A true name is a name of a thing or being that expresses, or is somehow identical with, its true nature. A name ( Etymology: from OE nama akin to OHG namo, Latin Nomen, and Greek όνομα ( Nature, in the broadest sense is equivalent to the natural world, physical universe, material world or material universe. The notion that language, or some specific sacred language, refers to things by their true names has been central to magic, religious invocation and mysticism (mantras) since antiquity. A language is a dynamic set of visual auditory or tactile Symbols of Communication and the elements used to manipulate them A sacred language, or liturgical language, is a Language that is cultivated for religious reasons by people who speak another language in their daily life Magic, sometimes known as sorcery, is a Conceptual system that asserts human ability to control the natural world (including events objects people and An invocation (from the Latin verb invocare "to call on invoke" may take the form of Supplication or Prayer A mantra ( Devanāgarī मन्त्र (or mantram is a religious or mystical syllable or poem typically from the Sanskrit language
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Folklore
In folklore, knowledge of a true name allows one to magically affect a person or being. History The concept of folklore developed as part of the 19th century ideology of Romantic nationalism, leading to the reshaping of oral traditions to serve modern ideological Magic in Fiction is the endowing of Fictional characters or objects with magical powers. [1] Such names could give the person who knew them power even over gods in some beliefs, and the effect is used in many tales. [2]
In Rumpelstiltskin and all its variants, the girl can free herself from the power of a supernatural helper who demands her child by learning its name. Rumpelstiltskin is a character in a Fairy tale of the same name that originated in Germany (where he is known as Rumpelstilzchen) [3]
A legend of Saint Olaf recounts how a troll built a church for the saint at a fantastic speed and price, but the saint was able to free himself by learning the troll's name in a walk in the woods. A troll is a fearsome member of a race of creatures from Norse mythology. [4] Similarly, the belief that unbaptized children were in particular danger of having the fairies kidnap them and leave changelings in their place may stem from their unnamed state. A fairy (also fay, fey, fae, faerie; collectively wee folk, good folk, people of peace, fair A Changeling is a being in West European Folklore and Folk religion, typically described as the offspring of a Fairy, Troll [5] In the Scandinavian variants of the ballad Earl Brand, the hero can defeat all his enemies until the heroine, running away with him, pleads with him by name to spare her youngest brother. Earl Brand is one of the Child ballads 7 ( Roud 23 Legend claims it recounts a historical event [6]
In Scandinavian beliefs, more magical beasts, such as the Nix, could be defeated by calling their name. Wagner's Rhinemaidens The Neck ( English) or the Nix/Nixe ( German) refer to Shapeshifting water spirits who usually appear in human form [7]
Much of Renaissance demonology is based on the idea of achieving power over a demon by knowledge of its true name. Demonology (from Greek grc δαίμων daimōn, "demon" and grc -λογία -logia) is the systematic study of
In fantasy works
This belief is employed in many fantasy works. Bilbo Baggins, in J. Bilbo Baggins is the protagonist of The Hobbit and also makes an appearance in The Lord of the Rings, two of the most well-known of R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit, uses a great deal of trickery to keep the dragon from learning his name, it being very foolish to tell a dragon one's name. The Hobbit or There and Back Again is an award-winning fantasy [8]
In fantasy works where magic works by this rule, characters often go to great lengths to conceal their names; this may be a rule for all characters, as in Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea, or for those of magical inclination, as in Larry Niven's The Magic Goes Away, where a wizard is revived from the dead only by another who found his name, with great difficulty. Ursula Kroeber Le Guin (ˈɝsələ ˈkroʊbɚ ləˈgwɪn (born October 21, 1929) is an American author Earthsea is a Fictional realm created by Ursula K Le Guin for her short story " The Word of Unbinding " published in 1964 but that became more Laurence van Cott Niven (born April 30, 1938 Los Angeles California) is a US Science fiction author. The Magic Goes Away is a Fantasy Short story written by Larry Niven in 1976 and later expanded to a Novella of the same name which
Such true names are often the name given at birth. Patricia Wrede, in her novel Snow-White and Rose-Red, had a character not succumb to a spell because the caster did not know the name he was baptized by. Patricia Collins Wrede is an American Fantasy Writer, born 1953 in Chicago Illinois; she is the eldest of five children Snow-White and Rose-Red ( German: Schneeweißchen und Rosenrot) is a German Fairy tale. In Operation Chaos, Poul Anderson had the doctor who delivered a baby not only issue a regular birth certificate, but a secret one, with the newborn's name; the hero, born before such precautions were routine, is glad to hide his daughter's true name. Operation Chaos is a 1971 Science fiction / Fantasy Fixup Novel by Poul Anderson. Poul William Anderson ( November 25, 1926 – July 31, 2001) was an American Science fiction author who wrote during a Golden In the Bartimaeus trilogy by Jonathan Stroud, a magician cannot have full control over a demon if the demon knows the magician's true name; as a result all magicians have records of their true names destroyed during childhood and take a new name around adolescence. The Bartimaeus Trilogy is a Fantasy series by Jonathan Stroud and was published as a series of three novels between 2003 and 2005 Jonathan Anthony Stroud ( 27 october 1970, Bedford, England) is an Author of Fantasy books mainly for children and
More arcane means may be needed to find a true name. In Earthsea, a wizard must listen for and give the hero his true name; this is performed in both Le Guin's A Wizard of Earthsea and The Tombs of Atuan. A Wizard of Earthsea, first published in 1968 is the first of a series of books written by Ursula K The Tombs of Atuan is the second of a series of books written by Ursula K In Lawrence Watt-Evans's The Wizard Lord, animals are described as having simple names of only a few syllables, while humans can have almost endless ever-changing names. Lawrence Watt-Evans (born 1954) is one of the Pseudonyms of American Science fiction and Fantasy author Lawrence Watt Evans
A character remembering their true name may be an important means of maintaining mastery of their own life. In Hayao Miyazaki's movie Spirited Away, The witch who runs the bathhouse, Yubaba, ensures loyalty by stealing the names of her subjects. is a is a 2001 film by the Japanese Anime studio Studio Ghibli, written and directed by famed animator Hayao Miyazaki. For example, one of the witches most loyal subjects, the spirit of the Kohaku River has his name taken and is given a slave name: Haku. Haku in fact forgets his name, and it is in this way 'taken' from him; he warns Chihiro Ogino against the dangers of forgetting he own name. is a 2001 film by the Japanese Anime studio Studio Ghibli, written and directed by famed animator Hayao Miyazaki. She frees him when she recognises him and he then remembers and 'takes back' his name and is freed from the clutches of the witch.
In the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, certain spells are more powerful if the target's true name is known. Dungeons & Dragons (abbreviated as D&D or DnD) is a Fantasy Role-playing game (RPG originally designed by A role-playing game ( RPG; often roleplaying game) is a Game in which the participants assume the roles of Fictional characters. [9] The Tome of Magic supplement presents a number of classes, feats and magical abilities which interact with truenames.
In the cyberpunk genre following Vernor Vinge's 1981 True Names and the work of William Gibson, much of the plot involved interactions between people's virtual selves in cyberspace. Cyberpunk is a Science fiction genre noted for its focus on " High tech and low life. Vernor Steffen Vinge (ˈvɪndʒi (born October 2, 1944 in Waukesha Wisconsin, U True Names was the Science fiction Novella which brought Vernor Vinge to prominence in 1981 William Ford Gibson (born March 17 1948 is an American - Canadian writer who has been called the "noir prophet" of the Cyberpunk subgenre Cyberspace &mdash from the Greek el Κυβερνήτης (el kybernētēs steersman governor pilot or rudder &mdash is the global domain of electro-magnetics accessed Learning a fellow hacker's real-world name (i. e. , their "true name") could allow you to turn them in to the government or otherwise blackmail them, conveying a kind of power that could be considered analogous to the equivalent concept of myth and legend. The technological concept of a password (the most common form of access control for present-day computer systems) appears to play no role at all in this genre. In computing a password is a Word or string of characters that is entered often along with a user name, in modern times usually into a computer system
Linguistic context
Socrates in Cratylus (dialogue) considers the possibility without taking a clear position. SOCRATES is the European Community action programme in the field of Education. Cratylus ( Greek: Κράτυλος is the name of a dialogue by Plato. Hellenistic Judaism emphasized the divine nature of logos, later adopted by the Gospel of John. Hellenistic Judaism was a movement which existed in the Jewish diaspora before the Siege of Jerusalem in 70 AD that sought to establish a Hebraic-Jewish grc-Latn Logos (ˈloʊːgɒs ( Greek, logos) is an important term in Philosophy, Analytical psychology, Rhetoric and Religion The Gospel of John (literally According to John; Greek, Κατὰ Ἰωάννην Kata Iōannēn) is the fourth Gospel in the canon The true name of God plays a central role in Kabbalism (see Gematria, Temurah, JHWH) and in to some extent in Sufism (see 100th name of God). Kabbalah (קַבָּלָה lit "receiving" is a discipline and school of thought discussing the mystical aspect of Judaism. Gematria or gimatria ( Rabbinic Hebrew he גימטריה) is a system of assigning numerical value to an Alphabet. Temurah is one of the three ancient methods the other two are Gematria and Notarikon, used by the Kabbalists to rearrange words and sentences in the Bible For information about Yahweh see God in Abrahamic religions, which provides useful links Sufism ( تصوّف - taṣawwuf, Persian: صوفیگری sufigari, Turkish: tasavvuf, Urdu: تصوف Bhartrhari and his followers advocating the sphota theory argued for an identity of word and meaning in spite of the outward (phonetic) form of a word taking various shapes. Bhartṛhari is the name of a 6th or 7th century Sanskrit grammarian, and of a Sanskrit poet of roughly the same period Sphoṭa (literally "bursting opening" is an important concept in Sanskrit philosophy of language, relating to the problem of speech production how the mind orders The early modern efforts towards a philosophical language were the quest to recover the language that refers to all things by their true names. A philosophical language is any Constructed language that is constructed from First principles, like a logical language, but may entail a strong claim of
The notion of a "true name" is related to the field of phonosemantics, the study of a possible intrinsic relationship between sound (the spoken word) and the thing referred to. Sound symbolism or phonosemantics is a branch of Linguistics and refers to the idea that vocal sounds have meaning The opposite position is known as conventionalism. Conventionalism is the philosophical attitude that fundamental principles of a certain kind are grounded on (explicit or implicit agreements in society rather than on This is the default position of modern linguistics at least since Ferdinand de Saussure (l'arbitraire du signe), although some scholars, such as Otto Jespersen and George Steiner, take an intermediate position, and there is some renewed research in sound symbolism notably by Margaret Magnus and Vilayanur S. Ramachandran. Linguistics is the scientific study of Language, encompassing a number of sub-fields Ferdinand de Saussure (fɛʁdinɑ̃ də soˈsyːʁ ( November 26, 1857 – February 22, 1913) was a Swiss linguist Course in General Linguistics ( Cours de linguistique générale) is the influential book compiled by Charles Bally and Albert Sechehaye Jens Otto Harry Jespersen or Otto Jespersen ʌtˢo ˈjɛsb̥ɐsn̩ ( July 16, 1860 - April 30, 1943) was a Danish linguist Francis George Steiner (born April 23, 1929) is an influential European born American Literary critic, Essayist, Margaret H Magnus is a researcher in Phonosemantics. Works Dictionary of English Sound *1999 Gods of the Word: Archetypes in the Consonants Vilayanur S "Rama" Ramachandran is a neurologist best known for his work in the fields of Behavioral neurology and Psychophysics.
In the novel Tithe: A Modern Fairy Tale, by Holly Black, the main character, Kaye, is able to force a fairy, Rath Roiben Rye, to do everything she demands him to do by learning his full and true name.
In cryptography
The term "true name" is sometimes used in cryptography and computer security to refer to a name that is assumed to uniquely identify a principal in a global namespace (for example, an X.500 or X.509 Distinguished name). Cryptography (or cryptology; from Greek grc κρυπτός kryptos, "hidden secret" and grc γράφω gráphō, "I write" This article describes how security can be achieved through design and engineering X500 is a series of computer networking standards covering electronic Directory services The X In Cryptography, X509 is an ITU-T standard for a Public key infrastructure (PKI for Single sign-on and Privilege Management Infrastructure The Lightweight Directory Access Protocol, or LDAP (ˈɛl dæp is an Application protocol for querying and modifying Directory services running over This usage is often critical, with the implication that use of true names is difficult to enforce and unwise to rely on.
See also
References
Notes
- ^ Philip Martin, The Writer's Guide to Fantasy Literature: From Dragon's Lair to Hero's Quest, p 134, ISBN 0-87116-195-8
- ^ Maria Tatar, The Annotated Brothers Grimm, p 260 W. Satnam can also be used in Sikh names as well Satnaam | ਸਤਿਨਾਮੁ This word is the second word that appears in the Sikhs sacred Scripture Magic words are words which have a specific and sometimes unintended effect A mantra ( Devanāgarī मन्त्र (or mantram is a religious or mystical syllable or poem typically from the Sanskrit language See also Divine language The Adamic language is according to Abrahamic traditions, the mythical language spoken by Adam and Eve in the Garden grc-Latn Logos (ˈloʊːgɒs ( Greek, logos) is an important term in Philosophy, Analytical psychology, Rhetoric and Religion Śábda is the Sanskrit for "sound speech"In Sanskrit grammar, the term refers to an Utterance in the sense of Linguistic performance To say that something is " ineffable " means that it cannot or should not be expressed in spoken words (as with the concept of true love or some Taboo) Sound symbolism or phonosemantics is a branch of Linguistics and refers to the idea that vocal sounds have meaning W. Norton & company, London, New York, 2004 ISBN 0-393-05848-4
- ^ Maria Tatar, p 128, The Annotated Classic Fairy Tales, ISBN 0-393-05163-3
- ^ Francis James Child, The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, v 1, p 95, Dover Publications, New York 1965
- ^ K. M. Briggs, The Fairies in English Tradition and Literature, p 115 University of Chicago Press, London, 1967
- ^ Francis James Child, The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, v 1, p 91, Dover Publications, New York 1965
- ^ Francis James Child, The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, v 1, p 95-6, Dover Publications, New York 1965
- ^ Maria Tatar, The Annotated Brothers Grimm, p 261 W. W. Norton & company, London, New York, 2004 ISBN 0-393-05848-4
- ^ The spell Trap the Soul is one such example, where knowledge of a true name allows for even those immune to magic to be captured.
Sources
- John Clute and John Grant, The Encyclopedia of Fantasy, "True Name" p 966 ISBN 0-312-10869-8
Dictionary
true name
-noun
- (fantasy) A unique name of any entity which can be used to control or manipulate that entity.
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