Lit Hello The Hutt

Hello, everyone. The thread is about Hutts, but since I'm new here I should probably say hello first and explain myself. Star Wars is actually, funnily enough, rather low on my list of sci-fi preferences - Star Trek, Babylon 5 and Farscape are more my thing - but - and this is a big but - I recently picked up an appreciation for the Star Wars EU after reading pretty much everything from The Truce at Bakura through to The Unifying Force, which I was told (rightly, as it happens) is rather satisfying as a continuous story, and which works as a self-contained slice of fictional history (I know more or less what happens after TUF, but have no interest in reading it, as I was very satisfied with leaving TUF as an uplifting if somewhat bittersweet "the end"). I'll get into my thoughts on all of that in other threads, I'm sure (no doubt at length, knowing me). I assume I'm somewhat unusual among those who enjoy(ed) Star Wars novels in that I actually come to you via the modern Star Trek novels (what some of us fondly call the "Novel Verse"). Indeed, it was partly my enjoyment of those that led to me sniffing around more in the Star Wars books. So, I'm not a fan as such, but I enjoy many sci-fi 'verses, particularly large, well-developed and complex ones, and here I am, a fan, more or less, of the slice of Star Wars story I read, and of any universe as complex and rich as this one.

Onto my actual topic....

I've been pondering something, and I can't seem to find anything to confirm or refute this, so I thought I'd run it by you, people of the board. I was wondering about the Hutt practice of affixing "the Hutt" after their name; on the face of it a rather odd thing to do, since it's not like we can mistake them for anything else. I had a thought on the matter, though, and I'd like to see if anything official exists along the following lines. I know, of course, that the Hutts' second (adopted) homeworld is Nal Hutta, "Glorious Jewel". I therefore assume that the word "Hutt" means, literally, "glory" (with Hutta meaning "glorious" qualifying Nal, "jewel"). Which would presumably make the Hutts the People of Glory, perhaps even the manifestations of Glory? Are "glory" and their species two concepts inherently linked in these peoples' conceptualizing?

I think about what I know of Hutts - while my knowledge of the Star Wars EU is far from encyclopaedic, I know that a lot of material exists explaining their origins. And it's easy to see that a Hutt is a very large animal, which eats a great deal. It would have quite a territory to defend in nature. I recall reading in RPG material that the Hutts are thought to have been mostly solitary up until some unknown cataclysm forced them to adapt and come together into clans, into the family system which endure to the, er, "modern day". So it seems pretty well established that Hutts are not naturally very social animals. They don't like competitors. Given their lifespan, even their own long-gestating offspring could very well be a serious competitor in time. So the Hutt tendency towards selfish individualism makes a great deal of sense - they're not naturally cooperative beings, they're the lords (er, lorda) of their own territory. Even the benevolent Hutts like Blotus make sense to me under this model (without even going into the matter of "it's a free-willed sapient not constrained by nature") - given how self-assured of their own ascendency and worth they are, and how individualistic, they're not going to let cultural traditions hold them back. If a Hutt wants to go off and join the Republic as an upstanding honest politician, he won't angst over whether or not he's "turning his back" on his traditions or his people, he's just going to shrug and go do it.

So, when a Hutt introduces itself - as they seem to - not by its three-part formal name (which includes clan affiliation) but instead as "(Name) the Hutt", does this demonstrate that whenever possible they like to reaffirm their innate supremacy rather than identify by clan - and is it an acknowledgement that their identity requires what to other, more social, races would seem ridiculous egotism? Is "The Hutt", the glory, intrinsic to their identity? If I were a Hutt, and you called me Matthew (for such is my name), is this perhaps insulting to me - because you have only acknowledged my name and not my full identity? Does my full identity require acknowledgement of my inherent glory, as well? I am Matthew The Hutt, thank you very much! Who do you think I am? Someone who isn't the sole king of his own particular hill?

So, what do you think and/or have to tell me about our gastropodian friends' tendency to go by their species name?

 

Hi

Always a great place to start.

Many of us here have been pondering the same question, and we never got an official answer, two popular theories are, as you mentioned, Hutt seems to mean glorious in their own language so they really just seem to be having “fun” at the expense of “lesser” races, from which they demand to be addressed this way just for ego sake.

Another theory is related to Hutt history and culture, about 25000 years before the Battle of Yavin the Hutts were among those races that managed to fight of brutal high tech invaders (the Rakata) and steal their technology, with which then went into Empire building themselves, forming one of the three most powerful space Empires of their time, conquering thousands upon thousands of worlds through extreme brutality and cunning and still ruling them 25000 years later.

The use of Hutt as title might be a left over from those days meant to symbolise their power and influence, which many Hutts still have even though they drop their warrior ways some 10000 years later, do to nearly killing themselves off in a civil war.

Also not all Hutts are apparently allowed to call themselves “the Hutt” as we have the example of Orko the H'uun who, from the look of it, was consider way to low a caste to be permitted the title, well at least until he bound his clan to Jabba’s clan through a ceremonial marriage between his daughter and Jabbas nephew Gorga.


So it could easily be that there really are many Hutts not allowed to carry it (after all there are just seems to be billions of lesser Hutts out there we just rarely get to see), or that since the destruction of Varl and rather low birth rates the clans have merged so much that just about every Hutt is allowed the title, as they all might now be related to something akin to nobility or a ruling caste.

Though of course it could just be a mix of the two. Also, as you mentioned, the title kind of serves the function of hiding clan allegiances towards outsiders, which makes sense as a lot of what makes a Hutt dangerous is the commercial network that backs his undertakings and the willingness of his clan to slaughter just about any “lesser being” that kills a Hutt.

 

It's definitely a mix--in my opinion saying "Jabba the Hutt" does, indeed, come across to a Huttese speaker as "Jabba the Glorious", but that people actually do that it the result of thousands of years of acculturation, rather than something the Hutts just imposed on everybody. On the matter of Hutt/Hutta, I see the former as more of a Basic-ified version of the same word, rather than being the root form of "Hutta". Hence, Glorious rather than Glory.

What's funny to me is, if I were told that "Nal Hutta" meant "Glorious Jewel" in a vacuum, my instinct would be that "hutta" was the "jewel" part. So maybe it means "Jabba the Jewel".

 

Nal is a common prefix for Hutt Worlds, so it being Jewel seems more likely, also I could have sworn one of the Huttese guides made it clear which part was which.

 

Hi Big Fat'Lya!
Great first post, and awesome username!

I really like your theory -- though I could imagine that when non-Hutts say "Jabba the Hutt", they don't actually think "Jabba the Glorious" but more along the lines of "Jabba the slimy giant slug". To Jabba himself it might sound like a honorific, but in the minds of most people it would be an expression of disgust and loathing.

 

Thanks for the warm welcome.

Interesting, thank you. I'd overlooked the fact that apparently lower-status Hutts are not permitted to use, or made to feel inappropriate using, "the Hutt" in their name. Blame my less-than-complete knowledge of this universe. And the final point about the concealment of clan affiliation (while perhaps also serving, in anyone who knows anything about Hutts, as a subtle reminder that (s)he has one) is particularly interesting.

I've always enjoyed exploring the alien societies and psychologies in sci-fi, and since I'm pretty new to Star Wars EU I've got a lot to learn. As you say, Hutts are always a good place to start....

 

Thanks.

 

Well, we know that the Hutts normally have three names (just like the ancient Romans): an first name, a cuirvas (clan name), and a cognomen. It was established in Galaxy Guide 11: Criminal Organizations that the Hutts revealed only their first name to non-Hutts, in order to "protect" their clan (or kajidic) from "inferior outsiders". Which is why most Hutts were known galaxy-wide only as "[Insert first name here] the Hutt."

However, old HoloNet News articles like "Zorba the Hutt Sentenced to 45 Years" show that, for example, Zorba and Jabba's cuirvas was well known by the galactic press, but they were still referred to as "Jabba/Zorba the Hutt." In that case, maybe the cuirvas was not really secret; maybe it was just considered improper or offensive for a non-Hutt to address a Hutt by his/her full name.

 

Don’t worry it comes from a really obscure comic book.

If you can get your hands on them
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Galaxy_Guide_4:_Alien_Races_(Second_Edition)
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Galaxy_Guide_12:_Aliens_—_Enemies_and_Allies
Are great in exploring the societies and histories of many SW races.

 

Gorga: "May I call you daddy?"