Skip to content
The Well of Daliath
Menu
Menu

Gloranthan Readings: Jorge Luis Borges – Collected Fiction

The Argentinian Jorge Luis Borges is my absolute favorite fantasy writer, despite not writing a single story that is classified as part of that genre. A master of the very short story whose career spanned from the 1930s to the 1980s, Borges wrote stories of labyrinths, dreams, Gnosticism, mirrors, duels, libraries, luck and death, tigers, and the question of identity. In a typical three to five page story, Borges packs in as much as Umberto Eco does in several hundred.

Borges experimented with a dazzling variety of genres (even a foray into the Lovecraftian or guacho stories that seem to echo some of Robert E. Howard’s westerns), combining Poirrot with Gnostic occultism, the 47 Ronin with the improbable imposter Tom Castro. reviews of fictional books, world creation, fictionalized treatments of historical figures and events, obscure heresies and secret societies, and just so much more. This is raw fantasy – ideas bubbling out from the unconscious and then playfully explored.

Just a few random stories to give an idea of the diversity of Borges’ writings (and not necessarily even highlights):

The Widow Ching – Pirate: A fictionalized treatment of one of the greatest pirate captains of all time – the widow Ching Shih, who at her height is said to have commanded 600 junks and 40,000 men.

Hakim, the Masked Dyer of Merv: Another fictionalized treatment, this time of the heresiarch Prophet, Hakim the Veiled Prophet of Khorasan (who would make a great Irensavalist leader in Fronela).

The Garden of Forking Paths – Borges and Joyce are often credited as the heralds of hypertext. This story includes a German secret agent, a Sinologist, the infinite labyrinth of Ts’ui Pên, and a novel where all possible outcomes of an event occur simultaneously, each one itself leading to further proliferations of possibilities. Far shorter, and far more readable than Joyce’s entry in the hypertext competition.

Funes, His Memory – the story of a man who remembers ABSOLUTELY everything and as a result loses the need (and perhaps the ability) for generalizations. Absurd counting systems (Funes gives every number up to 24,000 its own unique name) and artificial languages (Funes experiments with a language where EVERYTHING is given a unique name; he discards it because it does not take into account that everything changes with Time) are among the idea experiments.

Death and the Compass – a Swedish Poirrot (in Buenos Aires, not London) deduces that the secret to solving the murder of a rabbi lies in the Tetragrammaton – the unspeakable name of God. The story of the detective who solves a case by imposing (an ultimately incorrect) pattern is later taken up by Umberto Eco in Name of the Rose, but Borges does it in 9 pages.

And there are more than 90 more stories in “Collected Fictions“. So what does any of this have to do with Glorantha? Glorantha is a place where we can play around with ideas about myth, about identity, of we limited beings (limited by Time, by language, by mortality, etc) think of the infinite, along with having adventure stories about mercenaries, pirates, duelists, and outlaws (all staples in Borges’ stories). Borges’ fantasies proved invaluable to me as I explored Glorantha in the Guide to Glorantha, and there’s more than one cult or philosophical movement that fears mirrors or worries about labyrinths.

“Collected Fictions” is all of Borges’ fictional stories collected into one volume and translated into English by Andrew Hurley. My Spanish is not good enough to read Borges in the original, but Hurley’s English is wry, succinct, and wonderfully erudite.

Looking for other readings? Go over to Gloranthan Readings and check out what else we’ve got up.

Sections

  • Search Tips
  • Current RuneQuest Glorantha Publications
  • RuneQuest Glorantha Corrections and Q&A
  • Catalogue
  • References for Glorantha
    • Gloranthan Canon
  • Gloranthan Documents
  • RPG Systems & Versions
  • Gallery
  • Role-playing in Glorantha
  • About This Site
  • Get involved!

Latest Posts

  • The Greatway

    Yesterday we were up around the Greatway, looking at the …
  • History of Orlanthi Cities

    If we think about the history of the Orlanthi, their …
  • Rural Sartar / Urban Sartar

    Thanks to King of Dragon Pass and the old HW …
  • Continuity with the Golden Age

    Several Gloranthan cultures claim continuity with the Golden Age – …
  • Kralorela and the Eastern Dynasty of Light

    Almost a third of the humans of Genertela reside in …
  • New to RuneQuest and Glorantha?

    If you are coming new to RuneQuest and Glorantha with …
  • New Orlanthi Adults

    Traditionally, new adults in Orlanthi cultures go through a period …
  • Watch your Red Moon Phase!

    A key thing to playing a Lunar character is remembering …
  • Solar Worldview

    Yelm is the Giver of Life and Death, the Source …

Links

  • Chaosium
  • Glorantha on BRP Central
  • RuneQuest on BRP Central
  • RuneQuest Glorantha on MeWe
  • Glorantha Wiki on Fandom
  • Prince of Sartar Webcomic
  • Glorantha G+ Archives on Tapatalk
  • Search mailing list archive

Latest from BRP Central

  • Runequest adventures & copyright
  • “Army of Duckness” Miniatures Kickstarter!
  • Seshnela Questions
  • Associated cults questions
  • Death of a Telmori's Wolfbrother
  • Axe Hall
  • Hrestoli in Tanisor
  • Solar worldview of Time
  • Caprati & Du Tumerine
  • Interracial Genetic Structure

Popular Tags

Avalon Hill Boldhome (large city) Chaosium Cult demographics Cults of Runequest (preview) Ernalda Esrolia (homeland) Fonritian pantheon FR G+ post Greg Stafford Guide to Glorantha (preview) Humakt Issaries Jar-eel Kralorelan pantheon Lhankor Mhy Lunar Empire Lunar Pantheon Magazine Malkioni pantheon Map Maps Michael O’Brien Mongoose Nochet (metropolis) Nomad Gods Orlanth Orlanthi pantheon Photo reference Population demographics Prax (homeland) Praxian pantheon RQ3 RQG Sandy Petersen Sartar (homeland) Spirit Cult Subcult Tales of the Reaching Moon Troll Pantheon Yelm Yelmalio Yelm Pantheon Youtube

Recently added or updated

  • CHA4034 Red Book of Magic – Chapter 02 Rune Magic Spells Q&A (A-M)

  • CHA4032 RuneQuest Glorantha Bestiary – Q&A

  • CHA4034 Red Book of Magic – Chapter 02 Rune Magic Spells Q&A (N-Z)

  • The Greatway

  • Rune Magic by Cult and Associate Cult – N

  • Rune Magic by Cult and Associate Cult

  • Rune Magic by Cult and Associate Cult – O

  • Rune Magic by Cult and Associate Cult – M

  • CHA4028 RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha – Chapter 18 Between Adventures Q&A

  • CHA4028 RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha – Chapter 12 Rune Cults Q&A

  • CHA4036 RuneQuest Weapons and Equipment Q&A

  • CHA4039 The Smoking Ruin and other Stories – Q&A

  • Rune Magic by Cult and Associate Cult – G

  • Rune Magic by Cult and Associate Cult – F

  • Rune Magic by Cult and Associate Cult – L

  • Dara Happan Depictions of the Orlanthi Gods

  • Chaos Gods – forms of worship (2012)

  • Rune Magic by Cult and Associate Cult – K

  • Rune Magic by Cult and Associate Cult – J

  • Rune Magic by Cult and Associate Cult – I

©2023 The Well of Daliath | Design: Newspaperly WordPress Theme