The short story The Faeringmen is my first published work of fantasy fiction. In case you’re wondering, it’s pronounced /ˈfæɾɪŋmɛn/. A faering is a type of boat found in Scandinavia.
The king’s health dwindles, and his eldest son and heir Dagda is poised to inherit the throne. But Dagda, believing his younger brother Ardal will make a better ruler, decides he must take drastic measures for the good of the realm. To this end, the prince seeks out a being with the power to alter the kingdom’s succession: one of the mysterious Faeringmen.
I hope you enjoy The Faeringmen for however long it takes you to read its fifteen pages. I know I greatly enjoyed writing it.
I freely admit that, before editing, my short story wasn’t nearly as good as it is now, however good that might be. I also made the cover and illustrations myself, all from scratch. I worked long and hard on The Faeringmen, and I’m proud of the results.
The Faeringmen is available now on Amazon Kindle for as low a price as I was allowed to set. I want it to be easy for people to get their hands on my first published work of fiction.
The Faeringmen Pronunciation Guide
As I’ve a keen interest in languages, particularly phonology, it was an easy decision to include a pronunciation guide here on my website in case anyone is curious how I pronounce the character and place names in The Faeringmen, as well as other words you might not know. I intend to do the same for all my future books as well.
This guide is written in the International Phonetic Alphabet, a mostly-standardized system for transcribing all the sounds in human language. If you’re not familiar with it, I suggest you read my article explaining how to read and make use of the IPA.
| Orthography | Pronunciation |
|---|---|
| Ardal | /ˈɑrdɑːl/ |
| Balanyth | /ˈbælənɪθ/ |
| Dagda | /ˈdɑɡdə/ |
| faering | /ˈfæɾɪŋ/ |
| Faeringman | /ˈfæɾɪŋmən/ |
| Frith | /ˈfrɪθ/ |
| “heofna thil daru” | /ˈhe.ofnɑ ˈθil ˈdɑɾu/ |
| Hrythu | /ˈhɾɪθu/ |
| Luvyn | /ˈluvɪn/ |
| Yeffa | /ˈjɛfə/ |