Planet Ethel

[trobadora]

A bit of trivia for your amusement:

Did you know Erna is an old-fashioned German woman’s name? The first time I read Coldfire, I giggled every time it was mentioned: my aunt had a planet named after her!

Yes, folks, it’s called Planet Ethel.

And I’m not at all surprised the German translation changed it into “Arna”.

Comments

[carmentalis.livejournal.com]

*grin* My granny would have loved it too to have a planet named after her. But I guess it's tricky to make up a name and find one that has absolutely no meaning in any language.

And I’m not at all surprised the German translation changed it into “Arna”.

Might not have been a deliberate change, though, considering the overall quality of that translation...

[trobadora]

You're right of course - both about the difficulty of finding a name that holds no meaning and about the quality of the translation. Still, the first time through I just couldn't bring myself to take seriously a planet named Erna. I rolled my eyes every time it was mentioned until I managed to get used to it. So even if it wasn't really deliberate - "Arna" is a good choice. (Though I suppose it means something in some language somewhere, too.)

[carmentalis.livejournal.com]

"Arna" appears to be a Scandinavian name. I get lots of pages from Iceland and Norway with it when I toss it into Google.

It's always tricky when there are familiar phrases and names. I actually had that problem with Gerald at the beginning because I have a cousin with that name, and he's as un-Tarrantish as you can possibly get. It just wasn't a name for a villain in my head, so I had to adjust for that.

In the case of Erna it might be easier for most people, since it's an old name that isn't used a lot anymore.

[trobadora]

Oh, Gerald. That's one of the things I like about him (and Celia Friedman, of course): that he has such an utterly ordinary name and not something with lots of "y"s and "v"s and so on. (Damien gets that, funnily.) And - get this - he actually *uses* that name! He doesn't make up a new super-villain name for himself! Now that's just cool.

[carmentalis.livejournal.com]

Damien probably used up the "v" and "y" quota already so there was nothing left by the time Gerald showed up...

And well, Gerald does call himself the Hunter, though I'm not sure whether that was his idea or someone else's. Still, he's not having these silly moments when he must protect his secret identity. He enjoys messing with people's minds far too much to hide it.

[trobadora]

"The Hunter" is more like a job description, and the way it/he was introduced in the first book it seemed to me that it was the name people gave the unknown evil creature in the forest, not something he came up with. And he never ditches his original name. He passes himself off as a servant of the Hunter, but gives his own name. He never has that "OMG I am now MARTY STU and you must never mention my old self again" that so many villains somehow seem to have. He never stops being proud of his human achievements, never truly becomes someone else (as opposed to something else) - never actually wants to. And I can't help loving that about him.

[carmentalis.livejournal.com]

It's really intriguing about him that he doesn't seem to have a time in his life he doesn't identify with anymore. But then again, his human life is what keeps him from turning into a full demon now, so he's got a very good reason to maintain his identity as Gerald Tarrant (not to mention that, as you said, he's proud of what he achieved under that name). Besides, with that name, who needs something else...