Secret hidden in Adonalsium

[Herald he/him]

This is regarding the statement made by Hoid to Dainar in WoK about Adonalsium.

Quote

"I know", Wit said, then looked directly at him. "Adonalsium."
Dalinar frowned more deeply. "What?"
Wit searched his face. "Have you ever heard the term, Dalinar?"
"Ado...what?"
"Nothing," Wit said. He seemed preoccupied, unlike his usual self. "Nonsense. Balderdash. Figgldygrak. Isn't it odd that gibberish words are often the sounds of other words, cut up and dismembered, then stitched into something like them - yet wholly unlike them at the same time?"
"I wonder if you could do that to a man. Pull him apart, emotion by emotion, bit by bit, bloody chunk by bloody chunk. Then combine them back together into something else, like a Dysian Aimian. If you do put a man together like that, Dalinar, be sure to name him Gibberish, after me. Or perhaps Gibletish."

I was going through some of the popular big old threads and found this thread interesting.

These comments from users @Devo and @Bloodfalcon seem significant. Hoid definitely is hinting that Adonalsium is an anagram or a combination of words.

Quote

 

Just noticed this thread. I think it's going way the wrong way. The word to focus on is Adonalsium. He specifically asks Dalinar about it before saying the bit about mixed up sounds. Specifically one should expect to find other words made from parts of Adonalsium, because presumably Adonalsium is older than most words.  I can't believe no one has pointed this out:

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When it was still raging, I decided not to keep up with this thread because, honestly, it would be quite a task to solve what OP was asking. I checked back once in a while to see if there was an update and noticed that someone brilliant had run it through a test. I considered it case closed. 

I convinced my girlfriend to listen to the WoK audiobook (she has never read it and was overwhelmed by the size of the book) and while she had it on tonight the quote in question came up. As I heard it read, I had a new thought on it that I haven't seen mentioned here yet (though I only skimmed). 

It sounds to me like Hoid is not talking about the word "balderdash" or that one that has all the f's. It sounds like he was referring to the word "Adonalsium." As though Adonalsium was the subject of conversation, and when Dalinar didn't know of the word, Hoid was saying "never mind, it is gibberish; isn't it funny to make up words?" Either that or he was actually saying that the word Adonalsium is the one that can be broken down into pieces of other words. 

Maybe it is just the way Michael Kramer reads it, but it sounded just like that. 

To make sure I'm not repeating the efforts done by someone, I did a quick internet search about this that revealed this golden post on Reddit (full credit to /u/eMeLDi).

Behold everyone!

Adonalisum  = A mind, a soul

On a side note, there are many other possible anagrams, some hilarious ones such as Am slain duo, I a damnation soul, On a-dualism, Anal Odiums

TL;DR There could be some secret within the word Adonalsium itself. It could be an anagram of "A mind, a soul"

From the WoB in the above 17S thread, that says "Everything Hoid says is significant in this context", I think there is some possibility that this theory had merit. Thoughts? Reactions? Would be great to have some input!

Thanks.

[Vissy]

Nice theory, but this is common knowledge. Adonalsium = A mind, a soul is commonly accepted fact

Edited January 6, 2017 by Rob Lucci

[The Invested Beard]

48 minutes ago, Rob Lucci said:

Nice theory, but this is common knowledge. Adonalsium = A mind, a soul is commonly accepted fact

Really? This is the first I've heard of it. Any links to a WoB or anything that can back that up?

[Blightsong he/him]

1 hour ago, Rob Lucci said:

Nice theory, but this is common knowledge. Adonalsium = A mind, a soul is commonly accepted fact

This is a common theory, but not a commonly accepted fact. We have no WoB.

 

We do have WoB, although, that Hoid said Adonalsium because he suspected that Dalinat had a similar level of knowledge about the Cosmere as Gavilar, and that he was checking his suspicions.

[Vissy]

18 minutes ago, Blightsong said:

This is a common theory, but not a commonly accepted fact. We have no WoB.

 

We do have WoB, although, that Hoid said Adonalsium because he suspected that Dalinat had a similar level of knowledge about the Cosmere as Gavilar, and that he was checking his suspicions.

I guess I got that from the Coppermind, it says there that "Adonalsium may be an anagram of 'a mind, a soul'"

[The One Who Connects he/him]

1 hour ago, Rob Lucci said:

I guess I got that from the Coppermind, it says there that "Adonalsium may be an anagram of 'a mind, a soul'"

So I checked the edit history of Adonalsium's page on the Coppermind. That little tidbit was added on January 3, 2017 at 11:31. Which translates to 3 days + an hour ago. Meaning it is not common knowledge unless someone has looked at his page in that timeframe. This is just me being thorough becasue I did not remember it having that before.

You can check it out for yourself: Revision Comparison.

[Vissy]

That's strange, I've known that tidbit for years.

[Spoolofwhool]

1 hour ago, Rob Lucci said:

That's strange, I've known that tidbit for years.

A topic announcing this anagram was made some time ago. I think it was at least a couple years ago. I think I have the link somewhere, will post later.

[Argent he/him]

This specific anagram ("a mind a soul") has reared its pretty head a few times over the years. I personally do not believe it to be significant, as (given the context) it sounds much more likely to me that the name was inspired by Adonai, which (according to my Google Fu) is the Hebrew name (word?) for their God. Is it possible that Brandon started off with Adonaisium and, being the clever guy that he is, realized that if he changed the "i" to and "L" he would get a clever anagram for free? Sure. But I think starting with the anagram is convoluted and less likely. 

As for Hoid's comments... I wouldn't read too much into them. Or, rather, I would but I wouldn't accept any interpretation that's not backed up by a ton of other sources. I, for example, think it more likely that he is referring to Adonalsium's Shattering instead of the breakdown of the name itself, or any possible anagrams we can come up with. 

[BlackYeti he/him]

49 minutes ago, Argent said:

This specific anagram ("a mind a soul") has reared its pretty head a few times over the years. I personally do not believe it to be significant, as (given the context) it sounds much more likely to me that the name was inspired by Adonai, which (according to my Google Fu) is the Hebrew name (word?) for their God. Is it possible that Brandon started off with Adonaisium and, being the clever guy that he is, realized that if he changed the "i" to and "L" he would get a clever anagram for free? Sure. But I think starting with the anagram is convoluted and less likely. 

I agree.

This in fact reminds me of that typo from Hero of Ages where Adonalsium was misspelled as "Adonasium", which to my mind sounds even closer to Adonai (though granted I don't speak Hebrew, and have no real idea how it should be pronounced).

[Herald he/him]

Oops.. I'm not aware that this tidbit is a common knowledge . I'm just so excited when I noticed it for the first time yesterday.

6 hours ago, Blightsong said:

We do have WoB, although, that Hoid said Adonalsium because he suspected that Dalinat had a similar level of knowledge about the Cosmere as Gavilar, and that he was checking his suspicions.

Is Galivar Cosmere aware?  This is news to me. Can you please share the WoB for this?

[A Budgie she/her]

I'd never heard of this bit before either.

[BlackYeti he/him]

13 hours ago, Herald said:

Is Galivar Cosmere aware?  This is news to me. Can you please share the WoB for this?

Here you go:

Quote

MACEN

When Hoid was talking to Dalinar, he seemed to expect that Dalinar had heard of Adonalsium. Why would he think that?

BRANDON SANDERSON

He thought that Dalinar was part of some of the secret societies on Roshar. And he had thought his way into thinking Dalinar was part of them and that was how Dalinar was knowing certain things. Which he really wasn't he was getting them from the storms and things like this. But he thought that Gavilar had confided things in Dalinar. That Dalinar would know more about this. So he was kind of testing to see. And he was wrong.

 

[Jondesu he/him]

I always read that passage not as Hoid suggesting anything significant about the name Adolnasium, but about what would happen if they tried to put it/him back together. Even if you succeed in rejoining the Shards, you won't get the same thing you started with (Adolnasium).

[CosmereAvair]

On 1/6/2017 at 8:53 AM, Blightsong said:

This is a common theory, but not a commonly accepted fact. We have no WoB.

 

We do have WoB, although, that Hoid said Adonalsium because he suspected that Dalinat had a similar level of knowledge about the Cosmere as Gavilar, and that he was checking his suspicions.

That is actually such an interesting fact, what thread talks about Gavilar having Cosmere knowledge.

[Pagerunner he/him]

32 minutes ago, CosmereAvair said:

That is actually such an interesting fact, what thread talks about Gavilar having Cosmere knowledge.

Here's the quote in question.

[Yezrien]

If there's a secret hidden in the name Adonalsium, I always thought it was in that suffix, -um/-ium. That's the suffix we use to name an element after something (Einsteinium, Bohrium, Atium, Lerasium, ect.), which suggests that Adonalsium is as much a substance as an individual.

Probably a metallic substance, which might explain why metal is so important to various magic systems.

[raykoda16]

On 1/6/2017 at 10:11 AM, Herald said:

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Guy who speaks hebrew here.  While the word Adonai refers to god usually, (at least in Judaism) it literally means "our lord".  

[Ardjet]

1 hour ago, raykoda16 said:

Guy who speaks hebrew here.  While the word Adonai refers to god usually, (at least in Judaism) it literally means "our lord".  

Nice, thank you for sharing that info! 'Our Lord' opens up some possibilities, assuming there is a correlation between Adonai and Adonalsium. Like perhaps Adonalsium used to be the sovereign of the 16 Vessels, and they had to rebel against him for some reason. Or it could simply be a form of respect. Dragonsteel can't come fast enough.

[Stark he/him]

Huh, this is really neat.  I always focused on how he seemed to be talking about whether or not reconstructing Adonalsium would be a good idea, or if it even result in the same entity.  The whole part: "I wonder if you could do that to a man. Pull him apart (into 16ths), emotion by emotion, bit by bit, bloody chunk by bloody chunk. Then combine them back together into something else" seemed to be a discussion on what you would get if all the shards were recombined.  Would you get the same, or an anagram?

 

I never looked past it to try to decipher an anagram from Adonalsium.  Really neat stuff guys!  Too bad that " Figgldygrak " does not seem to be an anagram of anything yet...

[Fezzik]

When I first saw the name Adonalsium my first word association was not Hebrew but the Latin "ad nauseam" which means repeated to the point of sickness (or nausea). I.E. a younger sibling singing Let it Go for the 15th straight time. Hypothetically, of course.