Re: Naming Mythical creatures

B. Garcia <madyaas@...> uràcel:

>I'm a little curious on how those of you who've gotten far enough for
>your cultures' mythologies on naming various deities, spirit types,
>monsters, and mythical creatures?
>
>I've been trying to figure out how to go about it for the Saalangal,
>and I've looked to Tagalog for inspiration, but not much luck. I
>assume originally creature names would usually have some sort of
>meaning behind them (such as the recent example here - werewolf), So,
>how did you all go about giving names to the various creatures in your
>concultures' mythologies?
>
The Xinkùtlan are in the late bronze age, so mythology and the like is
really crucial for them.  They believe in lots of different types of spirit
and creature that may or may not actually exist, and they don't really draw
much of a line between beings corporeal and beings spiritual.  They're more
interested in function (what does this kind of creature do? is it dangerous
or fiendly? can it be tamed? and so on).

I don't have the major gods straight in my head yet, but again, there's
quite a blurry boundary between god and spirit and demon and corporeal
creature; for example animal spirits are significant and each kind of
animal has certain spiritual qualities.

But here's the list of what I do have:


Spirits: nùi sulùr[1]
------------------
utùtl:         god
dazurài: hero, hero spirit[2]
kexìn:         father (archaic), ancestor, ancestor spirit[3]
damòi:         ghost, zombie[4]
qùdzul:         demon

sehàir:         to haunt
semuqùz: to possess, to come upon

xèru:  nature spirit
gezenùk: mine spirit, dwarf(?), gnome(?), kobold(?)
nèpec:         marsh spirit
ub:  whirlpool, dangerous water spirit (charybdis)
dzalàqu: tool spirit[5]
zi:  wild animal, animal spirit[6]

1:  nùi (being) sulùr (of spirit, spiritual)

2:  dazurài means both a living hero and the spirit of a dead one.  These
spirits are believed to possess or come upon certain warriors in time of
great need and fight through them.

3:  kexìn likewise means both an ancestor and the spirit of an ancestor;
the Xinkùtlan do not distinguish.

4:  damòi are the dead, whether possessing their own body, haunting a place
or whatever.  They are dangerous, and divided into the kind that can haunt,
the kind that can possess (believed to need a human host) and the very
dangerous kind that can do both.

5:  dzalàqu can possess and animate tools.  The benign sort are rather like
the elves of the fairy tale "the elves and the shoemaker", or
Rumpelstiltskin spinning straw into gold, and so on.  If not handled
properly, they can turn into the other kind, who possess tools and cause
them to do harm or seek blood.

6:  zi are physical wild animals, and also the spirits of animals.
Domesticated animals are called mun, not zi, but the spirits of mun are
considered zi.


Monsters: nùi qapuèr[7]
--------------------
aimùtl:         dragon
otuàpu:         whale, leviathan
nuòrikal: darkling[8]
bènu kuan: crane, phoenix[9]
qacairunùr: tiamat, primordial monster[10]
asanxàl: changeling, werewolf[11]
kenemòr: gorgon, basilisk[12]
uìzira:         magical steed, pegasus, tulpar, unicorn, garuda[13]
itl cèpaq: Little People (lit. "people of the toadstool")
itl puèrim: Elder Folk (ie giants)


7:  nùi (being) qa- (most) puer (old), the Eldest Creatures.  Not all the
creatures listed here belong to this group, and it also includes the first
fathers of all zi.

8:  nuòr (darkness) -ikal (-ling).  These are children born in the three
dark days outside the year who are not ritually purged (sacrificed, or
bound about with powerful and difficult magic).  They are believed to have
none of the several types of soul/spirit that each Xinkùtlan is believed to
have, and instead are animated by demons or the dead.  This word might
translate "vampire" if you had to.

9:  the bènu kuan (literally "sun bird") usually refers to the crane, but
in a mythological context, it can mean a bird like a phoenix.

10: qacairunùr is the name of a primordial monster from the very dawn of
time, now bound in the outer darkness outside the year (ie outside the
normal bounds of the cosmos).  The Babylonian Tiamat is a more or less
functional equivalent.  The name qacairunùr comes from the words
qac "fang", airùrun "howl" and nuor "darkness".

11: asanxàl are changelings, those believed to be afflicted with
uncontrolled shape-changing powers or other dangerous uncontrolled greater
magic.  Werewolf would be probably translated as /asanxàl arùn/ or "wolf
changeling".  /sasànix/ means "to be transformed" (also "to be alloyed" :) )

12: kenemòr ("eye of death") translates those mythical creatures with
killing or harmful stares- the gorgon and basilisk and so on.

13: the uìzira is a magical steed variously described as "swift as a stag
in the forest", "mounting the wind like an eagle", "stronger than the water
buffalo, yea, even than the elephant" and "terrible in his wrath, piercing
the helmets of champions".  Its appearance has been interpreted variously
as like a winged stag, like a winged horse, like an aurochs and like a
unicorn.


Hope this is interesting/helpful.  I'm still working on this some myself,
just because of the large amount of different spirits and mythic beings
believed in in their world.

Geoff

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