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Fantasy Names
Monday, September 22nd, 2008 10:43 pmI've posted before about things I think fantasy writers really ought not to do, but one I missed was mangling common names to make them seem more exotic, such as George R.R. Martin's "Ser" for "Sir" (![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
cassielsander picked up on that one). I've just started Robert Jordan's The Eye of the World and nearly put it down twice. The first reason was Shai'tan, who as you probably guessed is some kind of Big Bad Evil. And how, gentle reader, did we guess this? Because it sounds remarkably like some other name … hmmm, let's see, could it possibly be Satan? And, by an amazing etymological coincidence, the Arabic for Satan is Shaitan. An author so lazy that all he can do to is add a gratuitous apostrophe does not endear himself to me. But I waded through the mythological preface to find myself in a reassuringly familiar world of medieval country bumpkins, trundling their apple brandy to sell to the innkeeper in time for the festival. But wait, the festival is called Bel Tine. And it's a Spring festival, complete with Maypole, so could it possibly have anything to do with that other festival called, um, what was it … Beltane?
Still, I've had enough of tech support, getting a new English course off the ground, and trying to fix my broken MP3 player to make me seriously need a fantasy epic, so I'm not taking the book back to the library just yet. But, Mr. Jordan, three strikes and you're out.
cassielsander picked up on that one). I've just started Robert Jordan's The Eye of the World and nearly put it down twice. The first reason was Shai'tan, who as you probably guessed is some kind of Big Bad Evil. And how, gentle reader, did we guess this? Because it sounds remarkably like some other name … hmmm, let's see, could it possibly be Satan? And, by an amazing etymological coincidence, the Arabic for Satan is Shaitan. An author so lazy that all he can do to is add a gratuitous apostrophe does not endear himself to me. But I waded through the mythological preface to find myself in a reassuringly familiar world of medieval country bumpkins, trundling their apple brandy to sell to the innkeeper in time for the festival. But wait, the festival is called Bel Tine. And it's a Spring festival, complete with Maypole, so could it possibly have anything to do with that other festival called, um, what was it … Beltane?Still, I've had enough of tech support, getting a new English course off the ground, and trying to fix my broken MP3 player to make me seriously need a fantasy epic, so I'm not taking the book back to the library just yet. But, Mr. Jordan, three strikes and you're out.
