Talk:Zurrernorn/@comment-27168967-20160119131105/@comment-27011036-20160521225513

'Also, there's something of interest with the "200 years ago" emphasis. I think Evileye mentioned that Hamsuke wasn't spotted roughly 200 years ago or something like that. It's almost like the author put that "200 years" in the story as one major plot point that's yet to be revealed. And the misunderstanding about Death Spiral's true nature also stemmed from "200 years ago". Something major must have happened in that era.'

Yes, in Vol.5 Ch.2 Part 2 "In the past, an acquaintance… right, apparently it hadn’t been there 200 years ago when that person visited the mountains." (Skythewood). The "200 years ago" is quite interesting. Many things happened, but nothing is clear. My speculation is that it has something to do with downfall of the "old" countries, and the creation of the "new" countries, how like they exists now.

'Heck, what's with all the German this series love to put in! Does the author have some German language fetish or something?'

This is just my personal opinion, but I think that Japanese people fascinates the German language. To them it gives of a mystic/exotic (or alien) characteristic (unlike the lingua franca English). It has more to do with how the words sound, not about the actual meaning (like, f.e. how some people like how french sounds, but can't understand one word). It's more of an idealized picture of German than truth, like how western idealize Ninjas in regard how Shinobi really were in Japan. Germany also had a prestigious image in the 18th and 19th centuries and played a role in Japans historical background (Meiji Restoration). Till today, some Japanese words are derived from German and I've read that German is easier to pronounce for Japanese than other foreign (western) languages (through I can't say if it's true). Found a good blog post titled "Germanic Influence in Anime" at eyeforaneyepiece from 2014 about it that dives deeper into the issue.

As native German speaker I can try to "translate" the suspected German names spoken in the Anime and Drama CD into written German words. I have no experience in this, so help will be appreciated. Also, German is used as some sort of "fantasy language", thou even if I can recognize it in German, it could make no sense at all (especially further translated into English). An example: Ainzach (wiki) = Einsack (written in German as name; writing as Ainzack or Einzack is also possible, as there is some leeway for notation in names anyway) = ein Sack (meaning in German as words) = one bag. The "ch" in Ainzach is spoken "hard", it sounds more like how in "clock" than "beach". I hope it comes across what I want to say. But this is only how it sounds in German, it doesn't mean it has to be German or any meaning connected to German. Another example is Torkel Karan Dale Völkchenheim. "Völkchen" (folks? peoplets?) is a belittlement of "Volk" (folk). "-heim" is an eponym, it's used to "create" a toponym (oh man, had to look up these loanwords). So you use a surname (but could also be something from the environment like rivers, mountains, ...) and (simplified) append "heim" to get your toponym. Now comes the tricky part. For me, it doesn't sound like "Völkchenheim", but like an over-pronunciated "Birkenheim" (Brike = birch, "Birken" is the plural). As you see, it's not so easy; only Maruyama-sensei knows the truth... Ok, I deviated to much, back to topic. I tried "hearing" into Anime Episode 11 (~03:00) how Zuranon (I stick to the wiki-name, until it got revised) is pronounced. But all I could make out is "Tsurrarnorn". In German, "ts" and "z" sound quite similar. I can't determine for sure the first two syllable (tsur|rar), the "norn" is quite clear. But this could be the "fault" of the Seiyū, as it is intended as foreign word and the right pronunciation quite hard (please don't blame them, they try their best too!). If it really is the German word "Zurrer", here are some notes from me: "Zurrer" is the personification of the verb "zurren". My dictionary translates it with "(to) lash", so it would be a "lasher". But as Kaishi10 said, it has more of the meaning of "tie something together/down/up" and is more "old-fashioned", but could also be used with discarnated things (like a soul). The word itself has for me a more harder/tightened meaning to it, like "lash up a villain" and not "tie up a boat". I hope this helps.