Rosharan Glyphpairs

I resisted starting Brandon Sanderson's The Stormlight Archive for a long time because 1. he hasn't finished the series yet, 2. he says it's going to be 10 books long, 3. each book is over 1000 pages, and 4. it takes him 3–4 years to publish each one. The fourth book is set to publish this year (2020), which means that we can expect him to finish the series by 2038. 2038! By that time I'll be 58 years old. (And Brandon will be 63!) Brandon's books are so intricate that I don't think I can keep track of all the characters and plot details for that long. So my plan was to just wait until they were all published and then read all ten in one go. But then Leann started reading the first book, The Way of Kings, and I couldn't fall behind, so I started reading it along with her.[1] In the story we learn that men who follow the religion Vorinism are forbidden from learning to read.[2] Men will still use marks, called glyphs, to identify themselves or signify a particular idea.[3] The glyphs are formed from actual letters, but the letters are calligraphically stylized. Glyphs are often combined into a glyphpair. I decided to create glyphpairs for the members of my family.

We'll start with my first name, Matthew. The letters that are available require that I spell my name M-A-TH-Y-U. If I just put the letters in a string, without any stylization, they would look like this:

I played around with combining the glyphs into a pictograph that related to me, somehow. I finally settled on the head of an insect:

This is appropriate because I've loved insects since I was very young and I've had several insect collections over the years. (Alas, I don't currently have one because Leann doesn't like the house smelling like mothballs, which are necessary to preserve the collection.) I've color-coded the image so that you can compare the original letters with how I've stylized them in my glyph. Also note that it is permissible to rotate letters and add extra (non-phonological) lines to the glyph to help with creating the pictograph.

Next up is my last name, Crook. The letters that are available require that I spell my name K-R-U-K. If I just put the letters in a string, without any stylization, they would look like this:

I played around with combining the glyphs into a pictograph that related to my family, somehow. I decided to make the R character look like a shepherd's crook, since that's one of the possible meanings of my last name.[4] Then I build the rest around that letter to look like a church:

This is appropriate because our religion is important to our family.[5] I've color-coded the image so that you can compare the original letters with how I've stylized them in my glyph. Put together the glyphs for my first name and last name and you get my glyphpair.

Next up is Leann. In the language of The Stormlight Archive there is no need to double letters, so Leann's name would be spelled L-E-A-N. If I just put the letters in a string, without any stylization, they would look like this:

I played around with combining the glyphs into a pictograph that related to Leann, somehow. I finally settled on a bird:

This is appropriate because Leann loves to go birding.[6] I've color-coded the image so that you can compare the original letters with how I've stylized them in Leann's glyph. Put together the glyphs for Leann's first name and last name and you get her glyphpair.

Next up is Lilli, whose name would be spelled L-I-L-E-A-N. If I just put the letters in a string, without any stylization, they would look like this:

I played around with combining the glyphs into a pictograph that related to Lilli, somehow. I finally settled on a bird:

This is appropriate because Lilli's name resembles that of a flower.[7] I've color-coded the image so that you can compare the original letters with how I've stylized them in Lilli's glyph. Put together the glyphs for Lilli's first name and last name and you get her glyphpair.

Next up is Lincoln, whose name would be spelled L-E-N-K-U-N. If I just put the letters in a string, without any stylization, they would look like this:

I played around with combining the glyphs into a pictograph that related to Lincoln, somehow. I finally settled on a rocket that is blasting off:

This is appropriate because Lincoln loves Star Wars. I've color-coded the image so that you can compare the original letters with how I've stylized them in Lincoln's glyph. Put together the glyphs for Lincoln's first name and last name and you get his glyphpair.

Last up is Levi, whose name would be spelled L-E-V-A-E. If I just put the letters in a string, without any stylization, they would look like this:

I played around with combining the glyphs into a pictograph that related to Levi, somehow. I finally settled on a race car, viewed from above:

This is appropriate because Levi loves cars. I've color-coded the image so that you can compare the original letters with how I've stylized them in Levi's glyph. Put together the glyphs for Levi's first name and last name and you get his glyphpair.

This is just one of the writing systems used in The Stormlight Archive. In future posts I may revisit our names written in the women's script or in the Thaylen script.

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Notes:

[1] I guess I'll just have to reread the entire series when the final book comes out.

[2] This may be more cultural than theological.

[3] See https://coppermind.net/wiki/Glyphs.

[4] See my post What's in a Name?

[5] To learn more about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, please visit https://www.comeuntochrist.org/.

[6] You can see all of our posts related to birding here. My father-in-law has also posted about some of our birding adventures. See, for example, here and here (scroll down).

[7] See my post Mayan Hieroglyphs, Part V.