Post J3rTsUctamg

Jeremiah Burns Oct 19, 2015 (21:06)

Hello, lovely people.
Earlier this year, +Tamas Ferencz asked if you could help me out with a conundrum I had in finding a suitable name for my English longbow (see here: https://plus.google.com/+TamasFerencz/posts/3kqz4zQNzTc).

I hope nobody minds, but I'd like to ask the same favour again. If anyone thinks this is in any way inappropriate, please let me know and I'll remove the post.

I've done some minor looking into Sindarin over the last nine months or so, but not enough so as to say I've really 'progressed'.  As a certain fat innkeeper might say, one thing drives out another.

This new bow is one that I've made myself. And before anyone asks, the answer is Yes. It's bent near the top, and it's supposed to be! 

[Begin brief background]
I went on a 4-day bow-making workshop, over the course of which I made this bow from a single piece of yew wood. The instructor began by showing us a beautifully finished bow he'd made on his previous course. It too had a beautiful wave in the limb (though I think in that case it may have been the lower limb). I thought it was a wonderfully unique-looking bow.

So, when I was selecting my raw wooden stave from which to start carving my bow, I looked for one which had some sort of "character" of its own. Somewhat ironically (since it was now somewhat less unique) I saw a stave with a bend in it and immediately grabbed it.
[/background]

Which is all a long-ish way of saying that the bend is a feature, and indeed it's my favourite part of the bow. So if possible, I think it might be nice to have the feature called out in the name.  Is there a suitable word in S. or Q. which means "bend" or "curve" which could be adapted into a name?

If it helps, this bow was a bugger to carve ... in no small part due to the wave (irony rears its cruel head yet again). It simply didn't want to "drop its weight', no matter how much wood I carved off of it over the first 2.5 days. Only on the afternoon of the 3rd day did it finally begin to bend. I therefore think, that due to the difficult, stubborn nature of the bow, that it may well be masculine. ;-)

Any thoughts?
2015-10-19
None

Matthew Callison Oct 19, 2015 (21:47)

First, I'm still going to advocate penguin because I just want to watch the world burn.  Second, a quick search turned up raeg as "crooked/wrong", so:

Néldoraeg, or
Néldorhoeg

...if it strikes your fancy.

Finally...nice bow!  I'm still trying to organize my space, and the only instructions I've found are for laminate bows.  I am impressed with with your work.  May I ask what wood you started with?

Jeremiah Burns Oct 19, 2015 (21:58)

+Matthew Callison The new bow is a self bow using Pacific Yew from Canada. The "old" bow is a three-wood laminate, hence her name Neldobeng.

I like your suggestions, but I'm not so sure that I want something so similar to my other bow.

But I like crooked!

Matthew Callison Oct 19, 2015 (22:20)

Ah, I see.  I thought it was the same bow.  My mistake.

I still don't know how to morph words, so I am sure the following will all be slightly wrong, if not more (hoping someone can correct me).

Cún already means "bowed", as in "shape of a bow".  Maybe Cúniraeg, or even Tawamaruhoeg (crooked red wood).  Difficult to make, difficult to pronounce.

Tamas Ferencz Oct 20, 2015 (09:28)

Dirchad or Gorchad "difficult carving" (with a bit of contraction), "difficult to shape"
Raengún "crooked bow"

Tamas Ferencz Oct 20, 2015 (10:12)

On second thought, forget Raengún - a name of a bow probably wouldn't contain the word 'bow', would it? If you gave it a name in English, what would it be? Probably a kenning of some sort? Crooked Death? Gnarled Slayer? Killer Twang?

Jeremiah Burns Oct 20, 2015 (10:34)

Dirchad and Gorchad are lovely. So "chad" is "difficult" and "dir" and "gor" are "carve" and "shape" respectively?

Assuming the ch is as in the German Reich? Palatalised on the soft palate?

In English? Good question! I've been trying to decide. Perhaps something like crooked wood or twisted stave?

As far as kenning, I think I'd avoid "killer" or "slayer" simply because this bow won't truly represent those. But "crooked shooter" perhaps...or something along those lines?

Tamas Ferencz Oct 20, 2015 (10:50)

+Jeremiah Burns
no, dir- and gor- are both prefixes meaning 'difficult, laborious'. *cad- is a reconstructed verb 'to shape, carve', cf. the attested verb echad- 'shape out, form', literally et- 'out' + cad-; see Im Narvi hain echant
If it were to be a proper grammatical form it should probably be something like *dirchaded 'difficult shaping' (a gerund, basically) or *dirchadui 'difficultly shaped' (adjectival form); but I think names follow a bit different rule and are often distorted, contracted over time.

Lőrinczi Gábor Nov 19, 2015 (17:26)

Some potential names (if it is still current):

Raenhador ("Crooked Hurler") 
Cúnhador ("Bent Hurler")
Dornhador ("Obdurate Hurler")
Dorbeng ("Obdurate Bow")
Raendorbeng ("Obdurate Crooked Bow")

Jeremiah Burns Nov 19, 2015 (18:05)

+Lőrinczi Gábor Raenhador and Cúnhador are rather nice!

Is that "rain•ha•thor", with a voiced th as in "this" or "the"?

Lőrinczi Gábor Nov 20, 2015 (10:58)

+Jeremiah Burns No, it's a simple d as in "door".

Jeremiah Burns Nov 20, 2015 (11:00)

+Lőrinczi Gábor Thanks, mate.