The Cauldron: A Pagan Forum

We haven't (re-)introduced ourselves in a while, I don't think, so I thought it might be fun to do it in a different way...

Often we give a lot of thought to the name we go by in this forum. Now I want you to add to that: give us an appellation that amplifies or elucidates what you're all about (or, if not all, an important aspect), and explain it.

For example, Hermes Trismegistus ("thrice great")...
...or Wanda the Chaste (because not having sex is really important to her right now)...

OK, go!

Altair Skyborn
Skyborn...because, besides the bird obsession, I've realized I'm never happier than when I'm outdoors, under an open sky. Feeling the summer breeze can do more to cure whatever ails me than almost anything else. And I've always been like that, since I was a little kid.

Faemon. From fae, possibly associated with  fatae or the Fates as intervening forces/powers, and -mon short for monster, monere, one whose disfigured presence portends future events. Pun on daemon.

I like fairy tales and learning how a thing interacts with a thing to mean, do, or become another thing.

FraterBenedict Many-paths

The ordinary username is self-ironical about my past (and, in some cases, present) in a few esoteric/fraternal orders.

The additional username is rather obvious, I believe.

 
Skumring Helasonn

Dusk is probably not so obvious and I've actually taken several names over the years to reflect my then-current spiritual progress toward my own personal goals.

So, "Dusk", being that quality which implies a near-balance of light and dark with a leaning toward darkness. It is also the true start of the day in my own pagan tradition and thus fits with my relatively new beginnings as many of my goals and efforts have begun to meet with success.

Helasonn is Swedish for "Son of Hela"; my patron Goddess. This is the first time since I've begun that I've taken on a second name and the first time I've devoted myself so completely to a faith or even a God or Goddess.

Helasonn is Swedish for "Son of Hela"

 
No, it isn't. I recommend "Helsson" if you attempt a Swedish name with that semantic content. It is my native language, after all. No 'a', but two 's', an just one'n'.

Mad Zealot.  

Simply put, it's a reminder that it's OK to be fervent in my beliefs and not take myself too seriously.

Cryfder means strength in Welsh. It reminds me to be strong, and ultimately be myself!

Blame Google, and my Swedish friend who didn't correct me or Google either, lol.

He or she probably wanted to be polite. Helasonn sounds like perfectly modern English, if that is what you aim for. 'Sonn' looks like it could be chosen for a rough poetic impact on the reader.

Google Translate is highly unreliable, and some automatic translations becomes unintelligible or ridiculous. A few Danes tried translating a text about roosters (cocks) and chickadees (tits) from English into Danish some time ago, using Google Translate, but the result looked like a porn novel. Google Translate isn't calibrated for ornothologists.

Though, to make sure we're on the same page, I was using "Hela" as opposed to "Hel" in order to specify the Goddess, not the place.

In Swedish, there is no distinguishing difference between the name of the place and the name of the goddess. 'Hela' is a modern English convention. I even doubt that the name form 'Hela' would have Anglo-Saxon precedent, since the suffix -a denote masculine grammatical gender in Anglo-Saxon, as per Horsa, Offa, Froda and others. The latter wasn't always called Frodo.

Since we're on the subject... What does "Helasonn" mean?

Hela is an anglicised name-form for Hel, and, as I wrote above, a modern one. It could also be the Swedish verb for heal in infinitive mode. It could also mean entirely. This observation doesn't mean that Hel's name is etymologically related to heal or entirely. Homonyms do exist.

'Sonn' is just misspelled. The Swedish equivalent to English 'son' is son in Swedish. Sometimes our languages are rather close.

Remember that the Angles and Jutes once spoke languages closely related to Danish and Swedish, and the almost two centuries when the Danelaw comprised large parts of Northern England must have had an linguistic impact on the English language as well, especially northern dialects. Saxon, on the other hand, was a sort of old German, more prevalent in southern England.

The 's' connecting Hel and son in the suggested translation 'Helsson' is a genitive construction used to construct a compound noun. Lots of Swedes have surnames like Andersson, Larsson, Svensson and Johansson. When anglicised, these surnames often drop the genitive 's'. The main character in Matrix is called Anderson, not Andersson, for instance. The same use of genitive 's' is used in lakritsgodis (liquorice candy), leksaksbil (toy car) and stolsdyna (stuffed seat for chairs), to give a few examples.

By the way: Is Skumring a Danish word? I am not good at Danish, although I read it now and then. It is easier to read than to understand in spoken form, because modern Danish pronounciation (unlike Danish in the past) is intentionally inarticulate. For a non-Dane it sounds like strings of vowels and diphthongs, and it is hard to hear the consonants. I have several times found it easier to speak English with Danish tourists, than to try to communicate in our two closely related neighbour mother tongues.

We haven't (re-)introduced ourselves in a while, I don't think, so I thought it might be fun to do it in a different way...

Often we give a lot of thought to the name we go by in this forum. Now I want you to add to that: give us an appellation that amplifies or elucidates what you're all about (or, if not all, an important aspect), and explain it.

For example, Hermes Trismegistus ("thrice great")...
...or Wanda the Chaste (because not having sex is really important to her right now)...

OK, go!

Chatelaine Brigitte L'Étrange.

Chatelaine is French for 'lady of the manor' - literally 'keeper of the keys'. It was perfect when I picked it, as a 17-year-old looking to Hekate for strength to deal with bullying and marginalisation; I'm keeping it as a 22-year-old Christian because there are still endless spiritual insights to unlock, on top of achieving self-determination in the world. Learning to adult, in short.

Brigitte L'Étrange is a plug of my chrismation name (Brigid) as well as a nod to Emily the Strange, who has shaped my attitude through some quite dark times. I opted for the French version, both to match the Chatelaine part and because I have a good command of the language (accent included) that I like to show off. :p