Snell

Snell was the young son of Bedek and Myrla in Darujhistan. He had two sisters, three-year-old Mew and infant Hinty, and an adopted cousin, Harllo, the son of Stonny Menackis. Snell was a nasty brute who terrorized his little sisters and Harllo. Snell and his indigent family lived in The Trench, a slum in the Gadrobi District.Toll the Hounds, Chapter 19, US TPB p.648
Hinty's birth had been a hard one for Snell's mother and Myrla had not recovered her full strength afterwards, tiring easily and suffering from headaches. She was rarely able to work. His father, a one-time colleague of Gruntle and Stonny Menackis, was also unable to continue working as a caravan rider after he lost both legs in an accident. So Harllo supplemented their income by stealing food from the market and foraging on the western shores of Lake Azur.Toll the Hounds, Chapter 5, US SFBC p.151-155 Bedek often sunk into depressive episodes that absorbed Myrla's full attention and left their two daughters to be tended by Harllo. Snell contributed little, and his bullying of Harllo and his sisters intensified during these times. When Stonny came to the house to give Harllo's adoptive parents money, Snell met her outside and pocketed the silver councils for himself.Toll the Hounds, Chapter 7, US SFBC p.253/257
Snell saw everything in the world as a threat that needed to be taken care of before it took care of you.Toll the Hounds, Chapter 7, US SFBC p.
He was squat and round-shouldered.Toll the Hounds, Chapter 6, US SFBC p.238
== In Toll the Hounds==
Although he found his parents stupid and pathetic,Toll the Hounds, Chapter 17, US SFBC p.667 Snell resented their love and attention for Harllo. Seeing Harllo leave the city on one of his foraging expeditions, Snell resolved to teach him a lesson and secretly followed. After Harllo filled a sack with goat dung for the hearth, Snell savagely struck him from behind and left him for dead. Then Snell returned to the city, planning to take credit for the dung and make it seem as if Harllo had found a job on a departing ship.Toll the Hounds, Chapter 7, US TPB p.211
After two days, Myrla approached Stonny at her duelling school seeking Gruntle's help in locating him, but Gruntle was away. A shocked and furious Stonny blamed Harllo's disappearance on Snell, but Myrla refused to believe he would do such a thing. Murillio, a teacher at the school, stepped in to help with the search, quizzing the shaking Myrla on the boy's appearance and daily routine.Toll the Hounds, Chapter 5, US SFBC p.151-154 Worried that Harllo's body would be found and Gruntle would kill him, Snell returned to the hills outside Darujhistan only to find Harllo gone. He was convinced Harllo was hiding to get him in trouble.Toll the Hounds, Chapter 9, US SFBC p.357-360
Bedek and Myrla left Mew and Hinty in Snell's care as they went to the Temple of the Crippled God to seek Prophet Seech's assistance in the search. Snell smothered his sisters into unconsciousness with plans to sell them for coin. Murillio interrupted the scheme when he came to the house after concluding Snell knew more about Harllo's disappearance than he let on. The frightened boy admitted to beating Harllo and leaving him for dead. Murillio had been secretly followed to the house by his student, Bellam Nom, who pledged to remain with Snell and his sisters until their parents returned. Murillio demanded that Snell play games with his sisters when they awoke and make sure he lost each one. Bellam allowed Snell to twist in fear over what would happen to him.Toll the Hounds, Chapter 17, US SFBC p.667/679-682
As soon as he was able, Snell fled the house and fantasized about joining a gang and becoming rich in Worrytown, murdering Murillio, Stonny, and Bellam, buying out his parents' debt to make them dependent on him, pimping out his sisters, and eventually becoming king. His daydreams were dashed when Bellam caught him and brought him to Goruss, the man to whom Snell had planned to sell his sisters. Bellam had the terrified boy thrown into a cage in an unlit cellar then asked his Uncle Goruss, who was only a recruiter for the shipping industry, to keep Snell just "long enough to shit everything out of him."Toll the Hounds, Chapter 17, US SFBC p.685-689Toll the Hounds, Chapter 19, US SFBC p.789
Snell's parents never returned from the Temple of Chains as they were trampled and killed by a crush of frenzied worshippers,Toll the Hounds, Chapter 17, US SFBC p.708-709 and his sisters ultimately came under Stonny's care with Harllo after Bellam rescued the boy from the Eldra Iron Mongers mine.Toll the Hounds, Chapter 24, US SFBC p.1001-1002
==Trivia==
Steven Erikson says Snell was a clinical sociopath. He says, "there were plenty of environmental triggers to make [Snell] the way he was: but he was also a sociopath (the evidence is good that the condition is neurological, physiological, and that it expresses itself very early on in a person's life...)".Ask Steven Erikson Your Toll the Hounds Questions! - See answer to question #15
==Notes and references==
Category:Genabackans
Category:Males