I have been referring to the two mutually hostile Diomedean cultures as Flock and Fleet while avoiding their confusingly different names for themselves and each other. However, see Languages.
But the matter came to a head when Trolwen of the Flock said:
"'...I got the news...the Lannachska have just destroyed Eiseldrae.'" (p. 239)
Surely the Lannachska are the Flock? Sure enough, The Van Rijn Method has:
"'...I got the news...the Drak'honai have just destroyed Eiseldrae.'"
-Poul Anderson, The Man who Counts IN Anderson, The Van Rijn Method (Riverdale, NY, 2009), pp. 337-515 AT XV, p. 449.
So these names have indeed been confusing. And the Lannachska sometimes say "Draksha" instead of "Drak'honai." (I think.) I will remain alert to this issue.
5 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I am surprised! I checked Chapter XV of THE MAN WHO COUNTS in THE EARTH BOOK OF STORMGATE, and that part of the text has "Lannachska" there. But the Gregg Press edition of the same story used "Drakska" at that place. You found an error, THE VAN RIJN METHOD and THE EARTH BOOK used the wrong name. "Drakska," not "Lannachska" is the correct reading.
Ad astra! Sean
Incidentally, most languages have their own names for the neighbors and don't use the one those people have for themselves.
Eg., we don't call Chinese "Han" or Japanese "Nihonjin" or Germans "Deutsch".
Most ethnic groups call themselves something that's either geographical (Nihon is "Land where the sun comes up), dynastic ("Han" is from the Han Dynasty), or some form of self-flattering boast ("Saxon", meaning "Men with the big knives", or Aryan, "Noble/free").
"People" (which is what "Deutsch" derives from) implies that everyone else may look like human beings, but really aren't. "The People" is very popular.
Names for others are insults more often than not.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I think many "Chinese" still call themselves "The men of Han," or "Ch'ung Kuo," the Central Kingdom. Now, I'm wondering where "China" came from.
I can well believe many names for peoples are either insults or boasts! Some of them now so old and widely used that the original meanings might be forgotten.
Ad astra! Sean
China is a Portuguese Persian derivative of a Sanskrit pronunciation of “Men of Chin”.... marvelous are the works of God, as Brother Parvus said in THE HIGH CRUSADE.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Aha! And that "Men of Ch'in" almost certainly referred to the short lived Ch'in Dynasty which ended the Warring States era and reunified China under the First Emperor of Ch'in.
And I remember Brother Parvus and the context in which he said that!
Ad astra! Sean
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