What’s in a Name | Part 3 | Ruffthrok
Other Articles in the “What’s in a Name” series:
So yeah, this got started far later than what I had intended. I apologize. Got sidetracked, busy, and the usual excuses. But now we’re here — the final article of the “What’s in a Name” series!!! How exciting! I don’t know about you, but I’ve been having a blast figuring out the name meanings of these characters! XD
So first off, let me say that Ruffnut’s name meaning took me a LONG TIME to deal with because Ruff- and -nut had A LOT of meanings! So I basically had to pick and choose the ones that most fit Ruffnut — which was pretty much everything that’s on the chart! I have to say that DreamWorks named her well!
So yeah... at first, I thought that they were willy-nilly with the name, but upon coming across these meanings, it turns out that Ruffnut couldn’t have been better named than this! lol XD
Needless to say, that’s pretty much it on Ruffnut, since, you know... there’s not really anything new or interesting or surprising, considering that we pretty much knew this from the get-go.
But... what DID surprise me was Throk’s name!
It was pretty difficult to find. In fact, since this was an original name DreamWorks made, I honestly didn’t think I’d be able to find it and just originally assumed that they borrowed it from Hrok, Thor, Thror and/or other Old Norse names, and didn’t think much about it.
That is... until I came across this on the Old Norse dictionary site I found (the link to it is here):
þrek — or threk — could possibly be where “Throk” originated — if Throk, as a name, existed at all.
(Of course, due to how hard it was to find this, it’s highly doubtful that DreamWorks knew about this, since the show has VERY rudimentary level of Old Norse and the like, period. It’s more likely that they made the name as a variant of “Hrok” or “Thror” or some other Viking name.)
What makes this such an amazing discovery is that its meaning is “fortitude or strength”, which fits Throk to a T (literally)!! Even more interesting is that Throk could be a variant of the name Thor, who is a god of thunder and strength, conveniently enough. And “-rok”, if Anglicized into “rock”, would be even more convenient, since, rocks are known for their fortitude and strength, which further strengthens (pun intended) the meaning and logic behind the Old Norse “threk” being the source of Throk’s name.
As you know, strength and fortitude might as well be Throk’s right and left arms at this point. Heck, even his middle name (even though Vikings never had middle names, even to this day [talking about modern-day Icelanders, not modern-day Scandinavians])! Throk, since his introduction in the RTTE series in the final episode of Season 3, has always been shown as an individual full of strength and fortitude — as one would need to be as a Chieftain’s second-in-command and general-cum-bodyguard.
So yeah, discovering the meaning of Throk’s name has really made me fall in love with Throk as a character even more! Can’t wait to implement this in some Throk-centric fanfics!! ^_^
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this final installment of the “What’s in a Name?” series. With this done, I shall do more articles on these three pairings in the near future. Thank you again for reading, and again, apologies that this took so long to finish.
Keep Calm and Ship Ruffthrok!
— Minlout & Heathlegs & Ruffthrok Fan
