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As of this weekend, I have one less worry concerning my Gawain Project.
It may not seem like a Big Issue to you, but for ages I could never quite work out what name to give to Gawain's sword. I had been thinking about a name for quite a while, but reading ASoIaF made the question extra poignant. The series features weapons with names that make me really jealous, like Ice, Lady Forlorn, Oathkeeper, Dawn or - one of my favourites - Needle.
Any hero worth his salt will name his sword. Only, Gawain doesn't have a Durendal or a Joyeuse associated with him. He does carry a famous sword on occasion: Excalibur. But that isn't his. I suppose there is Galatine, a sword mentioned only once by Malory, but nobody knows that name, do they? Besides, it sounds too 'High Middle Ages' - like Gringalet, Gawain's famous horse, the name of which only makes (non)sense in French. Gawain can have Galatine and Gringalet later on in the story. For now, I need something else.
Last Friday, I finally had an idea with which I could work. I'm going to call Gawain's sword 'Nessa'. It is a woman's name, and the name of an angry woman at that. Nessa is the mother of Conchobar, the great king of Ulster, and a warrior in her own right. Her name supposedly comes from ni assa or 'not gentle'; she acquired it while exacting her vengeance, having been called Assa or 'gentle one' before. So there: a good name for a good Pictish sword :).
It may not seem like a Big Issue to you, but for ages I could never quite work out what name to give to Gawain's sword. I had been thinking about a name for quite a while, but reading ASoIaF made the question extra poignant. The series features weapons with names that make me really jealous, like Ice, Lady Forlorn, Oathkeeper, Dawn or - one of my favourites - Needle.
Any hero worth his salt will name his sword. Only, Gawain doesn't have a Durendal or a Joyeuse associated with him. He does carry a famous sword on occasion: Excalibur. But that isn't his. I suppose there is Galatine, a sword mentioned only once by Malory, but nobody knows that name, do they? Besides, it sounds too 'High Middle Ages' - like Gringalet, Gawain's famous horse, the name of which only makes (non)sense in French. Gawain can have Galatine and Gringalet later on in the story. For now, I need something else.
Last Friday, I finally had an idea with which I could work. I'm going to call Gawain's sword 'Nessa'. It is a woman's name, and the name of an angry woman at that. Nessa is the mother of Conchobar, the great king of Ulster, and a warrior in her own right. Her name supposedly comes from ni assa or 'not gentle'; she acquired it while exacting her vengeance, having been called Assa or 'gentle one' before. So there: a good name for a good Pictish sword :).
