{"id":33068,"date":"2016-09-01T06:30:31","date_gmt":"2016-08-31T18:30:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/?p=33068"},"modified":"2016-08-31T18:00:17","modified_gmt":"2016-08-31T06:00:17","slug":"having-fun-with-epic-fantasy-my-love-affair-with-long-names-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/2016\/09\/01\/having-fun-with-epic-fantasy-my-love-affair-with-long-names-part-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Having Fun With Epic Fantasy: My Love Affair with Long Names, Part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"USA\"<\/a>

USA<\/p><\/div>\n

\"UK\/Aus\/NZ\"<\/a>

UK\/Aus\/NZ<\/p><\/div>\n

Over the past few weeks I’ve been looking at the influence of names on both worldbuilding and character development in Fantasy literature. Those posts are here:<\/p>\n

Use Of Names: Worldbuilding, <\/a>Part 1 <\/a>— The Wall Of Night Series<\/a><\/h4>\n

Use Of Names: Worldbuilding, Part 2 — Thornspell<\/em><\/a><\/h4>\n

Use Of Names: Character & Identity \u2014 When Names Have Deeper Meanings<\/a><\/h4>\n

\"thornspellcover_small\"<\/a>Today I’m going to begin a slightly more irreverent look at the place long names have in Fantasy literature — which is something of a love-hate relationship for many readers of the genre.<\/p>\n

As readers of The Wall of Night<\/a> series may know, I have paid my dues to the long names of the Fantastic tradition, which in and of itself probably tells you that I am one of those who *heart* their contribution to the genre.<\/p>\n

In terms of where my love affair with long names began, it is hard to pinpoint exactly how and when, although I suspect it could go as far back as early childhood and my delight in fairytale characters such as Rapunzel and Rumpelstiltskin. From fairytales I progressed to myths and legends where I suspect names such as Aphrodite and Penthesilea from the Greek, and Geirrendour, Sleipnir and Brisingamen in the Norse also played their part.<\/p>\n

\"Lord<\/a>Then, of course, we come to my early teens and The Lord of the Rings<\/em>, where long names abound and are part of the mythic glamour of the storytelling, particularly for backstory characters such Luthien Tinuviel, Earendil, and Gil-galad. However, they\u2019re also important in the main story, with character names that include Glorfindel and Galadriel, as well as the Ent, Fangorn (Treebeard), whose name, like those of all his kind,\u00a0 grows to match his life and experience.<\/p>\n

I was hooked by both The Lord of the Rings\u2019<\/em> story and the richness of a world-building that included eytmology \u2014 but I believe I first felt the full delight of long names some years later when I encountered Patricia McKillip\u2019s The Riddlemaster of Hed<\/em>.\u00a0 Long names abound in this tale, particularly \u2014 but not exclusively \u2014 for characters that hale from the land of Herun.<\/p>\n

\"riddlemaster_of_hed_3\"<\/a>So readers encounter not only Master Ohm (Ghisteslwchlohm), but also Elrhiahodan, the Morgol (ruler) of Herun, and the wizard, If of the Unpronounceable Name.\u00a0 I think it was the humour of the \u201cUnpronounceable Name\u201d epithet that finally confirmed my place on the \u201clover of long names\u201d side of the Fantasy ledger.<\/p>\n

How about you? Is this a topic on which you wish to weigh in on the “love” or “loathe” side of the ledger?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Over the past few weeks I’ve been looking at the influence of names on both worldbuilding and character development in Fantasy literature. Those posts are here: Use Of Names: Worldbuilding, Part 1 — The Wall Of Night Series Use Of Names: Worldbuilding, Part 2 — Thornspell Use Of Names: Character & Identity \u2014 When Names […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,19,29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33068","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-epicfantasy","category-funstuff","category-influences-on-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33068","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33068"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33068\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33071,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33068\/revisions\/33071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}