Forsaken Names

[cannon]

Sammael: "Destroyer of Hope"

 

Thank you for that one. I had forgotten and/or missed that one before. That certainly confirms my ideas of how those root words combine together.

 

And since we now have order as well, we can surmise that:

"Lan" = Daughter

"fear" = Night

 

I find your theories about Semirhage to be interesting, though I'm not certain whether I agree or not.

 

The other thing I find interesting which I didn't really mention in my last post is that with Moghedien we have an example of a Forsaken being named after something else, and not given a title like "Betrayer of Hope" or similar. Perhaps more of the Forsaken's names are named after something else?

 

And if they are name after other things, Graendal could potentially be named for the Grendel in our own mythology. Who knows whether the story survived an age or two, or how it was corrupted/altered along the way. It's entirely possible that she was named after Grendel for something she did, which reminded them of the beast from Beowulf (or their version of it).

[RobertAlexWillis]

I find your theories about Semirhage to be interesting, though I'm not certain whether I agree or not.

 

I'm not even sure I agree, it was mostly speculation.

 

The other thing I find interesting which I didn't really mention in my last post is that with Moghedien we have an example of a Forsaken being named after something else, and not given a title like "Betrayer of Hope" or similar. Perhaps more of the Forsaken's names are named after something else?

 

And if they are name after other things, Graendal could potentially be named for the Grendel in our own mythology. Who knows whether the story survived an age or two, or how it was corrupted/altered along the way. It's entirely possible that she was named after Grendel for something she did, which reminded them of the beast from Beowulf (or their version of it).

 

The fact is, each Forsaken was probably given a name fitting his/her circumstances and method of conversion to the Shadow or modus operandi. So, without translations of their names, or an official Old Tongue lexicon and grammar, we really have no way of knowing whether any given name is an amalgamated title or specific word-name of an object or creature.

 

However, all the names we do know relate to something in the person's attributes or actions. Nothing in Graendal corresponds to the attributes or actions of Grendel in the norse/germanic myth. Grendel was a giant male lake-dwelling half troll or ogre, whose strength rested in his hard to reach lair and his immense physical strength. Graendal is a human female former ascetic psychiatric healer turned hedonistic disciple of evil whose strength lies in guile and psychological manipulation, as well as the ability to channel.

 

Parallels? I'm afraid I see none ...

[SinisterDeath]

The parrallel would be in the current christian adaptation which has biased Beowulf story.

Jordan is not an English Scholar.. Its quite possible he saw both stories, and chose Graendals name based on the 'christian' version of Grendel, being a 'decendent' of Cain, whom was once 'human' but became corrupt after becoming a murderer...

Basically he became the exact opposite of what he was.

Graendal, started out as 'pure' then became a twisted shadow of her former self. Its not so much a physical or even very much story orientated similarities. *like mat, being hanged under a tree for knowledge, like odin who did the exact same thing.. sorta. The two are completely different. Odins a god who shoots friggen lighting out of his ass. Mats a pimp. There 'parrallel' is the story one.

Grendel and Graendal's parrallel is a bit more... abstract. Grendel was 'born' a monster. Graendal was not.

Cain was not born a monster, but he became one.

Graendal was not born a monster but became one.

I think thats where the parrallel lies.

 

sure the ORIGINAL beowulf, potrays Grendel as a half giant troll mutant from hell who lives in a 50 foot deep poudle with his ketta mother. *like a cat women*

But like alot of stories from those times, they got twisted and adapted into a christian version. Attributing Grendels 'state' as a decendent of Cain, whom had a mark and a curse... They did this with several stories from that region. They even changed one where some guy killed Cain, which you werent supposed to do..

 

And being RJ is in the South, I wouldn't be suprised if he has the newer version, unlike the older one. The less sullied version.

It could be pure coincidence, but I don't think so.. Kinda how that old beared man Ter'angrael wasn't a coincidence. That was RJ :P

[RobertAlexWillis]

OK. We disagree.

[cannon]

Parallels? I'm afraid I see none ...

 

Yeah, I don't really either. It was a just a suggestion which occured to me based on Moghedien's naming. More like pure speculation along the lines of your Semirhage idea.

[Guest Jardar]

By the way, I think Asmodean comes from the Hebraic word Asmodai, which means "King of the demons" or something similar.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asmodai

[Rufae]

Actually, RJ has said where he got most of his names for the forsaken and others. Several Forsaken are named after Judeo-Christian demons. A list can be seen here : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_demons

This includes at least one Trolloc clan... the Kobal.

 

Others were simply bastardisations of demonic words. Like the A'Ghul trollocs come from ghuls who were similar to ghoblins. Dh'Vol is of course Devil. And so on...

 

I could go on with others but I'll give yall something to do.