Makes sense. The biggest strength of robust worldbuilding isn’t showing it all to your audience, it’s hinting at small pieces of it that shows a connection between them and hints at something deeper. Having what feels like a detailed history makes the world feel real, because you can see shadows of it in the foreground. If you actually dig into all of it explicitly in your story that just makes it feel shallow, because you’re showing the whole iceberg.
It’s why the mystery of the clone wars and Anakin’s apprenticeship and betrayal of Obi-wan were intriguing in the original Star Wars trilogy, but end up just being some action movies once it’s all fleshed out on screen. Depth stops being depth if you bring it all up to the surface.
I wish more writers would understand what you’re pointing out here, I’ve actually stopped reading quite a few books over the years because the actual story takes a back seat to the world building.
“Treebeard some call me” - it’s a nickname
His actual name would likely take a month or longer to say.
…in service of his fantasy epic.
This is wrong. The the histories, cultures, etc. were in service of the conlangs. Sure, he eventually wrote some stories set in that world, but that wasn’t the reason he created it.
It keeps blowing my mind when I learn that other languages haven’t obfuscated the meanings of names behind two thousand years of linguistic divergence.
Your name almost certainly means something basic too, you just don’t remember what it is.
I mean, there’s people called Hunter…
There are a bunch of obvious ones for last names. Smith, Tailor, Carpenter, Fletcher, etc from when urban families tended to keep the same profession.
Also, last names that end in “son” like Johnson, Thompson, Ragnarson. It’s just shorthand for “son of John”. Not sure if Ragnarson is a name that has survived to today, but it was the name that made me realize that connection when reading a fiction based on the execution of Ragnar and the subsequent Viking invasion of England by his sons. They were Ragnarsons but he was Ragnar Lodbrok (which just means he was hairy, if he even was a single person and not an amalgramation of a bunch of big Viking names).
Guy who walks around the forest: Strider.
Guy who betrays everyone to side with Sauron: Sauron-man.
In my headcanon, that’s not his real name. The books were written after the facts, so I imagine the writers wanted him to be remembered only as a Sauron henchman, erasing him from history.
Really, your headcanon has some precedent in the books. If Wormtongue had written the history, he literally would’ve called Gandalf “bad news.” And in fact, Saruman’s actual name was Curumo. …uh, or Curunir. Or Sharkey, or Tarindor, or…
I mean, part of the problem is that every person (and place, and country, and river…) has like a half dozen names depending on who’s talking and what time or place they’re in. Gandalf himself is Greyhame, Gandalf, Stormcrow, and Lathspell in Rohan alone; and Mithrandir, Olorin, Incanus, and Tharkun to other people in Middle Earth.
Aragorn and Strider and Elessar and Estel and Wingfoot and Longshanks are the same person in different contexts. Galadriel is also Alatariel and Artanis and Nerwen. Legolas is Laicolasse and Greenleaf (all three of which, in fairness, mean the same thing in different languages).
And that’s before we even talk about what their names “really” were in the “original” Red Book of Westmarch, before Tolkien “translated” them to English. The “actual” sound that came out of Bilbo’s mouth when he introduced himself was Bilba Labingi, but Tolkien decided that the name Labingi “actually” would’ve sounded like the word for bag or sack to the “original hearers.” Likewise Frodo’s name is “translated” from Maura Labingi and Sam “actually” introduced himself as Banazir Galpsi.
In my headcanon, that’s not his real name
It’s one of his names. As an Ainu (a spirit), he was called Curumo.
Family who are very proud of their feet: Proudfeet
Guy who is pretty strong and is a blacksmith: Ethan Smith.
All names mean something. Or rather: meant something at some point in history.
Seriously, like Gandalf just means magic elf. So he’s just the magic elf that wears grey. Then he’s the magic elf that wears white.
Names are just that, things we observe, want or expect.
Close.
It means elf with a stick.
Overt bad guy: Sauron
Secret bad guy: Saurumon
While I made the same association when first reading the books, I’ll point out that the name Saruman is one the humans gave him. His Quenya name, Curumo, has little to do with Sauron, nor with the latter’s original name Mairon before he revealed his allegiance to Melkor and the elves dubbed him Sauron (Quenya) and Gorthaur (Sindarin).
There is a connection between them, but it isn’t by name. They were both originally Maiar of Aulë, both ambitious and cunning, both desiring order. But where Sauron thought siding with Melkor would get him the means to impose his noble order, Saruman stuck with the Valar and was eventually sent to protect the newly awakened elves from Melkor.
Still, that shared ambition for order eventually made allies of them, while their respective cunning saw each scheming against the other. If Gandalf and those meddling mortals hadn’t gotten in the way, the final stage of the War of the Ring would have been a struggle between these two former colleagues. Depending on where the Ring ended up, that might have been an interesting struggle, the two most cunning Maiar going head to head, but I think it’s for the best we never found out how that would have gone.
Now tell me about a very specific part on a commercial airliner.
I don’t know what you’re referencing and planes aren’t really my specialty, but personally, I’m fascinated by the whole concept of the Instrument Landing System.
Unfortunately, I don’t think I have the technical understanding to confidently explain how it works, but it’s using the modulation of different radio frequencies and the ways they cancel out to indicate to pilots whether they’re correctly facing and approaching the runway. If the plane isn’t in the right approach path, certain side frequencies will come out stronger and can be used to determine the exact angle you’re off.
It’s friggin’ fascinating.
Anyway, were you referring to a specific part or just seeing if I can also nerd out about some other random topic?
Check out @airplanefactswithmax on the social medias. He’s an airplane mechanic that always starts talking about airplanes, and it always devolves into a way too in depth lesson in lotr. Seems right up your alley!
sir, this is a Wendy’s.
God forbid a nerd engage in some nerddom in such a non-nerd community as… checks notes rpgmemes
God forbid someone cracks a joke. leave it to some emotionally damaged nerd to get all bent out of shape from…checks notes a meme.
Really? You use the meme that basically says “you’re dumping a lot of irrelevant info in the wrong place” and have the audacity to get pissy when they hit you back with…a different meme?
The gall to call someone “emotionally damaged” when you immediately read an attack from an exchange of memes.
Stick to your day job, m8. The jokes ain’t landing especially when the whole “joke” is a weak-ass personal attack.
Do better. Or better yet, give up.
Personal attacks aren’t jokes. They’re all punch, no line.
The um signifies the hesitation
I don’t follow Digimon lore
Sure… but Tolkien could tell you Treebeard’s name in hall a dozen languages he’d made up for his setting (or for fun, before the setting was a thing), including full etymologies.
Including Treebeard’s actual name in his own language. Treebeard is almost a joke name meant to show how primitive the humans are who called him that.
He also nearly named Celeborn Teleporno, which would have been
awfulamazing.Not “nearly.” That’s actually his name in the “pretranslated” language that the book was “originally” written in, within the fiction.
Not “nearly” and not “Celeborn Teleporno”.
Celeborn is his name in the language Sindarin.
Teleporno is his name in the language Quenya.
I think you can see the similarities between “Cele/Tele” and “born/porn(o)”, right?
Similarly Galadriel (Sinadrin) has a Quenya name - Altáriel.
We have very similar situations here on Earth with differences in spelling/pronunciation between languages (and ages): James vs Iacobus or Catherine vs Aikaterínē.
It’s kinda funny with anime and manga. They use Japanese names for a bunch of stuff like special martial arts techniques or special moves. Not knowing Japanese, the names sound cool and mysterious.
Learning the actual translations, Treebeard is pretty par for the course.
Like from Naruto, Sasuke uses the Copy Wheel Eye (sharingan), Hinyata uses the White Eye (byakugon), and Naruto’s big move is Spiral Sphere (rasengan). Copy Wheel Eye’s upgraded version is called Kalidoscope Copy Wheel Eye.
They aren’t horrible names, but they feel less cool.
Though it would be funny if Saitama has special moves that are just other languages saying “normal punch” or “serious punch”. “Hip bump with moderate vigor” or something.
Edit: fixed spelling of byakugon
In MMORPGs the Archer class usually has a skill called “Aimed Shot”.
(Joke incoming: That’s a stronger version of the skill “Unaimed Shot” where you just miss)
No. he just translated it into treebeard for localization for English speakers. educate yourself.
so many names could be translated from the original language they come from.
Larry? that’s City of Laurels
Remember president Helmet Head, he should have used an helmet (Kennedy)
Mount DOOM has entered the chat
To be fair, sounds a bit weird when you speak his name in portuguese…
Maybe that’s why Tolkien wrote a ton of books while most of us get stuck in the character creation screen of Baldur’s Gate 3 choosing a name for 7 hours.
It’s me, I’m people
