Det första utseendet på ordet "Sith" i science fiction jag har hittat är från Warlords of Mars av Edgar Rice Burroughs (1913-1914), som visas i dessa sidor .
Detverkarvaraen stor insekt :
Sith: A giant, venomous hornet-like insect endemic to the Kaolian Forest.
Porges, Irwin; Burroughs, Hulbert; Bradbury, Ray (1975). Edgar Rice Burroughs: Mannen som skapade Tarzan (1: e upplagan). Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University Press. s. 163. ISBN 978-0-8425-0079-1.
Burroughs kan ha fått namnet från den gæliska sith en alternativ stavning av sidhe vilket betyder fe.
Nästa utseende är en robot som heter Sith Tal en robotmuseumskassatör:
Från Fantastiska äventyr, volym 2, Living Living Flames (1951)
Michael Kaminski föreslår i sin bok Star Warss hemliga historia Lucas fick sannolikt ordet "Sith" från Edgar Rice Burroughs John Carter of Mars -serien. I bilaga C till boken skriver Kaminski:
Lucas took many of his inspiration for names from other languages of the world, mixing and matching sounds and vowels and inventing his own to create a uniquely alien language that also seemed bizarrely plausible. ... "Sith" is a word Edgar Rice Burroughs invented, as is "banths" ("banthas")
Vissa andra troliga inspirationer från Burroughs kan ses på den här sidan (och se även detta svar som länkar till en Ny York Times intervju där Lucas verkar bekräfta att ordet "Jedi" inspirerades av ordet "Jed" för Martian Lords i Burroughs). Kaminski konstaterar att Lucas gjorde en hel del forskning i gamla science fiction och fantasy works, inklusive Burroughs, och skrev citat 141-142 i Dale Pollock 1983 års bok Skywalking: George Lucas liv och filmer som säger:
Lucas returned from the local newsstand each weekend with a large collection of science-fiction magazines and comic books. Marcia wondered what was going on, but George told her not to worry, he was making a movie that ten-year-old boys would love...he thoroughly researched the science-fiction field from Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon to Stanley Kubrick's watershed film 2001: A Space Odyssey, made in 1968...Lucas also borrowed liberally from the Flash Gordon serials he had watched as a child, transplanting video screens, medieval costumes, art deco sets, and blaster guns to Star Wars...Lucas used Ming, the evil ruler of Mongo in the Flash Gordon books, as another model for his emperor. Alex Raymond's Iron Men of Mongo describes a five-foot-tall metal man of dusky copper who is trained to speak in polite phrases. From John Carter on Mars came banthas, beasts of burden in Star Wars; Lucas also incorperated into his early screenplay drafts huge flying birds described by Edgar Rice Burroughs. George watched scores of old films, from Forbidden Planet to The Day the World Ended, and read contemporary sci-fi novels like Dune by Frank Herbert and E.E. "Doc" Smith's Lensmen saga.
Som Richard noterar i en kommentar visas ordet "Sith" i några tidiga skriptutdrag från den period då vi skulle ha gjort den forskningen, som det här utkastet från 1974 (andra skisser och utkast inklusive ordet nämns också i Kaminski's bok).
I kapitel 2 citerar Kaminski också den första utgåvan av det officiella Star Wars nyhetsbrevet som igen visar att Lucas tar inspiration från Burroughs:
According to the first issue of Bantha Tracks, the official Star Wars fan club newsletter, Lucas also researched where Alex Raymond, the author and illustrator of the 1930s Flash Gordon comic strip, got his inspiration from, which led him to the John Carter of Mars novels by Edgar Rice Burroughs, which were similar in style and design.
och sid. 16 av Göra Star Wars ger vad som ser ut som en modern citat från Lucas om Burroughs som ett inflytande:
"I've done a lot of reading for this picture. It's not really research so much as mythology and fantasy are taking over my life. I read everything from John Carter of Mars to The Golden Bough, so obviously all of that influences you in a certain way. I'm trying to make a classic genre picture, a classic space opera—and there are certain concepts that have been developed by writers, primarily Edgar Rice Burroughs, that are traditional, and you keep those traditional aspects about the project."