RE: [LoGH] The Great Debate - Beowulf vs. Werewolf
Rob Ketcherside (roba@anime.net)
Thu, 12 Oct 2000 21:08:51 -0700
Honestly, I just breezed over this discussion before; I'd much rather see a
topic of "Hey, I figured out what 'Shampool' is supposed to be"... here's
what I have to say, though:
1) I think someone said that the books only uses Jinroh; I'll accept that
because I haven't read the books yet. If that's true, then the fact that the
anime uses "Beowulf" at all gives argument to use that, because we are
translating the anime, not the books.
2) Beowulf sounds alot cooler than Werewolf
3) Beowulf has origins in Scandinavian history (giving a connection with
Norse mythology, very appropriate for the Empire), and Celtic mythology
(which matches with the background of Tristan, its sister ship)
4) Interestingly, the legendary Beowulf's adversary Grendel is described as
"half man and half beast", which actually fits Jinroh quite nicely.
5) Perhaps the makers of the anime mistakenly thought "Beowulf" actually
means "Werewolf" (they could have misremembered #4).. after reading some of
the J fan sites, it's obvious that LoGH has confused some of them into
believing Beowulf = Werewolf as well.
6) If "Beowulf" were presented as furigana for "Jinroh" (which I'm not sure
if it ever is), that would give more importance to "Beowulf" in my mind; I
could be convinced otherwise with a good example though.
7) If "Beowulf" does only appear in the anime, it would be interesting to
know if Tanaka was consulted before using the name, or if maybe he suggested
it.
Rob
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-logh@CSUA.Berkeley.EDU
> [mailto:owner-logh@CSUA.Berkeley.EDU]On Behalf Of Lee Thompson
> Sent: Wednesday, October 11, 2000 9:20 PM
> To: logh@CSUA.Berkeley.EDU
> Subject: [LoGH] The Great Debate - Beowulf vs. Werewolf
>
>
> Being the horribly nitpicky person I am, I am indeed opening up
> this debate
> again.
>
> The author of Ginga Eiyuu Densetsu (LoGH) was most assuredly - be it
> professionally, as a hobby or merely points of interest - a
> history/mythology
> buff. Virtually (and probably all) names and places in LoGH have a
> reference to a historical event, personage or some kind of literature.
>
> Although some references to Wolfgang Mittermeyer's ship are
> indeed the kanji
> symbols for "werewolf" or "person wolf" I believe this is merely
> a context for
> the Japanese so they don't mistake the katakana for another name
> or loanword.
> In fact, I think this shows that the Beowulf reference is an
> *important* one.
>
>
> The following text is from Linkclub's LoGH site, more or less,
> the Japanese
> equivalent of the infocenter. Here is a rough (machine)
> translation. Words
> in (* *) are katakana representations. There is a mistake on
> the site in the
> katakana for the ship, but the correct one is used in the origin section.
>
>
> START
>
> Beiowolf
> (*beiouruf*) (person wolf)
>
> (*mittahmaiyah*) fleet flagship. The promotion division is
> reinforced and it
> is possible to high-speed sail though a basic design draws the flow of a
> martial empire standard battleship. On the other hand, the number
> of ports of
> prow main armaments has decreased because the output of the
> generator is eaten
> in the promotion division. This warship is a straight line
> silhouette though
> Tristram is sisters warship. [It] fights, and the warship of unknown word)
> pulled out, and the warship of a strong fate as the bounce and
> [it] breaks and
> (unknown word) and sinking escape the inside in (*amurittsa*) battle and
> "Fight of the corridor" of the (*amurittsa*) battle, the (*rippushutat*)
> campaign, the (*rantemario*) star region battle, and the (*maru*)
> (*adetta*)
> star region battle.
>
>
> Origin of warship name
>
> 'Beowulf' is an epic of old literary maximum Great Britain. The
> monster named
> grain Dell had ruined the court of (*dene*) (Denmark) in the old
> times. ***
> Knights of (*dene*) of , are captured and eaten as
> grain Dell sneaks
> in to the palace every night. The person who lived was finally gone to the
> palace, and king was bewailing it for a long time. [It] came to (*dene*)
> knighted about (unknown word) matchless, that is, Beowulf going
> down to the
> country of (*geiatas*) in the other side of the sea, and hearing
> the story of
> grain Dell. He grappled with grain Dell which appeared in the palace at
> midnight, and knocked this down. Another monster showed up and people were
> attacked on the ?(unknown word) evening though people returned to
> the palace
> with pleasure, and at ease. This monster was a mother of grain
> Dell, and [it]
> came to the revenge of the child. Then, Beowulf went to the marsh
> where the
> monster lived, and knocked this down finally. King of (*dene*) was very
> pleased, gave him a lot of treasures, and Beowulf returned to the country.
> After that, Beowulf was (unknown word) of (*geiatas*) 50 years later. The
> dragon which vomited the fire when certain appeared, and the country was
> attacked. Beowulf hit the flame of the poison by which the dragon
> vomited the
> dragon and I in dragon's cave though the fight was killed and received the
> death finally.
>
> END
>
> It is my view that 'werewolf' is simply a clue in for the reference of
> literature.
>
>
>
> Web Bibilography:
>
> http://www.linkclub.or.jp/~suno/ship/Beiowolf.html
> http://www.uky.edu/~kiernan/eBeowulf/guide.htm
> --
> Lee Thompson
> shadow@nwlink.com
> ICQ: 19508091
