A Goodreads user asked John Gwynne:

Thank you so much for the friend request! It is such an honor! Whoa! I really enjoyed Malice, and already own Valor and Ruin. Will read them soon! Some of the names in Malice (e.g. Elyon, ben ellim) can be found in biblical Hebrew. Did you study ancient Hebrew? Thank you for the joy you bring to so many people through your books!

John Gwynne Hi Leonard,

You're most welcome, it's great to be Goodreads Friends.

I'm so pleased you enjoyed Malice, and I hope you enjoy Valor and Ruin just as much.

I do use some Hebrew in The Faithful and the Fallen, as you rightly spot, for Elyon, the Ben-Elim, the Kadoshim and so on. One of my main inspirations for the series is Milton's Paradise Lost, with its War in Heaven between the Angelic and Demonic hosts. I thought, what if they'd carried on fighting...

Hebrew isn't the only ancient language I dip into in the series. I've tried to give a pseudo-historic feeling to the tale, so I've employed Gaelic, Old Norse, Latin, Akkadian and some Welsh, amongst others :) I'm far from a professional or even talented linguist, but I've used the ancient languages to hopefully add some flavour and depth to the tale.

Thank you for your kind words.

All the best,

John

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