BoTW/TotK Hyrule Settlements - But With Mennonite Names
Today in Canada is the last day of Mennonite Heritage Week 2024 so I thought I'd bridge together a few of my interests together for this fun little project of mine!
Process (skip 2 paragraphs if you want to cut to the chase)
So basically, places (in the real world) settled by ethnic Russian Mennonites usually follow x rules in terms of naming. They: 1) have two components, where the second is almost always a geographical term, 2) have the first component of the names either an adjective, another geographical term or a personal name, and 3) are officially named in High German (AKA Standard German) and have a vernacular name in Plautdietsch (Mennonite Low German) which uses direct translation of the High German name. More on this, including the real-world cities I analyzed to come to this conclusion!
Disclaimer: the process of coming up with these involved visiting the location on my Switch, looking component candidates in my Plautdietsch-English-High German dictionary written by Jack Thiessen using his orthography system in the Bergthal dialect, after which I searched up the High German translation so apologies for any inconsitencies!
Without further ado, let's dive right in, formatted "[actual name]: [High German name] | [Plautdietsch name]!
This one may be my most liberal interpretation of the city as it takes the name "New Castle Town," as this seems to be the most bustling city since the destruction of Hyrule Castle Town in the Calamity. This name is reminiscent of Neubergthal, Canada which was named after the Bergthal colony is present day Ukraine. This is basically the only exception to a Mennonite place name having more than 2 parts in it - when it is "new."
2. Kakariko Village: Gruenthal | Jreendohl
This one, meaning "green valley" is also a place in real life! The only difference is that the German ü is written without the umlaut in real life while my version adds the e after the umlautless vowel. This practice is also occasionally done in real life (such as the former village of Schoenfeld in the Russian Empire,) and I prefer it better. Also, my definition of "valley" here is a little shaky, but you can't deny that it is quite Green!
3. Gerudo Town: Sandfeld | Saundfeld
Geographically, one of the most defining features Gerudo Town is that it is located in a desert. However, I could not find any sources of Mennonites settling deserts (could not find enough information about the names of Mennonite settlements in Mexico) so I opted to use the extremely common "feld," meaning "field," and "sand"/"saund," meaning "sand," because that is basically what this kind of desert is.
4. Goron City: Heissberg | Heetboajch
This one means "hot mountain." The "berg" part is super common in real-world Mennonite place names, while the "heiss" part, less so as it is an adjective. Still could've been possible though! However, I sort of had the same issue naming this as I did with Gerudo Town, Mennonites did not settle volcanoes. I initially wanted to name it the equivalent of "Lavariver," but then I remembered that the Lava turned into hot spring water in TotK (?!) or something to do with "volcano," but the Plautdietsch word for "volcano" is the already lengthy and compounded "fieaspieenda boajch." So I settled for Heissberg.
5. Hateno Village: Weidethal | Weiddohl
Meaning: "pasture valley" - maybe this one is a little farfetched since you could argue for the little pastures being irrelevant/not pastures at all technically (admittedly did not think too hard about the definition of a pasture) but the "thal" (meaning "valley") component is super common!
6. Korok Forest: Waldheim | Woohldheim
Meaning: "forest home." Both are common components in place names, though I personally have never seen them together. There are many forests in Hyrule, though none are both a Forest and a settled home and thus the name was born!
7. Lurelin Village: Fischerdorf | Feschadarp
Kind of weird to use "dorf," which means "village" in a world where Ganondorf exists I know...but "Fischer" means "fisher" (don't any of you dare hit anyone with a "this post transcends language" real ones know what a cognate is) so I thought it could fit. I was also iffy about using the name of an occupation, but there are sometimes personal names used in place names (especially in former towns of Mennonite colonies in Ukraine) so maybe in another world, it could've happened.
8. Rito Village: Saeuleinsel | Stendainsel
Naming this one really threw me for a loop because it made me question..what the heck kind of landform is Rito Village? I later decided it was a "pillar island" though I have never seen either terms used in a place name so I suppose you could say I am the least proud of this one.
9. Zora's Domain: Zoraheim
This means "Zora home," which I basically decided was what they meant by naming the original Zora's Domain that in 1998. Technically this would be incorrect as "Zora" is not a proper German given name, but it will have to do. Again, this whole project is hypothetical...
And that's the end! I know the demographic that would probably enjoy this the most is incredibly niche but if you made it this far, great job! Here's another TotK screenshot from me as thanks 🫶💚
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality✓ Free Actions
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
Johan and his family are mennonites from the north of Mexico. Johan, husband and father, is tormented with guilt over his extramarital affair with Marianne. His father, best friend, and wife know the truth, but Johan can’t reconcile his deeds with his faith…
Jistr'owent, aus ekj ligjt opp mien Kjessen, Jistr'owent, aus ekj ligjt opp mien Bad, Ekj schuwt miene feet derch den Fensta; Aum Morjes mien' Nobasch wea dood! Brinj trigj, brinj trigj, O brinj doch mien' Nobasch no mie, no mie; Brinj trigj, brinj trigj, O brinj doch mien' Nobasch no mie!
Fun Plautdietsch quirk I remembered in the form of an anectode: my dad was joking about renaming our dog "Chili" to "Kielke" (Canadian English approximation: CHEEL-chuh) which is the name of my faaavourite Mennonite dish and then I remembered that in Plautdietsch the diminuitive form takes the suffix of "-tje" (Canadian English approximation: chuh) so if we were to affectionately refer to Chili in Plautdietsch we'd call her "Kielke" anyways lol :)
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality✓ Free Actions
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
Echoes of Wisdom Hyrule Settlements - But With Mennonite Names
(and screenshots by me)
Finished EoW a couple of days ago (very satisfied) so now that I have 100% sure that I have visited all of the settlements in the game, it is time to share the fruits of my month-long project! BotW/TotK edition
Process (skip 2 paragraphs if you want to cut to the chase or if you already read the BotW/TotK version)
So basically, places (in the real world) settled by ethnic Russian Mennonites usually follow 3 rules in terms of naming. They: 1) have two components, where the second is almost always a geographical term, 2) have the first component of the names either an adjective, another geographical term or a personal name, and 3) are officially named in High German (AKA Standard German) and have a vernacular name in Plautdietsch (Mennonite Low German) which uses direct translation of the High German name. More on this, including the real-world cities I analyzed to come to this conclusion!
Disclaimer: the process of coming up with these involved visiting the location on my Switch, looking component candidates in my Plautdietsch-English-High German dictionary written by Jack Thiessen using his orthography system in the Bergthal dialect, after which I searched up the High German translation so apologies for any inconsitencies!
Without further ado, let's dive right in, formatted "[actual name]: [High German name] | [Plautdietsch name]!
Suthorn Village - Suedenwald | Siedewoohld
This naming followed my assumption that the English name comes from it's southern location in Hyrule and as such, translates to "southern forest." I wasn't sure whether to have the last part be "forest" or "prairie" (coming from the nearby Suthorn Prairie) or "field" but I settled on "forest" since unless you washed up on the beach, the average person can only get here via the forest. Please note that the actual High German word is "Süden" but whenever there's an umlaut I opted to take out the umlaut and add the letter "e" after for easier transcription and accuracy
Seesyde Village - Meerdorf | Mäadarp
I don't think it's a stretch that the name of this village comes from "sea side" since that's where it is and if you pronounce the name according to standard English orthography they're homonyms. Anyways, this name means "sea village." Original, I know.
Kakariko Village - Gnadenberg | Jnodboajch
Wanted to try something out with the nice adjectives for ths name so I chose the name "mercy mountain," or as it has been translated when the Kansas, USA church was renamed, "grace hill." Both translations are of course, pretty similar so I'm not really biased towards any one of them.
Gerudo Town - Wuestestadt | Wiestestaudt
Meaning is: "desert city/town." I initially wanted to give a more poetic name like naming it "sand field" because when I initially made this name like a month or however long ago I didn't realize the Plautdietsch translation of "desert" is as similar to the High German translation as it is. When the Plautdietsch words aren't similar enough to the High German words, I tend it avoid it in naming setlements because I couldn't find any examples in the real word of the vernacular name being so different from the official name.
Goron City - Hoehleberg | Heelboajch
Was conflicted about this one for a while but then I settled on "cave mountain" since while you can say that a few of the other settlements are next to a mountain/mountains, none of them are entirely in a cave which I think, architechturally speaking, is super cool.
Hyrule Castle Town - Schlossstadt | Schlottstaudt
This is the only settlement that I'd probably give the same name in every iteration in each game since its name literally means "castle town/city." Note that the original word in High German is Schloß but I opted to replace the ß with "ss" for easier transcription." I actually had names for all the ruins of villages in BotW/TotK Hyrule which included Hyrule Castle Town but my post was long enough as it was so I decided to maybe save it for a later post...if this post gets enough interest lol
Scrubton - Waldgau | Woohldgeiw
This one took me the most research because the second part is complicated in the sense that it does not have an official Plautdietsch translation but plausibly could (and plausibly did.) Just to start it off. this name means "forest gau." A "gau," for those unaware, is an archaic/historical Germanic term for a region in a country. This term has cemented itself into present places names, like a) Aargau, Switzerland, b) Haspengouw, Belgium, c) Flachgau, Austria, and plently more. I chose "geiw" as the Plautdietsch translation for "gau" on the basis that High German words that end with "au" usually take an "eiw" ending in Plautdietsch/Old Colony Plautdietsch/Bergthal Plautdietsch/Jack Thiessen orthography Plautdietsch etc, such as "bleiw" for "blau" or "greiw" for "gray." So there you have it.
Sea Zora Village - Meerheim | Mäaheim
As I already mentioned, "meer"/"mäa" mean "sea" in their respective languages. The "heim" on the other hand, means "home," a nod to my translation of Zora's Domain in my BotW/TotK post: "Zoraheim." Together: "sea home." I was initially a little skeptical of this one since I couldn't really find any examples of Mennonites naming their settlements after bodies of water but the sea is so central to the Sea Zoras' identity so I opted to keep it.
River Zora Village - Flussheim
Same as the previous one, except meaning "river home." Miraculously, the High German and Plautdietsch names are spelled identically! Not much else to say.
Final remarks
We have finally covered all of them and I am super satisfied with this! If you made it to the end I am seriously so surprised so please give yourself a pat on the back for that. Especially since Plautdietsch nerds x Legend of Zelda fanbase have little intersection lol. Anyways, thanks again and below is an extra screenshot from me 🫶
Xenoblade Chronicles 1 Settlements - But According to Mennonite Place Naming Conventions
I finished Future Connected a little while ago and got all the trial achievements (just got the roots across the world achievement) so I am elated to finish this one! If you're curious for more, I did posts with equivalents for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild/Tears of the Kingdom and The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom
Process
So basically, places (in the real world) settled by ethnic Russian Mennonites usually follow 3 rules in terms of naming. They: 1) have two components, where the second is almost always a geographical term, 2) have the first component of the names either an adjective, another geographical term or a personal name, and 3) are officially named in High German (AKA Standard German) and have a vernacular name in Plautdietsch (Mennonite Low German) which uses direct translation of the High German name. More on this, including the real-world cities I analyzed to come to this conclusion!
Colony 9 - Lichtweide | Lijchtweid
For the purposes of this post, I'm going to treat Colony 9 as a village and not a colony in the Imperial Russian Mennonite sense. In Ukraine (at the time part of the Russian Empire,) a "colony" referred to the collection of villages located in the same place for instance, the Chortitza colony. The Chortitza colony was named after the Chortitza (Khortytsia) island in Ukraine which comes from Ukrainian customs, not Mennonite.
Anyways, I chose "licht/lijcht" to represent hope and future in a more metaphorical sense as the site of a devastating Mechon attack and the city of origin of our hero Shulk while I choose "weide/weid" which means "meadow/pasture" (not respectively) to depict the meadowy area surrounding it. I personally would've liked the name "Lichtenau" with a similar meaning better, but I couldn't find a solid cognate for "au" though "au" is present in multiple village names - such as Fürstenau, Lindenau, Margenau etc from the Molotschna colony.
Alcamoth - Hochkrone | Huachkroohn
The "hoch"/"huach" means "high," and the "krone"/"krohne" means "crown" reflecting the local monarchy system. The "high" reflects not only the name of the High Entia, but also the fact that Alcamoth floats in the air and the advancedness of High Entia technology. I've also seen "huach" being written "hüach" in the dictionary but since teh direct translation from "high" to the same gloss in Plautdietsch I'm going for "huach" without the umlaut on the u. Difficulties of writing an unwritten language! (6 more under the cut)
Colony 6 - Fabrikstein | Fabritjsteen
In choosing the name I really wanted to emphasize the imporatance of the Ether Mines in relation to the livelihood of the village, which you can really see during the Colony 6 reconstruction quests and that one heart-to-heart with Reyn and Sharla. As such, "fabrik"/"fabrtij" means "factory," and "stein"/'steen" means "stone" and a factory-stone is basically a mine when you think about it! Please keep in mind that this name was inspired by the name of Fabrikerwiese, a village in the Molotschna Colony (now in the Zaporizhzhia Oblast, Ukraine) and as "fabrik" and "wiese" are separate words I don't know what to make of the "er" in between and that "Fabrikerstein" might be the correct name.
Frontier Village - Kantesdorf | Kauntsdarp
Funny that Frontier Village is named with the word "frontier" since "frontier" is linked to the etymology of "Ukraine!" The Plautdietschword for "frontier" was more difficult to track down, so I settled on Kante/Kaunt, which means "edge" which in my eyes is basically the same thing. "Dorf"/"darp" means "village," even though to me it's more of a city.
Agniratha - Altemetallheim | Ooltmetolheim
Thinking about how all the machina who lived in Agniratha are now deceased or escaped, I was reminded of the Yiddish word (which I believe is also used in German?) for the "old world" which I found out while writing my AP Euro summative on the usage of the Yiddish language in the 19th century: alte heim. It wasn't just the old "world," it was the old "home." I chose it because I appreciate the sentiment it evokes The "metall"/"metol" in the middle means "metal" which ties into the next name:
Hidden Village - Metallbach | Metolbach
Meaning: "metal brook." The metal references the Machina population and the various Mechon species that roam the surrounding area. The "bach" is not only a classic in Mennonite toponymy (see: the 2rd largest city in Manitoba, Steinbach), it also comes from the various streams of water on the Fallen Arm.
BONUS -- FUTURE CONNECTED SETTLEMENTS
Companion's Cape - Neulager | Nieloaga
By the time you're done with the Future Connected side story, Companion's Cape is abandoned and all residents have moved back to Gran Dell. To represent the impermanence of the settlement, I used the word "lager"/"loaga" which means "camp" and "neu"/"nie" meaning "new" to show how the High Entia migrants attempt to fully establish a new settlement before returning to Gran Dell.
Gran Dell - Friedensfeld | Frädsfeld
This is a feld if I have ever seen one! Large open land with agriculture? Absolutely. That part speaks for itself. Even though the English word "dell" refers to a small type of valley usually surrounded by trees, I feel like the landscape would've been more dramatic for it to truly qualify as a "thal" - a valley. The "frieden"/"Fräd" means "peace" which is a common element in Mennonite toponymy (see: Friedensdorf, Friedensuh, Friedensfeld (!) all in the Molotschna colony) and also represents the fact that the settlement lore-wise was mostly likely created after the events of the main game.
Conclusion
Hope this post was appreciated! Here's an extra photo as thanks for making it to the end 💛
Most of the non-Future Connected screenshots are taken from this zoomed out perspective I glitched into from falling from the Prophecy Hut in Frontier Village to the fountain/whatever it is in the centre on the ground floor. Thanks again!
Extremely happy with the university I'm heading into next year but I can't not be envious of University of Winnipeg (stay with me) for teaching Plautdietsch AKA Mennonite Low German classes 😔
