Time for the usual again! Six Sunday is a chance for writers to showcase their work and for readers to sample lots of different styles and genres. Click on the link to find a list of websites, then knock yourself out reading all the different bits and pieces on offer. Some will have you coming back week after week, desperate to see what happens next.
As usual my six come from my work in progress A Fierce Reaping, the true [ish] story of a Romano-Celtic warband who challenged the advance of incoming Anglo-Saxons sometime around the year 600 AD. It didn’t go according to plan! However, my lads haven’t set off yet and, as often happens, men who have been trained to the peak of fighting trim need someone to spar with. Between friends it’s not so bad but when other people get involved it can get serious.
“Five coppers to the man who kills the other,” someone shouted and Cynfal snarled as he recognised Moried’s voice.
That shout must have reached other’s ears too because Cynfal heard other yells and crashing in the undergrowth. It also brought a look of shock to Aeddan’s face. He removed his arm from Cynfal’s neck and his knee from his balls and gave him one last sharp punch. “That’s for calling me a thief,” he whispered as he levered himself up.
“And that,” Cynfal whipped up a foot and kicked Aeddan hard in the thigh, taking his leg out from under him, “is for calling me a whore.”
I had a request last week for some clarification on pronouncing character names so here goes. Emphasis is placed on the second to last syllable in most cases :
Cynfal – K’n-vawl
Gwion – Gwee-on
Aeddan – Aye-than
Cynon – Kunnan
March – Markh [the final hard K sound slightly aspirated like the ch on the end of loch]
Ceredig – Kare-edig
Aneurin- Ann-eye-rin
Tudfwlch – Tid-voolkh [oo to rhyme with look]
Rhufawn – Rolled R-vorn
Hyfaidd – H-vaydd [the th as in this]
Llif – almost impossible to describe. Sort of like trying to say cliff only you keep the tip of your tongue against your gum behind your top front teeth and say the ‘cl’ sound out of the corner of your mouth. For those who worry abut such things it doesn’t matter which corner but, statistically speaking, 80% of Welshman ‘cl’ to the left.
A smashing fight scene there.
Thanks, lovely. I do enjoy a good rough-house.
How do you pronounce Tangwystl as in Llewelyn’s mistress? I would say Tang oo wis tee al.
Great six as usual. 😀
Tan-GOOI-stil – the OOI bit sounds like the beginning of win and the i in stil is barely there.
Thanks babes.
Wonderful six, Elin! The scene is vivid in my mind. And what they feel for each other comes across loud and clear. The whole scene is so believable–not cliche, but believable for how men would behave when they get to “rough-housing” as I used to say when my sons started. Anyone who has experienced teenage sons knows this. 🙂
Thanks Teresa. Yes, teenaged boys do the most awful things to each other without any apparent ill-will. Bless the little dears.
Thanks for the pronunciation key! Very helpful and fun!
Thanks Lisa.
Great scene; you put across their relationship brilliantly.
Thanks Karen. Best friends do tend to tell it like it is. 🙂
Thanks for the pronunciations. This snippet is quite fun, despite the violence about to happen!
Violence from an unexpected source moreover. Always fun. 🙂 Thanks for commenting.
I like reading the pronunciations. Thanks. I can’t believe anyone would call Cynfal a whore. He deserved a head butt. 😉
🙂 thanks for commenting. Actually Aeddan has a point – a lot has happened that hasn’t cropped up in the Sunday sixes.
I want to be a guest on your “Comfy Couch!!”
Loved the whore line and the pronounciation list – do you speak Welsh? Does anyone still speak it lol
Sadly I don’t speak Welsh – but then I don’t speak anything else either. I have a tin-ear for languages. Where I live all children have to take Welsh lessons until they are 16 and there are plenty of schools where all the lessons are in Welsh too. I’m not sure what the percentage is of Welsh speakers but it’s growing every year.
Yay! Thanks for the pronunciation key. As I suspected, I was butchering all of ’em. 😀 And I love the camaraderie of these guys. I know I keep saying this, but you’ve captured their masculinity without losing their humanity so very well.
Thanks so much Monica. 🙂 I’m glad that was helpful.
Wonderful as always! Especially ‘80% of Welshman ‘cl’ to the left’!
(Which sort of makes one wonder why double L’s are pronounced differently in a number of languages??)
😀 thanks CC.
I’ve no idea why LL gets singled out, poor thing. Maybe it’s because such very different languages all use the same Roman alphabet and made their own adjustments to it?
Love the energy your work has: no matter whether it’s action or dialogue, it’s great to read and brings the reader along. This is a great example of that.
Oh thank you, that’s a lovely thing to say.
You’re very good at writing fight scenes and I love the pause in this one – just in time for Cynfal to get a good one in. The pronunciation chart is very handy.
Thanks hunny.
I’ve missed you 3 times today. I need to get a pop up for “X has just come ONLINE” instead of “Hah loser you missed her”
Hilarious dialogue last week, and a good look into their friendship this week. I enjoyed it. Thanks for the pronunciation chart.
Thanks Maddie. I have an indecent amount of fun making these two lambaste each other.
Thought this was very well done, really could “see” the two guys…excellent excerpt (and thank you for the pronounciation guide!)
It’s a pleasure. I had to stop and really think about it. I’ve been a bit confused that people have been muddling Cynfal and Cynon because in my mind the two names are as different as John and James, but if you just look at the spelling I guess the Cy at the front is a bit samey.
Wonderful six. I love the camaraderie between them. Really shows on the page.
Thanks Joanne. I’m glad it’s working.
That was excellently written! This book is going to be a wonderful read. 🙂
Oh, thank you and I hope so! But pirates first. Etopia sent me a contract yesterday 🙂
Oh yea! Congratulations!!
I love this — it makes me laugh how they’re so goodnatured with the violence they visit on each other. LOL The pronunciation guide was fun too. 🙂
Thanks for that Donna. 🙂
I guess that fighting is something that is bound to happen when you have 300 highly trained men all very touchy about their pride and forced into close proximity. Just the thought of all that testosterone makes my head spin.
Nice. Glad Cymfal got in that last kick.
Hee yes, thanks Steve. He owed Aeddan one.
I like the way their friendship is misinterpreted.
Thanks Sue Ann. 🙂
A very visual scene, easy to imagine – and painful too (for them) – ouch!
😀 thanks yes. both will be limping for a day or two.
Thiefs and Whores… doesn’t get much better, does it? And I LOVE that you included the pronunciation in this post. My mind is usually pretty creative when I’m not sure how to say a name 🙂
🙂 glad it was useful. As for thieves and whores, many a true word and all that. Strictly speaking – very strictly – neither of them are wrong.
I discovered last week that I have been pronouncing Cthulhu wrong for 40 years. Who knew?
Very visual and the pronunciation key very helpful 🙂
Thanks. 🙂 Welsh is a law unto itself. the Welsh for Cardiff, for instance, is Caerdydd, or Gaerdydd or Ngaerdydd depending on what other words are around it. Most confusing.
Fabulous! I have to say the removal of the knee from the balls is my absolute fave part, LOL.