#OddNub

[finnlongman]

Why does do Irish names seem to like...I don't know a good word for it but maybe like "mutate" or "shift" when used in a Patronymic/Possessive Context?

Like, the obvious example is Culann -> Chulainn when used in Cu Chulainn, but also Cumhall to Cumhaill in Fionn Mac Cumhaill

Is there a particular rule in the grammer regarding this, or is more of a case-by-case basis due the development of the language in writing or something similar to that?

Thank for your time and I hope you have a great day.

It's the genitive case (tuiseal ginideach). If you see the word "of" in an English translation ("son of", "hound of", etc), it usually means that the next word will be in the genitive. It applies across the language, not only in names, but it's easier to spot them in names since you'll often have the nominative form nearby to compare it with! Because English doesn't have grammatical cases, these rules can be confusing to English speakers, but they have a lot of parallels in other languages.

Medieval Irish had five cases: nominative, accusative, dative, genitive, and vocative (which is hardly a case, to be honest). Accusative and dative sort of collapsed into each other and now aren't very clearly marked out in modern Irish, though you'll see them in some words, particularly to do with directions and movement. Nominative, genitive, and vocative remain pretty solidly present.

Some explanations of the genitive here:

[oddnub-eye]

I think the ideal Orestia retelling is one where everyone is lying out their ass. Agamemnon is lying, Clytemnestra is lying, Iphigenia is lying, Elektra is lying, Orestes is lying, Chrysothemis is lying.

There is not a single ounce of truth, it's liars all the way down

[vivienna-vivid]

Favorite of the 108 Stars of Destiny?

HOW did tumblr not notify me of my brother in arms' message? Death to this Hellsite. Sun Erniang, easy-peasy. I love all the important stars but this cannibal inn keeper has me by the choke hold. They hate her for her girly whimsy. And the atrocities and lack of impulse control.

[karthedense]

Fighting Game Ask: Justice

Am i a fan?: NO

Favorite move?:

Favorite quote: Justice what the fuck are you talking about

Favorite story line?: ride wife, wife fight, kill wife, wife gone, Kill wife, wife gone, Kill wife, wife gone

Enjoy playing as?: Depends how sinister i'm feeling

changes i would make: Make the grab box for the move above 3times bigger

unpopular opinions: Brain fungus

[siverfanweedo]

GOT tagged by my pal @gunsli-01 thought it would be fun and uh gonna tag um @oddnub-eye @vivienna-vivid and uh idk who else if you want to do this consider yourself tagged

do it if ya want go crazy go loco

1. Do this uquiz.

2. Do this picrew.

3. Tag people.

[300iqprower]

@oddnub-eye you’re a fcking genius

Arjuna really going for that “FGC Heel” energy huh

[darksaiyangoku]

Oscar Pine as Remnant's Amazing Spider-Man!!!

Artwork by @oddnub-eye

[bunjywunjy]

Got any cursed Cheetah facts? They're one of my favorite animals.

if a female cheetah is stressed, she may spontaneously abort any cubs she’s carrying! which is terrible actually, because cheetahs are nervous animals and it doesn’t take a whole lot to seriously stress them out.

[oidheadh-con-culainn]

If you don't mind me asking, what got you into medivial lit/the ulster cycle?

honestly? i got into medieval irish lit via children's fantasy books about fairies. like, eoin colfer etc (i had a big artemis fowl phase), kate thompson -- basically if it came out in the 00s and contained fairies, there's a high chance i read it. then as i got into my teens it was the more paranormal YA side of things -- holly black, maggie stiefvater etc. (i LOVED the 'books of faerie') also some retellings and more "historical" novels too. i read a lot of really bad books about fairies as well, and some adult fantasy that was just... Not Great, but there were also a lot of books i really loved. it's hard now because i know too much and i can't enjoy a lot of them sdfkljsdf

anyway because i was into fairies i got into folklore and some of the early modern stories like "oisín in tír na nóg", and i also got interested in a few bits of the early history... i wanted to write my own novels about some of it so i just went looking for sources but a lot of what i found online wasn't great and i was working from like, victorian and edwardian materials which were pretty misleading. but, the process of trying to find that info kind of piqued my interest and i wanted to learn more

anyway because i was into folklore and also trad music and dance and stuff, i was originally more of a finn cycle kind of person. still have a soft spot for it. the otherworld in finn cycle texts is much closer to the folkloric otherworld i think, like, it's a bit wispy and insubstantial and the people of the síd are underground and there's music that sends people to sleep or makes them fight and so on (related: there's a reason dancing on dangerous ground is my favourite irish dance show. it's based on toruigheacht diarmuid agus grainne (i DEF spelled that wrong) and it's great, i LOVE how their grainne is portrayed and someone should compare it to lady gregory's grania one day)

how i got into the ulster cycle... i don't know. it was a gradual process. i read the táin in my late teens and... well not to go into too much detail but being 17 fucking sucked for me and i was so full of rage all the time and basically just wanted to peel off my skin in frustration, so i guess i read about cú chulainn and went "oh, fucking mood" sdfkljd. plus i'm always in it for anything with homoerotic potential so i was into TBC but i didn't really focus on it until my final year of uni? before that i'd been a bit more focused on the otherworld in various forms

i think i sorta switched to ulster cycle for the same reason i read a lot more romance novels than i did as a teenager... i'm much more interested in *people* now than i used to be. it's not that i'm not interested in magic and stuff but like. i'm *more* interested in having a shitton of feelings about something, and i find there are some surprisingly poignant and human moments in the ulster cycle because there's a... certain consistency of characters? like cú chulainn is not the same in every text and láeg is not the same in every texts but at the same time they're similar enough that you're like "oh that's the same guy" and then you can see the emotions developing in different stories, i guess??

the fianaigecht material has that too to some extent and is also emo as fuck, but some of the most emotional material there is the early modern stuff not the medieval stuff, and/or it's poetry (and i'm not very good at translating poetry so if i'm gonna work with an original text i'd prefer it to be prose)

but also i won't lie i kinda started blogging about ulster cycle stuff because it was... less frustrating as a blogging experience than focusing on the more mythological/otherworld type of stuff where i constantly found myself having to work around online polytheists and like, not step on any toes, and after i got a few angry anons just for posting about medieval lit i was like "okay i just won't talk about the tuatha de danann anymore" and switched to something that seemed "safer". and in the process of shitposting about the ulster cycle i realised how much i loved it -- i knew i *liked* it before that but memes unlocked a new level. (then Fate happened to my notifications and i briefly considered exclusively blogging about, like, minor king-tale figures or something, but by then i was invested)

anyway yeah idk that was kind of a long answer for what should have been a simple question lol. basically: children's and YA fantasy novels is what set me on this path and then i just sort of wandered around until i wound up at ulster cycle material

[whatissleepeven]

Levithan and Belphagor wouldn't wear masks. Not because they don't care about the pandemic, but because they don't need them. They haven't been outside in so long they didn't realize they were in a pandemic. This has been an Obey Me shitpost brought to you by oddnub.

They are hermits and will forever remain indoors unless dragged away by an outside force

You know that Levi would have custom-made masks for whenever he has to go outside (because Lucifer forced him to), probably with emblems from his favorite animes and games. If he's going out, he's going out in style.

Belphie's is gonna look like it belongs over his eyes because it's made to look like a sleep mask. He's only gonna wear one if Beel gives it to him (if you do, it's 50/50. At least he considers it if you give him one. He just flat-out tells his brothers "no" (save for Beel) whenever they try to force him to wear one).

Edit: I reread the ask again and immediately thought of this

Leviathan, squinting as he steps foot outside: What manner of world is this? I haven't been here in a while.

Mammon: "A whi-" Levi, it's been four months

.

Satan, peeking under Belphie's bed: Belphie, do you want to come outside today?

Belphegor: *Demonic screeching*

Satan:

Satan: Understandable, have a nice day

[kashuan]

You've mentioned you tend to not like Euripides (hope I spelled that right), be it his characterizations or otherwise. Is there any reason for this, if you don't mind me asking?

i made a little video a couple years back about this :^) pretty much sums it up more than anything I could lengthily write out

[finnlongman]

Hey @oddnub-eye, I don't know if this is what you were looking for when you sent this ask originally, but I'm still working on my translation of Oidheadh Con Culainn and there is a bit where Cú Chulainn cracks up about a raven (Badb, but unclear at this point whether Badb ingen Cailitín or the more usual Badb, since both are referenced; probably the daughter of Cailitín, in context?) having an unfortunate intestine incident, and "that is the last laugh that Cú Chulainn made". I could see this getting absorbed into retellings somewhat.

It is however a fair while before he actually dies and is before the whole standing stone incident, so wouldn't inherently change my answer above. But I had a vague memory that you'd asked me something about smiling/laughing, and I wasn't sure whether it was related to that scene I just got to this week. Figured I'd mention it since it was ringing a vague bell for me.

Hello, I hope you're having a good day. Is there any manuscriptal (I don't think that's a word) basis for the tradition/idea of "Cú Chulainn dies smiling/laughing"? It seems to be a very prevlant motif throughout what I've seen/read in...pretty much everything that is not BMMM/Aided Con Culainn (unless I'm misremembering things). Is this another Oideadh Con Culainn thing that's prominent in the general image of the character/story but the exact source isn't known because OCC hasn't had a translation or is it more a folkloric element of the character that he just kinda...absorbed over time for various reasons. It's always been an engaging and intriguing part of his story for me and I'd appreciate if you were able to shed some light on its origins. Thank you for your time and I hope you have a great day

Hmm, so, it's definitely not in BMMM or in OCC -- here's the moment of his death from OCC, which is one bit I translated for my thesis so I already have it to hand:

“Alas that,” said Cú Chulainn, “I give my word and I swear by the noble gods, that it was not possible that it was not a heart of stone or bones or iron that was in me until today, and if I had thought that it was a heart of blood or flesh which was in me, I would not have done half of that which I did of arms or high deeds.” It is then Cú Chulainn faced the men of Ireland, and he put his shield to protect himself and he put his lance against his shoulder and he took his unsheathed sword in his hand. His soul departed from his body after that, and his upper part and breast against the standing stone. It is then fell the chief of valour and arms, glory and prowess, protection and bravery of Ireland.

The closest he gets to smiling in this whole section of the text is feeling "great gladness" when Láeg comes back to him on the battlefield and helps bandage his wounds, which is probably not what we're looking for.

There's an early modern poem about his death that has this same motif of him talking about realising for the first time that he had a heart of flesh and blood -- aka recognising his own mortality -- and I don't remember any smiling there, either.

And BMMM has no smiling either:

He came then to a territory a great distance west of the lake, and his vision failed him, and he goes towards a pillar-stone in the plain, and placed his body-belt around it so that he might not die sitting or lying down, but rather so that he might die standing. Thereafter the men came around him, and they did not dare approach him. They thought he was alive ...

(trans. Bettina Kimpton)

Most retellings do in origin derive from BMMM or OCC, and when they're by Irish writers, it'll often be from OCC. Remember, not having a translation into English makes it inaccessible to English readers and scholars, but being such a late text means it's in a version of Irish that's not all that challenging for those who have modern Irish -- making it easier to read than the more difficult and medieval language of BMMM. One of the reasons it hasn't been translated is because Irish speakers don't necessarily need it to be, unlike the earlier text where the language is more archaic and challenging.

However, a lot of those retellings will have gone through a few intermediaries, who've added details which get passed on. For example, Lady Gregory's version of the story, which looks like a mixture of the two, has a detail about a cuckoo towards the end that I think is her own addition. This is how I worked out that Lady Gregory was probably the source for Rosemary Sutcliff's version -- Sutcliff also references the cuckoo, which is very distinctive.

Happy are they, happy are they, who will never hear the cuckoo again for ever, now that the Hound has died from us.

(Cuckoos show up as, like, a symbol of grief in some of the medieval Welsh poetry, so I was super intrigued to know if this was actually in the Irish text as it would be an interesting comparative point with the englynion. But as far as I can tell, it's a Gregory detail -- although there's a lot of poetry from OCC that I haven't translated, so I may be wrong there. If it is hers, perhaps she took inspo from the Welsh?)

There's no smiling in Lady Gregory's version, though, which would have been my best guess, since she's so many people's introduction to the story.

The most popular source for the majority of Ulster Cycle retellings, like Standish O'Grady's stories about Cú Chulainn, is Keating. When it comes to the death tale, I don't think they're using the History of Ireland, because Keating's treatment of Cú Chulainn's death there is to say, "I don't have time to tell you this story, here's where to find it:

Know, O reader, that if I were to relate here how Cuchulainn fell by the sons of Cailitin, and Fear Diadh son of Damhan by Cuchulainn, and the death of the seven Maines sons of Oilill Mor and of Meadhbh, and of many other stout heroes who are not mentioned here, a long narrative would be needed concerning them. But if thou wishest to get a lengthy account of them, read Brisleach Mhuighe Muirtheimhne; Oidhidh na gCuradh; or Tain Bo Cuailgne; or Tain Bo Reaghamain; or Deargruathar Chonaill Cheamaigh; or Feis Eamhnan; or Tain Bo Fliodhais; or similar tales which are now to be seen in Ireland; and thou shalt find therein a copious account of the above-mentioned persons and of many other champions and warriors of their history and adventures.

Helpful! However, I think Keating tells the story somewhere else, because O'Grady tells us that he he does, and in this version the medieval and early modern accounts are combined, which creates some confusion for O'Grady: Láeg both dies and doesn't die, a fact O'Grady found understandably puzzling.

So, if I could find where Keating tells the story, I could check if it's a Keating detail (my brain gave that for me as a "keating deating", thanks brain), but if it were, I'd have expected to come across it in a few more of the places I've looked.

It could be a folkloric tradition or from one of the bardic poems or something, but my best guess is that somebody added it into their retelling because they thought it was a nice touch, adding a bit of poetic drama, and other people copied them because they liked it (and because a lot of the retellings out there in the world are derivative of each other rather than going back to the source material). The fact that I've never seen it doesn't mean it isn't widespread, though; my knowledge of retellings is limited largely to Gregory, O'Grady and Sutcliff, since I generally prefer to work from the earlier texts, and that means my knowledge in that regard is pretty incomplete.

If it were a 'canonical' detail, I would have expected to have come across it by now, and I've never seen this in any version of the story I've worked with. Doesn't mean it's not out there, though -- I'm learning new things all the time, and there are things in this tale I would have sworn down weren't there at all if you'd asked me two years ago!

So, yeah, this is a very long answer to say, "no idea, I'm afraid", but hopefully it was useful or at least interesting.

[oddnub-eye]

Canto II really intruiges me from an adaptation/inspiration standpoint because it did something really noticeable in a way I didn't really notice the other Cantos do.

And that's applying character traits heavily associated with one character to a different character with an equally clear explanation.

Gregor and Hermann keep the antagonistic relationship between Gregor and his family (remains to be seen if Gregor and Hermann are blood relations, a literal family like the novel or in a more metaphorical sense)

Sinclair, Kromer, and Demian are still largely in their "focus", "tormenter", and "savior" roles respectively, just expanded upon and dramaticized to fit the setting.

But then you get to Rodya and Sonya/Rodion and Sofya and it's like they did a freaky Friday "personality flaw swap" in addition to both being genderswaps of their namesake.

From what I know of crime and punishment, Rodion was the one who repeatedly attempted to use high-minded theory and big words to justify their actions, justifying the murder under the logic of "Now I can go achieve great things, so it's a worthy sacrifice", whole Sofya was the grounded confidant who eventually followed Rodion into his punishment to stick with him out of devotion.

Very interested to see where Project Moon takes Rodya and Sonya from here, because, as of right now, they're really conspicuous in this shuffling of "role", in a way Gregor and Sinclair really weren't.

[vivienna-vivid]

Trick or Treat

This post, the Kali section in the Women's Encyclopedia, as well as these books.

Enjoy!

[karthedense]

📺👨‍👩‍👧‍👦🏷

Unryu

📺: Is your OC inspired at all by characters from other media? Which one(s) and what traits do they have in common?

-the Spark that made me start developing his lore was without question first ignited when i first read Vagabond and his design is influenced by Guts from berserk, Him later losing an eye to Zenos in Stormblood was inspired by such. But much of his character arc i believe was on it's own with any influences being subconscious at best

👨‍👩‍👧‍👦: What is their family like? Are there any family members that are particularly influential and/or important to them (whether in a positive or negative sense)?

-I'm not gonna give a full answers as your still progressing thru the game and wanna see you go thru some stuff before i give certain details

Unryu's relantionship with his family was overall very positive Albeit abit stressful from living under garlemald as non-citizens

Unryu spent the most time with his Mother who taught him to work the forge when he was young and was often a protective figure in his youth, pulling him away from things that could put him in danger when he was under her watch Granted with how large he grew up to be he didn't need that watch for much longer

His dad he treasures alot. If you asked Unryu who he thought the wisest person on the planet was he'd answer his dad rather than any famed Sharlayan scholar. His morals of avoiding violence unless it becomes unavoidable were something that stuck particularly close with Unryu and was part of the reason he wanted to dodge conscription. So he wouldn't be forced to fight when he didn't wanted to

His grandfather, old and bitter as he is initially scared Unryu when he was a small child but nearing his teens he began talking to him alot more he began telling him how Doma was before Garlemald and the horror stories of the war between the two nations which the old man fought in himself

leaving them behind was a hard choice for him to make but he felt it was either be forced to rob some other poor bastard of his home or run away from his.

🏷️: What is their full name? Do any of their names have any special meaning? How did you come up with them?

-Unryu Gesi! Unryu meaning cloud dragon, Initially named after a japanese war ship because i wanted a nautical theming to his name. But if you look at my answer to Mac's questions you'd see that Unryu retroactively took up a weather motif as well, funny how that is. The Gesi is one of the many Xeala tribes of the Azem steppe that his Grandma, Bayaarma Gesi came from While he's yet in the context of where your at in the game to step foot in the steppe themselves he still holds pride in his partial Xeala ancestry.

[dragynkeep]

Wait what's the Velvet drama going on now?

preview chapter came out, apparently some people don’t like that

she got her inspiration for her weapon & fighting style from her dad who’s an engineer in atlas

that her dad inspires her

that her backstory is “boring, too het, been done a billion times before”

the parents names (meg & will) are too boring, ignoring that they’re a reference to the author & illustrator of the book velvet’s allusion is from

it seems like some people but a lot of stock into velvet’s backstory  /  inflated her importance in the story when really, it makes sense she has a pretty chill backstory. not everyone will have a wild, completely out there backstory & it’s nice that velvet is actually pretty normal. her family has realistic problems, she takes more after her dad & they don’t have wild out there names. they’re just ,,, Normal. but it doesn’t agree with some people’s headcanons so they have to frame it as being too het & boring instead of just taking the l. sad.