Tuesday, February 26, 2002

Character Names: H


By Linda

Habiger: Altaran General with whom Beslan plotted rebellion against the Seanchan (The Gathering Storm, Gambits). I was fascinated to find that there really is a General Habiger: Eugene E. Habiger, a retired United States Air Force four star general who served as Commander in Chief, United States Strategic Command from 1996 to 1998.

Hadnan Kadere: Darkfriend see Names of the Shadow article

Halima Saranov: Balthamel see Names of the Shadow article

Halwin Norry: Andoran. Halwin is a place in the UK and is also similar to the personal name Alwin. Norry is a surname.

Haman son of Dal son of Morel: Ogier. Harman is a personal name meaning ‘soldier’, and Haman was prominent in the fighting in the Last Battle.

Haman appears in the biblical Book of Esther as a bad vizier to the Persian king Ahsauerus (Xerxes I, reigned 486‒465 BC). He was envious of the influence that Mordecai, a Jew, had with the King and convinced the King that the Jews living in the Persian Empire were rebellious and should be slaughtered. The date, the 13th of Adar, was determined by lot. Esther, the beautiful Jewish wife of King Ahasuerus, and her cousin Mordecai persuaded the king to retract the order. Haman was hanged on the gallows he built for Mordecai and the Jews destroyed their enemies on the day planned for their annihilation (Encyclopaedia Britannica).

Dal and Morel are both place names. Morels are a type of edible mushroom and dhal are Indian lentil dishes. Plant names are appropriate for Ogier.

Hanselle Renshar: the young Andoran noble who was the emissary for the six independent Andoran High Seats to Elayne. Hanselle may refer to the folk tale Hansel and Gretel, and thus a young man in danger (thanks to his older relatives) from the forest of Andoran politics and witches (who were in danger from the Black Ajah) to boot.

Renshar is similar to the surname Renshaw.

Haral Luhhan: Two Rivers. Haral is probably derived from Harald/Harold. There have been five Kings of Norway and one King of Denmark named Harald. Apart from Haral having a position of status in the Two Rivers, he doesn’t have anything much in common with such harsh warrior chiefs. He goes white at the sight of blood. But he did save Perrin and carry him through a gateway to Mayene for Healing.

Luhhan is similar to Luhan, a surname and also a town in Pakistan.

Harine din Togara Two Winds: Sea Folk. Harine is a personal name and a place name. Togara is a surname. The epithet Two Winds could imply that Harine is inconstant or variable; but more likely it was meant sarcastically and she obstinately clings to her views, even when they are proved wrong.

Hattori: Aes Sedai of the Green Ajah. Hattori’s name probably refers to Hattori Hanzō (1542–1596), also known as Hattori Masanari, a famous Samurai of the Sengoku era. He is sometimes described as a ninja, and is popularly believed to have been killed in combat by a ninja.

Names of warriors are appropriate for one of the Battle Ajah, especially the samurai who had a strict code of conduct and honour. As well as being bound by the Three Oaths, Hattori has a strict code of conduct:

She knew I hurt. But she also trusted me to do my duty while she did hers. She needed to get news to the Greens of what had happened at Dumai's Wells, of what the Amyrlin's true orders with al'Thor had entailed. / needed to survive. We did our duty. But once that message had been sent, if she hadn't felt me approaching on my own, she would have come for me. No matter what.

- The Gathering Storm, An Offer and a Departure

She is also concerned that her Warder/s are of high standard:

"Years ago, when she bonded me, she said that she would only take another if I judged him worthy."

- The Gathering Storm, An Offer and a Departure

Again following a strict code.

Hend the Striker: Hero of the Horn. A big dark-skinned man whose weapons are a hammer and a spike (A Memory of Light, Those Who Fight). He is a parallel of John Henry, the legendary African-American steel-driver, who hammered a steel drill into rock to make a hole for explosives in railway construction, and won a race against a steam hammer.

Herid Fel: Academy Member. Herid is similar to the personal name Herod. There have been a few rulers of Judea named Herod: Herod the Great, Herod Archelaus, Herod Antipas, Herod Agrippa I and Herod Agrippa II, but they don’t have much in common with Herid Fel. Herid’s real-world parallel is probably Herodes Atticus (101‒177 AD). He was the most celebrated of the orators and writers of the Second Sophistic, a movement that revitalized the teaching and practice of rhetoric in Greece in the 2nd century AD.

Herodes was befriended by Hadrian (emperor 117–138), who employed him as a commissioner in charge of eliminating corruption in the free cities of the province of Asia. Herodes became consul in 143 and later contributed to the education of Hadrian's destined successors, Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus.

Like other 2nd-century Sophists, he sought to entertain and enlighten without referring to political matters. Herodes' activities are recorded in Philostratus' Lives of the Sophists, ii, 1.

- Encyclopaedia Britannica

The Academy is trying to revitalise learning and knowledge in the Wheel of Time world. Herid was far too absent minded to regard politics, but was befriended and consulted by Rand. The Sophists were philosophers as was Herid Fel. Later sophists made an art of effective but misleading argument. Fel’s comments and writings were cryptic, but not misleading.

Fell means to cut down; the gholam cut Herid Fel down. An archaic meaning of the word ‘fell’ is deadly or terrible. Certainly, someone in the Shadow—probably Ishamael/Moridin—regarded him so; his ideas were dangerous to them.

Hessalam: Graendal see Names of the Shadow article

Howal Gode: Andoran Darkfriend see Names of the Shadow article

Hurin: Shienaran. Hurin is similar to real-world place names. It is also the name of a character in Tolkien’s books that was a hero of Men in the First Age.


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Written by Linda, May 2005 and updated November 2013

2 comments:

JDH1973 said...

I think you may be off a little with Haman... This seems a much more likely candidate for him:

Johann Georg Hamann
(source: Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)

Johann Georg Hamann (1730-1788) lived and worked in Prussia, in the context of the late German Enlightenment. Although he remained outside ‘professional’ philosophical circles, in that he never held a University post, he was respected in his time for his scholarship and breadth of learning. His writings were notorious even in his own time for the challenges they threw down to the reader. These challenges to interpretation and understanding are only heightened today.

Nevertheless an increasing number of scholars from philosophy, theology, aesthetics and German studies are finding his ideas and insights of value to contemporary concerns. His central preoccupations are still pertinent: language, knowledge, the nature of the human person, sexuality and gender and the relationship of humanity to God. Meanwhile, his views, which in many respects anticipate later challenges to the Enlightenment project and to modernity, are still relevant and even provocative.

Linda said...

Thanks for this, that is a likely source for him.