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Gorean Book Quote Requests
Requests 1-173 were asked and answered back when there were only 25 books.
Also, some of the early questions were unintentionally truncated and cannot be restored. However, the answers are shown in their totality.
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| Q # | Question |
| 506 | Tal Fogaban,
I really love your cave, and it’s immense collection of everything Gorean. I am writing a Gorean fan fiction novel and referencing your material has been invaluable.
I’m working on a chapter where one of the characters is extremely frustrated and would use a swear word. I can’t recall the use of any in Norman’s writings, of which I am now over halfway through, chronologically, Kur of Gor. I can’t think of the use of any English swear words either. I read your quote rules, and I suppose I am not asking for a quote so much as asking you, and your grand knowledge, do you recall reading any swear words in the novels, English or Gorean?
Thank you for your time and any input you might provide,
Rykart
Answer
There is indeed Gorean cursing, or cuss words. Actually, it seems cursing is fairly prevalent.
The first mention of cursing is in Book 1 Tarnsman of Gor.
I was fluent in Gorean. Once, when struck by the Older Tarl, I had cursed in Gorean, and he had laughed.
Tarnsman of Gor    Book 1    Page 49
It’s just that we don’t know what the word or phrase was.
Profanity is mentioned, but again, we are not shown the actual word or words used.
These were the first tharlarion that I had ever seen. They frightened me. They were scaled, vast and long-necked. Yet in the water it seemed, for all their bulk, they moved delicately. One dipped its head under the surface and, moments later, the head emerged, dripping, the eyes blinking, a silverish fish struggling in the small, triangular-toothed jaws. It engorged the fish, and turned its small head, eyes now unblinking, to regard us. They were harnessed to the broad barge. They were controlled by a bargeman, with a long whipping stick, who was ensconced in a leather basket, part of the harness, slung between the two animals. He would also shout at them, commands, interspersed with florid Gorean profanity, and, slowly, not indelicately, they responded to his cries. The barge grated against the pier.
Captive of Gor    Book 7    Page 80
I began to list all occurrences of cursing but before I was even finished with Book 1, I had dozens of vague references to cursing in general. It was going to be way too many to list, with no real insight into the topic.
So, instead, I limited the list to times when actual words are quoted as curse words.
Twice Tarl uses the word Damn but this is the only time this word is used in the entire series.
Suddenly my feeling of numbness, of incapacity, departed as if in a lightning flash of fury. "Damn your honor!" I shouted. "Damn your precious stinking honor!"
Tarnsman of Gor    Book 1    Page 157
Then we have, oddly enough, the word Sleen used as a curse word.
"Sleen," I cursed him.
Priest-Kings of Gor    Book 3    Page 255
"Sleen! Sleen!" cursed the girl.
"I shall enjoy owning you," said Harold, patting her head.
"Sleen! Sleen! Sleen!" cursed the girl.
Nomads of Gor    Book 4    Page 222
"Sleen!" cursed Cernus. "Sleen!"
Assassin of Gor    Book 5    Page 381
And lastly, the phrase By the Priest-Kings, which Tarl admits is a blasphemous Gorean oath.
I laughed. "By the Priest-Kings!" I roared, the rather blasphemous Gorean oath slipping out, somehow incongruously considering my present location and predicament.
Priest-Kings of Gor    Book 3    Pages 95 96
"By the Priest-Kings," laughed Kazrak, "I believe you care for the she-tharlarion."
Tarnsman of Gor    Book 1    Page 127
Marlenus looked at me thoughtfully, then laughed. "By the Priest-Kings," he said, "I think I have lost the exchange."
Tarnsman of Gor    Book 1    Page 156
I saw the spark of Kazrak's fire-maker, and I felt the flush of friendship as I saw his features briefly outlined in the glow. He lit the small hanging tent lamp, a wick set in a copper bowl of tharlarion oil, and in its flickering light turned to the sleeping mat. No sooner had he done so than he fell to his knees on the mat and grasped the ring.
"By the Priest-Kings!" he cried.
Tarnsman of Gor    Book 1    Page 167
"By the Priest-Kings!" shouted a man, pointing to a ridge. "What is it?"
Priest-Kings of Gor    Book 3    Page 310
"By the Priest-Kings," I cried, "you are one woman who is looking for trouble!"
Nomads of Gor    Book 4    Page 286
"By the Priest-Kings," cried a man. "Look at the size of it."
Players of Gor    Book 20    Page 358
"By the Priest-Kings!" cried a man, in horror.
Players of Gor    Book 20    Page 362
"I do not know," said Portus Canio. "I truly do not know. They are large, lumbering things, yet they move swiftly, they are ungainly and yet graceful, they are huge, and dark. By the Priest-Kings they move swiftly. There are five of them, I think. Yes, five. I do not know what they are. I have never seen anything like them! I have never seen anything move like that. I do not know if they have two feet or four feet. Truly, I do not know! It is not clear, as they move. Ho! One is stopped! It is standing, upright! Upright! It is pointing. By the Priest-Kings, it is huge. It is pointing this way! Now it is again on all fours. These things are coming this way, the men, too. The men are on tharlarion, the things with them are not. They run beside the tharlarion, easily, in their strange gait, as tireless beasts of some sort!"
Prize of Gor    Book 27    Page 564
"By the Priest-Kings," whispered a man, regarding the five beasts who, some yards apart, were in advance of the riders.
Prize of Gor    Book 27    Page 565
"By the Priest-Kings," said Archelaos, enthusiastically, his fist striking the table like a bird of prey, "let us give glad heed to our merchant friend from Brundisium, the noble Kenneth Statercounter."
Avengers of Gor    Book 36    Pages 54 - 55
"By the Priest-Kings," said a loud, rough voice, "these things are hard to kill!"
Warriors of Gor    Book 37    Page 254
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