairly certain it's none of his books. But it very well could be the other book you linked to- The Farthest Shore by Ursula K Le Guin.

I'll read this book and the Tombs of Atuan in the next few months in order to figure it out.

I was hoping that someone would recognize the word for Fire that I mentioned, but I guess it's a pretty obscure detail!

The description of the cover (both picture and medium brown cover) and the characters sounds like something from the DragonLance Series by Margaret Weis. I've read only one bit of her series but it's very much high fantasy with Mage, sorcerers, elfs, knights etc. Here is a cover of one of her books: Time of the Twins and they are all very much like that. Good Luck
There are about 25+ books broken into different series btw....

I would also check out by Roger Zelazny. There are 10 books in that series...also old school high fantasy.

The Weis (husband and wife) stuff is mostly AD&D related, esp. Dragonlance - and IIRC, doesn't have a ton of 'true name' stuff.

Definitely not the _Chronicles of Amber_, which was more about dimension-shifting to find the things you want in the infinite multiverse, and the one, true reality, that other things were distorted mirrors of.

For some reason when reading this I thought of L. Sprague De Camp's Incompleat Enchanter series. Brisngr is the Norse word for fire and the first adventure takes place in the realm of Norse mythology. The main character is trying to work out the rules of magic, and it ends up involving using the names of things in logical syllogisms. And the time frame would be about right--the first stories were initialy published in the 40s.

Thanks for the help everyone.

I'm thinking it can't be The Incompleat Enchanter because that book is comprised of two short stories, which is unusual enough that I'd remember that. However, descriptions of it online make it sound super interesting so I'm going to read it anyways!

It could be Raymond E Feist Riftwar saga.

The Riftwar Saga by Raymond E. Feist for Raul's suggestion - https://www.goodreads.com/series/4047...

There is a short story by Ursula K. Le Guin called The Rule of Names which has the true name stuff and is a sort-of prequel to the Earthsea tales. There is no mention of Brisingr.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rul...

I read the Incomplete Enchanter and it's definitely not that one. Although the book was entertaining.

I'm not sure about any of the other suggestions.
Without anyone knowing whether Brisingr is in the novel, I just don't know.... and I don't have enough time to read all the suggested books (though I wish I did.) None of the summaries are ringing a bell (I checked Riftwar and The Rule of Names), and I think they ought to sound familiar if I've read the book before.

Still hoping that someone else remembers that specific word.

'Giftwish' and 'Catchfire' by Graham Dunstan Martin have Latin used for magic, as a 'future' language. Catchfire has a wizard on the cover, but in close-up.

Yeah, I vote against _Riftwar_, I've read several in those settings (Mistress stuff is an amazing trilogy).

Giftwish Catchfire for those other suggestions.

There doesn't appear to be a lot of fantasy written pre-1970s; I looked through Wikipedia's list of fantasy novels for the 1950s and 1960s and didn't really see anything promising. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Categor...) You might try looking at the works of Andre Norton (https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...), as she's one of the best known (older) authors in the genre and was writing back then.

The Broken Sword is steeped in Viking and Norse mythology, and is a fantasy written in the right time period.

And my first thought on reading your description was to suggest the Riddle Master of Hed (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9...). It's 1970s, but I could have sworn the first cover I ever saw fit your description.

There is also a page on TV Tropes for magic naming, with a section on literature:

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php...

Maybe your book is listed there.

Do you remember anything that actually happened in the book? How they were trained? What the plot was? Any of the characters?

This link is from his website regarding his favorite YA books. Maybe take a peek and see if any of the titles look familiar. http://www.paolini.net/2016/06/08/chr...

Also from http://www.paolini.net/faq/

"How did you think up the names and spells?

My names came from three sources. Some are word plays (Eragon is dragon with the first letter changed and Saphira is a variation of the word sapphire), some are from historical sources (Anglo-Saxon, Norse, Germanic, Russian, etc.), and the rest I invented according to the rules of my imaginary languages, such as the name of the elf Blödhgarm.

As for the spells, first I wrote out what I wanted to say in English, and then I translated it word by word into the ancient language. Sometimes I already had come up with the words I needed, and sometimes I had to invent them from scratch.

Have a look at the Thomas Covenant series.
The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever

Either that or the Jennifer Fallon Tide war books.

Wolfblade

sent PM

Thanks for all the suggestions everyone.
Lots of good ideas, but definitely nothing that is even remotely familiar.

The last tip I've been holding out on mentioning is this:
there was *something* about the title that I found mildly embarrassing. I don't remember what though. It could be something as simple as it included a stereotypical fantasy word like "wizard" or "unicorn" (but no, it's not "The Last Unicorn"). Or maybe it was just a cheesy title. Whatever the case, when someone asked me what I was reading, I was definitely a bit hesitant to say the name of it.

If the name was strange/corny, maybe it's one the Alfar series by Elizabeth Boyer? The one that has always stuck in my mind, though the plot is long gone, is The Elves and the Otterskin.

The Elves and the Otterskin by Elizabeth Boyer - Amanda's suggestion

From a Christopher Paolini GRs author post "(When I was working on the book, I needed a word that meant fire. I flipped through a dictionary of word origins and eventually found an Old Norse word, brisingr, which meant fire. I loved it so much that it was an easy decision to base the rest of my language on Old Norse," https://www.goodreads.com/questions/1...

They were using a word from Old Norse language. (from wikip: Old Norse was a North Germanic language that was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and inhabitants of their overseas settlements during about the 9th to 13th centuries.)

Does that spark a memory?

Thanks, I've read that interview transcripts before. Alas, doesn't ring any bell. I'm sure that the other author and Paolini pulled the word from the same source.

The Lost Years by TA Barron. Its a whole series. Cant remember if he used true name or not though.

edit: I reread the op message and it says published in 1960s. My bad

Are you sure about the time frame? Because there just weren't that many fantasy novels written in the 50s-60s (or earlier) time frame. And I have yet to find anything from the right period that features a cover matching the one you described.

That said, here are a few more possibilities based mainly on availability:

In the hope that it just got missed in the flood of suggestions, I'm going to link The Broken Sword by Poul Anderson again, because it sounds most promising (to me). Anderson is/was a popular author (so your library could conceivably have had it), it's steeped in Viking and Norse mythology (from whence Brisingr stems), and it was written in the right time period.

The Well of the Unicorn--right time period, could be considered a childish/embarrassing name, and also was influenced by Viking and Norse mythology. Not sure how popular it was with libraries, but it was popular with various later authors.

The Worm Ouroboros and the associated Zimiamvian Trilogy--Apparently when Lord of the Rings first came out, it was compared to this. Some Norse tradition/flavoring, definitely written early enough, and the Tolkien comparisons might have prompted your library to carry it. And the titles are all a bit weird.

Witch World--According to Tvtropes, Naming is inherent to the magic of these books. The first one was published in 1963, so they fit the time frame, and they were massively popular. Title is also a bit weird.

The Well at the World's End--honestly, aside from being a fantasy novel written early enough, I wouldn't even suggest it. It did influence both C.S. Lewis and Tolkien, however, so it must have been well-known at the time, thus could have been in your library.

The Dark World--another long shot suggested simply because it's from the right(ish) time period. And I suppose over time memory could have eroded the cover into a man with a staff instead of a sword? It also influenced Zelazny's later Amber series, so, again, that might imply availability.

Lastly, you could try maybe Lord Dunsany??

No I'm not sure about the time frame. It's just a ballpark. Could easily be the 70's.

None of the ones you posted ring a bell, but thanks for doing that research- wow.

Mostly I think it's a wild-goose chase for anyone to hunt around unless someone specifically remembers reading a book with naming-magic that also used the word "Brisingr" in it.

Could it be Giftwish by Graham Dunstan Martin?https://www.amazon.co.uk/Giftwish-Gra... There is a sequel, Catchfire, which has a boy holding a sword on the cover.

In Thieves' World they use the name thing and the wizards all go to great lengths to hide their names--and are also forced to hide something about themselves as well. Could it have been one of the books in this series? (They are all collections of short stories by different well known writers, but all set in the same town.)

The book I'm thinking of is not an anthology like Thieves' World. Thanks for the suggestion though!

You might check this list of the "true name" concept in literature.

I didn't see anything on the list that was familiar, but thanks for the resource!

I'm not sure why but reading your original post and some of these comments I keep thinking it might be a Dianna Wynne Jones book. The naming system seems like the kind of thing she might have in her books. I don't actually remember much about her books that I read... lol... but they did have an Earthsea-ish kind of vibe. And wikipedia tells me that she was definitely active and getting books published in the 60s.

It's a very long time since I read them, but Patricia McKillip's Riddle-Master trilogy came to mind, so I'll throw it into the ring as a possibility!

Also, I was thinking if the book has other Norse influences than just the word 'brisingr' then a Norse fantasy list might have some ideas, if you haven't checked it out yet:

https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/...

Hanna, still looking or did you find this?

No response, Abandoned.