Kevin's Watch

is it just me or does kevin's name seem a bit outta place?? every1 else has some pretty cool fantasy-type name, and then you have kevin... that's always struck me as being weird, and its my only real complaint with TCTC. ok, so its not a big thing, but i thought i'd comment on it...

Well, there is quite a mixture of names. Lena, Elena, and Hyrim also have names that would not be uncommon in our world -- whereas Hile Troy, who is from our world has a very unusual name.

Now that you mention it Kevin does sound a bit strange. It reminds me of "Tim the Enchanter" from Holy Grail. I suppose we should all giggle when we hear "Kevin the Landwaster" in the midst of so many high sounding and exotic fantasy names.

I have 2 thoughts on this, not necessarily consistent with each other.

First, the very "real-worldishness" of Kevin's name seems to me consistent with Donaldson's other naming practices: all over the mythos there's a sort of patchwork of exotic/invented names right beside co-opted real-world names. Even some of the most exotic words, e.g. metheglin, turn out to be earthly words from different languages. Donaldson is something of a lexical magpie (I mean this affectionately; as a child I drove my elders bonkers by making up new meanings for common words, and it takes one lexical magpie to know another one).

Second, perhaps Kevin's very common name underscores him as an Everyman figure. Not even "There but for the grace of the Creator or whomever go I," but "Every Tom, Dick, and Harry of this fallible race has the risk of Desecration inside him."

That seemed very odd to me for a significant chunk of Lord Foul's Bane, but it seemed to fit with the way SRD names... eg Lord Foul, Revelstone... As I've mentioned before, they are quite simple names, often descriptive too.

I seem to recall reading that SRD named Kevin after a real person though, a specific Kevin.

CovenantJr wrote:I seem to recall reading that SRD named Kevin after a real person though, a specific Kevin.

Yikes, that sounds like an honor most people would rather do without!

heh True enough, Durris!

What about Lord Trevor? That always struck me as much wierder for some reason.

Sum sui generis
Vs

I was about to mention that. I'd say Kevin and Trevor seem about as out of place as each other. I think I found it strangest when I first came across the names. It was hard not to imagine Lord Trevor as my friend with a pierced eyebrow and the Union Jack dyed into his hair.

I hear the Giants got Trevor a bit toasted on diamondraught, and a Bloodguard pierced him. Bannor's all, "I'm not gonna do it!" I can't remember which actually ended up doing it.

So at least one Bloodguard has used extrinsic weaponry in historical time!!!

I'd figured Trevor's was a tragic story involving a Healer possessed by a Raver.

I never really noticed lord trevor, i have to admit, just cause he had a fairly small role in comparison to the others. Lena, Elena and Hyrim are names I've never heard in our world, i obviously lead a sheltered life, lol. and i would really hate to be the kevin that kevin was based upon, although the implications are quite interesting, like what sort of thing could someone have done in our world to have a character like the desecrator based upon?

I've come across Lena and Elena, but I must say Hyrim is a new one

krycek wrote:what sort of thing could someone have done in our world to have a character like the desecrator based upon?

Put someone, or many someones, in a position where the most objectively disloyal choice they could make was the choice of being loyal to one's expressed wishes? There are various ways of doing that in RL...

yeah ok, i didnt think about that too hard, i should have worked that out

Hyram is a Jewish name. Fairly common.

I learn something new everyday. Well maybe one day I will meet a Hyrim, or a Lena or Elena, who knows

Ha! There's a character in ASOIAF named Kevan Lannister??