Hå-Bringer – The Name
- CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR...Book One
My whole life, I have struggled to spell the word “harbinger”. It’s that R. I was sure that it was in the wrong place. We speak of a “harbinger of doom”. If doom is coming, then surely someone or something is “bringing” it rather than “binging” it?
But no, autocorrect always put an angry red line underneath my “habringer”. To be fair, in this case autocorrect is…correct.
So when I wrote The Mythic, I decided to make my version of the word a reality – or at least the reality of another world.
Of course, once you have created the word “ha-bringer” it raises questions. What is ha? Who is bringing it? And, because I’m more curious than a field of cats, why?
What = Hå
In the Māori language there is a word hā, which can mean “breath” or “essence”. Say it out loud – the macron indicates you should elongate the vowel. It’s literally the sound of a contented or affirming sigh.
Breath and life are synonymous to humans. When we are born we literally take our first breath and die with our last. CPR is colloquially known as “the kiss of life”. And there are a lot of stories of life being breathed into people and objects from various deities – especially in creation mythology.
Ha, then, turned out to be Hå, the life energy of Aedea. It is what enables Aedeans to connect with the magical energy of their world. It is the bestowing of Hå that gives The Mythic the ability to resist The Dark.
I swapped out the macron for what’s called a ring – yes, I literally “put a ring on it” – mainly because I liked how that little circle looked. There is something epic about it – like a tiny planet orbiting the letter. Adding that mark then lead me to create an entire system related to those symbols – known as distinguishments – that affect how the word was perceived, rather than pronounced.
So I had the “what?”.
Who = Bringer
To me, “Bringer” feels lyrical, like a word from a sonnet. Look at its synonyms: provider, giver, bearer. They are concerned with nurturing, assisting, helping.
When I first put the word together as “Hå-Bringer” – it gave me a comforting, confident feeling. That residual meaning of breath/essence from “hā” had permeated through the word, into the name. She, and she was always a “she”, was a creator, a protector.
That contrasted with the original “harbinger” which, while it isn’t strictly negative or positive, a Google autocomplete will show that it’s used more for the former than the latter. The popularity of that “harbinger of doom” has turned it towards the dark side.
I liked that fact – that tension between Hå-Bringer, who helped protect our world for thousands of years and was an icon in Aedea, and the ominousness surrounding our word “harbinger”.
So that answered the “who?”.
Why = ?
As for the “why”, that’s what forms the backbone of the series. A key aim for the series was to write a hero’s quest where the lead had no map, no wise mentor to explain her power(s). We are told that Hå-Bringer usually chose an adult, tested by life, as the Mythic. Lucy was chosen while she was just a baby. There had to be a reason for that, right? It wasn’t simply chance. Lucy has seen some evidence that Hå-Bringer did indeed choose her to guard The Dark. Or did she see what somebeing wanted her to see? Was Lucy meant to be the Mythic, or was it just one big accident? I can’t wait to find out the truth!
That’s not a joke, by the way. Just like Lucy, I don’t have the whole map, only pieces of it. I have a solid idea of the immediate path – I work a couple of books ahead with titles and overarching plots. But the ultimate destination – and Lucy’s final fate – is a mystery to me. I haven’t written the last chapter or paragraph or sentence – but I do know there will be a definitive destination, for everybody. I’ll be learning what that is along with Lucy as she unpeels the onion that is her journey, one layer at a time.
Bonus Round
There’s a moment in The Mythic where Lucy calls the other world “Aorta”. That’s not just a malapropism. The aorta sends blood from your heart to other parts of the body. Aedea sends inspiration to our world.
