Okay, So, Today On Deeply Nerdy Things I'm Working On (and Also Looking For Advice On; Vote At The End
Okay, so, today on deeply nerdy things I'm working on (and also looking for advice on; vote at the end of the post!)...
So I've been working on coloring Worm's page from the quarantine coloring book (this is what I have so far), and I decided that I needed to put a name on the side of the boat. Because this stream was the first thing I watched with Gerard and Worm, I decided that “Daydream Believer” would be a good name for the boat (fair warning, it’s a pretty violent game they’re playing in that stream, but to summarize, the part I’m referencing is from Gerard’s turn as the murderer when he starts playing Daydream Believer by the Monkees to creep out Worm and the other dude they’re playing with, which is the moment I linked to.)
But then I thought, this is an alien creature’s magical space-boat. I can’t just title it Daydream Believer in English. So I whipped out my D&D player’s handbook (5e) and went to the Elvish alphabet.
But then I thought, I can’t just write Daydream Believer in English with Elvish letters. I need to translate it into proper Elvish first. Which, of course, the only correct Elvish languages to use are Tolkien’s--Sindarin and Quenya. (In any case, I don’t believe that there is a complete D&D Elvish language.)
So, I brought up a few Sindarin and Quenya online dictionaries and translators, and I came up with a few different translations for “Daydream Believer”, and I wrote them out and transcribed my favorites to try and see which ones looked best in the D&D Elvish alphabet (I know Tengwar is technically the correct Tolkien-based Elvish script to be writing in, but I was already rolling with the D&D Elvish transcriptions, and I think I like the look of them for an alien space boat better, so I stuck with the D&D Elvish). But now I’m kind of stuck between three, and I thought, why not ask tumblr?
The two on the left with the blue highlights are Sindarin translations, and the one on the right with the green highlight is Quenya; I know there are differences in use between the two languages but I figured there’s no particular reason an alien couldn’t speak either of them. The first of the two Sindarin translations is “celain ely thenid pen”. ‘Celain’ means daylight, ‘ely’ means dream, and since I couldn’t find the word ‘believe’ in Sindarin anywhere I looked, I used ‘thenid’ which means ‘faithful’ and ‘pen’ as a pronoun meaning ‘one’. So, the first translation is really “daylightdream faithfulone”, which is fairly close. But I chose that translation mostly for aesthetics, and I worried I had strayed from the truest translation of the words, so I did another.
The second Sindarin translation I did was “eraid ely esteliad pen”. ‘Eraid’ is just ‘day’ instead of ‘daylight’, and ‘esteliad’ is ‘trusting’, which seemed closer to the meaning of a daydream believer as one who is trusting in their daydreams rather than one who is faithful to their daydreams, although that could lead to a whole debate on the meaning of the original song, which--let’s be honest I’m way overthinking this already. I’m just trying to find pretty letters to write on the side of this boat, lol :) But nerdy linguistic overanalysis for a random obscure reference that pretty much no one is going to get is what I’m here for, haha.
So, the third and final of my top three translations is the Quenya one, “árë maur savindo”. Quenya actually seemed to translate the phrase more easily, if only because there’s a word for “believer”. ‘Árë’ is day, ‘maur’ is dream or vision (which, I like the idea that the daydream believer’s daydreams are visions of a sort--oh no I’m analyzing the song again, I said I wouldn’t do that, I’ll stop, haha. I actually have thought about the meaning of the song quite a lot), and ‘savindo’ is believer. The Quenya translator that gave me ‘savindo’ warned that it was fan-created, but ‘sav-’ is in fact the Quenya verb for believe, and there was a whole section in the Quenya-English dictionary I looked at for “one who ___” verbs and they all ended in ‘indo’, so I think it’s a correctly derived translation.
Tl;dr--those are the three best translations I came up with, and I highlighted where I wrote each of them out in Elvish in the image above. So, now I’m asking you to vote: which Elvish translation of Daydream Believer should I write on the boat on my coloring page? “Celain ely thenid pen”, “eraid ely esteliad pen”, or “árë maur savindo”? Vote in the replies or reblog with your vote! :)
Postscript: If anyone wants to see my full Elvish translation scribblings which led to this, here’s what my process in my sketchbook looked like:
(There was a reflection from an old art class in the top left so that’s what I roughly photoshopped out if you were wondering.)
It’s always fun to have an excuse to mess around with translations and practice writing things in Elvish script :)
More Posts from Alfhildr-the-word-weaver and Others
I’m happy I can find Atlantis appreciation here! I always loved it. I’m pretty sure I still have my Kida and Milo barbies somewhere around here...
And, I know not everyone is crazy about the current trend of live-action Disney remakes, but can you imagine how epic a live-action Atlantis would be?! Just putting that out there...
i don’t understand why atlantis isn’t more popular of a movie
i mean
amazing and unique art style
spot-on humor
strong, badass female and/or POC characters
awkward but incredibly intelligent lead that isn’t conventionally attractive
COOKIE
history jokes that you won’t catch as a kid
MOTHER
FUCKING
WILHELMINA BERTHA PACKARD
did i mention
BADASS AF FEMALE CHARACTERS
AND MULTIPLE POC CHARACTERS
WHO BREAK STEREOTYPES LEFT AND RIGHT
i just have a lot of feelings about atlantis and i think it needs more love than it gets
Boardtober Day 1: Autumn or Falling Leaves
(🍂 ☕️ 🎃)(🔸 🍁 🎃)(🔥 🌾 🏵)
Anyways, I’ve reblogged something on the eve of opening night for the past two shows I’ve been in, so I guess it’s a tradition now! Unlike with Frog and Toad and Almost, Maine, I didn’t happen upon something for Mamma Mia naturally, so I had to go seek this one out, but it’s very pretty and tranquil. Happy opening night eve!
Mamma Mia (2008)
Mamma mia! This means literally, my mother, but it is definitely a term that can express everything from exasperation to wonder.
Flynn Carsen is a mood.
And also either preposterously wealthy or achingly deep in debt, though it’s probably the former because at a certain point I think they stop giving you loans.
But I can’t blame him; if I had unlimited money, I too would have 20+ degrees and still be in college.
you ever think about how the whole librarians franchise began thanks to flynn carsen getting kicked out of college because his professor thought he had too many degrees and not enough of a social life
DOCTOR WHO The Time Monster
How precious it is to lightly hold my cat's paw and feel her gently squeeze back <3
I am realizing that I’ve been obsessed with Buffy the Vampire Slayer for more than a month now but I haven’t put anything on my main blog from it yet, so it’s time to remedy that :)
There is something so tragic and darkly beautiful about Spike and Drusilla’s relationship... I quite like the light this quote casts on Spike’s turning, how he was a poet out looking for his ideal of love, and in her own way, Drusilla was looking for her ideal of love too, but neither of them got quite what they expected--and yet they also sort of did, oddly? In a twisted sense, Drusilla got her knight, brave and true, inasmuch as a vampire can be one; from a vampire’s point of view, killing a slayer could indeed be akin to slaying a great beast, except for the part where they themselves are the beasts to be slain (from a human perspective, at least). And Spike really did get a grand romance with Dru (until it ended), though it involved perhaps more pain and death than he had anticipated. They are in many ways a dark, grim old fairy tale couple.
528: First time I’ve ever wished for a disney version.
‘Tis the season for gifs from the one Buffy Christmas episode :) I think I’ve already reblogged these like 5 times on blagueofchaos but I ought to put them on my proper blog. It’s always nice to have festive fandom gifsets :) Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays all!
Merry Christmas!
So I did some Oswald Cobblepot-inspired nail art last month for Halloween and I thought it would be a nice way to kick off my tumblr :) The left hand features a penguin, an umbrella, and some pinstriping; the right hand’s a bit simpler since I’m right handed, but I tried to make a brocade pattern like Oswald’s ties and a glitter ombre like his glitter coat. (In case it wasn’t clear, I’m talking about the Gotham TV version of the Penguin.)
Also, yes, these are my real nails, and my left thumbnail was over an inch long (cuticle to tip) at the time. Fun fact: I changed a flat tire that month, fabulous nails and all (though I did have a few chips to patch after that).
I took a multitude of pictures--literally hundreds--but the top coat I used was so shiny a bunch of them had a glare, but I guess what I’m trying to say is, if you want to see more pictures or a close-up of any nail in particular, let me know, because I have plenty :) I should also probably share the tutorial I followed for the penguin nail and the other nail art I used for inspiration.
So, I’ve been reading the Buffy Season 8 comics, and I have a question. Well, several questions actually, but these are all about one particular panel.
[Image ID: A screencap from the Buffy Season 8 comics which shows Dracula walking away from Renée and Xander, cape swooshing behind him, left hand raised in a dramatic flourish as he speaks. His speaking text reads “It’s not possible, manservant. These powers you speak of--they’re part of the ancient magics. I risked my very soul to attain them. I am their worldly guardian.” The word ‘soul’ is italicized in his speech. End ID]
Does... does this mean that Dracula has a soul??
And if so, how long has he had one? Did he have it when he faced Buffy at the beginning of Season 5? Did he get it between then and now in the comics, and if so, how and why, or else how and why did he get it in the first place? Was he cursed like Angel, or did he fight for it like Spike, or is there some other way to get a soul in the Buffyverse? Why would he want one if he did get it willingly?
Is this otherwise unmentioned soul the reason why he’s willing to fight against other vampires by Buffy’s side in this arc of the comics, or is he another example of a soulless vampire acting for the common good for probably at least partly selfish reasons like Spike circa season 5 (although it’s worth noting that Dracula is doing it without a chip)? Is it because he really likes Xander (as a friend or as a crush), or just a personal grudge against the Japanese vampire group that, in his eyes, “stole” his powers?
Perhaps more significantly, does this make Dracula a third eligible party besides Angel and Spike who might be the subject of the Shanshu prophecy, seeing as he is also a vampire with a soul?? (And how mad would Angel and Spike be if that turned out to have never been about either of them this entire time?)
Or, am I jumping on the soul thing a bit too much? Could he maybe speaking... metaphorically for some reason? Does he mean something different by “soul”, like say, the poetic essence of who he is as a vampire or his honor or some such, rather than his human conscience as it is to Spike and Angel?
Or is he aware of his soul outside of himself somehow, like how when vampires don’t have their souls they’re apparently just out in the nether somewhere, available to be summoned when called upon? If it can be put at risk but isn’t inside of him, then is Dracula’s human soul in some sort of Heaven somehow while his vampiric self is causing mischief on earth, and yet somehow vampire!Dracula is aware of his human soul elsewhere and is aware that his earthly actions may somehow put it in jeopardy? But Spike and Angel seem convinced that they’re fated for hell for being vampires (which irks me, but is a rant for another day), so why would Dracula be an exception? Could he have somehow sold his soul for these powers when he didn’t even have access to it? Does he just mean that he risked his soul back when he initially became a vampire specifically to attain access to these powers? But wouldn’t the specific use of the term “risked” and not “lost” imply that, while there was peril to his soul, the peril ultimately did not persist, hence his soul was neither lost nor damaged, only at temporary risk of being in some sort of harmed state?
Why would the comic writers put emphasis on the world “soul” in a throwaway line that isn’t revisited at any point in Dracula’s stint in the comics so far (I’m just through with the Fray crossover arc now and no one has said another word about this that I can recall) when vampire soul lore is such a complicated and contentious aspect of the Buffyverse? Did they just... forget the significance of the whole soul thing? What could this line possibly mean other than that Dracula has had a soul this whole time without mentioning it to anyone, and yet he casually let it slip while talking about his secret transforming powers?
To put it more briefly, I’ll quote Xander in “Something Blue”: What? How? What?
Okay, so it turns out I have many questions. Well, some of that was more like my own speculations and theories posed as questions since I was on a roll, but anyone can feel free to respond to any of the many questions I put here, honestly. It’s such a small moment but I saw the word “soul” there and it just sent me reeling because... well, it raises all of my above questions and then some. Anyways, I’d love to hear the fandom’s thoughts on this and the possibility of Dracula being a third vampire with a soul(tm).
Edited to put an actual TL;DR: Dracula implies in this panel of the comics that he has a soul!? Thoughts??
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Welcome, dear traveller, to our fantastical lande shrouded in swirling violet mists. Here we study how stories shape our lives, how words weave wonders before our eyes. Here we are enamoured of love and the connections betwixt people. Here we seek daring adventures in our wild lande, delving into the unknown at every turn. But mostly, here you'll find my obsession with any number of things, like Doctor Who, the Vampire Diaries, or any number of others from the ever-shifting tide of obsessions through which I cycle. My more-used sideblog is blagueofchaos if you ever wish I posted more :) She/her, 28
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