Re: Big Dipper (was: Irregularities)

Anton Sherwood <bronto@...> wrote:

> [Chinese names of the Big Dipper constellation]
What is the Big Dipper named in your conlangs?  (Assuming your conlangs
are spoken on the northern hemisphere of the Earth, or somewhere else
it can be seen in the sky, which might include planets of nearby
stars, perhaps within 20 light-years from the sun, and fantasy worlds
that happen to have the same patterns of stars in the sky.)
And what is, if any, the con-mythological background?

In Germanech, it is popularly known as _il Wagen Grand_
(`the Great Wagon'), though educated people prefer calling it
_la Ürsen Grand_ (`the Great she-Bear', a translation of Latin
_Ursa Maior_).  _Il Wagen Meiner_ and _La Ürsen Meiner_ refer to
the Little Dipper, correspondingly.  (The same conventions are used
in German, except that the bears aren't female.)

The Nur-ellen name of the Big Dipper is _i Gerch_ (`the Sickle').
The Sickle is held to have been put in the sky as a sign of peace
and victory over the dark forces after the primaeval War
of the Angels, which broke out when the Dark One rebelled
against the One and the other Greater Angels,
a very destructive affair that broke the earth, separating
the British Isles and other islands from the mainland,
and cutting out the North Sea as well as the Baltic and
Mediterranean Seas, and also littered the countryside with boulders
(which are thus called "war-stones").

Jörg.

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