QotM- Tell us about your screenname

[Lomadia]

Where did you find your screenname? Is it a nickname? The name of a character? Did you make it up? Why did you choose it?

[[Aeria-Gloris]]

Well what an opportunity for a change! Gone are the days of Jack Walsingham esq - It's time to bring my Fifth Age name in line with all my other online personas.

The Jack ID was a twist on my real name, Walsingham being an ancestral name. Though now I've been doing more research into my family's genealogy, it seems that it's only one of a number of possibilities.

I've been using the [Aeria-Gloris] username along with many others for years now. It's high time I picked a favourite and stuck to it. To my horror, I've googled the name and it seems to have caught on in a big way. There are dozens of Aeria Glori (I'm guessing at the plural) out there. Someone who seems to share my sentiments about the Name/Phrase is the owner of aeriagloris.com (a fantastic website Featuring writings on everything from a spiritual perspective). Because I'm lazy (and he/she is so eloquent) I'll quote their explanation of its origins:

"Inner Universe" by Origa / Shanti Snyder / Yoko Kanno is a beautiful song. With lyrics in Russian and English, the song is about longing, nothingness, love, and an incredible sense of motion within. The most repeated phrase in this song is 'Aeria Gloris', which means 'heavenly glory' in Latin.

How did I stumble upon this song? I'm an anime fan (Anime is Japanese style animation.). One of my favourite anime series is "Ghost in the Shell". This series features a very detailed world with deep and developed characters. The story moves on several fronts at once: philosophical, political, technological. The main focus is, in my terms: polarity integration. Integration of flesh and machine, consciousness and body - ghost and shell. The series maintains a delicate balance of identity in every aspect.

[A-G]

[Lomadia]

Very interesting! But you'll have to forgive us if we accidentally call you Jack every now and then.

Having recently taken up Latin, I was inclined to look more into the phrase Aeria Gloris- hope you don't mind! "Heavenly Glory" is a fair enough basic translation, but if you want to seem like you really know your Latin, "For the Glory of the Heavens" is a more literal meaning.

My screenname, banally enough, came from an online Elvish translator- absolute rubbish, of course: it just generates a name that sounds somewhat Elvish, with no regard for meaning. Lomadia literally means something like "echoing voice," I believe, whereas my real name means "God's blessing." Still, I liked it, it worked, it stuck.

[ania]

My screen name is the first name of one of my better characters from a book I'm writing

[[Aeria-Gloris]]

I very much like both your name's hidden meanings Lomadia. Dissimilar, but in a hypothetical sense, would not God's blessing come as an echoing voice?

I did the exact same as you on the translation front. I dragged out the Latin dictionary and came up with all sorts of possible translations. What an exciting language it is! The word "Aeria" was actually being used before the traditional concept of heaven so the most literal translation is "of the skies". In an Ironic sense, I much prefer your translation. I'm a very scientific person and try and view beliefs and spirituality in an objective way but there's just something about angelic iconography that interests me for some reason. The rest, I can pretty much leave to different kinds of people.

I'd really like your advice on another Latin phrase/motto if I may? You see, on this genealogical front I mentioned earlier, I've discovered that my family originates from a much smaller and more isolated branch of the surname. As a result, the surname has a different (cooler) crest and an alternative family motto.

The original was "Transfixus Sed Non Mortuus" which translates simply as "Transfixed/Pierced/Wounded But Not Dead". I always liked the motto and it reminded me of Boromir (trying desperately back to the forum theme!)

The strange and rare motto I've discovered Isn't as easy to get my head round. I've seen "Victum Invideo Silenti" translated in a number of strange (and slightly creepy) ways:

"The Conquered Shall Envy the Dead"
"Silence conquers envy"
"Obscurity surpasses envy"
"I begrudge to the dead one his way of life"
"I envy the conquered [his] peace"

Although it'd be interesting to have "I Envy the Dead" as a motto, I think it's more likely that the last translation is the closest since:

Invideo: 1st person singular: "I envy" or "I begrudge"
Victum: accusative, direct object, "the conquered one"
Silenti: dative singular, "silence/peace/rest/repose"

I'd love to hear your opinion on this if your interested?

And Ania, I'm sure we'd all love to read a excerpt from your book in the fan-fic section?

[A-G]

[Lomadia]

Oof, that one's tricky! Here's what I've come up with:


Invideo= "I envy"; or "I begrudge" if there's an ablative and a dative for it to take as the reason for the grudge and the person begrudged, respectively.

Silenti= Singular; could either be dative or ablative. If it's dative, it could be mean "him who is quiet"/"him who rests". If it's ablative, it could be "silence/rest/peace".

Victum= Accusative of "livelihood" or "him who is conquered". This is what really throws me. As I mentioned above, "Invideo" doesn't take an accusative if there's a reason for the envy given, which I'm inclined to think there is. It's possible that the motto's creator thought that the accusative was appropriate to use here, since it would be appropriate if there were no reason. Or, this could be a Medieval use of the word, since in the Middle Ages rules were looser about the declension of nouns.

I'm going to assume that "Victum" is supposed to mean "the conquered one", and that it is the person envied. If this is so, my translation (which, I assure you, is not given with any real authority) would be:

I begrudge the conquered one his peace.

Just as you thought! This is both an interesting bit of philosophy- that the oppressed are happier than the oppressors- and a subtle bit of flattery towards the motto's family, as it suggests that they are never the ones being conquered. Very cool!

[Beren Erchamion]

Well, we all know who Beren is. Pshaw. I thought the name was awesome. And now I have nothing to say about it. Guess I made a boring choice.

Beren is a hero. One of the better ones in LotR human history, in my opinion, and certainly one of the more famous.

I love that opening theme to GitS:SC...and now I know what it means. Thank you Ja-- erm, AG.

On a side note, for our Spirit Week t-shirts at school I had my friend put a slogan of my choice on the back of our shirt design. She's putting it on all the shirts, and I quite naturally suggested a Latin phrase, Latin being cool and all: Pro Veneratio Quod Puella. I told her it's "Success Through Perseverence" (she knows absolutely nothing about words but the real translation is something like: For Honor and Girls. And if she ever looks it up online, I'm dead.