Connor: Where did Captain Cully’s name come from?

Peter: “Cully” is old, old, English low-class slang for “buddy.” It can also be just this side of “sucker.” I’ve always been fascinated by the connection that reality has to the legend that will eventually grow around it. Cully is very aware of this mechanism. He points out that Robin Hood is the myth, and he is the reality, which I have no doubt is perfectly true. I think that the original Robin Hood would be a lot closer to Captain Cully than Errol Flynn.

Connor: And Jack Jingly?

Peter: That I just made up. “Jack” is a classic name for outlaws in ballads, of course. Even Yeats uses it. And “Jingly” came to me for the sound of it. Then I elaborated on the idea to explain why he is called that.

Connor: Molly Grue. Did you see her coming in advance as a major character, or did she just step in when you got to the Greenwood?

Peter: I knew there had to be a Maid Marian figure. There was definitely no way around that. What I didn’t know was that I was about to be given, for my money, the best gift of the book. I’ve always said that if you stay with something long enough, and grind at it, and do the painful unfashionable stuff, sooner or later the muse or the gods will give you a gift. And in The Last Unicorn my gift was Molly. I’m very aware of it, because I certainly have no idea how I could otherwise have pulled off, in my mid-20s, that moment where Molly sees the unicorn for the first time.

Connor: And when you introduced her, there at Cully’s campfire, you didn’t know that was coming? You didn’t know she was going to be joining in the unicorn’s quest?

Peter: No. Like a lot of writers, my tombstone should probably read “It seemed like a good idea at the time.” I absolutely didn’t know she was going to be part of the quest, and I didn’t know that I was going to fall in love with her. Grue is a French slang word that actually means “crane,” like the bird‌—‌you’ll find it used in the phrase pied de grue, which refers to prostitutes walking up and down the sidewalk. The name came to me just that fast, Molly Grue, and I wasn’t thinking of the word “gruesome” at all, but rather the French slang’s sense of careworn cynicism and gawkiness. I’m sure I picked it up from the songs of Georges Brassens, the same way I have so many things. As for the Molly part, I’ve just always liked the name. I didn’t know anyone named Molly then.

Connor: Really? What about Molly Epstein?

Peter: Oh my god. That’s right. Molly Epstein, my favorite writing teacher in high school. “Jolly Molly,” we used to call her. Do you know I’ve never made that connection? But that must be it. It really must be it. When I wrote The Last Unicorn she was certainly the only Molly I’d ever met, and she was very important to me.