Musings on the names...

[ElricOfGrans]

G'Day,

I had been sitting around thinking of the non-human's names in Aa! Megami-sama!, and began wondering if there were more meanings intended than we had yet realised. Firstly, we have the Norns: anyone who knows a bit of Norse mythology would recognise Urd, Belldandy and Skuld as Urd, Verdandy and Skuld - piece of cake. Next comes Peorth. I found it interesting to read here that Peorth is actually a rune - and is what lead to the musings.

If Peorth is a more obscure link, could the others not have some kind of link? Sadly, my severe lack of runes prevents me from following that line without some prior research, but one name did come to mind imediately: Hild. Hild, the leader of the Demons... the ruler of Hades... a nasty piece of work. Sounds kind of like Hel, does it not? OK, so Hild is a lot better looking than Hel - if you didn't say so, she'd surely fry you - but if Belldandy comes from Verdandy, would it not be possible that Hild comes from Hel? There's a vague similarity in the names (perhaps too vague?), and a less tentative link is where their positions are comparable. Belldandy very cleanly fits into Verdandy's Goddess of Present, and Hild fits cleanly into Hel's ruler of the underworld.

I also see on this site that Rind is another character of Norse mythology, so perhaps I may find a Mara or a Welsper in there somewhere too? My current knowledge on Norse legends is weak compared to many other cultures, but I plan to do a little research in the future - hopefully something will come up

[keiichichan]

Yeah it could be,althougth the demon,Mara/Marller has not connection to runes or Norse mythology so you could be grasping at straws. Mara is from catholicism or chritisanity i believe and was some old lady who was bitter and lived in a cave or something.However it is unknown whether Marller was meant to be Mara in english.

[Timotheus]

Here's a site I've found very useful. Lots of background information. The names section actually came from a site called Ah! Megami-sama Overanalysis, now gone. But parts of it have been reposted at G2G under (I think) Overanalysis.

www.geocities.com/theamgfan/Observations.html

But you should be able to find out all you want about the names at the above site.

I'm still kinda leaning to Hild getting her name from Hyldemoer, a Danish name for an earlier version of Hel.
It ties into an alternate interpretation of the Norse Mythologies, which Mr. Fujishima might have been aware of. But this is just my speculation.