The short-story I'm working on now is a basic dark fantasy/horror piece. I haven't written anything like this since probably high school and wanted to see if I could pull it off. Among other things it involves egotistical grad students, blizzards, giants and a talking crow (or maybe a raven, I haven't decided yet) who brings the finale of the story together .
I've been looking into Norse and Celtic myths to connect the talking crow to some deity and mythology source. Celtic is too confusing, so I looked at Loki for a trickster-type. To cut things short, I found out that old Odinn, lord of gods, held over 1000 names.
Now I knew of the Germanic name Wotan, and even the title All-Father, but 1000? Some make sense like Bileygr (One Eye) and Hrafnass (Raven God) but others like Hagvirkr (Skillful Worker), and my personal fave Ennibrattr (One With a Straight Forehead) are a little silly. So somehow out of these 1000 names I'm going to bastardize a name for my little crow, but I have to give the old gods credit. I don't know how they kept it all straight when they showed up at a party or a war. All the different outfits they must have had to keep on hand, and remembering which name to respond to. I have enough trouble keeping track of my rotating work schedule.
Excelsior
5 comments:
It's indeed tough business to be a multi-named deity.
Hrafnass is cool and does seem to fit. Ravens/crows are always cool and always some harbinger. The research you're doing sounds fun as well.
It sounds like the story you're working on is fun. The two I'm working on are annoying me -- one has an end but needs a lot more thought, the other doesn't have an end and I struggled with it last night and this morning. I'm a little frustrated and wish I felt inspiration to start something new.
Good luck!
I vote for Wotan. That just sounds like it would fit well on a bird. Plus, it's the easiest to pronounce (I know that's small but don't disgard pronounciation). Will the bird have only one good eye? I guess I also vote for the raven, which although a bit cliche, is still more dapper than a crow. (btw, is the Odin connection related to lending me Gaiman's American Gods?)
You can get me a blog if you want, but I've never been good at keeping one. I talk enough irl that I think it'd be overkill if I started writing it all down too. Though I should read more blogs. I'm gonna check out LadyBlitz's, since it sounds like she has a lot in common with you, literarily speaking, and as of such, probably keeps a good one.
-L
Hey! I just read about your werewolf story on LadyLitBlitzin's blog (sorry for butchering your name earlier). How come I haven't seen this?? Please, can I? (See what trouble you get to endure for giving me your blog address?)
I guess I should post this as a response to that same post on her page, but since I'm over here -well, I'm lazy, virtually speaking- the first time I became aware of the power of the written word was in third grade. Our teacher was discussing "connotation," and we had a worksheet in which we were supposed to assign a positive, negative, or neutral connotation to variations of a word. What caught my attention were three words: smell, aroma, and odor. I really thought that both aroma and odor were beautiful words. The feeling of the words resonated well to me. Obviously, I got odor marked as incorrect, but so be it. What the assignment did drive home was the possibility of word choice, and that opened floodgates.
Now, if you were to ask about being a painter, that came from Disney. But no, not from one of their cartoons. There was a b&w segment on animators, and they showed the animators pulling from real life for their drawings. They drew from lion cubs and all sorts of wonderful things. But when they were all situated around the same tree, you could easily see that they each drew it differently. It blew my seven year old mind that none of the drawings were the same. How could that be? And then -what would a tree look like if I drew it?
-L
Anonymous L - That's a cool anecdote. Word choice is an interesting thing. And something that can make you bang your head against a wall at times. A story can go through a whole slew of rewrites and you suddenly realize some words are just wrong.
I always wished I could draw. I used to try, but soon realized I wasn't very good at it.
Thanks for checking out my blog, by the way!
Anon L--That's a fun question. What would a tree look like if I drew it? It would look like a bunch of jagged lines, cuz I can't draw so well.
Lady LitBlitz--High art my story is not, but it will hopefully be fun when finished. Strange thing, though. I'm starting to visualize the scenes in comic-book-like panels. Not sure what this means, but oh well.
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