[NR] Ducktape your dander down a down

Ulf Gunnarsson ulfie at cox.net
Fri Jul 1 16:23:35 PDT 2011


No one called for your "work" to be "undone".  Relax.  Don't be so
defensive.  The idea of a name for this section of the woods has been on
our minds for several years.  And in my no-claim-to-humility opinion
Their Majesties should have asked each region to come up with their name
for themselves when They created the administrative regions many, many
years ago.

So let me re-word my statement.

As we are coming up with a name for ourselves finally, one we ourselves
originate rather than one applied to us, let us do so as best as we can.
 Let us come up with a name that we can point to as an example of who we
are and what we do.

I am from Namron.  When explaining the SCA to people, I am forced to
admit that our group's name is... well... "Norman", Oklahoma spelled
backwards.  That doesn't send a good picture of what we are to the
public.  When introducing other SCA-ers to these people, there are two
distinctly different pronunciations of our kingdom's name.  When
explaining the meaning of that name, I have to rationalize to them why
"Oklahoma" would have anything to do with the "Lone Star" State.  See
what I mean?

So don't throw out anything you've come up with.  Fine.  If you want to
find out how to say "Bugtussle" in Portuguese and everyone wants to use
that for the region's name - I'll find a way to make it scan into song
and poetry.  Just don't "settle" for something that "kinda" sounds like
something that "many" people liked when it was first brought up because
of some warm fuzzy feeling they had.  Instead, settle for nothing less
than excellence.  An excellent name, with excellent non-fuzzy
documentation, following excellent naming practices.

If it happens to mean something cool, great.  If it happens to be easy
to pronounce, super.  If you can spell it without having to look it up
again and again, wonderful!  If not, well, remember how hard it was to
get used to "Ansteorra".  (People from Wiesenfeuer get extra credit here...)

I think we *should* have a name.  I think we *should* have it soon.  I
think it *should* be Icelandic.  So you can see we mostly agree already.
 I just plan to raise a hurly ruckus if people try to squeeze in
something that's good for a WoW name but sucks for an historical land
area name.  (I'll even skip on the Icelandic if it fits otherwise).

Anyone with definite problems with this, please email me at
ulfie at cox.net and we can talk it out.  I have good lungs and don't give
up easy. Just understand my only argument here is - let's come up with a
good name from the heraldic viewpoint that the people living here are
willing to accept, even if it adds a couple more months.

Ulfie
[For older heralds, this translates as "no weirdnesses, no toyotas"]
[[For younger heralds, google it and make sure it isn't the name of an
elf or a public building]]


More information about the Northern mailing list