VERTIGELT

What in the world is a “vertigelt”, you ask?  It’s really nothing more than my online identity.  It’s nine random letters that spell something vaguely pronounceable but which no one else on the planet would ever think to use as a username.  Go ahead: Google it.  All you’ll find is me, me, and more me.  It’s pretty much my username for every website or online service with which I’ve ever registered.

If I attempt to register with a site and learn that the username “vertigelt” is already taken, that simply means that I’ve already registered with that site and forgotten about it.

Of course, the question is: why these nine letters?  Doesn’t it mean anything else?  Yeah, ok.  I’ll admit that it does.

Back in middle school/high school I thought I might one day like to be a writer, and my primary source of inspiration at the time was fantasy fiction.  So, I was crafting an epic saga in the fantasy setting.  An auxiliary character bore the name “Vertigelt”; in the mythology/history of my story, he was the god of martial arts and sword-craft and the founder of an order of Knights that vigured prominantly in the story.  The name was based losely on the town of Tintagel, locale of Tintagel Castle, the legendary birthplace of King Arthur.  I also was really fond of the neame of a character in Donald Stephenson’s Mordant’s Need saga (The Mirror of Her Dreams and A Man Rides Through).  The older brother of one of the main characters was named Artagel.

So, now you know the story of where “vertigelt” came from.  For what it’s worth, I pronounce it with a soft G.