Day 16 - What's In A Name?
Title: What's In A Name?
Author: Grundy (jerseyfabulous)
Rating: FR13
Crossover: LotR
Disclaimer: All belongs to Joss and Tolkien. No money is being made here, it's all in good fun.
Summary: Picking a name is not a matter to be taken lightly in Middle Earth.
Word Count: 849
Note: Sorry so short - long, crazy day at work, and nothing longer was coming together without more writing time than I have.
“No, you can’t be Morwen!”
It took all Buffy’s half-elven composure not to snicker out loud.
They were nearly to Minas Tirith, for what she hoped would be a long stay as mortals counted it. The plan was to study the books of lore in the Royal Library, to see if there might be clues there as to whether more creatures of Morgoth than just a few dragons and Durin’s Bane had survived the War of Wrath.
She wasn’t sure how exactly they were going to get access to the library yet - she was hoping they could manage without her having to pull out the ‘daughter of Elrond, granddaughter of Galadriel, and oh, yeah, related to the Kings’ card. They were going to try the creative approach first, trading on Buffy’s family ties only if absolutely necessary.
The public story was that Tara and Willow were studying herbal lore to further their healing skills. Xander would be Willow’s brother, a carpenter with a new wife who kept the books. Buffy herself would be their younger sister, an assistant to Tara and Willow. With any luck, that little bit of fiction would allow them to live quietly in a non-snobby area of the city and come and go to the library.
To that end, both she and the Scoobies had been picking new names for themselves. Buffy had no intention of spending several years among mortals as recognizably elvish, let alone as the famous Anariel Dagnis. Moreover, the Scoobies’ names would sound odd to Gondorian ears. So they had decided they would all take Quenya or Sindarin aliases.
Buffy had chosen to call herself Noliel - those Gondorians who knew the high tongue should gloss it as ‘daughter of wisdom’. She thought it fitting, for her father was counted among the Wise, and moreover, she was a descendant of Nolofinwë. She just hoped no one thought it meant she was wise.
Willow had simply Sindarized her name, becoming Tatharel. Tara had settled on Gilornel, the Star-tree, chosing to take the meaning of her name from the Indic languages rather than the Irish, and combine it with ‘tree’ to mark her bond with Willow.
Xander had thought that rather than go by the meaning of his name, he would simply do as many high-born Gondorians did and pick a name from the history books. He had then stumbled across the name Axantur, one of the grandsons of Vardamir Nolimon, and decided that it was close enough to his own name that he was safer with that one than any other.
Anya, to everyone’s surprise, had been the one who had the most trouble coming up with a name. It was a bit ridiculous, given that as Anyanka, she’d gone by more names than she generally remembered when looking for scorned women whose wishes she might grant.
Unfortunately, she had been unable to do as Xander had, for the Quenya word closest to her own name, anyara, meant ‘very ancient’ - clearly unsuitable for a young mortal. The next closest, anarya, was a day of the week. She had tried looking for a name close in meaning to her original name, Aud, but none of the elvish names whose meaning matched were ones anyone was comfortable with. In general, names that referenced fate were names to stay away from.
So Anya had moved on, trying and discarding dozens of names in turn. The search was growing desperate, for they would reach Minas Tirith in two days at most, and the chance of encountering other Men rose with every passing hour. Yet she still had no name to give if asked.
“What’s wrong with Morwen?” she demanded in aggravation. “It’s certainly appropriate.”
“No it’s not!” two people retorted at once.
Buffy was staying out of the argument, since Xander and Tara seemed to be doing just fine on their own. Willow, like Buffy, was far too amused to join in with reasons. But Buffy could see their point - using the name of Turin Turambar’s mother seemed like a bad idea. Gondorians, particularly the educated ones, usually tried to avoid ill-fated names.
“Ahn,” Xander began patiently, “we’re trying to blend in. Picking a name that’s going to strike everyone that hears it and remind them of one of the all-time tragedies is not really a good way to blend.”
“And it’s not in the least appropriate for you - your hair is the wrong color to be Morwen,” Tara added reasonably.”
“There’s a Morwen married to the prince of Rohan!” Anya protested.
“That settles it, then,” Xander said flatly. “You can’t use a name that’s being used by someone well known. No current princesses or Stewards’ daughters.”
“No using names of any of Buffy’s relatives either,” Tara added more gently. “No Finduilas or Idril. We don’t want people thinking of elves around her.”
Anya glared balefully at all four of them - her husband in particular - but went back to furiously paging through the history book she’d been reading as they rode.
Think we should add ‘no Beruthiel’? Willow asked Buffy silently with a grin on her face.
Author: Grundy (jerseyfabulous)
Rating: FR13
Crossover: LotR
Disclaimer: All belongs to Joss and Tolkien. No money is being made here, it's all in good fun.
Summary: Picking a name is not a matter to be taken lightly in Middle Earth.
Word Count: 849
Note: Sorry so short - long, crazy day at work, and nothing longer was coming together without more writing time than I have.
“No, you can’t be Morwen!”
It took all Buffy’s half-elven composure not to snicker out loud.
They were nearly to Minas Tirith, for what she hoped would be a long stay as mortals counted it. The plan was to study the books of lore in the Royal Library, to see if there might be clues there as to whether more creatures of Morgoth than just a few dragons and Durin’s Bane had survived the War of Wrath.
She wasn’t sure how exactly they were going to get access to the library yet - she was hoping they could manage without her having to pull out the ‘daughter of Elrond, granddaughter of Galadriel, and oh, yeah, related to the Kings’ card. They were going to try the creative approach first, trading on Buffy’s family ties only if absolutely necessary.
The public story was that Tara and Willow were studying herbal lore to further their healing skills. Xander would be Willow’s brother, a carpenter with a new wife who kept the books. Buffy herself would be their younger sister, an assistant to Tara and Willow. With any luck, that little bit of fiction would allow them to live quietly in a non-snobby area of the city and come and go to the library.
To that end, both she and the Scoobies had been picking new names for themselves. Buffy had no intention of spending several years among mortals as recognizably elvish, let alone as the famous Anariel Dagnis. Moreover, the Scoobies’ names would sound odd to Gondorian ears. So they had decided they would all take Quenya or Sindarin aliases.
Buffy had chosen to call herself Noliel - those Gondorians who knew the high tongue should gloss it as ‘daughter of wisdom’. She thought it fitting, for her father was counted among the Wise, and moreover, she was a descendant of Nolofinwë. She just hoped no one thought it meant she was wise.
Willow had simply Sindarized her name, becoming Tatharel. Tara had settled on Gilornel, the Star-tree, chosing to take the meaning of her name from the Indic languages rather than the Irish, and combine it with ‘tree’ to mark her bond with Willow.
Xander had thought that rather than go by the meaning of his name, he would simply do as many high-born Gondorians did and pick a name from the history books. He had then stumbled across the name Axantur, one of the grandsons of Vardamir Nolimon, and decided that it was close enough to his own name that he was safer with that one than any other.
Anya, to everyone’s surprise, had been the one who had the most trouble coming up with a name. It was a bit ridiculous, given that as Anyanka, she’d gone by more names than she generally remembered when looking for scorned women whose wishes she might grant.
Unfortunately, she had been unable to do as Xander had, for the Quenya word closest to her own name, anyara, meant ‘very ancient’ - clearly unsuitable for a young mortal. The next closest, anarya, was a day of the week. She had tried looking for a name close in meaning to her original name, Aud, but none of the elvish names whose meaning matched were ones anyone was comfortable with. In general, names that referenced fate were names to stay away from.
So Anya had moved on, trying and discarding dozens of names in turn. The search was growing desperate, for they would reach Minas Tirith in two days at most, and the chance of encountering other Men rose with every passing hour. Yet she still had no name to give if asked.
“What’s wrong with Morwen?” she demanded in aggravation. “It’s certainly appropriate.”
“No it’s not!” two people retorted at once.
Buffy was staying out of the argument, since Xander and Tara seemed to be doing just fine on their own. Willow, like Buffy, was far too amused to join in with reasons. But Buffy could see their point - using the name of Turin Turambar’s mother seemed like a bad idea. Gondorians, particularly the educated ones, usually tried to avoid ill-fated names.
“Ahn,” Xander began patiently, “we’re trying to blend in. Picking a name that’s going to strike everyone that hears it and remind them of one of the all-time tragedies is not really a good way to blend.”
“And it’s not in the least appropriate for you - your hair is the wrong color to be Morwen,” Tara added reasonably.”
“There’s a Morwen married to the prince of Rohan!” Anya protested.
“That settles it, then,” Xander said flatly. “You can’t use a name that’s being used by someone well known. No current princesses or Stewards’ daughters.”
“No using names of any of Buffy’s relatives either,” Tara added more gently. “No Finduilas or Idril. We don’t want people thinking of elves around her.”
Anya glared balefully at all four of them - her husband in particular - but went back to furiously paging through the history book she’d been reading as they rode.
Think we should add ‘no Beruthiel’? Willow asked Buffy silently with a grin on her face.