Gwydion

[Böle]

I know I could wait for the KQ3 remake speech pack, but until then a question that I as a non-English-speaker have never solved:

How do you pronounce "Gwydion"?

And another one: does that name actually mean or resemble any English word?

[Vroomfondel]

I belive it's pronounced like "Gwideon", but I'm not sure. I'm not sure if it means anything, but it was also the name of a character in Lloyd Alexander's excellent series of books, The Prydain Chronicles.



-Vroom

[Spike]

Yeah, that's how I'd pronounce it. And it's probably a poach from the series by Alexander, I agree with that too.

Given that they made Black Cauldron around the same time (Which, incidentally, was terrible compared to the superb book!)

- Spike

[Vroomfondel]

Yeah, I tried playing TBC, but since the parser interface was so different then what I was used to, I gave up within 5 minutes of starting it. And as for the name, yeah it probably was taken from Alexander's books. Something I just realized is that Gwydion was Prince Alex's name, and it was also the name of a character in a book written by Lloyd Alexander. Coincidence?



-Vroom

[Maxor127]

The book is definitely different than the game. In fact, the game is more similar to The Book of Three than the actual book titled The Black Cauldron. I was excited to see the movie but was disappointed by it, probably because I wanted to see it when I was like 8 and finally got to like 15 years later as an adult. The books are awesome, the game is good... I forgive it for it's short comings. The interface may have sucked, but it was aimed at simplying things with a few buttons instead of commands. It was a Sierra game and there were lots of cool locations and things to do, so you can't go wrong with that. The Black Cauldron was probably the first Sierra game I played, so I enjoyed it. I can understand how someone might not if they're used to King's Quest III quality. But if you like King's Quest I & II, you should enjoy the Black Cauldron.

I pronounce it Gwy-din. I'm pretty sure Gwi-deon is the correct pronunciation. I like how Gwy-din sounds better, though. I wish Alexander kept the name Gwydion. It's a cool name. I can understand not wanting his "slave" name anymore, but if I were him, I'd probably keep it since it's the name I grew up with and have identified myself with. He should've kept Gwydion as a nickname.

[Böle]

Thanks for some nice pieces of information.

In addition, do the books of Alexander have any other references to King's quest series?

[Vroomfondel]

As far as I know, there aren't any references to KQ in his books, but they are an awesome series. A must read if you enjoy fantasy.



-Vroom

[NightShift]

I think the actual Sierra game was based on the Disney movie version of 'The Black Cauldron'. More a combination of the first two books, with some important things moved around here and there. I actually haven't played the game, but I think it came out around the same time as the Disney version, and probably what most people around the country would've been able to associate it with. I don't know too many people who've read the prydain books, but most of them remember the Disney movie.

[Vroomfondel]

I've actually never seen the movie. I saw a few scenes when my little bro was watching it on TV, but it wasn't at all like the books, and I quickly retreated from it.




-Vroom

[laughinginsleep]

If it's the welsh name that Prince Gwydion had in the Prydain chronicles and welsh mythology, the actual pronunciation of it is

G-why-d-yun

Long y sound, short un sound, blah dee blah.

[Akril]

Coming in a bit late here, but I thought I'd add that, as mentioned before, the Prydain Chronicles borrow heavily from Welsh mythology at times (the legend of Bran and Branwen features the infamous cauldron from which the death are reborn), and there is a character in Welsh myth known as Manannan. The mystery deepens...