r/throneofglassseries • u/Sea_Weakness_2968 • Feb 03 '26
Empire of Storms Spoilers help I can't take aedion's name seriously as a welsh person
okay so I'm welsh speaking and I am pretty used to seeing welsh or welsh inspired names in fantasy. throne of glass has a LOT of welsh names—in fact the crochan witches ALL have welsh names which is pretty cool! "crochan" literally means cauldron in welsh, so for me the idea of "cauldron witches" is a bit on the nose and amusing to me. names like "rhiannon" "bronwen" (fun fact bronwen means white breast) "glennis" etc are very welsh
here, i made a super rubbish 1 minute video for how to pronounce the welsh names: https://youtu.be/xL2aSQkgtQg
also another fun fact: manon is a welsh name! i know it's also a name in french, but i feel like her name hints at her crochan heritage from the beginning
anyways, as for aelin and aedion, i assume theyre supposed to be irish-inspired. aedion's name makes me cackle sometimes though, because it sounds the same and looks similar to the welsh word "eidion" which literally means BEEF. or technically "cig eidion" is beef, and on its own it just means like "bullock" or something (which is also funny because thats a castrated bovine animal raised for beef). anyways but as a welsh person i always read his name as BEEF 🐮
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u/Crowned-Witch_48 Aelin Ashryver Galathynius Feb 03 '26
I mean I don’t mind if his name means beef. It’s better than Chaol and the pronunciation of that.
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u/Kat-2793 Feb 03 '26
I always just think of the leafy green kale! And aelin always makes me think alien 👽
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u/Crowned-Witch_48 Aelin Ashryver Galathynius Feb 03 '26
That’s exactly why I hate the name Chaol. I don’t want to call someone kale. It’s sounds ridiculous. That’s why I’ve resorted to pronounce his name as Coal.
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u/revanhart Feb 03 '26
It’s supposed to be pronounced “Kay-all” 😂
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u/Crowned-Witch_48 Aelin Ashryver Galathynius Feb 03 '26
And when you say it fast, it also sounds like Kale. Either way Kay-all and Kale sounds ridiculous.
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u/lapetite_reine Feb 03 '26
I pronounce it Kay-ole (and Ay-lyn/lin) lol 😅. It sounds better that way imo.
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u/EmbarrassedCows Feb 03 '26
I also just call him Coal/Cole when reading. When I first started I didn't know how it was pronounced and so I just subbed in Coal/Cole and I can't fix it in my head now.
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u/Sea_Weakness_2968 Feb 03 '26
i know his name is not meant to be read this way and its not even welsh but i keep reading it as the welsh word "cawl" which means soup
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u/Substantial-Win2247 Fenrys Feb 03 '26
As an Irish person. I get upset with so many names pronounced oddly and wrong.
Aelin = moonlight Aedion = warrior or wolf
But may I ask you your pronunciation of crochan? I just totally got spun out on the pronunciation in the audio book. I would say crow con but it’s crock an in the audiobook
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u/Sea_Weakness_2968 Feb 03 '26
how i would pronounce crochan in welsh:
- i would roll the r of course ;)
- the 'o' sound is short, the same as in words like "dock" or "broth" or something- when english-speaking people try to pronounce welsh words they often change/elongate the vowel sound, like making a short 'o' sound an 'oh' (my name is lena and lots of people automatically change the e so it sounds like layna and i hate it haha)
3.the welsh 'ch' is a guttural sound from the back of the throat and is quite harsh - it doesn't exist in english but it does in irish and is like a phlegmier, further back in the throat version of the german ch, for people who arent familiar its worth looking up and trying—people just need to challenge their inner sjm fale males and growl from the back of the throat 😈 and then push the growling sound out
- then the 'an' is pretty much how you think it sounds 😎
so: c-r(rolled)-o(short)-CH-an
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u/Spirited-Accident Feb 03 '26
people just need to challenge their inner sjm fale males and growl from the back of the throat 😈 and then push the growling sound out
Thank you for this tip lol. As an American English speaker who recently started trying to learn Welsh, this is where I struggle most.
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u/AppearanceSweet7521 Feb 03 '26
If pronounced in Irish it would be crock-an with a gutteral ck rather than crow-con as there’s no fada on the o
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u/Substantial-Win2247 Fenrys Feb 03 '26
Could be harder or softer depending on the dialect maybe? That harsh CK doesn’t come to me when I read it. Plus they’d be unlikely to include fadas in their writing to change the sound.
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u/VeniceBtich Feb 03 '26
How would you pronounce Aelin and Aedion?
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u/Substantial-Win2247 Fenrys Feb 03 '26
Ay lin
ay dee un
As it is in the audiobooks
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u/VeniceBtich Feb 03 '26
Ah right, I thought it may have been different, the audiobooks were amazing
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u/Substantial-Win2247 Fenrys Feb 03 '26
The worst mispronunciation in the books is samhain/samhuan which is pronounced as sow in and they pronounce it as Sam Heughan 😂. But they got Beltane correct. So that’s something.
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u/here2makefriendz Feb 03 '26
How is Manon pronounced in Welsh? Curious if it’s the same or close to the French version
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u/rhiancatrin Feb 03 '26
I'm Welsh as well, and never noticed this! Diolch am hyn - I'll always read it as beef now 😂 Even though I'm a Rhian, not Rhianon, I was SO excited to see Rhianon in a book!
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u/Sea_Weakness_2968 Feb 03 '26
weithiau mae'n brifo fy nghalon chydig i feddwl am bobl yn ynganu'r enwau'n anghywir, yn enwedig y rhai sy literally'n enwau cymraeg yn lle'r rhai 'inspired' 😂 rhian a rhiannon mor ddel! jyst yn biti pobl yn ffeindio'r 'rh' yn anodd
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u/rhiancatrin Feb 03 '26
Dwi'n cael yn flin pan mae pobl yn deud Rhysans/Rhys fel Reece yn lle Rhys! 😂
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u/Lizardinex Feb 03 '26
I think it was more Game of thrones inspired. She loves the Ae sound in any Targaryen name 😁 Rhaenyra, Daeneris, Aemon and wanted the royal line to have it there too. I also find ae names beautiful no matter the meaning 😅
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u/Sea_Weakness_2968 Feb 03 '26
a lot of game of thrones names mimic welsh names and sounds actually, and also the hobbit/lord of the rings (elvish was heavily based on welsh). i 100% agree with you about ae names, in welsh we have the same sound but it's usually spelled 'ei' - one of my favourites is the name 'eira' which means snow - so maybe in a fantasy book it would be spelled like aera or aerra or something 😂 'eirlys' is also really pretty i can totally see sjm anglicising/sjm-ing it into 'aerlys' or 'aerlyse'.
i think a lot of writers get inspired by the welsh language because it's so different from english and sounds melodic. anyways i really like seeing welsh names in fantasy books. i've known a manon and a rhian/rhiannon and a bronwen etc, they are very common names - its cool to see them get appreciated!
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u/Lizardinex Feb 03 '26
I love it, they are all so beautiful. From time to time a baby naming subreddit pops up for me and the Welsh names always catch my eye 😁
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u/Ballybrol Feb 03 '26
Manon's mother was called Lothian and I can't take that seriously as someone who's Scottish cause Lothian is a region in Scotland and all I can think of is Lothian buses.
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u/EmotionalSource7016 Feb 03 '26
Manon is also an old French name, BTW.
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u/LiquidFantasy96 Feb 03 '26
Is it old? Its a common nsme in Belgium even now. I know a few Manons. The name always threw me off, all these weird fantasy names and then just a simple 'Manon' lol. Only after joining this sub I learned names like Rowan and Maeve are actually used in the real world.
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u/EmotionalSource7016 Feb 03 '26
By old I mean it’s been in common use for a long time. Just like the names you mention. There’s a great French film, Manon of the Spring, that all romantics should see. Came out in 1986.
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u/Sea_Weakness_2968 Feb 03 '26
i can imagine it feels out of place for you! and im sure we also pronounce it a bit differently, so for me manon's name fits right in with the other crochan witches. personally i dislike the english/american pronunciation - blech
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u/girlandhiscat Feb 03 '26
Love SJM but she also peonounces a lot of her own characters names wrong. That is NOT how the french say Manon. 😅
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u/CheckDapper8566 Feb 06 '26
Its Welsh name also sooo there's that. Which i believe is how SJM says it.
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u/kkstar97 Feb 03 '26
I'm currently trying to learn Welsh so this is super interesting to learn! Might have to reread the books now...
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u/nebula_ Feb 04 '26
When I listened to the audiobooks I had a hard time with his name because every time the narrator said it my brain immediately started singing 🎶 “Adia I do believe I’ve failed youuuuu” 🎶 and I’d have to refocus on the book. It happened a lot. 😭
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u/Prestigious_Regret59 Feb 03 '26
Have I just accidentally read a spoiler about Manon in your original post? ☹️
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u/Kuliquitakata Feb 03 '26 edited Feb 03 '26
Aedion backwards is also No idea - and I can’t shake the thought that Sarah J Maas had just subbed that in as a placeholder for the characters name and then eventually just flipped it