Фриц Лейбердің "Фафрд пен Сұр Тышқан" кейіпкерлері

Characters by Fritz Leiber

Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser are two sword and sorcery heroes appearing in stories written by American author Fritz Leiber. They are the protagonists of what are probably Leiber's best known stories. One of his motives in writing them was to have a couple of fantasy heroes closer to true human nature than the likes of Howard's Conan the Barbarian or Burroughs's Tarzan. Fafhrd is a very tall (nearly 7 feet (2 m)) and strong northern barbarian, skilled at both swordsmanship and singing. The Mouser is a small (not much more than 5 feet (2 m)) mercurial thief, gifted and deadly at swordsmanship (often using a sword in one hand and a long dagger or main gauche in the other), as well as a former wizard's apprentice who retains some skill at magic. Fafhrd talks like a romantic, but his strength and practicality usually wins through, while the cynical sounding Mouser is prone to showing strains of sentiment at unexpected times. Both are rogues, living in a decadent world where only the ruthless and cynical survive. They spend a lot of time drinking, feasting, wenching, brawling, stealing, and gambling, while are seldom fussy about who hires their swords. Still, they are humane and—most of all—relish true adventure. The characters were loosely modeled upon Leiber himself and his friend Harry Otto Fischer. Fischer initially created them in a letter to Leiber in September 1934, naming at the same time their home city of Lankhmar. In 1936, Leiber finished the first Fafhrd and Gray Mouser novella, "Adept's Gambit", and began work on a second, "The Tale of the Grain Ships". At the same time, Fischer was writing the beginning of "The Lords of Quarmall". "Adept's Gambit" would not see publication until 1947, while "The Lords of Quarmall" would be finished by Leiber and published in 1964. His second story, "The Tale of the Grain Ships", would become the prototype for "Scylla's Daughter" (1961) and, later, the novel The Swords of Lankhmar (1968). The stories of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser respectively were only loosely connected until the 1960s, when Leiber organized them chronologically and added additional material in preparation for paperback publication. Starting as young men, the two separately meet their female lovers, meet each other, and lose both their lovers in the same night, which explains both their friendship and the arrested adolescence of their lifestyles. However, in later stories, the two mature, learn leadership, and eventually settle down with new female partners on the Iceland like Rime Isle. The novels have many picaresque elements, and are sometimes described as picaresque on the whole.

In 1972, Fafhrd and the Mouser began their comics career, appearing in Wonder Woman #202 alongside the title character and Catwoman in a story scripted by award winning SF writer Samuel R. Delany. In 1973, DC Comics began an ongoing series, Sword of Sorcery, featuring the duo. The title was written by Denny O'Neil and featured art by Howard Chaykin, Walt Simonson and Jim Starlin; the well received title ran only five issues. Stories included adaptations of "The Price of Pain Ease", "Thieves' House", "The Cloud of Hate", and "The Sunken Land", as well as original stories. This series was collected by Dark Horse Comics in a trade paperback collection published in June 2008. In 1991, Epic Comics published a four issue comic book adaptation of seven of the stories: "Ill Met in Lankhmar" (issue 1), "The Circle Curse" and "The Howling Tower" (issue 2), "The Price of Pain Ease" and "Bazaar of the Bizarre" (issue 3), and "Lean Times in Lankhmar" and "When the Sea King's Away" (issue 4). The comics were scripted by Howard Chaykin, who had drawn several issues of the earlier DC title, and pencilled by Mike Mignola, whose Hellboy comic book often has a similar feel to Leiber's work. Mignola also did the jacket covers and interior art for the White Wolf collection. This series was collected by Dark Horse Comics in a trade paperback collection published in March 2007. Marvel Comics created their own version of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, when they introduced Fafnir of Vanaheim and his companion Blackrat to the Conan comic series. The pairs of characters were very much alike and Roy Thomas, who wrote the original Conan comics, made no secret that it was his intention to create characters that were a tribute to Fritz Leiber's creations.

In 1937, Leiber and his college friend Harry Otto Fischer created a complex wargame set within the world of Nehwon, which Fischer had helped to create. Later, they created a simplified board game entitled simply Lankhmar which was released by TSR in 1976. This is a rare case of a game adaptation written by the creators of the stories that the game is based on. Nehwon, and some of its more interesting inhabitants, are described in the early Dungeons & Dragons supplement Deities and Demigods, and the stories themselves were a significant influence on the Dungeons and Dragons role playing game. In 1986 Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser were featured in a 1 on 1 Adventure Gamebook set, Dragonsword of Lankhmar. One player controlled Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, who were trying to find a magical sword beneath an altar (just which one, they were not sure) in Lankhmar. The other player controlled assassins from the local thieves' guild, who were trying to kill the famous rogues for operating in the city without permission from the guild.

Fafhrd commonly uses a sword which he names Graywand, a two hand sword that he's able to use one handed too (in later stories by necessity). He also carries a poignard named Heartseeker and a short hand axe which has never been named. For combat at a distance, he often carries a bow and arrow which he wields effectively even while on horseback or at sea, and which he's able to use despite his final handicap (he loses a hand). The Mouser, who in one story is called "the best swordsman in the World", also fights with a pair of weapons: a "slim, curving" sword or sabre called Scalpel, and a dagger called the Cat's Claw, the latter usually hidden in the small of the Mouser's back, and the original of which had a very subtle curve. (It was a straight bladed weapon by the events of Lean Times in Lankhmar.) As the pair are often divested of their property, these are names they apply to any of their appropriate weapons and not necessarily names of specific ones. They are absolutely not magic weapons: both the wielders are just very able in their use. The Mouser is also an expert with the sling. The Mouser, having been an apprentice magician, can do some very small enchantments, especially while dueling.

Joanna Russ was familiar with and appreciative of the Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser series, and in addition to critical reviews of Leiber, also referenced Fafhrd in her The Adventures of Alyx (1976) sequence as one of Alyx's former lovers in "The Adventuress" (1967; aka "Bluestocking"). Leiber then included Alyx in two Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories, "The Two Best Thieves in Lankhmar" (1968) and "Under the Thumbs of the Gods" (1975). American author Michael Chabon's Gentlemen of the Road (2007) is a "swashbuckling adventure" novel set in the kaganate of Khazaria (now southwest Russia) around AD 950. It features two similarly physically built adventurers who have a working relationship similar to Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser's – Amram, a hulking Abyssinian proficient with an axe, and the slightly built swordsman Zelikman, who is Frankish. This pair – both of Jewish origin – become embroiled in a rebellion and a plot to restore a displaced Khazar prince to the throne. Two characters created by Michael J. Sullivan (author), Hadrian and Royce, also share a similar relationship to Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser and have similar characteristics and personalities. Sullivan wrote a trilogy of books, Riyria Revelations, originally published as six novellas or books in 2011 and 2012. A thief character created by Christopher Buehlman in his novel, The Blacktongue Thief, undergoes a similar training to that described in the short story "Ill Met in Lankhmar". Playing off the visit of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser to Earth in Adept's Gambit (set in second century B. C. Tyre), Steven Saylor's short story "Ill Seen in Tyre" takes his Roma Sub Rosa series hero Gordianus to the city of Tyre a hundred years later, where the two visitors from Nehwon are remembered as local legends. The Gray Mouser's dirk "Cat Claw" has appeared as a weapon in several role playing video games, including early installments of the Final Fantasy series. In Baldur's Gate, the name "Fafhrd" appears as a password needed to gain entrance into the Thieves' Guild. In Bethesda's The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, when visiting the Ratway in the city of Riften, the first enemies you meet are a sneaky looking fellow and a barbarian type called Drahff and Hewnon Black Skeever. Drahff is an anagram of Fafhrd, "Black Skeever" is a play on "Gray Mouser", and Hewnon is an anagram of Nehwon, the world in which Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser live. In Dodge Roll's Enter the Gungeon, the player can encounter a pair of characters named Frifle and the Grey Mauser, styled to look like the eponymous heroes. In Jack Chalker's And the Devil Will Drag You Under, two characters resembling Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser appear briefly in a tavern with one repeating out loud slightly similar names to Ningauble and Sheelba.