Sansa, apples, dance festivals, and the Trident
@theexuberanceofexistence replied to your post “In ASOIAF is Sansa a traditional northerner name or more of a...”
Sansa is a type of apple, so her name might've been inspired by her hair.
I was answering the question of why Ned and Cat gave Sansa her name, not why GRRM did. :) Sansa apples exist in our world, not in ASOIAF. See this post for more on the difference.
But nevertheless, the possible connection of Sansa to Sansa apples is surprisingly interesting. I’ve researched the question of why GRRM chose the name Sansa before, since nobody seems to know the meaning of the name (it’s not related to Sancia; and though I’ve seen it supposedly translated as Sanskrit, “praise” or “charm”, I don’t think that’s true), and it was distinctly not a common or even rare name before ASOIAF. (No appearances in literature, none in even the more obscure baby name books.) And what I found was pretty cool, an appearance in a 1920 novel by Robert W. Chambers. But despite all that, I still couldn’t find out what Sansa means.
So what the heck, this comment made me remember I’d wanted to look up more info on Sansa apples. Apparently they’re a cross between Gala and Akane apples, developed around 1988 by a Japanese/New Zealand team, at Morioka Research Station. Morioka is the capital of Iwate Prefecture, and has a famous festival, Morioka Sansa Odori (盛岡さんさ踊り).
Sansa is the name of the style of dance performed at the festival, which originates from legend:
A long time ago, in Morioka castle town, an oni (demon) named Rasetsu (羅刹) was terrorizing the local people. Being at a total loss as what to do, they prayed to the deity Mitsuishi (三ツ石) to rid them of the demon.
Mitsuishi-kami heard their prayers, caught the demon and made him pledge to never trouble the people again, by making the demon leave his handprint on the rocks located at Mitsuishi Shrine.
This legend, Oni no tegata, or “Demon’s handprint on the rocks”, explains the origin of the name Iwate (岩手), “rock-hand”.
In addition, the locals rejoicing at the dispelling of the demon danced around the Mitsuishi Stones shouting, “Sansa, Sansa” (さんさ), which is also said to be the beginning of the Sansa Odori dance.
Which is all pretty awesome! (Especially considering “Sansa loved to dance”.) But none of the websites I found about the festival explained what “Sansa” translates to, other than that it’s the name of the dance. I thought, maybe it doesn’t translate, maybe it’s just sounds? (edit: heh, it is a meaningless word used in songs.) But even though I don’t know a lot about Japanese, I figured that couldn’t be right (as I do know that words can have different meanings, and symbols can be pronounced differently). So what the heck, I tossed さんさ into Wiktionary to see what came up:
さんさ (romaji sansa)
1. 三叉: three-way fork
Fork? ok, one more time:
三叉 (hiragana さんさ, romaji sansa)
1. a three-way fork, such as in a road, river, or tree
Such as, for example, the Trident. I see what you did there, GRRM.
(OK, maybe he didn’t do it on purpose. Maybe he just heard about the dance festival or the apple and thought the name had the right “soft, pretty” sound for the character he was developing. Maybe it’s all a coincidence. But I think it’s cool anyway!)
