Kalava uses a "periplus" and a "logline." (?) (p. 118) His crew includes "shellbacks." (p. 119) He roars, "'Avast!'" (p. 139) I have read this last word before but have only now learned its meaning. The "skythinker" accompanying Kalava's expedition says:
"'The world is full of strangenesses.'" (p. 140)
Her order honors and respects strange phenomena "'...as signs from the gods.'" (ibid.)
This might remind us of Hamlet -
Horatio: Day and night, but this is wondrous strange!
Hamlet: And therefore as a stranger give it welcome.
There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
-See here.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
When we see words and things like "periplus," "logline," "shellbacks," "avast", etc., being used a billion years from now in the future, we should think of them as being translated from that future language into our long forgotten English. Rather like how Elizabeth Barrett Browning's poem "A Musical Instrument" was read by Flandry in a translation into the Anglic of the Terran Empire.
Sean
It's called the "translation convention" in the trade. The nautical terms are intended to show a specialized vocabulary of a certain type -- corresponding to a certain level of nautical technology, though with unique variations like the huge aquatic beast.
Dear Mr. Stirling,
I agree! And I would expect similar professions and trades in the remote future to have very analogous technical terminology of the kind we see now in our real world.
Sean
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