Jump to content

Children of Ghis: Names and Titles


Aline de Gavrillac

Recommended Posts

I love Eastern names.  Xaro Xhoan Daxos, Quhuru, Saladhor.  I love the names of the Ghiscari in particular. 

Kraznys mo Naklos

Grazdan mo Eraz

Skahaz mo Kandaq

Reznak mo Reznak

The highest among the nobility.

Hizdahr zo Lorag

Yezzan zo Qaggaz

Yurkhaz zo Yunzak

Oznak zo Pahl

I have noticed this hierarchy.  Those on the highest levels among the Ghis have "zo" in the middle.  I believe Mr. Martin intended "zo" as an honorific.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, Aline de Gavrillac said:

I love Eastern names.

Quote

Meereenese was harder; its roots were Valyrian as well, but the tree had been grafted onto the harsh, ugly tongue of Old Ghis. “You need a bee up your nose to speak Ghiscari properly,” Tyrion complained. Young Griff laughed, but the Halfmaester only said, “Again.”

Sorry, I'm with Tyrion on this one. ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I half wonder if while treated as marks of greatness they actually are something quite insulting the people carrying them in actual Ghiscari but since the Ghiscari have lost most of their original language they no longer understand the insults they have included in their own names.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 1/15/2022 at 10:08 PM, Aline de Gavrillac said:

The highest among the nobility.

Hizdahr zo Lorag

The fighting pit build-up in Meereen matches up with The Wizard of Oz:

  • the royal procession: "... the many-colored bricks of Meereen. Their masks gleamed in the sun: boars and bulls, hawks and herons, lions and tigers and bears, fork-tongued serpents and hideous basilisks."
  • spectators arranged in rainbow colors
  • Dany becoming a dragon rider allows her to fly "over the rainbow"

Reverse the Oz to zo and suddenly Hizdahr zo Loraq sounds like Wizard Oz _____ (haven't yet figured out the Loraq).

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, LynnS said:

Lorax?

I haven't seen any other Dr. Seuss references in ASOIAF (although they may have just sailed over my head) and I don't see an environmental theme connected to Hizdahr. (Although Dany does plant trees while she is in Essos.) 

If I had to guess, I might go for "coral" as the basis for the name. Coral as a color is a shade of red: because we have seen Dany enamored of the blue-bearded Daario, she may be working on her rule of three badge by moving on to a "red" lover with her reluctant marriage. (The three forks of the Trident dictate a lot of my guesswork on color combinations for our main characters.)

Coral would also fit with the "under the sea" lines from Patchface that seem prophetic. 

Substituting the letter Q into the name might be a GRRM clue for a magical mentor: I have speculated that Qyburn, Moqorro, and Qhorin are Q-characters who serve specific, magical roles in the quests of some main characters. But there are other mentors and other (to my mind) magical characters who do not have letters Q in their name, so these Q-characters may have a more narrow role I haven't yet recognized or it may be just a coincidence that they all have a letter Q. 

I can't remember who it was in the forum who speculated that the character "Q" from the James Bond movies might have been an inspiration for the magical mentors. Providing a special weapon or other magical item for the hero is an important function for a mentor. If marriage to Hizdahr and reopening of the fighting pit was necessary for Dany to become a dragon rider, Hizdahr's magic-giving role has been achieved. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Seams said:

I haven't seen any other Dr. Seuss references in ASOIAF (although they may have just sailed over my head) and I don't see an environmental theme connected to Hizdahr. (Although Dany does plant trees while she is in Essos.) 

Well we do have a Kermit.  :D  But I like your guess better.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 1/17/2022 at 4:46 PM, The Lord of the Crossing said:

We don't know what kind of names the average citizen gets.  The mo and zo probably denoted the number of slaves they owned. 

Average Joe was simply named "Joe".  Dunk the Tall lacked a surname.  His antecedents, a mystery which nobody cared to learn.  The commoners of the Bay will be the same. 

On 1/18/2022 at 8:11 AM, Thandros said:

I half wonder if while treated as marks of greatness they actually are something quite insulting the people carrying them in actual Ghiscari but since the Ghiscari have lost most of their original language they no longer understand the insults they have included in their own names.

Doubtful.  The citizens of the far east are more learned in comparison to those from the west.  The free class would make up the citizens while the slaves are the property class. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...