Martin Crim said:
>Eric Rowe:
>>So, what you're really saying is that real world place names make
>>sense. King of Prussia, PA, Lebanon, OR, Chevy Chase, MD, etc.
>
>To reiterate:
>1. Fake
>2. Mundane
>3. Silly
>4. Out of place
>5. Plagiarized
>Greg's naming a blob on the map "Nochet" is like Thomas Pynchon's
>character in "Mason-Dixon" named Dr. Cherrycoke; but without being
>witty.
Sounds kind of like a town near here named Arab (AY-rab). Was supposed to be Arad, but the official either misheard or misread, and it stuck. Notchet has at least the bonus of being slightly amusing.
In terms of just plain silliness, I have run across few place names in Glorantha odder than many in my home state of Kentucky: Rooster Run, Monkey's Eyebrow, Possum Trot, and Fancy Farm, just to name a few. Not to mention the ones that just sound weird: Versailles (pronounced ver-SALES by the locals) or Louisville (LOU-ee-vill or LOU-uh-vull).
I'm not sure what would constitute a fake name. Truth or Consequences was named after the TV show just to try to gain tourism and/or notoriety; is that fake? I'm also not sure what you mean by mundane; are Newtown, Metropolis, or Oxford mundane? I think I've covered silly (though there's a lot of this that's perceptual; I was once told by a girl from Omaha that Paducah was a silly sounding name for a town).
On to out of place; I'm not sure where the people who settled Utopia TX came from, but I SURE AS HELL don't want to go there. I also wonder if there were ever any pagan rituals done at Druid Hills GA. Do greek gods live in Olympia, WA? Do you think St. Petersburg FL gets as much snow as St. Petersburg Russia? And as for plagiarized, I live in Athens AL; there's also London and Rome KY (as well as in many other states). Not to mention the aforementioned Truth or Consequences.
Not on your last list, but something you mentioned were places named after people (real world people); how about real world cities named after fictional or mythological characters: Atlanta GA, Zeus VA, Odin IL, Thor MN, St. George GA, Robin Hood Lakes PN, Hamlet AK, Ophelia VA, Romeo TN, Faust NC, MacBeth SC, and Oberon ND, to name a few.
Given the march of cultures through Dragon Pass and Prax, having odd sounding names wouldn't be difficult. Is Glorantha designed by a linguist, as are Middle Earth or Tekumel? No, it isn't, it's designed by a shaman/trickster. But then I'd much rather have mythological than linguistic verisimilitude any day (I love online dictionaries).
Cheerful winter solstice celebration of your choice to all
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