tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri Jun 02 14:00:24 2006
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Re: Klingon WOTD: Hur'Iq (noun)
Shane MiQogh wrote:
> > A little more irony to add to this, Kahless supposedly forged a sword
> > out of his hair or something like that (the story of kahless i got was
> > kinda jumbled and incomplete),
"The first bat'leth was forged by Kahless from a lock of his own hair which
he placed in the lava from the Kri'stak volcano. He then plunged the
burning lock into the lake of Lursor, twisted it into a blade and killed
the evil tyrant Molor with it." ["Klingon Linguistic Studies", "Star Trek:
Continuum Klingon Compendium" at startrek.com]
Okrand mentions this legend in KLINGON FOR THE GALACTIC TRAVELER (pp. 58-60):
Perhaps the single weapon most associated with Klingons is the
two-handed sword called {betleH}, or bat'leth as it has come to
be known in the Federation. According to Klingon tradition, the
first bat'leth was forged by Kahless the Unforgettable, the
founder of the Klingon Empire, from a lock of his hair dipped
in molten lava. Kahless created the name {betleH}, meaning
"sword of honor." The word {betleH} is actually an archaic form.
In contemporary Klingon, "sword of honor" would be {batlh 'etlh},
though this phrase is used almost exclusively as a translation
or explanation of the older word, {betleH}.
If you have KGT, look at p. 59. There's a photo of Worf and Kor from the
DS9 episode "The Sword of Kahless" admiring Kahless' bat'leth after they
had just recovered it from an abandoned settlement on what may have been
the Hur'q homeworld in the Gamma Quadrant.
--
Voragh
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons