There was quite an uproar by my daughters for my unoriginality in naming our cat Katt. My defense, that it was 12:30 am and I needed sleep, was not accepted. So then I joked that he could be Loki, since the dog is Thor. The girls actually liked that, because the dog and cat have an adversarial relationship anyway.
Of course, how much does it really matter, since I never blog about the cat...I mean, Loki...anyway?
Apparently it does matter to my daughters.
Sunday, April 28, 2013
Wednesday, April 24, 2013
The Naming Saga
On this blog, I have decided to give each of my family members Germanic or Scandinavian names. I love medieval German lit, so a lot of the names will come from those stories. However, at least two of my children and I love all things Scandinavian as well, so I decided not to limit the names to Germanic.
I took Kriemhild for myself because I love the Nibelungenlied. You may know her as the crazed vengeful lunatic she is commonly portrayed as in movies, but I've always been more sympathetic to her. Siegfried was her husband, her one true love whom she was determined to avenge, so my honey will of course be Siegfried. I'm going to enjoy calling him that!
Our oldest son was allowed to choose his own name, and he wants to be Beowulf. No surprise there.
I asked each of my daughters, and they have not given me any input.
I joked to younger daughter that I was going to call her Kriemhildsdotter (Kriemhild's daughter, a typical Scandinavian last name), because, honestly, she's been reading all about Scandinavian mythology and she can't come up with a name? Her response? "Just don't write about me for a while!"
Our older daughter hasn't made any suggestions either, but she's a ballet dancer, so I'm going to call her Isolde. I'm not sure if there's ever been a ballet about Tristan and Isolde, but it could be really beautiful if there were one. And yes, Isolde did some regrettable things, but it was all the love-potion's fault! (Or the meddling mother's fault, but I'm going to go with love potion.)
As for the four younger boys, I've decided to go ahead and give them all names of Knights of the Round Table. Not Germanic, you think? Think again! Many of the medieval Germanic works are Arthurian in origin, and came to the German through French translations.
Oldest younger boy: Gawan. In English, he's known as Gawain, but Gawan is the German spelling. One of my books calls him "the paragon of Arthurian knighthood." This boy has always loved knights and castles and was at one point hoping to be a knight when he grows up (and perhaps still is hoping that).
Twin A and Twin B: Erec and Iwein. I was tempted to name them after Parzival and Condwiramurs' twins, but thought I would soon tire of typing Loherangrin and Kardeiz. Also, Erec and Iwein were both written by Hartmann von Aue, so those names are fitting for twins. Plus, well, I'll explain that reason next.
Youngest boy: Parzival. I wanted to use this name for the youngest, because he is an extreme mama's boy, and Parzival's mother Herzeloyde raises him in the woods away from all other humans so that he won't know anything of knights, because his father was treacherously killed. Of course this totally backfires when he comes across some knights and is fascinated and decides to leave the forest so he can be like them. Hopefully this will not happen here! So you can see that calling the twins Parzival's sons' names would have been, well, awkward, although I'm sure that my youngest would have loved to order them around like he was their father (oh wait, he already does).
As for the dog, I think Thor, Dog of Thunder, will suffice. The cat can be Katt (Swedish for cat), unless I think of something better later.
Off to reread some German medieval lit! Forgot how much I liked this stuff! Or sleep, yeah, sleep would be good...
I took Kriemhild for myself because I love the Nibelungenlied. You may know her as the crazed vengeful lunatic she is commonly portrayed as in movies, but I've always been more sympathetic to her. Siegfried was her husband, her one true love whom she was determined to avenge, so my honey will of course be Siegfried. I'm going to enjoy calling him that!
Our oldest son was allowed to choose his own name, and he wants to be Beowulf. No surprise there.
I asked each of my daughters, and they have not given me any input.
I joked to younger daughter that I was going to call her Kriemhildsdotter (Kriemhild's daughter, a typical Scandinavian last name), because, honestly, she's been reading all about Scandinavian mythology and she can't come up with a name? Her response? "Just don't write about me for a while!"
Our older daughter hasn't made any suggestions either, but she's a ballet dancer, so I'm going to call her Isolde. I'm not sure if there's ever been a ballet about Tristan and Isolde, but it could be really beautiful if there were one. And yes, Isolde did some regrettable things, but it was all the love-potion's fault! (Or the meddling mother's fault, but I'm going to go with love potion.)
As for the four younger boys, I've decided to go ahead and give them all names of Knights of the Round Table. Not Germanic, you think? Think again! Many of the medieval Germanic works are Arthurian in origin, and came to the German through French translations.
Oldest younger boy: Gawan. In English, he's known as Gawain, but Gawan is the German spelling. One of my books calls him "the paragon of Arthurian knighthood." This boy has always loved knights and castles and was at one point hoping to be a knight when he grows up (and perhaps still is hoping that).
Twin A and Twin B: Erec and Iwein. I was tempted to name them after Parzival and Condwiramurs' twins, but thought I would soon tire of typing Loherangrin and Kardeiz. Also, Erec and Iwein were both written by Hartmann von Aue, so those names are fitting for twins. Plus, well, I'll explain that reason next.
Youngest boy: Parzival. I wanted to use this name for the youngest, because he is an extreme mama's boy, and Parzival's mother Herzeloyde raises him in the woods away from all other humans so that he won't know anything of knights, because his father was treacherously killed. Of course this totally backfires when he comes across some knights and is fascinated and decides to leave the forest so he can be like them. Hopefully this will not happen here! So you can see that calling the twins Parzival's sons' names would have been, well, awkward, although I'm sure that my youngest would have loved to order them around like he was their father (oh wait, he already does).
As for the dog, I think Thor, Dog of Thunder, will suffice. The cat can be Katt (Swedish for cat), unless I think of something better later.
Off to reread some German medieval lit! Forgot how much I liked this stuff! Or sleep, yeah, sleep would be good...
Friday, April 12, 2013
A Welcome in Any Language Would Sound as Sweet!
Willkommen! ¡Bienvenido! Välkommen! Bienvenue!
Welcome to Books and Brownies, an alliterative title that summarizes my two favorite things! Life is going a million miles a minute for me here - but I'll try to post about it when I can!
Welcome to Books and Brownies, an alliterative title that summarizes my two favorite things! Life is going a million miles a minute for me here - but I'll try to post about it when I can!
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