Dara Hapan "Angels"

From: Andrew Solovay <asolovay_at_rubberducky.com>
Date: Fri, 21 Jan 2005 11:56:48 -0800

glorantha-request_at_rpglist.org wrote:

Simon Hibbs <simon.hibbs_at_marconi.com>:

>

> The term Angel is meaningless, even here on Earth,
> outside that particular religious context. What
> are Angels in the context of Wotanism, Shinto or
> the Aztec religion? The question is next to
> meaningless.

"Next to" meaningless, but not *entirely* meaningless. A Christian (or Jew or Muslim) could explain to, say, a Hindu what he means by the term "angel", and the Hindu could understand. And the Hindu, in turn, might in describing some myth say something like, "And then ___ brought a message--I guess you could say ___ is kind of an angel of Vishnu--anyway, he brought a message to so-and-so..."

As I understand it, Greek historians often translated religious terms, even the names of Gods. It wouldn't be out-of-place for a Greek historian to say something like "The Egyptian Zeus is called 'Amun', and they honored him in this way..."

So:

> Going back to the Dara Happan references, it seems to me
> that if the term Angel is meaningful there then that is
> no reason to suppose that it is meaningful in the context
> of any other Gloranthan religion.

Evidently whoever "translated" the Glorious Reascent of Yelm ran across a Dara Hapan word which meant, more or less, "servitor god", and he chose to render it with the corresponding English word, "angel".

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