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Post by Thomas Wolmer on Jun 17, 2004 19:29:32 GMT
On thing that struck me very early when when I started reading the Lone Wolf books way back in time was that some names of places and stuff were borrowed from the real world. Now that someone recently tracked down Maaken, I thought why not make a thread for this... Places- Abisko [town in Eldenora] - Place in the far north on Sweden
- Barrakeesh - Way too close to the Moroccan city of Marrakesh to be a coincidence.
- Hammerdal - Small town (if that) in northern Sweden
- Holmgard - The old norse name of a medieval town close to today's Russian city of Novgorod. Also not uncommon as a Scandinavian family name.
- Maaken - Tiny island in northern Norway
PersonsOther- Fehmarn - Island in the Baltic Sea belonging to Germany, but situated close to Denmark
OK, you get the idea? Now continue... |
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Post by ramthelinefeed on Jun 17, 2004 20:38:34 GMT
Well, I believe Joe Dever fully intended the Kai/Sommlending/Durenese to be "Nordic", so obviously he did his research with some real Nordic placenames  |
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Post by Black Cat on Jun 18, 2004 0:18:15 GMT
Hey, when I found that Maaken thing, it was just a flash that I had about looking on Google for a name from Magnamund just for fun, after that Naar acronym made us laught, to see if other things like that exist. The first name that came to my mind was Maaken, and I was lucky to find out that something bearing that name really exists. I just tried something else: Varetta. It seems that Varetta Dillard was a blues/soul singer in the '50s. Maybe Joe was a member of her fan-club? ;D
Oh, one more thing...well, actually, two things. First, the name of the state of Caron is a pretty common family name among the French-Canadian families. And the second thing is that the same thing goes with the name of Ruel. We even have an actress who's last name is Ruel!
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andyr
Kai Lord
Posts: 122
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Post by andyr on Jun 19, 2004 6:47:53 GMT
Slovia in a town in Eslovenia, in character with the Balkanic style of the Stornlands.
And going a bit into Southern Magnamund, you can add to your list:
Bhanar, not too much to do with the Japanese-like culture in LW, but a Pakistani place-name.
Chai, that's easy, nothing else that the Chinese word for "tea", though in the West more known as a milk-based tea quite common in Indian restaurants...
Another thing I found odd is how Dever uses the -im plural (as in Hebrew) for all Darkladns names, as in Drakkarim... was that what he has in mind, picking up an ancient-sounding name, or more likely he borrowed directly from Tolkien (as in Rohir Rohirrim)?
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Post by Peregrine on Jun 19, 2004 7:32:21 GMT
I expect it's a mixture - seems to me that Tolkien popularised the use of an otherwise obscure plural form, and other authors have picked up on it in one way or another. At least Dever appears to be consistent, using it as a Darklands (Giak?) plural, Drakkarim, Nadziranim...
(For the record, Tolkien was similarly consistent. Though it may have been inspired by the Hebrew form, he justified it as derived from rim, an Elvish word for a host or great number, later generalised to a collective plural.)
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Post by Sarra on Jun 20, 2004 15:17:38 GMT
I have a few others. Kalte - A german first name. Karnali - Nepal's largest and longest river. Drakkar - The name for the Viking longboats. Bor - A norse name. Eledil (The river that goes through Holmgard, you guys will love this one) - This is the father of Isildur in Lord of the Rings. Eledil was the High-king of Gondor who was slain by Sauran at the battle of Dargolad. It was here that Isildur took up his father's sword and cut the One Ring from the hand of the Dark Lord. Dever loved LOTR. Ryme (a city of Durenor, hometown of Viveka) - A beautiful village in Dorset. |
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Post by The Wytch-King on Jun 20, 2004 15:52:03 GMT
Allow me to weigh in on this ... Kalte - A german first name. Huh? I never heard that one ...  Nah, to be serious, there is indeed something German in that. The adjective kalt or kalte means "cold" ( das kalte Land = "the cold land"). Another interpretation of course could be the word Kälte (where the vowel was de-mutated during the transition to English), which is a noun ("coldness"). Interestingly enough, the German books call that land "Kolte" ... Erm ... that would be Elendil, though ... Nonetheless, a good eye that you have on you there, Ronan! The Wytch-King |
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Post by Sarra on Jun 20, 2004 20:17:31 GMT
It was close enough. Can't be a coincidence.
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Post by outspaced on Jun 20, 2004 20:52:55 GMT
Baraja (pronounced Barrak(h)a) is a Spanish family name. (Commiserations, Spain.)
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Post by Sarra on Jun 21, 2004 0:48:09 GMT
I'm sure that there are more of them. |
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Post by Black Cat on Jun 21, 2004 15:05:33 GMT
Don't you think that the name of the city of Rhem in Salony is close to the name of Rheim, a German town?
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Post by Archdruid on Jun 21, 2004 19:22:56 GMT
Don't you think that the name of the city of Rhem in Salony is close to the name of Rheim, a German town? Or the Salony/Saxony similarity. |
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andyr
Kai Lord
Posts: 122
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Post by andyr on Jun 22, 2004 8:54:00 GMT
Baraja (pronounced Barrak(h)a) is a Spanish family name. (Commiserations, Spain.)
When I read the books in Spanish it reminded me more of Barraca (with the annoying Spanish rolled r), also a Spanish word... but actually it also sounds close to the Vassagonian capital Barrakesh, which would be for sure similar to the Morocco city Marrakesh
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deiseach
Kai Lord
Champion of the Sommerswerd
Posts: 170
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Post by deiseach on Jun 23, 2004 18:49:37 GMT
Ronan is a common male first name in Ireland. A tenuous link to Lone Wolf, but not tenuous enough for one of our most ubiquitous posters |
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Post by Black Cat on Jun 23, 2004 21:39:03 GMT
The name of Chaman (a country just south-east of Ruel) is the French translation of the word shaman (not very original, but still something coming from the real world).
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