I was digging though Gygax's The Canting Crew on the bus home last night, (an excellent semi-generic resource on Renaissance organized crime and its FRP adaptation,) and while browsing the comprehensive (English-Cant/Cant-English) dictionary of (slightly augmented) historical slang noted that "cove" (rogue) rhymes with "tove" (Jabberwocky) and "slithey tove" and most of the rest sounded an awful lot like Thieves' Cant. As I simply couldn't resist, today I give you what Jabberwocky really means:
'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves It was a perfect set-up, and the agile burglers
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe; Jumped and climbed the hidden wall.
All mimsy were the borogoves, Unsuspecting were their victims,
And the mome raths outgrabe. And the watch too far away to help.
"Beware the Jabberwock, my son "Watch out for undercover bounty-hunters Lieutenant,
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch! That speak (our slang) to lie, that stab you in the back and turn you in!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun Keep an eye out for paid informants and avoid (working in the districts of)
The frumious Bandersnatch!" A beadle who won't take bribes!"
He took his vorpal sword in hand; He stashed a hidden dagger in his sleeve;
Long time the manxome foe he sought— And looked all night for signs of a traitor—
So rested he by the Tumtum tree, So he took up watch in the (shadow) lee of the chimney,
And stood awhile in thought. And waited there in ambush.
And, as in uffish thought he stood, And, while he lay, alert, in wait,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame, The thief-taker, looking around for watchers,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood, Snuck quickly up through the roof(er)'s access hatch
And burbled as it came! And flashed a lantern signal as he did!
One, two! One, two! And through and through He stabbed him in each kidney, then cut his throat,
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack! His hold-out knife moved too fast to see!
He left it dead, and with its head He stripped the body of valuables, and with proof of the treachery
He went galumphing back. Ran full-sprint to the rendezvous point.
"And hast thou slain the Jabberwock? "So, have you taken care of the bounty-hunter?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy! Then claim your reward, trusted lieutenant!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!" It's about fucking time! The bastard! Got him!"
He chortled in his joy. He vented his vengeful hatred.
'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves It was a perfect set-up, and the agile burglers
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe; Jumped and climbed the hidden wall.
All mimsy were the borogoves, Unsuspecting was his victim,
And the mome raths outgrabe. And the watch too far away to help.
we'll wish we had a
'like'
button now
Wow, this is pretty awesome.
But wait, you say "augmented" (by Gygax and his compatriots no less if I understood it correctly); isn't it entirely possible they reverse engineered the cant to mean something when applied to Jabberwocky? Or do you think the author originally based it on cant?
Fun thoughts to play with. If I were writing such a reference I probably would have used stuff like this for inspiration - not precisely a reverse-engineering process but the effect would be the same. I'm actually considering going through Alice. . . and giving the other poems the same treatment. Gygax suggested using the terms in play which can certainly enhance the game atmosphere but the lexicon of historic cant which he used is huge and would take GMs and players a long time to attain any degree of fluency in its use. For gaming purposes using the poems would provide an easier cant to remember since the material is familiar to most and would serve as mnemonics devices.
Lewis Carrol as a thief is suggestive. Since he was a mathematician it would be historically plausible for him to have worked secretly as a cryptographer, though far more likely for the government than for any sort of organized crime. Either way, I smell an NPC. . .
I really liked this Snargash, thanks for the post. Will have to show this to my friends.
The poem translation is a neat idea and it was pretty well executed. What I didn't understand was did you write it, or did Gygax author this?
If you like Thieves' Cant, Michael Chrichton had a good glossary in The Great Train Robbery book.
LD, thanks. I wrote it - the Gygax' book was want inspired the idea.
In that case I'll cite specifically what I like about it:
The frabjous day and the Bandersnatch lines.
Suggestion?
Vorpal translated as hidden and as hold-out seems technically plausible, but it might be worthwhile to choose one and stick to it in such a short piece.
Overall:
It's very enjoyable.
Thanks, glad you enjoyed it! I chose hold-out later in it's original sense - what you "hold out" when you're supposed to be handing over your weapons or the day's take or whatever - which is, by its nature, hidden. I had originally started to go with "poisoned" but then considered it over-kill once I worked the "One, two!. . ." line. I may well change it back though. Massive over-kill really isn't out of place and the "hero" might well have poisoned his blade as a contingency, not knowing what opportunity might arise.
Coming soon, the music video - performed in-character by Geofferson Grace (NPC song-mage who sounds an awful lot like Bob Dylan and talks in Cant - even when you finally learn to understand the mumbling, you still can't understand him. . .) with sub-titles of course!
...Sorry but you seem to have missed my point- I was suggesting to not use synonyms but to use the same word when translating the same concept.
*Edit: In case I come across as critical here; once again, I enjoyed the poem.
This is just fabulous. I can see this, Beyond the Thunderdome style, being recited to a bunch of wide-eyes munchkin thieves in training.
"Tell us again the story of Jabberwock! Please!"