The Problem of Puns in Fantasy Fiction

It’s a tough one, this. You’re reading a fabulous fantasy novel and the author rips out a zinger, a pun, a marvellous piece of word play. It’s charming. It’s funny. It’s rich with imagery. And then it hits you: “But this isn’t Earth, and these characters aren’t speaking English.”

The joke wouldn’t work. The pun wouldn’t work. We normally give writers a pass on this one. But should we? I dunno.

Here. Let me make up an example of the kind of thing I mean:

As Rolluf got up from his seat at the...