よりの

[hiryuu_no_q]

Hello. I was watching Noir (anime) last night and ran across this sentence.

ノアール。祖は古よりの定めの名。

The subtitle said it meant: "Noir. It is the name of an ancient fate."

Now I don't see how. 祖 means ancestor. Right? Also より means "than" or "less than". Also, I've never seen よりの(noun) before. How does that work?

[Hektor6766]

より really means "from". I put some notes to that effect on that lesson here. The の turns the preceding into an adjectival phrase that describes the law, regulation, decree, arrangement, provision, destiny, fate.

"Noir-the name of an ancient ancestral destiny."

[Mitto]

Isn't that 其は古よりの定めの名 instead of 祖は..?
So wa Inishie yorino sadameno na.

[Yudan Taiteki]

Yes, it should be 其（そ）, which is archaic for それ.

[Hyperworm]

It should also be ノワール ^^;;

[Hektor6766]

I was wondering why it wasn't 祖の... That does make more sense with は.

[Setaceau]

ノアール。祖は古よりの定めの名。 original sentence

I think this sentence has two means simultaneously.

ノアール。それは古い時代から決められた名前。It is the name decided in ancient.
ノアールとは、古い時代から定めを持って生まれた祖先の名前。The name of ancestors who had a certain fate since ancient. (I don't know the story. I can't understand an ancestor or ancestors)

If I heard someone read the original sentence, I would think of the first sentence.
If I read the sentence by myself, I would feel the second sentence by Kanji.

Basically, the original sentence is old fashioned on purpose to inform it concerns old things and to enhance the nuance of dignified.
Actually, most of Japanese understand the original sentence 90% exactly and it is enough to the purpose of the author.

Japanese like to share feelings of "何となく分かる". When we felt some sort of sympathy, we have tendency not to ask more as if we feel that knowing everything is not romantic.

Japanese old literatures are started from "その昔、" and Japanese don't need ask when.

Of course, recently, Japanese also want to make everything clear but still some sort of the feeling is still remained in our deep mind.