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Alright Dakka, help me reconcile this one.

In the Space Wolves Omnibus - at least the first couple chapters I read before my eyes glazed over and my head started throbbing - the Space Wolves talk like...well, normal human beings.

In A Thousand Sons - at least the first couple chapters I read before my eyes glazed over and my head started throbbing - they talk like what I believe The 13th Warrior would have sounded like if the actors were told to pretend like they were wolves that could speak English.

In the graphic novel Lone Wolves, they talk in what is either actual Norwegian or made-up Norwegian, and, when using English - I know, I know, 'Gothic' - they do the 13th Warrior bit.

I was going to ask, "What's the deal?", but I know the deal is three separate authors who either weren't aware of the previous guy's work or disregarded it as not fitting in with their view of Space Wolves. So instead, I'll ask, "Which one's correct?"

Different perspective and also different writing styles.
I prefer reading the easier ones but like the touch of having them speak all northern like.

purplefood wrote:Different perspective and also different writing styles.
I prefer reading the easier ones but like the touch of having them speak all northern like.

I dunno. I'm not sure you'd want to give the keys to the battle barge to the guys who might not know how to interpret "fire for effect."

While having klingon's speaking Klingon, or the natives of Tatooine speaking Huttese is cool for Movies(where you generally have subtitles); this does not translate well to novels/books.

The differences is the perspective of the narrator. In the Spacewolves omnibus; it is mostly space-wolves speaking to spacewolves(or fenrisians) and it would have seemed out of place for the SW characters speaking in the "13th warrior" style only when speaking to non-SWs(The SWs would understand each other as if all were speaking english; the language of the reader).

In A Thousand Sons, the perspective is that of the eponymous Thousand Sons; so to them, the SWs are either speaking Fenrisian(the pseudo-Norwegian), or Speaking in Broken gothic(the 13th warrior-speak).

Lone Wolves I beleive is through the perspective of a non-SW; so all speach is the broken Gothic.

it all makes sense when you take into account the perspective of the Narrator.

Kommissar Kel wrote:While having klingon's speaking Klingon, or the natives of Tatooine speaking Huttese is cool for Movies(where you generally have subtitles); this does not translate well to novels/books.

The differences is the perspective of the narrator. In the Spacewolves omnibus; it is mostly space-wolves speaking to spacewolves(or fenrisians) and it would have seemed out of place for the SW characters speaking in the "13th warrior" style only when speaking to non-SWs(The SWs would understand each other as if all were speaking english; the language of the reader).

In A Thousand Sons, the perspective is that of the eponymous Thousand Sons; so to them, the SWs are either speaking Fenrisian(the pseudo-Norwegian), or Speaking in Broken gothic(the 13th warrior-speak).

Lone Wolves I beleive is through the perspective of a non-SW; so all speach is the broken Gothic.

it all makes sense when you take into account the perspective of the Narrator.

To an extent, I suppose that's true. I guess what bothers me about it is the notion that Space Wolves wouldn't take the time to learn un-broken Gothic, given that they interact with other elements of the Imperium in what might be called hectic situations where clear communication would be pleasant quite often. I mean, I feel bad when I'm trying to order something in a restaurant in Poland and there's a communication breakdown, and there aren't any pissed-off daemons emerging from the warp along with my kebab there.

You clearly have not been ordering Kebabs in the right parts of town; the best Kebabs are the ones that come with a side of heresy.

In A Thousand Sons - at least the first couple chapters I read before my eyes glazed over and my head started throbbing - they talk like what I believe The 13th Warrior would have sounded like if the actors were told to pretend like they were wolves that could speak English.

Seaward wrote:

Kommissar Kel wrote:While having klingon's speaking Klingon, or the natives of Tatooine speaking Huttese is cool for Movies(where you generally have subtitles); this does not translate well to novels/books.

The differences is the perspective of the narrator. In the Spacewolves omnibus; it is mostly space-wolves speaking to spacewolves(or fenrisians) and it would have seemed out of place for the SW characters speaking in the "13th warrior" style only when speaking to non-SWs(The SWs would understand each other as if all were speaking english; the language of the reader).

In A Thousand Sons, the perspective is that of the eponymous Thousand Sons; so to them, the SWs are either speaking Fenrisian(the pseudo-Norwegian), or Speaking in Broken gothic(the 13th warrior-speak).

Lone Wolves I beleive is through the perspective of a non-SW; so all speach is the broken Gothic.

it all makes sense when you take into account the perspective of the Narrator.

To an extent, I suppose that's true. I guess what bothers me about it is the notion that Space Wolves wouldn't take the time to learn un-broken Gothic, given that they interact with other elements of the Imperium in what might be called hectic situations where clear communication would be pleasant quite often. I mean, I feel bad when I'm trying to order something in a restaurant in Poland and there's a communication breakdown, and there aren't any pissed-off daemons emerging from the warp along with my kebab there.

Well, if it helps, the younger members of the SW probably won't speak Gothic well, as they will have never left planet before, and probably won't have had the time or safety to learn it. As they get more experienced in the ways of the Imperium, I'd imagine them learning Gothic as they travelled the galaxy at large.

Generally I always read with accents when I can, so norse-esque for the Space Wolves and Egyption-esque for natives of Prospero; not Ahriman though, since he's from Earth. Apart from certain words, like murder make, I didn't particularly feel that the Space Wolves spoke Low Gothic badly, just thickly accented. The only character in the entire novel who seemed to have a broken Low Gothic was the White Scars Librarian.

To be honest, certainly for Leman Russ, it hints that he can probably speak Gothic perfectly well, but chooses not to, in order to add to his reputation as a noble savage. Most Space Wolves can probably speak Gothic perfectly well, but their savage dialect intimidates their allies and opponents, letting them make mistake such as underestimating the tactics to come.

I ordered the Kebabs with CORN, not Kh- oh, never mind. I'll just take this one.

Drefan wrote:To be honest, certainly for Leman Russ, it hints that he can probably speak Gothic perfectly well, but chooses not to, in order to add to his reputation as a noble savage. Most Space Wolves can probably speak Gothic perfectly well, but their savage dialect intimidates their allies and opponents, letting them make mistake such as underestimating the tactics to come.

Although I agree regarding Russ, keep in mind that this is essentially the first generation of the SW Astartes, and many of them were far older than the norm when they underwent genetic modification. Many of them probably can't/don't speak "normally", in the same way that Schwarzeneggar hasn't shed his accent even after 40 years in the States. Add in that it's an insular Legion and I think it quite likely that it's not a facade.

To the OP, I generally felt the SW omnibus stories are simply adventure novels that don't reflect well on the background material, in the same way that Rambo has a very different target audience than Apocalypse Now or Platoon. 1K Sons, by contrast, is an effort to flesh out the canon and generally attempts at a more mature tone (even if they don't achieve it) so I personally give the HH series more weight with what "should" looks like in Grimdark background material.

Also keep in mind that 1K Sons and Prospero Burns are supposed to be complementary, so I imagine that the depictions will swap from Magnus' lot being perfectly rational compared to Russ' irrational savagery to Russ' lot becoming the new normal and the Sons are a pack of insane sorcerers.