I imagine @TheEdVerse would be the best person to tell you about the first time Baldur’s Gate was mentioned in publications (and maybe tell the tale of how/when he came up with it).
— Jeff Greiner thinks James Introcaso is dreamy (@Squach) September 23, 2021
1)
Baldur’s Gate first appeared in a Realms short story I wrote entitled “The Box That Crept On Talons” in 1968. (Yes, six years before D&D first appeared.)
My father really liked that tale, and wanted to proudly hand it around… 2)
…among his friends at work as he was in the habit of doing with most of my scribblings, but because it was a full-length story and he was afraid of losing it as it made the rounds, he had me retype it on Gestetner mimeograph…#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) September 24, 2021
3)
…stencils to make copies of it. It was later published, along with other Realms tales including one set in Baldur’s Gate entitled “Mirt Kisses A Monster” and another that has several scenes in the Gate, entitled… 4)
…“But She Kept A Dagger There,” in a chapbook collection I put together entitled COME OCTEMBER (1976).
I’ve forgotten when the first mention of Baldur’s Gate made it into The Dragon, but the first time I mentioned it in an…#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) September 24, 2021
5)
…article manuscript was for the Gates article that appeared in issue #37; I think it was in one of the paragaphs that got cut in editing, that detailed the “stops” in a chain of linked gates (one of which was in a second-floor… 6)
…bedchamber of a noble’s tallhouse in Baldur’s Gate, up on the peninsula that shelters the ‘bowl’ of the main city).
Baldur’s Gate was not named for Baldr or Balder (the son of Odin and Frigg), but for a character I’d created, …#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) September 24, 2021
7)
…who lived there before the city grew up around him and the natural sheltered harbour at the rivermouth: a dwarf named Harbaldur, a smith who made a living forging grand, ornamented, but massively strong gates for castles and… 8)
…vaults.
“Balduran” was added later by TSR (I think by Tim Beach), though I did have a seafaring explorer who sailed west out of Baldur’s Gate to explore the seas, named Shala Lonstur (a halfling lady who disappeared from lore…#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) September 24, 2021
9)
…when TSR acquired the Realms; I’m guessing they wanted to focus to be on humans, and male humans at that, so the gamers they saw as their target audience could “identify”).
And I’ve coined literally thousands of names, … 10)
…adopting them if they “feel right” (in sound) for the character of the being I’m trying to apply them to; “Harbaldur” is one of these, as to me, the sound of it fit a skilled, confident, gruff dwarf who hammered on an anvil.#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) September 24, 2021
You are, as always, a gentleman and a scholar, my friend. Thanks for the lore, and know that in my Realms Harbaldur will always be the real founder of the city, even if that Balduran kid came around later to steal the glory. 😉 The dwarves, being shorter, always get overlooked.
(Ahem. I'll go quietly.)
Oh, while I'm at the revealing ancient history game: Anchorôme is a campaign about hopping along a chain of islands, and that archipelago itself, NOT a continent. ;}#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) September 24, 2021