Gary Gygax was the king of using obscure english words in his writing. For instance everyone knows Obad-Hai's nickname is the Shalm and that he carries a weapon called the Shalmstaff and yes he is even known to play a woodwind instrument called a Shalm. But after some digging around I found it is more correctly called a Shawm. Now what I can't find is any reference to where Gygax came up with the word Kanteel for a stringed instrument (as in Olidammara's Kanteel of the Oldest). According to wikipedia, kanteel is a Dutch noun for a merlon or crenellation. This is weird since merlon and crenellation are also words that EGG was fond of throwing around. If someone can shed some light on the origin of the word kanteel as a music instrument, Delleb and I would be grateful.
Front page