I'd Like to Pose a Question · 9:52am Jun 22nd, 2018
I want to put out some feelers regarding something I've been considering for my upcoming project.
When my upcoming epic eventually goes live (alas, it's still a very long way off), I've been debating maintaining a sort of glossary chapter. The purpose this would serve would be to list the foreign words in the story, as well as a basic pronunciation guide for them.
For those who haven't been keeping up with my blogs as of late, the story I'm working on has a heavy Norse Mythology influence. In addition to names from the myths, there are words and names from Old Norse itself. I was wondering if my readership would prefer it if I used the glossary to help everyone out. For instance, I'm sure most folks would know "Jarl Jotunsson" would be pronounced "Yarl Yotunsson," and "Einherjar" is "Ein-her-yar," but things might get a bit trickier when names like "Randgríðr," "Níðhöggr," "Þoka," and "Roðinn" start to crop up, that may be a bit of a different story.
Thoughts?
I say find some way to work the explanations into the dialogue, but my stories tend to be character driven and dialogue heavy, so I'm a bit biased in that regard. Otherwise, maybe put a notation regarding the specific words in the author's note of that specific chapter?
Those are my two cents at any rate. If you feel a glossary chapter would work better, I'd say go for it, but remember, not everyone is going to bother to read something like that. No offense meant, I'm just going off of experience.
I mean, yeah, it would suck for you to do all that research and not get to show it off.
As the previous comment notes, figuring a way to implement it in-text might be better, but an appendix would be better than nothing.
A glossary would be good
Not typical. But usually needed... I say go for it! I know that I am fairly familiar with Norse Mythology but there are still words that I may not be aware of or familiar with. Go! Educate the masses with your glossary! Make beautiful pieces of written work! I can hardly wait to give it a read!
4887339
Author's notes, eh? That could be a suitable alternative. Generally, if it's an important word, I give a brief explanation either through dialogue or narrative. The main idea behind the glossary would be to give people a hand when it comes to remembering definitions or pronouncing some of the more tricky words. It's meant to be there for people who want it, but not mandatory reading, because, as you say, not many people will read it.
4887340
For some definitions, yeah, absolutely. I explain what einvigi means, since it's an important term in the story, but I don't say what "Geirahöd" means, only that I use it as a formal rank for one of the characters. In the latter case, it's not super important that the reader knows what it means, but in either case, I wasn't sure if just leaving those words as they were in the fic would be the right choice in case there were some readers who'd wonder how on earth you're supposed to say some of these names.
4887408
Heh, thank you! The main thing is there are several words and names from Old Norse itself, that you won't find anywhere in the Edda. Plus I'm trying to make the pronunciation more accessible, because I don't want to make my readers do research for that sort of thing.
Address the pronunciation in-story, as soon as your reader/ relatable protagonist meets these characters.
Make your protagonist have a tough time at first, forcing them to pronounce their names phonetically in-story, so the reader will always know how to say it in their mind.
4887500
I'll see what I can do regarding this in the second draft. The challenge is doing it in a way that looks and feels authentic without it being jarring or bogging down the narrative. I'm doing that with the meaning of words that need defining, but doing that with pronunciation could be a clusterfuck in some areas, especially later on in the novel when some of the POVs are set in the reindeer homeland of Norden, most of whose places names are in Old Norse.
4887527 Well, alternatively, you can just put whatever jumble of letters you want and call it a name. The reader will pronounce it however they think it is in their mind. And whether it's "right" or not, the noun, even if mispronounced, will still represent the concept in the fiction.
4887541
This is true. I can always take the "eh, fuck it" approach to worrying about readers' pronouncing things.
4887631 That's the spirit!
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Shakespearicles already covered my take on the issue. Often when I'm reading, I don't "sound things out," but simply recognize the jumble of letters as being a name for a person, and go from there. The only time this is an issue is if I want to discuss a story out loud with someone. Not knowing how to say "Hermione" (which I pronounced as her-me-own) didn't hurt my enjoyment of Harry Potter, and it wasn't until the fourth book that we finally got a pronunciation guide:
That being said, I think Shakes is right about taking care of the pronunciation early on, rather than waiting until the fourth book!
4888221
Yeah, that's totally fair. I guess my main fear arose from the abundance of accented and/or antiquated letters in Old Norse words, such as "Þoka." It's not every day one encounters a thorn in use.
4888314
Oooh, a thorn! Neato!