posted
I've been working up a story, and it originally had dragons in it. But I was bored with them, and with their part in the story.
That's when I decided that dragons are boring, in and of themselves. They've been done to death, so to speak. And while some people have done them well, there are too many that have done them very poorly.
Any of our mythology experts around here know much about gryphons? Which do you think is the best spelling to use, I like the look of "gryphon" but is one of the alternate spellings considered more accurate?
Traditionally they have the body of a lion, but I really like the idea of there being several different species, based on different great cats - gryphons that are spotted like leopards, black gryphons, even gryphons that live in the higher altitude mountains and have bodies similar to snow leopards. What do you think? Feasible?
Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
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posted
How about using each spelling variant for a different species (or subspecies if fertile crossbreeds are desired)?
Posts: 8501 | Registered: Jul 2001
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aspectre, I don't think that would work, because I want there just to be one species, with a common language. I have the idea that they have a ruling council, that makes decisions, and each subspecies has a representative on the council. The subspecies are more like clans, I guess. I don't know about cross breeding, I haven't gotten that far into development.
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posted
Tamora Pierce has Griffins. One of them is a semi-main "character" in the Keladry books. I'm not sure that's useful at all, but there you go.
Posts: 4655 | Registered: Jan 2002
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posted
I've seen all three spellings that you used in the title, and I don't personally feel one is more correct than any other, but according to the two dictionaries I consulted (OED and Dictionary.com), "Griffin" is the proper spelling (or at least the original one: both dictionaries list the first definition of gryphon as a "Variant/synonym of Griffin."
Posts: 4313 | Registered: Sep 2004
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posted
Question -- it sounds like you're going to be doing a dragon story, only calling them Griffons (or Griffins or Gryfons, etc.) instead of calling them dragons.
If dragons are boring, how will you will keep Griffins from being boring?
Posts: 16551 | Registered: Feb 2003
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posted
Mercedes Lackey has gryphons in several of her Valdemar series books.
(If you want to be untainted from other authors' views of gryphons then don't read this paragraph) There's a trilogy, specifically, on gryphons. For her, they're pretty in tune with magic, and live in harmony with a bunch of magic/tribal/nature-centered/"highly-civilized" people. They also tend to have a melodic voice when they talk (trilling their Rs). Oh, and they have an interesting relationship with the humans, as a few of the humans are caretakers/personal-hygienists for the gryphons, helping keep their feathers clean (and pretty!).
Posts: 1261 | Registered: Apr 2004
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