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kkollwitz
Guest
To know the name of someone and to use it to directly address them is to assume a certain power or dominion over them.
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patrick457
Guest
Exactly. It’s almost kind of like in Ursula K. LeGuin’s Earthsea series, ain’t it?
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kkollwitz
Guest
“Ursula K. LeGuin’s Earthsea series”
Don’t know this; but since you bring her up, “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” helped form my anti-abortion worldview.
Don’t know this; but since you bring her up, “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” helped form my anti-abortion worldview.
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CaptFun
Guest
Do you know the word "form" and the word “from” can be mistaken for one another when one reads too quickly? I just found that out.
It changes the meaning of your sentence a lit-tle.
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patrick457
Guest
A conceit in the Earthsea universe is that everyone and everything has a true name in the language of the dragons (the Old Speech). People often keep their true names - which are given to them upon coming of age - secret to all but the trustworthy, because knowledge of the true name of an object grants one power over it. Take the character Ged for example: he was known as ‘Duny’ as a kid, then he was granted the true name ‘Ged’ when he became an apprentice to the wizard Ogion (true name: Aihal). Normally Ged goes by the use name ‘Sparrowhawk’.
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kkollwitz
Guest
Don’t American Indians have that same name-thing?
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pablope
Guest
If I remember Fr. Gary’s explanation of this, when he was interviewed live on CA live, he was asked this question…and his answer was…getting a demon to reveal their name means some sort of baptism for them…when they reveal their name, it is like revealing their essence…hence they try to conceal their name to exorcists. And when they do…the exorcist can start asserting over them.
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patrick457
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Yep, they (or at least certain groups) apparently do. Come to think of it, it’s a pretty common belief across different cultures.
The ancient Egyptians for example had the same concept. In fact, the use of a name to control or subjugate something/someone is a common feature of a number of Egyptian funerary and magical texts. There is, for example, the so-called ‘execration’ texts, which involves writing the name of an enemy - an individual, a place, or whole groups of people - onto a piece of pottery and then smashing and burying it, symbolically defeating and killing the being in question. There was even a myth about how Isis sought to discover her father Ra’s secret true name - the only thing in the world that she didn’t know.
AFAIK in India there is (or was) the custom of giving a newborn baby a secret name that only his/her parents know. The story of Rumpelstiltskin has the girl freeing herself from the power of the eponymous imp who demands her child by revealing his name. There was a legend about how a troll built a church for King St. Olaf at a fantastic speed and equally fantastic price, but Olaf freed himself from debt by learning the troll’s name. Malevolent Necks (Nixes) could be defeated by saying their names.
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kkollwitz
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I always point out to my 6th graders that God let Adam name the animals to show man’s dominion over them.
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patrick457
Guest
Exactly! Name-giving in the Bible is often a sign of authority. (Notice the trend here across different cultures?) You’d notice that in different occasions God names (or rather, changes the name of) someone, often in recognition of a changed nature, personality or status: for example, he changes ‘Abram’ to ‘Abraham’, and names Jacob ‘Israel’. The city of Zephath which was conquered by the Israelites is renamed Hormah (‘utter destruction’) as a sign of dominion (Numbers 21:2-3; Judges 1:17).
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PazzoGrande
Guest
Cool, I didn’t know that. I wish they mentioned that in the book. It explains why their names are the way they are like “legion” and “hermit.”
Could you post up a link to that interview? I’d love to hear it.
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