[LoGH] The Great Debate - Beowulf vs. Werewolf
Lee Thompson (shadow@nwlink.com)
Wed, 11 Oct 2000 21:20:08 -0700
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
