The Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser Series
Fritz Leiber(1939–1990)
Although Robert E. HOWARDwas certainly the
single most influential writer of sword and sorcery
fantasy, he was not the only one who would be imi-
tated in the years that followed. Howard’s fantasy
heroes—Conan, Bran Mak Morn, Kull, Solomon
Kane—tended to be loners who rarely displayed
much of a sense of humor. Fritz LEIBERoffered an
alternative. His two thieves, Fafhrd and the Gray
Mouser, were friends and partners, and their many
adventures were often lighthearted, although
rarely dull. One is a hulking warrior in physical ap-
pearance, although no mental slouch either, and
the other a clever, scheming, and sometimes exas-
perated planner. Leiber also used a much more pol-
ished prose style to describe their adventures.
The duo made their debut in Leiber’s first pro-
fessional sale, “Two Sought Adventure” (1939, also
known as “The Jewels in the Forest”). The stories
that followed typically involve their employment as
professional thieves and the various things that go
wrong with even their best-laid plans. Although
they are criminals, they are very moral criminals,
living by the rules of a civilization in which theft is
not viewed with quite the same sense of dishonor
that it would be in ours. They are frequently em-
ployed by one of two wizards, Sheelba or Ningauble,
both of whom are quite mysterious and only
sketchily described, and most of their adventures
take place in Nehwon.
The stories are of such uniformly high quality
that singling out individual ones is very difficult,

but “Ill Met in Lankhmar” (1970), which won

both the Hugo and Nebula Awards, would cer-

tainly be numbered among the best, along with

“Adept’s Gambit” (1947) and “Scylla’s Daughter”

(1961). The first collection of their adventures was

Two Sought Adventure (1947), but these stories

were redistributed for a series of collections and

one patched together novel as The Swords of

Lankhmar (1968), Swords in the Mist (1968),

Swords against Wizardry(1968), Swords and Deviltry

(1970), Swords against Death(1970), and Swords

and Ice Magic(1977). The older stories and some

new material were reshuffled again in Ill Met in

Lankhmar (1995), Return to Lankhmar (1997),

Farewell to Lankhmar(1998), and Thieves’ House

(2001), and selected stories have appeared in lim-

ited editions and other collections. Leiber is the

only writer of sword and sorcery other than

Howard who created a substantial body of work

that stands as a literary as well as a popular

achievement.

“The Fall of the House of Usher” Edgar

Allan Poe(1839)

The story of a family curse is not original with

Edgar Allan POE, nor is the setting of the bad

place, a locality so infused with evil or dread that

newcomers react to its atmosphere even when

there is no rational reason to do so. The House of

Usher is both a place and family, a house and the

people within it, a bloodline that has so failed to

prosper that it has no extensions beyond the im-

F

112