January 21st, 2020
21 Jan 2020 · page 958 of 1306
You know, like in the title of the chapter.
Cast: Harriet Barber, Nyree
Comments (58)
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I’m so in love with this woman.
Wait, so she says "we" when talking about the witch, but then also calls herself a witch as well? Are there 2 witches for the Island Anchor then?
tapu tohunga motu is the island, tohunga kehua is the title!
Ah, makes sense, she is referring to the island as a personality in itself. Thank you!
it'll be more obvious later!
Neat. I thought she was referring to herself and the Mountain Witch.
I was close. I thought she was talking about the house....
Oh, ah. I was guessing that "tapu tohunga moto" was going to turn out to be a term for something like a witch's familiar.
And "whare" is the building, at least in Maori.
ImTranslator thinks "tapu tohunga moto" means "holy motorcycle", which I don't think is correct, but is pretty radical
Way better than the popemobile, that's for sure.
Google Translate says "holy motorist".
Oops - just noticed it's actually "motu", not "moto". That comes out as "holy national priest" in Google Translate.
By the Leos Carax definition, would that make Nyree a cinematographer? Truely the realest magic.
Oh whoops, looks like I did that too, lol
machine translation losing all meaning?! a shock
We need a witch to translate instead.
mawitch translation
[Such a thing was never heard of](https://legendsoflocalization.com/funky-fantasy-iv/ "https://legendsoflocalization.com/funky-fantasy-iv/")!
Eh, I've heard worse premises for a comic book superhero.
My go-to translation add-on says "Holy Priest" and doesn't know what to do with the "moto" that's left over.
We _NEED_ to make this the new slang term for "witch" (or even just magic users in general). All y'all in the comments right now, go out and start casually dropping "holy motorcycle" in conversation. Failure will not be tolerated.
That reminds me of this really, really stupid comic book series from decades ago called "Battle Pope." Look it up, funniest ****ing thing ever. Don't recall His Holiness having a motorcycle, but it would have fit in perfectly.
Here's what I could find from basic sources of non-machine translation (and no experience with the language):
for Tapu Tohunga Motu
A tohunga is an expert practitioner of any skill or art, either religious or otherwise.
Tapu is a Polynesian traditional concept denoting something holy or sacred, with "spiritual restriction" or "implied prohibition"; it involves rules and prohibitions. Think "Taboo" in English.
A motu is a reef islet formed by broken coral and sand.
So put together we have restricted/elite expert practitioner island. aka Witch Island.
For Tohunga Kehua
Kehua means "spirits that linger on earth after death and haunt the living" but is often used an umbrella term for all spirits, ghosts, souls, etc.
So a Tohunga Kehua is an expert in spirits. aka a Witch.
And the Island Witch is restricted to her Island, just as the City Witch is limited to his City.
Is it that she's restricted to the island or others are restricted from going there?
The Witch of Witch Island
i looked up the words too, and 'motu' is…
well in the dictionnary i found the first meaning as a noun is this:
" 5. (noun) island, country, land, nation, clump of trees, ship - anything separated or isolated."
while in context it's pretty obvious that it does mean 'island', i love/hate how wide the range of meanings can be… (6. is 'cut, wound', because 'cut, separate' is the main meaning of the verb. gosh i love languages.)
You might want to read Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things
oooh not the first time i notice that title. i'll look into it, thanks :)
Oh hey, we found the witch. That was a short chapter.
But which witch?
The wicked witch
The Wicked Which? That's Faintly Macabre!
She's just after the Whether Man.
What are you, some kind of ding-dong?
(I hope we're on the same page here and I didn't just insult a valuable member of the community.)
Hey, don't kill her yet! We only just met her!
Just pleased to be considered a valuable member of something (friggin' impostor syndrome).
Which Witch? The switched watched witch who ditched Widdershins!
Now you've got me expecting the Whether Man to show up.
Ah yes. Having to provide a meal for an unexpected guest and going through the pantry trying to find something that hasn't gone off.
Well, she doesn't have labels on everything. So maybe she has to sniff between spice jars of the same color to get the right stuff? Ginger and Garlic powders look pretty similar. And you don't wanna mistake those, depending what's being made. =p
At least Ms Nyree is obviously in contact with the outside world, so Ms Harry shouldn't have too much trouble finding a lift home.
don't jinx it.
Now someone has to return O'Malley to Widdershins and make him open his Door. Maybe, Sid will get his chance to help Harry?
I'm thinking she could walk back from the anchor in the middle of Asia faster than they can get O'Malley back to that door. :P
If it's not magical, the quickest way from the East Indies (or pretty much anywhere in Asia-Pacific) to Europe is by ship given the tech level. Month or two minimum. :-/
I'm not sure this island will have made ocean contact with Europeans (I mean obviously they have boats, but you don't just lend those to lost private investigators to sail away with). I'm thinking about how sketchy the information in Europe seems to be about where this anchor even is.
Nyree is speaking English, quite easily, and figured out Harry's native language with about three words from Harry. She's made contact with Europeans, and boat is the easiest way to do it, even with magic.
She and her culture have probably quite sensibly obfuscated the exact details about her home.
It's been weeks? What has Harry been eating all this time?
I don't question her survival, though, Even city folk like Harry would be a lot closer to nature in the early 19th Century. Anyone who wasn't aristocratic enough to be useless would know the basics of cleaning and preparing vegetables and game. I presume she's carrying a pocketknife, too,
Plus you have to remember that even if Harry's a city person, she grew up learning from and admiring her grandfather's adventuring exploits. Chances are good that either he taught her at least basic survival skills or she learned some herself so she could be just like him someday. :D
So. Access to the outside world, but not very often. The glass jars and the mirror look like trade goods, as do the pans (and the brush); but she's frugal with nails. The crate has nails but the barrel doesn't show any.
I'm going to guess that either she doesn't see a trader too often, or she trades with the other witch for supplies and carries everything in.
PS: I have no idea whether this particular style of building can be put up by one person or not; but whoever did it was both competent and trained. Although I suppose finding a spirit of Industriousness to help you out would work wonders there.
Tapu brings up memories of Pokemon. Tohunga brings up memories of Bionicle. There really is nothing left be reusing the same myths and branding it as something new to the general masses.
Moto reminds me of cell phones, though I don't think that one was planned by the company that makes said phones.
Motorola started as a company selling car radios, the name is a combination of "motor" and "Victrola".
A "Motu" is a type of island (in English anyway).
I was going to say she seems trusting but of course she is, if Harry had anything nasty up her sleeve the witch would see it in her spirit plain as day.
yeaah, as expected \\o/ I wonder if her and... Moto (?) are immortal.
Now for some potion lessons from mama Nyree
Didn't Lego get in trouble for using this language in Bionicle?
Dreamily:
I translated these books into Russian :)
Mission Facomplished.