I’m currently (re)reading Moorcock’s The War Hound and the World’s Pain. Short synopsis - an educated, cynical, apostate and unapologetically brutal mercenary in the Middle Ages is recruited by Lucifer to recover the Holy Grail, nominally so that Lucifer can wheedle his way back into God’s good graces.

He’s told to start by finding and talking to a hermit named Philander Groot, which he does. He turns out to be something other than a stereotypical hermit.

"You don’t look like a hermit.” Sedenko put his hand on the hilt of his sabre and strode forward to inspect the apparition.

“Sir, I assure you that I am, indeed, a hermit.” Groot became polite. He was distant.

“We heard you were a holy man,” Sedenko continued.

“I cannot be held responsible for what others hear or say, sir.” Groot drew himself up. He was somewhat shorter than Sedenko, who was no giant. “I am the same Philander Groot for whom you were looking. Take me or leave me, sir. This is all there is.”

“We had not thought to find a dandy,” said I, by way of apologizing for Sedenko’s frankness. “We imagined someone in homespun cloth. The usual sort of garb.”

“It is not my way to fulfill the expectation of my fellow creatures. I am Groot." (emphasis mine)

Granted that there’s no seeming connection between any of that and Marvel Comics, and no similarity between the characters, that simple declaration “I am Groot.” really leaped out at me as at least an odd coincidence.

    • Rottcodd@literature.cafeOP
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      1 year ago

      Huh.

      I had no idea Marvel Groot was that old.

      That seems to make it more likely that it’s not a coincidence though, particularly since while Marvel Groot existed, he was still very obscure. I can see Moorcock slipping the line in, and even giving the character that name so he could slip the line in, just for a bit of amusement.

      • fubo@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        “Groot” is also the Dutch cognate to the English word “great”.

        There are plenty of Dutch words and names that are close enough to English to sound really funny to English-speakers. Like, Vroom is a real Dutch surname, but to American kids that’s the sound a cool car makes.

        (In one of the Baroque Cycle books, Neal Stephenson needed a name for a Dutch shipwright who built really fast sailing ships. Who else could it be but Jan Vroom?)