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twincityhackerOne of those things that rattle around my brain regarding Buffy is, why is the Slayer's title Slayer or Vampire Slayer?
So, I finaly realized what I needed to figure this out wasn't a regular dictionary, but an etymology. And now light dawns.
O.E. slean "to smite," also "to kill with a weapon" (class VI strong verb; past tense sloh, slog, pp. slagen), from P.Gmc. *slakhanan, from base *slog- "to hit" (cf. O.N., O.Fris. sla, Dan. slaa, M.Du. slaen, Du. slaan, O.H.G. slahan, Ger. schlagen, Goth. slahan "to strike"), from PIE base from base *slak- "to strike" (cf. M.Ir. pp. slactha "struck," slacc "sword"). Modern Ger. cognate schlagen maintains the original sense of "to strike." Meaning "overwhelm with delight" (1340) preserves some of the wider rangeof meanings that the word once had, including also "to strike a spark" (O.E.).
Why is this awesome? First, the closest cousin is Old English, which makes sense as the Council's "modern" form is English based (or British, I'm not sure what's better here). Though I'm wondering if before it was British it was Roman and a host of other places inbetween with the prominant branch and headquarters located wherever the strongest world power or recently strongest power was. (which makes the fact that the New Council is half the time located in the US in fics, but I digress).
Moving on to the second cool thing about Slayer is that the closest cousin is both "to kill with a weapon" as the Slayer kills with tools (with what humanity is always associated with tools) and the various demons usually killing with teeth or claws or brute strength.
Third cool thing? "To smite" which does work well as the Slayer is pitted against the vampires and other forces of supernatural evil that stalk the Earth. One uses the word smite to indicate something like killing a demon than killing a bank robber.
So, I finaly realized what I needed to figure this out wasn't a regular dictionary, but an etymology. And now light dawns.
O.E. slean "to smite," also "to kill with a weapon" (class VI strong verb; past tense sloh, slog, pp. slagen), from P.Gmc. *slakhanan, from base *slog- "to hit" (cf. O.N., O.Fris. sla, Dan. slaa, M.Du. slaen, Du. slaan, O.H.G. slahan, Ger. schlagen, Goth. slahan "to strike"), from PIE base from base *slak- "to strike" (cf. M.Ir. pp. slactha "struck," slacc "sword"). Modern Ger. cognate schlagen maintains the original sense of "to strike." Meaning "overwhelm with delight" (1340) preserves some of the wider rangeof meanings that the word once had, including also "to strike a spark" (O.E.).
Why is this awesome? First, the closest cousin is Old English, which makes sense as the Council's "modern" form is English based (or British, I'm not sure what's better here). Though I'm wondering if before it was British it was Roman and a host of other places inbetween with the prominant branch and headquarters located wherever the strongest world power or recently strongest power was. (which makes the fact that the New Council is half the time located in the US in fics, but I digress).
Moving on to the second cool thing about Slayer is that the closest cousin is both "to kill with a weapon" as the Slayer kills with tools (with what humanity is always associated with tools) and the various demons usually killing with teeth or claws or brute strength.
Third cool thing? "To smite" which does work well as the Slayer is pitted against the vampires and other forces of supernatural evil that stalk the Earth. One uses the word smite to indicate something like killing a demon than killing a bank robber.
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no subject
Date: 2006-12-14 02:00 am (UTC)I wonder what word the old guys would've used.
no subject
Date: 2006-12-14 02:18 am (UTC)To me, there's always* been Slayers and the Council has been around long enough for them to think that there's always been Watchers, but in reality they're a useful addition to the thing, a research arm and keeper of an institutional memory that isn't possible with the Slayer qua Slayer, but not part of the thing. Personally, I put the Council as an outgrowth of William the Conquerer winning at the Battle of Hastings in 1066. He wanted a census, a list of what England was and what he now ruled. Those census-takers found thriving towns in first count, then found ruins on the second (I say) and thus started keeping track of the weirdness, then started to fight it. This is why the Domesday Book has the reputation it has. Sometime in the next century, it finds it's first Slayer, and within a century it knows what a Slayer is and how it's goals and theirs are aligned. With Oxford and Cambridge come England as a seat of knowledge, making openings for learned people to travel elsewhere to study and to teach (and sometimes mentoring young women....) and with the expansion of the British Empire they were able to lock in the Slayer to their organization.
* The first Slayer, in the comic books, looks to be from northern Africa, (sub-saharan but bordering it, maybe northern Sudan?) after the initial expansion of Islam. The Old Guys' use of Swahili kinda confirms it. That puts it starting 6-700 AD. 300 years and probably 200+ Slayers before I theorize the Council started.
And yes, all three things are Cool
no subject
Date: 2006-12-14 03:10 am (UTC)But if the Slayer is a relatively new player on the scene, what about the BC slayers from "Tales of the Slayers?"
And speaking of Watchers, that's the best origin story I've heard of for the Council. Plus, it uses Actual Historical Events without being completely overblown, which is always awesome in my book.
no subject
Date: 2006-12-14 12:27 pm (UTC)What about Xander as Dracula's re-butt-monkey and Buffy & co. letting him sit a year in "Tales of the Vampires"? Or, alternatively, what about Nikki's man/Robin's dad being a cop shot in the line of duty when it's highly unlikely Nikki was over 18 when she died? I'm willing to take or leave the things shown in the comics (Dracula? leave. Nikki? I'll drop details, maybe, but that's Gene Colan doing classic Marvel 70s vamp comic art! She's in the verse with Blade, I tell you!) but the men with the creepy black rape smoke spoke Swahili, and we know the history of Swahili. At the very least, (going by the comic book) you have to admit that it occurred after the invention of woven clothing, which puts it far far far after the beginning of everything but still could be well before 600AD.
And I don't think I'd ever write a Slayer fic set earlier than 1066 anyway, so my Slayer origin thoughts are not too significant.
no subject
Date: 2006-12-14 05:40 pm (UTC)The history of the Buffy universe is weried, honestly, because you have all these gods and really powerful others runing around, and working them into reality is odd. (Espeicaly working in the Old Ones) And if there are all these gods running around, isn't the odds good that some of the origen of the different groups is true(ish)?
Though that would make an idea that all those dinosaur bones are from dead gods!
no subject
Date: 2006-12-14 10:46 pm (UTC)(And really, Dracula was the monk's illusion. A means to get Buffy's blood for the creation of Dawn, and the seam for the tape-splice between Dawnless and Dawned life. Dracula was what a cloistered monk would think a vampire was like if all he had to go on was what he could get from a Carpathian video store. And clearly, "The Real Me" shows their concept of a tweenage girl is pulled directly from the movie Harriett The Spy.)
And the dinosaur thing? Handled at the end of S3. Except Giles and the vulcanologist must be on crack because everything flesh and bone melts and burns at 7800° F. No fossils on Hawaii.