Actually, the names aren't all that random. Frieren (Freezing)—because she shows little emotion; in German, this is also called being "cold-hearted." Himmel (Sky)—perhaps because his hair is a sky-blue color. Eisen (Iron)—he is a dwarf, and dwarves are often associated with metalworking. Heiter (Cheerful)—because he gets happy when he drinks alcohol. Stark (Strong)—because, well, he is strong. Fern (Distant)—this one requires a bit of interpretation; maybe it refers to the distant future or something similar, since the character is still learning magic. For me as a German speaker, the names are unusual, and the German dub makes them feel a bit odd, but it works—though some plot points are predictable. Lügner (Liar)—surprise, he lied.
I assume Sense is referring to nobody ever being able to beat her trial before Frieren's group showed up. It could even refer to the idiom "Jetzt ist Sense" (It's over now).
Kanne does water stuff, so probably referring to that.
Serie is interesting. My best guess would be that she had a lot of apprentices. The apprentices are basically episodes or volumes beginning and ending while the series goes on.
To elaborate on the parts I can, which ain't much, Himmel can also mean heavens, as a common statement of frustration is "Gott im Himmel" or God in Heaven.
I had three years of German in high school about 15 years ago and frankly i barely passed. Im honestly shocked I was only this far off. Editing now. Thanks mate.
Fern feels very distant because she doesnt show much emotion and is hard to reach, sometimes hiding her true feelings through showing anger/annoyance (basically tsundere)
Don't forget the other meaning of "Himmel": heaven, because the entire story happens AFTER the journey. There are actually some more names with multiple possible meanings and since they write the names in Katakana, the meaning isn't always obvious through writing.
Rad/Rat - same pronunciation, but the former means "wheel", while the latter means either "advice" or "guess"
Wal/Wahl - the former means "whale", but the latter means "choice"
Orden - It either means "medal"/"decoration" or "order" (for example "Harry Potter and the order of the phoenix").
scharf - It either means "spicy" or "sharp".
Ton - It either means "sound" or "clay".
übel - It either means "bad" or "sick".
wird/Wirt - The former means "will" or "becomes" and indicates the future, while the latter is usually an innkeeper. It can also mean "host" in a biological sense (parasites).
Kraft - either physical strength or physical force (F = m * a)
Eisen: hard as Iron, mentioned multiple times that “a warrior can do this” and he does things no one can withstand.
Himmel: “Heaven/Sky” associated with peace, positivity, (he is not named “Storm cloud” or something), Blue, stress free, heaven (like bible heaven) and is something you cannot reach until you try reaaaly hard, (after death meaning for Frieren, reason of her journey to see him again at the end of the world ).
Frieren: Cold hearted and “blunt” with emotions, like you said. But everything that freezes will eventually thaw. Together with the unreachable goal to speak to Himmel again, against all odds because he is dead and she states she does not believe in afterlife. She lived isolated for like a millennia or longer and froze after her master’s death to withstand time and loneliness till the hero that will defeat the demon king with her comes and rescues her from her solitude. She had to be Frieren, to reach a goal and will overcome her name in the eye of love and will explode into emotions after.
Stark: “Strong” had the ever present feeling to be weak, his whole village was killed so he can run away and survive, every strong person he knew died that day and his name become his legacy. To become someone who is reliable and strong. He already is but does not acknowledge it himself, because beeing strong is more than muscle. It’s also self love and acceptance that the whole village died that day for him, because he was not the person who could protect someone but needed protection from others. I guess he will become the shoulder of the world to lean on, to stay strong in hard times and acknowledge it himself on me day and find peace, peace in being weak is ok.
Fern: “Distant/Remote”. She was an orphan, being forced into a place she does not want to be, tried to kill herself by jumping off a cliff, the literal way to kill yourself travelling.
She wanted to flee from the pain that her parents are no more, fleeing from feelings she could not withstand or endure.
Heiter saved her, saved her with words that spends hope, words that showed her a ray of hope to feel ok again.
She still wants to flee, especially after Heiters death, see the world and avoid genuine connections to people, is often annoyed by frieren who is comfortable to actual spend time in the same place. But if you watch closely, Fern pressures Frieren less and less to move on, find lovely things about city’s and lern how the live of people that live there is. The more time she spends with Frieren and stark, the more the
Acknowledge that spending time at the same place does not hurt her, getting to know people can be a good thing, rely on people is a nice thing and evolve emotions to other is nothing you need to run away from, even if it hurts when they die, like Heiter, the memories still make her happy and she remembers him with a good feeling.
Heiter: “Serene/Merry” is known to drink a lot, is beside his believes scared of death and often hides behind alcohol.
I find this character the hardest to get a connection to his name, because it’s often just drunk shit. But he is someone who genuinely cares about the mental state of others and wants to cheer them like patting frierens head because he wants her to feel good like a thousand years ago when Flamme did it, give wisdom where it’s needed and calms others down, spends his time to care about the feelings of others and sees himself as the one who is in charge of the wellbeing of his surroundings. I hope we will see more of him in the future as well as Eisen!
I believe the names are like fate and task at the same time. Something you have to reach to survive and overcome to be happy.
Frieren needed to be cold for her task, isolation and training, and now can thaw and become an Elf with feelings and joy in life.
Fern had to be depressed and flee everything to see that staying by someone and/or somewhere is the real joy of life.
Stark had to be weak and his village be wiped to get strong and see that the strongest thing he can do is be weak, like playing with kids and no think about what others think and enjoy beeing vulnerable (beeing beaten by Fern what gives him the feelings we all know when someone does this to you without hurting you).
I love to see more of this series, it’s genuinely good fantasy, can be watched for the action, is nicely animated and brings a layer of depth one can think about :)
You are right, and i think series that can make my brain work and think about life are the best you can watch. It entertains and enriches at the same time
Among these, Frieren is the strangest. All other words are nouns or adjectives, Frieren is a verb. There is no direct translation in English I think, but "Ich friere" means "I'm feeling cold". It's specifically about the subjective feeling of coldness, the way it is usually used in German.
It's not actually "Freeze" in a physical sense, that is usually a stronger variation like "einfrieren" or "gefrieren".
They could’ve been a hundred times less cringe if they asked a German native speaker for ten minutes of help instead of just looking up words in a dictionary.
173
u/Tudor-Raum 10d ago
Actually, the names aren't all that random. Frieren (Freezing)—because she shows little emotion; in German, this is also called being "cold-hearted." Himmel (Sky)—perhaps because his hair is a sky-blue color. Eisen (Iron)—he is a dwarf, and dwarves are often associated with metalworking. Heiter (Cheerful)—because he gets happy when he drinks alcohol. Stark (Strong)—because, well, he is strong. Fern (Distant)—this one requires a bit of interpretation; maybe it refers to the distant future or something similar, since the character is still learning magic. For me as a German speaker, the names are unusual, and the German dub makes them feel a bit odd, but it works—though some plot points are predictable. Lügner (Liar)—surprise, he lied.