Skyrim 1.1: What's in a name?

"Our names are always made up of three Rotmulaag - Words of Power."

Thus says the dragon Paarthurnax from Skyrim.  The community members at Thuum.org are dedicated to developing the dragon tongue - also known as Dovahzul- and they further explain that "a dragon's name is not so much a name but a title given to reflect its deeds. Dragons may be nameless until they perform a feat worthy of such a title. Most names consist of three words" (Luckow).  For this critical play blog of Skyrim, I'll be going by the name or title of Heskah Frey.  I chose to use the dragon tradition of naming from Skyrim, rather than any cultural traditions like Nord, Argonian, etc. that exist within the game since the performed title aspect is important for me, but I also made some modifications on traditional conventions to fit my role in creating this play blog (for an example of traditional conventions, see Figure 1).

Fig. 1 Alduin, or Al-Du-In, as 'Destroyer-Devour-Master' (Lore)
 

I teach a composition course for university students.  As an initial response, I thought my name/title should include the word pel for 'write.'  However, the name Hesk-Ah is formed from the combination of the words for 'quest' and 'hunter,' which more adequately depicts the process of inquiry writing and following evidence in order to make a claim.  I later discovered that the older word hesk has been modified in the 4th edition of the Dovahzul Dictionary to ahsod to better connect it to the word sod, or 'deed,' but I think that living languages are always full of repetition and features that reveal historical or current social processes, so I kept the older version to prevent those differences from being erased.

As for the second part of the name, Frey means to 'aid, help, assist.'  As an instructor, I think that has a better picture of coming alongside someone than hiif, which means only 'help' or some variation on the act of teaching because knowledge shouldn't just be transferred in one direction from the teacher to students since students also bring a variety of resources and agency to their own learning process.  Unconventionally for a dragon name, I separated the elements into two parts, which would normally appear as Heskahfrey in the game.  I chose to modify this as Heskah Frey since it is closer to the human tradition of first and last names and will hopefully make the elements easier to remember since they are both shorter.

As Heskah Frey, then, let me welcome you to my critical play blog!

Hesk Ah Frey

"Quest Hunter Aid/Help/Assist"

Works Cited.

Dovahzul Dictionary. 4th ed. Thuum.org. 20 Aug 2014. Web. 14 Mar 2015.
Dovahzul Dictionary for Android. Thuum.org. 19 Dec 2013. Web. 14 Mar 205.
"Lore: Dragon Language." The Unofficial Elder Scrolls Pages. UESPWiki. 24 Jan 2015. Web. 14 Mar 2015.
Luckow, Matthew. "Dragon Shouts & Names." Thuum.org. nd. Web. 14 Mar 2015.