Nick meme - with useful pronunciation guide ;-)

[sigune]

Yesterday I got a mail message from _vocalion_, who asked me to please repeat how my nickname is pronounced, to prevent her calling me names at Lumos ::grins::. It did make me realise that if I meet people at Lumos and introduce myself with my nickname, chances are they won't recognise it, and if anybody were to ask for me (supposing that they would), I probably wouldn't recognise my own name in it :D. So I thought, now that the nickname meme is going around, I might as well gack it from _grainne_ and use it as an excuse to tell you how I sound ;)...



In the days when I first wanted an e-mail address (that would be eight years ago, I just calculated), I opted for Sigune because my own name wasn't available and, having no affinity whatsoever with numbers, I didn't want to remedy the situation with a solution of that kind. It so happened that at that time I was reading a wonderful novel called Der Rote Ritter. Eine Geschichte von Parzivâl by Adolf Muschg, an ingenious rewriting of Wolfram von Eschenbach's medieval Parzivâl. The first part of it is written from the point of view of a young girl called Sigûne, a Grail Maiden who lives in the Grail Castle with her aunt Herzeloyde. I greatly identified with Sigûne - mainly because in the story she read all the romances of courtly love on which she could lay her hands and, inspired by them, got all kinds of fanciful ideas about true love and what it should be like. (I was eighteen; I did so too :D.)

Unfortunately Sigûne's story did not have a happy ending. She met the young man of her dreams (he had the impossible name of Schiônatulander) and, in the spirit of courtly love, she felt compelled to educate him in the ways of perfect knighthood, telling him to fight other knights in her name. However, poor Schiônatulander was better at singing songs and telling tales, and the first knight he challenged was a brute who killed him in one stroke. Sigûne was unspeakably sad and felt very guilty; in her sorrow she lost all her hair - she is known in Grail lore as the Bald Lady - and swore never to let go of her Schiônatulander again. Whenever Parzivâl or Gâwân meet her later in the story, she is carrying the corpse of her beloved.

Rather sad, isn't it? Of course I picked the name when I was still incurably romantic; I have turned rather more cynical since.

Anyway - even though I no longer fancied myself a Sigûne by the time I started writing fan fiction, I had to use a nickname of some kind, and this was the one I was used to as the username for my e-mail address. Because I rather frown upon nicks of the "Snapeluvrr" kind, I thought I'd stick to my medieval German - a decision I rue to some extent, because nobody outside of Germany (and I'm not even German myself!) has a clue as to how it should be pronounced. The pronunciation goes somewhat like this: Zee-'goo-nuh.

I have recently discovered (rather to my surprise) that it's not as weird a name as I used to assume; apparently there are quite a few German women who are called Sigune, one of them a famous classical singer.

And what happened to the novel that started it all? Well...
Der Rote Ritter has 992 very closely printed pages, and I had arrived at page 795 when the new academic year started (now seven years ago). The reading was so labour-intensive that I decided to put off reading the ending, and I never picked the book up again. One of my projects for quieter days is to start all over again :D...

Comments

[jen-deben.livejournal.com]

A-ha!

I've often wondered what the proper pronounciation of Sigune is, but y'know, it's one of those things where one feels it would be more polite to just remember to Google the name sometime...

It is a wonderful name, however, and with the explanation, I like it even better. Sigûne's story is a wonderfully romantic and tragic one. :)

[sigune.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you like it :).

It is a problem, isn't it, with all those weird nicknames? Everything is fine as long as you only meet in writing, but...

[veradee.livejournal.com]

How funny is that? I've often wondered about your name and since I couldn't come up with any reasonable English pronunciation, I just pronounced it as if it were German although I sometimes was tempted to pronounce it French.

It never occurred to me that the name actually is German, if medieval German. Therefore, I have to disagree and say that it is a weird name. Of course, I could admit that I don't have a clue about medieval literature, but I don't intend to. ;)

In any case, I enjoyed learning about Sigune (sorry, I don't know how to make that accent) and her story.

[sigune.livejournal.com]

Okay, I have Googled it again, and a lot of hits are links to the same people: a soprano called Sigune Von Osten and an artist by the name of Sigune Siévi. I guess I was just surprised to find so many hits :D.

Because I found the name in a German book, the pronunciation was always obvious to me, but as I passed on that early e-mail address, I noticed that all my friends were creative with it in different ways ;). I didn't make a choice that had universal possibilities, apparently!

Glad you like the story! :)

[veradee.livejournal.com]

I didn't intend to imply that the name doesn't exist here, but it has to be extremely rare because I've never come across it before.

I think it was a good choice. It's unique so that you can't be mistaken for someone else.

[sigune.livejournal.com]

I was going to say that at least this name is always free wherever I make an account, but guess what: safakus, who is Turkish, once translated my HBP Snape essay for her Turkish Potter fansite, and when she wanted to make me an account, she discovered that "Sigune" had already been claimed - in Turkey, of all places! :D

[veradee.livejournal.com]

I can't say that I would have guessed that. Perhaps someone who studied German literature at the university.

The only time when I was on holiday in Turkey, I realised that almost everyone seems to know the German language and the country. One man asked me where I was from and when I answered, he said "Grönemeyer" and "Kortumstraße". The first is a German rock singer who grew up in my town and the second the main shopping street. That came as a surprise as well.

[thirteen-ravens.livejournal.com]

Aw...and I thought it was pronounced Zig-ooh-nay!

Well, I know now! :)

[sigune.livejournal.com]

That wasn't so far off the mark, actually - I've heard much weirder ones! :D

[rexluscus.livejournal.com]

Ooo! That book sounds great! Do you know if there's an English translation?

It is an enormous relief to now know how to pronounce your name. I was actually thinking about it the other day. I was thinking, "boy, it's going to be kind of embarrassing when the first thing I say to her is 'how do you pronounce your screenname?'" So, hurray! :)

[sigune.livejournal.com]

I have just checked Amazon and Google, but it doesn't look as if there is an English translation :/. I don't know how famous an author Muschg is (he's Swiss), or when books get translated, but in any case Der Rote Ritter would hardly have been a bestseller. It's too bad - I think you would have liked it.

Ach, the screenname thing... I should have been cleverer than to pick something obscure and medieval! But then I never thought I'd get friends who would actually know me by that name...
You can always call me by my real name, of course - that's the one of the lady in this icon, and a lot easier :).

[rexluscus.livejournal.com]

Aw, darn. Thanks for checking, though!

I confess I don't know who the lady in your icon is. :-/ *confesses cultural illiteracy*

[sigune.livejournal.com]

Hint:
Well, she's holding an apple, and I cut off a bearded guy, a tree and a snake, so... ;)

[rexluscus.livejournal.com]

Ah, okay. :) What a pretty name!

[rexluscus.livejournal.com]

Oh whoops. I figured out the problem. I was looking at your Mlle de Maupin icon, not your Eve icon. :P

Hey, I've been meaning to ask you - where did you get the artwork for that Young Aloysius Crumrin icon you have? Is there a Courtney Crumrin comic that I don't have??? *gasp*

[sigune.livejournal.com]

Yes, there is... It's called A Portrait of the Warlock as a Young Man (July 2005) - number one of "Courtney Crumrin Tales". It has a format different from the other Crumrin books, and it's all about a particularly gorgeous young Aloysius :D. I made my icon out of the cover artwork.

I'm very lucky to have a good friend at bettyboopcomics who picks these things up for me :).

[rexluscus.livejournal.com]

Oooo, I must have this! *runs out to buy* Thanks!

[pennswoods.livejournal.com]

Thank heavens we finally know before we had a chance to butcher your name on snapecast. I've been pronouncing it incorrectly all along!

[sigune.livejournal.com]

LOL! Well, you're not alone, so never mind :D. Still, you know, I'm thinking that if you don't butcher my name, even less people will know who you are talking about XD...

[sscrewdriver.livejournal.com]

I'm just so glad you didn't pick Schiônatulander.

I've been pronouncing it the French way so far, now I know it's German and will be schooling my mind accordingly (in case we ever meet).

Oh, I forgot to tell you -have you ever heard of 'Portora'? Of course you have. It's a boy's boarding school, a couple of hour's drive from us, and the one that Oscar Wilde attended when he was a lad. The general public aren't normally allowed into it, but Mr Sscrewdriver has been in it. He's a rower, and they change in there for some of the races on Lough Erne. If you ever want to do a pilgrimage to Portora, and cross it off your list (if you haven't already) Mr Sscrewdriver says that you're more than welcome to stay with us some time (much warning needed to clear out our spare room) and he'll drive us there some weekend. (We're in Belfast.) A possibility for the future.

[sigune.livejournal.com]

Whoopie! That's so kind of both of you! The only thing I know about Portora is that it's in Enniskillen, and Enniskillen is far away from Dublin (you know, that place where they have this unspeakably horrid statue of Wilde), which is the only city in Ireland where I have ever stayed. I have never been to Northern Ireland, though I have been told it's very beautiful. When I do start on my next pilgrimage, I'll certainly let you know! (Lucky me: I also have a friend who is a pilot, and sometimes her job takes her to Belfast...)

I was waiting for someone to congratulate me about not picking Schiônatulander :), so here is a hug for you: *hug*.

[sscrewdriver.livejournal.com]

I think we've got a hug thing going on here, Sigune, but I'm not one to stop something that's working so well. *hugs back*

Yes, Portora is in Enniskillen, picturesquely sitting above Lough Erne (although the lough looks more like a river at that point). My mum grew up around there, so we're sometimes around that way. In fact, my folks keep a boat permanently moored on the Lough so they can go to stay there whenever they want. It's so beautiful waking up on an island in the morning, looking out the porthole and seeing a couple of swans drifting peacefully by.

Mr Sscrewdriver said I should repeat about giving lots of notice so we can clear out our spare room - going on LJ means that I do less and less housework, I find (and I wasn't even that good to begin with). :-P

[http://users.livejournal.com/_grainne_/]

Hurrah! The only place I'd ever seen the name before was the Grail maiden story, but, like many others, I hadn't realised that it was a name of German origin (and had always been puzzled by the "Bald" thing!). It was fascinating to hear how you came to use it as your pen name.

*off to practise now*

[sigune.livejournal.com]

Are you a Grail enthusiast? I once dreamed of writing my master's thesis about it, but then I realised that there is very little substance and heaps of speculation to the whole Grail thing so it wasn't going to work from an academic point of view; and then Oscar came along...

*giggles at the idea that her name urges people to practise*

[redvelvetcanopy.livejournal.com]

May I come in?

Have you forgiven me for finding the Dutch a sexy lot?

I must admit, this is one of the best pen-name stories I've read! It has a wonderful, tragic story behind it and I rather like that you've had it so long, you outgrown bits of it, yet is still fits you!

And, I am pleased to say that I've been nearly pronouncing it correctly. You've been Zee-goon. I shall immediately add the "uh" to the end and hope the you will overlook my taste in men.

[sigune.livejournal.com]

Of course you may come in, RVC! Surely you can't think that I'd hold your taste in men against you, even if you like them Dutch?! :D

Yes, a few people have been calling me "something-goon", not without reason, I assume - I do sound/behave like a goon sometimes ;).

I'm glad you like the story! It's funny, isn't it - at some point I got so used to that screenname that I didn't feel like changing it anymore, even if I had sort of outgrown it :).

[sscrewdriver.livejournal.com]

My fella is Dutch. They are sexy, with the way that they assume that you will pay for half the dinner bill when they take you out, and the how they do their own ironing and washing up. Equality is very sexy in my book. Am I strange?

[redvelvetcanopy.livejournal.com]

No, I agree that equality is QUITE sexy! You are a lucky person, as you get the socks picked up and get to listen to the accent!

[sscrewdriver.livejournal.com]

He's such a Dutchman, and so good with languges, that he's nearly lost the sexy accent. *drattit* Sometimes I get him to put it on again, just for fun. *wink*