About the series name: "Oh my goddess!" is based on the manga series "Aaa! Megamisama", written by Fujishima Kosuke, "Megamisama" means "Goddess", (in this case, with an extended ending vowel to ad emotional emphasis) and "Aaa" is an expression that usually translates to "Oh!" or "Ah!" when the graphic design of the Japanese "Aaa! Megamisama" logo was being done, an English version of the series name was added for spice, the translation used was "Ah! my goddess", at the time, the possible English play on "Oh my god!" wasn’t noticed, but was subsequently pointed out to Mr. Fujishima.

When it came time to do the English version of the anime and the manga, Mr. Fujishima was consulted regarding his preferences concerning character names and other matters and he expressed a desire that the translated series be called "Oh my goddess!".

About the Goddess: All three goddess (one of which you have yet to meet) are based on the Norns from Nordic mhytology. The original goddesses were Verthandi (optional spelling: Verthande), Urd (optional spelling: Urth) and Skuld, who where goddess of fate. Each of three goddesses had their own domain in time. Urd the past, Verthandi the present and Skuld the future; the goddesses of "Oh my goddess!" have the same domains, as you can see by noting their choice of broomsticks in the opening credits.

In the original manga series, Verthandi mutated into the more easily pronounceable "Berudandi", this happened because there are no "Ve" and "th" sounds in Japanese. Then somewhere along this line a romanji (roman alphabet) version of the name was needed, one that could still be read by a Japanese reader, and "Berudandi" became "Belldandy" when spelt in English. We think it is a fine name for a goddess.

Sound absurd? Unfortunately, as someone who’s worked on plenty of Shirow material, I can assure you is not. Masamune Shirow (especially in his text pieces) displays a far-ranging knowledge of, well, just about everything. One moment the intricacies of Tantric Buddhism, the next the cutting edge of high-energy physics, the next insect biology. Hisashi Sakaguchi´s Version had me delving into the latest research on electro-organic logic circuitry, and even the usually straightforward Johji Manabe (Caravan kid, Drakuun) sent me scuttling to my West point history of World War II to track down the proper spellings for the names of obscure German armor commanders. My experience with Oh my goddess! is a case in point, and perhaps provides a window into less-obvious aspects of translating. The title was no problem, since it was an obvious play on the Japanese manga artists´ propensity to have English-speaking foreigners say "Oh my god!" during any moment of surprise or stress. The peculiar transliteration previously used in Japan ("Ah my goddess") was dropped after we confirmed with Fujishima that our understanding of his intent was correct. He also confirmed that the lead characters were named after Norse Mythological figures, but warned that his treatment of the Norse mythos was, in his words, "extremely loose"(similar to Shirow´s random and inconsistent use of Greek mythology in Appleseed). Regardless, the romanization of the characters´ names was going to take some care, and I blithely set to work. Little did I know what a nest of horrors I was diving into... In Norse mythology the Norns (something called de Disir) were three females deities whose spinning and weaving determined the fates of humans and gods alike. Analogous to the fates (sometimes called the Moiriai) of Greek and Roman mythology -Clotho, Atropos, Lacheses - They were guardians of Urda´s well, which watered the roots of Yggrasil the extended into Asgard. In some myths, the Norns are described as three giantesses, in others as giantess, an elf, and a dwarf. Often one of them negated the gifts of the other two or turned them into a curse. Urd represented the past, Verdandi the present, and Skuld the future.

Okay, no problem -based on the information I had, "Berudandei" and "Urudo" would be romanized as "Verdandi" and "Urd". Wait a second... what’s this? "Many aspects of Norse myths are vague and contradictory including accepted spellings." Uh-oh. For example, Urd shows up as Urd, Urda, Urth and Urthr. From my study (finally pays off!) of Anglo-Saxon (a.k.a. Old English), I thought these changes and corruptions may have evolved due to misreadings of the character "eth",( "o~" in lower case "-D" in upper, but pronounced as "th") common in Old English and still used in some Scandinavian languages. I figured Urd was probably originally spelled as Ur~o, Verdandi as Ver~oande. This means that the proper pronunciations of Verdandi and Urd very probably where Verthande and Urth.

Time to call the big guns, I phoned Professor Amory (he’s the man when it comes to Anglo-Saxon and old Icelandic). Professor Amory was most forthcoming, not only with the linguistic information, but some essential background on the mythology. The Norns, it seems, were fairly recent additions to the pantheon. They’re not part of the original Old Gods (such as Thor and Loki), but are late inventions, and reflect the fatalism of the Old Scandinavian people. Their names are not names as such, but in fact only "speaking names", or descriptions of their functions. "Verdandi" was a verb form of the Old Scandinavian word "Vertha", "to become". Likewise, urdr meant "what has happened", and skuld "what shall be", or "what shall come to pass". These words were used in regular conversation, and survived as a root words in English and German, and virtually unchanged in some of the Scandinavian languages. The English word "weird" comes from Old Norse "urth-r" by way of the Old English "wyrd". Professor Amory confirmed the original spellings and the proper pronunciation of the names is "Verthandi" and "Urthr".

So now I have a dilemma. Technically, a proper and complete translation of the names would be Verthandi, Urtht and Skuld (at least one out of three words survive unchanged!), but I was concerned that such a large change (despite its inarguable accurancy) might cause unrest among the fans. I discussed this a length with Kodansha, Fujishima, and Robert Woodhead at AnimEigo (since he was facing the same problem with his subtitled video release). The upshot was since Fujishima was playing if fast and loose with the mythos in general, no harm would be done by sticking with his preferred transliteration, Belldandy- despite the huge change from the proper Verthandi. Urd was a less of a problem, "Urd" being an accepted alternate spelling. And of curse Skuld worked out just fine.

Then we hit "Mara", which had previously been bizarrely translated as "Marller". Again, since the character was obviously based on a combination of the Mara of Buddhist religion (sometimes called the Buddhist Satan) and Mara "arch-tempter" of Hindu mythology, we decided to go with " Mara". The Hindu Mara (also know as God of illusion) has three daughters- Rati(desire), Raga (pleasure), and Tanha (restlessness) who also attempted to dissuade Sidartha Guatama, the Buddha, from attaining his enlightenment. The Buddhist Mara leads an army of demons depicted in Buddhist art as hideous monsters similar to devils that torment the damned in medieval European portrayals of hell. The demons that are a common subject of Tibetan iconography were originally native spirits connected with the shamanistic Bon religion of pre-Buddhist Tibet, who have been tamed by the power of Buddhist saints.

I hope this will give some indication of the work that is often necessary to translate these comics properly, and the effort that is often expended to see that it is done correctly. Decisions are never made lightly, and the opinions of the fans are always solicited. If you have any comments or information to add please feel free to write- Peet loves letters! And for those of you who would like to delve deeper into the Norse mythology, i´d like to recommend the book by Stallybrass available form Doverm and Jacob Graham´s Germanic Mythology. Also, Mitchell and Robinson´s Guide to Old English has been an essential reference work for me for years, and the fifth edition is widely available.

Oh my goddess 1-555-GODDESS, graphic novel Dark Horse comics, November 1996
Can a phone call change your life? This one quite possibly could! Keiichi is spending another Friday night alone in his dorm room plugged into the television, his greatest aspiration a double-cheese pizza. When he misdials the delivery-joint number and gets the goddess Belldandy instead, he’s unknowingly bitten off much more than he can chew. Belldandy grants Keichii a single wish, and he jokingly wishes for a beautiful goddess like her. But the joke’s on him when he gets what he wished for!

Compiled: by Victor Manuel Martinez (Vicm3)