Looks like I'll have a Reed wand then, interesting! I've not seen the parentheses before, but some of those are ancient words for the wood type - tinne is Holly, for example... (I only know this because of a pagan friend who used it on a winter holiday card, hee)
I'm July 7th, teehee. Oooh! Mine's Oak. Though I don't think Elder wands are that common, 'The Elder Wand' was one of the hallows afterall. I'm not sure what the words mean, but BellyButton sounds right x]
Quote:
Oak – Oak is a strong, reliable wandwood that helps with DADA and Transfiguration. However, its sturdiness means that it may take longer to learn new spells.
The letter names are interpreted as names of trees or shrubs in manuscript tradition, both in the Auraicept and In Lebor Ogaim. They were first discussed by Roderic O''Flaherty (1685), who took them at face value. The Auraicept itself is aware that not all names are known tree names, saying "Now all these are wood names such as are found in the Ogham Book of Woods, and are not derived from men", admitting that "some of these trees are not known today". The Auraicept gives a short verse for each letter, identifying the plant. Only four of the twenty primary letters have names that the Auraicept considers comprehensible without glosses, namely beith "birch", fearn "alder", saille "willow" and duir "oak". All the other names are glossed or "translated" with a plant name. McManus (1991, §3.15) discusses possible etymologies of each name. The "Tree phabet" idea dates to the Old Irish period (say, 10th century), but it post-dates the Primitive Irish period, or at least the time when the letters were originally named. Its origin is probably due to the letters themselves being called feda "trees", or nin "forking branches" due to their shape. Since a few of the letters were, in fact, named after trees, the interpretation arose that they were called feda because of that. Some of the names had fallen out of use as independend words, and were thus free to be claimed as "Old Gaelic" tree names, while others (such as ruis, úath or gort) were more or less forcefully re-interpreted as epitheta of trees by the medieval glossators.
Beith, Old Irish Beithe means "birch-tree"
Luis, Old Irish Luis is either related to luise "blaze" or lus "herb". The arboreal tradition has caertheand "rowan".
Fearn, Old Irish Fern means "alder-tree", Primitive Irish *wernā, so that the original value of the letter was [w].
Sail, Old Irish Sail means "willow-tree", cognate to Latin salix.
Nion, Old Irish Nin means either "fork" or "loft". The arboreal tradition has uinnius "ash-tree".
Uath, Old Irish Úath means úath "horror, fear", the arboreal tradition has "white-thorn". The original etymology of the name, and the letter''s value, are however unclear. McManus (1986) suggested a value [y]. Peter Schrijver (see McManus 1991:37) suggested that if úath "fear" is cognate with Latin pavere, a trace of PIE *p might have survived into Primitive Irish, but there is no independent evidence for this.
Dair, Old Irish Dair means "oak" (PIE *doru-).
Tinne, Old Irish Tinne from the evidence of the kennings means "bar of metal, ingot". The arboreal tradition has cuileand "holly".
Coll, Old Irish Coll meant "hazel-tree", cognate with Welsh collen, correctly glossed as cainfidh "fair-wood" ("hazel") by the arboreal interpretation.
Ceirt, Old Irish Cert is cognate with Welsh pert "bush" , Latin quercus "oak" (PIE *perkwos). It was confused with Old Irish ceirt "rag", reflected in the kennings. The Auraicept glosses aball "apple".
Muin, Old Irish Muin: the kennings connect this name to three different words, muin "neck, upper part of the back", muin "wile, ruse", and muin "love, esteem". The arboreal tradition has finemhain "vine".
Gort, Old Irish Gort means "field" (cognate to garden). The arboreal tradition has edind "ivy".
nGéadal, Old Irish Gétal from the kennings has a meaning of "killing", maybe cognate to gonid "slays", from PIE gwen-. The value of the letter in Primitive Irish, then, was a voiced labiovelar, [gw]. The arboreal tradition glosses cilcach, "broom" or "fern".
Straif, Old Irish Straiph means "sulphur". The Primitive Irish letter value is uncertain, it may have been a sibilant different from s, which is taken by sail, maybe a reflex of /st/ or /sw/. The arboreal tradition glosses draighin "blackthorn".
Ruis, Old Irish Ruis means "red" or "redness", glossed as trom "elder".
Ailm, Old Irish Ailm is of uncertain meaning, possibly "pine-tree". The Auraicept has crand giuis .i. ochtach, "fir-tree" or "pinetree".
Onn, Old Irish Onn means "ash-tree", although the Auraicept glosses aiten "furze".
Úr, Old Irish Úr, based on the kennings, means "earth, clay, soil". The Auraicept glosses fraech "heath".
Eadhadh, Old Irish Edad and Iodhadh, Old Irish Idad are paired names of unknown meaning. The Auraicept glosses crand fir no crithach "test-tree or aspen", and ibhar "yew", respectively.
Last edited by BellyButton; 08-05-2011 at 06:49 PM..
Let's take Belly's words as right, it's the best explanation right now. (: And the description for Reed sounds like it's an amazing wand to have. My wood sounds kickass, though. XD
Quote:
Alder – Alder is extremely rare, as many wandmakers will refuse to take wood from an alder. The ‘bleeding’, turning from white to red, is considered to be inauspicious. The few wands made of alder are often those with strongly opposing cores (such as doxy wings and phoenix feather), as the wood imposes balance.
It sounds like a tricky wand, suitable for Slytherins, however. Hm, I wonder what it means.
Oh, and that's some very interestion information you got there, Belly! Nice!
I'm so excited to! Either tomorrow or monday people should start getting their e-mails, theory is that the earlier you registered the earlier you'll get the welcome e-mail.
You too? I'm not even going to log off my account just in case. I'm on day three so chances are I won't get the e-mail for a few days but there's nothing stopping me from ruining my F5 key in the mean time! :D
Yup =D
Here's an interesting thought from someone on Facebook; starting tomorrow, there's 7 weeks left till October. 7 days of the magical quill quest. Think there's a correlation? O:
I had thought about that theory too, and it's very plausible, though I'm hoping they'll come up a little faster than that because if not, the last people to register will only be betas for about a week, and that's gonna suck for them. XD
Yeah, I'd hate if that happened and I had registered last. > <
But Pottermore has said it may take a few weeks for some people to get their emails, I guess we'll just have to wait and see. D:
I was wondering if you lot could leave your Pottermore usernames and the day you registered here, so I could put it up on a neat list, and then when someone got their e-mail, I'd update the list and maybe we could see how the e-mails are processed. Plus we could totally friend each other if we know our Pottermore usernames. XD Yes, I am planning on whoring out friend requests if such a feature exists. THERE WILL BE NO STOPPING ME.
List has been moved to the first post, guys and girls! ;D
Last edited by NeuzaKC; 08-07-2011 at 08:06 PM..
Reason: List has been moved!
