Thread by @MightyDeku

So~~~ I'm gonna start my #FireEmblemThreeHouses mythology references thread here! 😊 I decided a twitter thread was easier for me than making a video haha... I'm going to start off looking at place names, based on this page from Serenes Forest: serenesforest.net/three-houses/p…

While some of the connections are quite obvious, others are a bit more obscure and require a bit of digging and guesswork, so I could end up being 100% wrong about some things, but that's part of the fun, right? 😅

I think the best place to start is with the name of the continent itself, Fódlan! This one's pretty simple, as it's actually another name for Ireland (or Éireann)! The story goes that three sister goddesses, Banba, Fódla and Ériu, all asked that their names -

- be given to the island of Ireland. In the end it was the most beautiful of the three, Ériu, who the island was named after, however her sisters names are also occasionally used in poetry and all three sisters are considered the goddesses of Irish sovereignty.

Take note of the accent on th "o" in Fódlan, as this is quite important for pronunciation reasons, as in Irish Gaelic "o" and "ó" are pronounced differently, with "ó" being pronounced "owe". The way it is pronounced in this trailer is the corect way -

This isn't the first time that Fire Emblem has referenced these sisters - there are three mage sisters in Genealogy of the Holy War who are also named after them! (And they even have Cipher cards!) (Pic from Serenes Forest)

Instead of Irish Gaelic I should've said Old Irish since there are some differences between Old and Modern Irish. Also, *correct 😅

Also, *the! I really should've proof-read this before posting!!!

If you want to read more about these goddesses, check this link - stairnaheireann.net/2016/08/30/tri…

The continent being named after a tripartite goddess is actually really fitting. Looking at the map, I've also noticed it seems to be shaped like a dragon! With places called "Fódlan's Throat" and "Fódlan's Fangs" -

Does this mean the big, bad dragon of the game is the land itself?! Or that Fódla herself will appear?! 🤔🤔🤔 It's unlikely, but fun to imagine!

Later this evening, I'm gonna tackle the three major territories on the continent, starting with the Adrestian Empire, for which we're gonna hop from Ireland over to Greece! 😮

Just from looking at the word, I could tell that "Adrestia" was not in any way Celtic. So, I turned to good oul' Google and, sure enough, it turns out it is the name of a Greek goddess! Greek mythology isn't my area of study, so the following is mostly from Wikipedia -

- and other internet sources.
Adrestia means "she who cannot be escaped". She was the goddess of the balance between good and evil and of just retribution. What's interesting is her relation to certain other Greek deities, and what this could mean about the Adrestian Empire.

This is because there was another Greek goddess with whom she was associated. Sometimes she was depicted as this goddess's handmaiden, other times they were depicted as being the same person. This goddess was Nemesis, who was also a goddess of retribution.

If you've seen the opening cutscene of Three Houses, you'll know why this is important (I'll link it here, since I'll probably be referring to it again). We can't know for sure how this relates to the Empire's role in the story -

- it's possible that it's simply a coincidence, a case of the devs simply picking out random Greek names cos they sounded cool, but it could also hint towards there being a more sinister side to the Empire. We'll only find out by playing the game!

There is another Adrestia, this time spelt Adrasteia (both words mean the same thing), in Greek mythology. She was a Cretan nymph charged by the goddess Rhea (!!!!!) with raising Zeus in secret so his father couldn't eat him~ Because of this, she is associated with childbirth.

For further reading check here: google.com/amp/s/www.gree…

And here: en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adrasteia…

Next is the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus, which is most certainly Celtic in origin, and if it means what I think it means, is gonna be a lot of fun, trust me. 😉

Ok so I searched online to confirm my theory, and it turns out I was right!!! Since I'm a Blue Lions stan, and I'm just generally super hyped to share this, I'm just gonna post it right now even tho I was originally gonna wait til tomorrow...

You see, "Faerghus" is a misspelling of the Irish name "Fearghus" or "Fergus" and this name, quite literally, is Old Irish for... big dick energy. Seriously. That's what it means.

There are other interpretations of course, but it's main meaning is "manly energy/virility", which is just a fancy way of saying big dick energy.

An important Fergus in Celtic mythology is Fergus Mac Róich, who features in The Táin. Notes in Ciaran Carson's translation of The Táin state that "Fergus is represented as having enormous genitals and requiring seven women to satisfy him." 😳

So, if you weren't already on team Blue Lions, you should be now, since they are literally from the land of magnum dongs.

Source (besides books/prior knowledge): en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fergus_(n…

Will cover the Leicester Alliance tomorrow! Thanks for reading~ 😊

Leicester is the name of a city in England's East Midlands, which stands in the middle of county Leicestershire. According to the 2011 census, it is the 13th most populous city in the UK, and it is also one of the UK's most culturally diverse cities, -

- with approx. 50% of the population being White British and the other 50% being from BAME backgrounds.
Source: leicester.gov.uk/your-council/h…

The name "Leicester", like a lot of names of English cities, is a mishmash of words from various different ancient languages, including Welsh, Anglo-Saxon and Latin. The first part of the name, which comes from the Welsh name for the town "Caerlŷr" -

- where "lŷr" (or "leir") is the Welsh translation of the Breton "Ligora", which was likely an early name for the River Soar which flows through the city. The second part comes from "ceastre", the Anglo-Saxon for the Latin word "castrum" which was used to describe -

- Roman military camps. As such, the name probably means something along the lines of "Roman fort at the River Soar".

This makes sense, as the Romans took over the town in AD 47 and most likely fortified it.
Source: en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leicester

I don't really think any of this has much relation to the Leicester Alliance's role in Three Houses, but I found it pretty interesting! 😊

Next I'll look at Garreg Mach Monastery, and then some of the other territories of Fódlan, such as Brigid and Sreng!

Sorry for the delay, 😓 had a really busy day today and am very tired so I'm just gonna cover Garreg Mach Monastery today.

Just looking at the words "Garreg Mach" I could tell they were Celtic in origin, but I wasn't sure which of the Celtic languages they came from. Searching the phrase on Google only brought up results related to the game, so I tried searching each word individually.

Sure enough, searching "garreg" brought up a Wiktionary result that told me it is the Welsh word for stone. Which I probably should have guessed since it's so similar to the Gaelic "carraig" which means the same thing and shows up in place names -

- such as "Carrickfergus" and "Carrick-a-Rede". "Mach" is similar: I was positive I'd heard something like it before, but it wasn't until I found out it was an old Welsh word for "plain" that I realised that the word I was thinking of was its Gaelic counterpart, "magh" -

- which shows up frequently in Irish mythology, often when talking about important battlefields. Putting the two together, "Garreg Mach" means something like "stone of the plain(s)" or "stone on the plain(s)".

I'm... not an expert on Welsh grammar though, so I'm mostly guessing based on similar names of actual places in Wales. Sources: en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/garreg
en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/magh
historypoints.org/index.php?page…
museum.wales/stfagans/build…

Looking at the map of Fódlan again, there seem to be a lot of Welsh names being used, which I find interesting, especially since I'm visiting Wales later this month!
Tomorrow, I'll cover Brigid and Sreng. I'm covering these two together since I know for a fact -

- that they are both based on names from Irish mythology~ 😊

Hi~ time for today's installment of #FE3H mythology time~
Today, I'm covering Brigid and Sreng~

Brigid, or "The Exalted One" was a very important goddess in pre-Christian Ireland. She was a goddess of poetry, healing, craftsmanship, wisdom and flame, and her festival is Imbolc, which is celebrated on the 1st February.

Her origins vary by account with some stating that she was The Dagda's daughter and others claiming that she was his sister or even his lover, and that she was one of the leaders of the Tuatha Dé Danann (Children of Danu), -

- the pantheon of ancient Ireland.
This isn't the first time she has been referenced in a Fire Emblem game, as Brigid from FE4 is also named after her. (Cipher art from the FE Wikia.)

There is also a Blade in Xenoblade Chronicles 2 who is named after her (who also happens to be one of my favourite characters in that game~). (Idk where the pic came from, it's just a screenshot from the game lol.)

Sreng was the name of a champion of the Firbolg, the race that ruled Ireland before the Tuatha Dé Danann. He fought against the Tuatha Dé Danann in the battle for who would rule Ireland, and although the Firbolg lost the battle, -

- Sreng managed to cut off the right hand of Nuada, the ruler of the Tuatha Dé Danann. Nuada then had his hand replaced with one made of silver, which earned him the name Nuada Argetlámh, or Nuada of the Silver Hand.

All my sources this time were books, namely "Lady Gregory's Complete Irish Mythology" and "The Mammoth Book of Celtic Myths and Legends" by Peter Berresford Ellis.

Thank you for reading my sleep deprived Irish mythology ramblings~~~ Not sure what I'll cover next, will figure it out tomorrow lol.

This is what I'll be covering over the following week~ I wish I could do more, but if I push myself too hard I end up getting burnt out and then it's not fun anymore 😓. Also, the 23rd is my 20th birthday!!

So, the reason why I wanted to cover Petra specifically is because of a theory I have about her, and since I looked at her homeland yesterday, I decided to look at her name first.

The name "Petra" is a feminine form of the name "Peter", both of which are derived from "petros", the Greek word for rock. It is most common in eastern Europe.

While I was looking for this information, I stumbled across something useful... as it turns out, someone has created a category on Behind the Name specifically for names of Fire Emblem characters! (Only first names though, so I'm not completely out of business haha!)

It includes names of Three Houses characters, as well as a ton of other fan favourites, so if you're interested in name meanings you should definitely check it out! behindthename.com/names/tag/fire…

Anyways, the main reason I'm interested in Petra (and am definitely gonna recruit her to Blue Lions...) is because of her surname: McNairy.
The name "McNairy" comes from Scotland, or more specifically the Picts, an ancient tribe of Scotland known for the designs -

- they painted on their bodies. The name "Pict" comes from the Roman word "pictus" meaning "painted". This is the name the Romans called them by, we don't actually know what they called themselves.

This is fitting, as Petra seems to bear some sort of painted marking/tatoo on her face. I wonder if the people of Brigid are in fact based on the Picts? The Picts were also a Celtic tribe, with ties to Ireland, so they likely would have worshipped the goddess Brigid as well...

The thing about the Picts is that they were notoriously ferocious towards invaders, namely the Romans. This makes me wonder about Brigid's relationship with the Adrestian Empire. While Petra appears to bear no ill will towards the Empire, and seems happy to cooperate with them -

- this may not necessarily be true of her fellow countrymen, who could very likely see the Empire as invaders trying to destroy their traditional way of life. Considering one of Petra's dislikes is listed as "discrimination", could it be possible that the Empire, or the people -

- of Fódlan in general, have discriminated against the people of Brigid in the past? I find all of this very interesting, so I'm looking forward to playing the game and learning more. I might even make an OC from Brigid, since it seems like such an interesting place... 🤔

So what have we learnt today? That Petra is Pictish, not Irish as I had originally theorized 😅 (though the ancient Irish were very close with the Picts, so I wasn't too far off...) Tomorrow I'll be back to looking at place names... Sort of, since the main characters' surnames -

- are all based off of where they're from, so I can kind of cover both at once. And if you want to know more about their first names, you can check the link above! (Which saves me a lot of work! Yey!)

Sources used today - houseofnames.com/mcnairy-family…
houseofnames.com/blogs/Picts

Not feeling well today 😢 Luckily, finding the meaning for "Hresvelg" was waaaaay easier than I thought it was gonna be, so today's installment is gonna be pretty short and sweet~

"Hresvelg" comes from "Hræsvelgr", which is the name of a jötunn (giant) from Norse mythology. He takes the form of an eagle (hence Black Eagles???) and is said to cause the wind to blow by flapping his wings.

Sources: en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hr%C3%A6s…
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%C3%B6tu…
villains.fandom.com/wiki/Hr%C3%A6s…

Would highly recommend that villians wiki, seems to have a lot of good info about mythological baddies (though I can't personally attest to its accuracy...)

Would also recommend /avoiding/ the Fire Emblem wiki, at least for now, as it is FULL of Three Houses spoilers!! Dunno if they're real or just made up, but it's still super annoying. 😑

I like that Three Houses has references to Norse mythology as well~ This just increases the amount of Genealogy vibes I'm getting, since that game also combined Celtic and Norse mythology~

Tomorrow is~~~ my baby boy~~~ Dimitri~~~ 💙 "Blaiddyd" is almost certainly Welsh, I can tell from the double letters and the "y" being used as a vowel... but I could be wrong, guess we'll find out tomorrow~

i left this really late (it's 1am here) so apologies if this is all over the place 😖 also, am on my computer rather than my phone for once lol

Soooo~~~ I was right about it being Welsh!!! I guess I'm an expert in Welsh now lol (jk)
"Blaiddyd" is made up of 2 words "blaidd" meaning "wolf" and "iudd" meaning "lord"
Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bladud

It was the name of a legendary king of the Britons, who was the father of King Leir (or "Lear" as Shakespeare spelt it) who was named after the River Soar... and then there was a city named after either him or the river... 🤔

Also, one of Leir's daughters was called Regan... As it turns out, a lot of places in the Leicester Alliance are named after characters from King Lear... 🤔
Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regan_(Ki…

I suppose this kinda covers both Blaiddyd and Riegan, so I'm gonna move the next one up to tomorrow so I can have my birthday off~~~ I should probably go to sleep now haha... 😅

Brionac... where have I heard that before 🤔 Apparently, a lot of places, none of which are mythological...

When I first searched the word "Brionac" all that came up were results related to some yugioh card?? Even when I put "Brionac mythology" most of the results were related to video games/comic books/movies... basically, all pop culture stuff.

It took a bit of digging to find out where the word actually came from. Apparently, it was a name given to the spear used by the Celtic god Lugh, possibly the one he used to kill Balor of the Evil Eye, however it was rarely if ever actually referred to by that name in the -

- original stories, hence why, despite the fact that I have read the story of Lugh countless times, I had no idea that was where the word came from. In fact, there seems to only be one poem that ever actually calls the spear "Brionac".

I also have no idea what the word means, as it hasn't shown up anywhere no matter how much I've searched. It seems as though this is a case of some really obscure word from mythology suddenly showing up everywhere in pop culture with barely anyone knowing what it -

- actually means. The place where I'd heard it before was in Xenoblade Chronicles 2 where it was the name of a terrorist group you have to fight for a side quest. Apparently there are a lot of weapons named after it in other JRPGs and now it's the name of -

- a place in Fire Emblem Three Houses. All that from a word that was only ever used maybe once or twice in Irish mythology. Go figure.
Source (this was seriously all I could find): maidofiron.wordpress.com/2009/10/01/a-c…

Tomorrow (or rather today, since it's already 1am again...) is my birthday! So I'm gonna be taking the day off. 😊 I'll be back on Wednesday to look at "Gwenhwyvar"!

@threadreaderapp unroll

"Gwenhwyvar", as it turns out, is the Welsh spelling of "Guinevere", the name of King Arthur's wife from Arthurian legend. The name means "the white phantom/spirit" and the modern name Jennifer is actually derived from it.

There's already been a Guinevere in Fire Emblem, Zephiel's younger half-sister from FE6/7. This Cipher art of them together is really cute 😊

Also, reading about Guinevere reminded me of this cartoon I used to watch as a kid... They used to show reruns of it kinda late at night so if my parents forgot to tell me to go to bed I used to sit up and watch it lol.

Sources: en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guinevere
m.name-doctor.com/gwenhwyvar/

Tomorrow is the last day of the countdown!!! 🤯 The hype is real!!!
I'm gonna be covering some stuff I found interesting about the opening cutscene (linked above in this thread) since I think it's kind of a fitting thing to finish off with right before everyone starts playing -

- the game. I'm also gonna try and do it during the day instead of at 3am so it doesn't end up a completely incomprehensible rambling mess like some of my other writing hahaha 😅

HERE IT IS! THE FINAL INSTALLMENT OF FE3H MYTHOLOGY TIME!!! 😮 Today we'll be looking at Seiros and the Tailtean Plains!

I actually started researching the name "Seiros" ages ago, back before I started this, just out of curiosity to see if it was actually based on real life or just completely made up.

I couldn't find "Seiros" specifically, but there were a couple of similar names in Greek and Roman mythology, which makes sense since other characters in the game who are related to her (such as Rhea and Nemesis) are also named after Greek and Roman gods.

One example is "Ceres", a Roman goddess of fertility, agriculture and motherhood. A dwarf planet and a chemical element have both been named after her, and the word "cereal" is derived from her name (since she was associated with wheat).

Interestingly, Ceres is the direct Roman counterpart to the Greek goddess Demeter, who just so happens to have been the daughter of Rhea. Also, the name Dimitri is derived from her name. 🤔

Another possible inspiration for Seiros is "Ceroessa" (or "Keroessa"), a demigod from Greek mythology whose name means "the horned".

Sources: en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceres_(my…
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demeter
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dmitry
mythological-deities.fandom.com/wiki/Keroessa

The Tailtean Plains are, in fact, a real place in Ireland! Sort of! There is a place in County Meath called Teltown (or Tailtin in Irish) which was named after the goddess Tailtiu, who was Lugh's foster mother. FE4 had a charcter named after her, pictured below...

But the thing that makes Tailtin really important is that, in Irish mythology, a great battle took place there. A battle between gods (the Tuatha dé Danann) and men (the Gaels, who the people of Ireland are said to be descended from). The Gaels won the battle, and the Tuatha -

- dé Danann were driven into the sídhe (hills), where they are said to remain to this day.
The battle between Seiros and Nemesis shown in the game is clearly very significant, so it makes sense that it would take place on a battlefield named after an important -

- battlefield from real life. My main sources for this were the books I mentioned previously, but here's a link to the Wikipedia page for Teltown: en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teltown

I'm excited to see what other references there are to Celtic mythology in Fire Emblem Three Houses (though sadly I'm gonna have to wait a week til I can play it 😞) and maybe after I've played the game I might do another thread like this ~

But for now, this is the end. Thank you sooooooo much for reading!!!!! ❤ Knowing that there were actually people reading this was really encouraging for me, since I was kinda anxious about it at the start 😊 I hope everyone enjoys playing Three Houses!