Place names (RotE Spoilers)

[maulkin]

On my recent trip to Turkey, I happened to read about an ancient city that was built across the Bosphorus from Byzantium. The city's name was Chalcedon and the surrounding hinterland was known as Chalcedonia. Both Byzantium and Chalcedon now form parts of the modern city of Istanbul, united by a bridge over the Bosphorus.

The similarity between Chalcedonia and Chalced is obviously too close for mere coincidence, especially given the near-eastern flavour of the Chalcedean culture described in RotE. Has anyone spotted any other cases of place names mined from history in RotE?

[Farseer]

None that I can think of at the moment, but I had come across this Chalcedon one when I looked up 'chalcedony', which is a form of quartz. I was researching the various eye colours of pecksies at the time and I was very excited when I saw the connection (as I was with the Molly and Tom one!) but thought nobody else would be...glad to see I was wrong ...I, too, thought it more than coincidence!

['thul]

Fantasy authors do like to "borrow" names like that. These beings have seen it in many other series as well. They had not seen the one you mentioned, but they do not doubt it to be very much correct.

[Nuytsia]

Hmm interesting!
No, I cannot say I've come across any place names in Hobb that I recognised. But sounds like if there are any others they are probably going to be too obscure for me to know!

[maulkin]

A slight digression. I cannot find any place names similar to Jamaillia (unless you count a restaurant in Los Angeles). As a route in, I tried researching the title "Satrap". Unsurprisingly, this title is Persian but, surprisingly, it referred to a provincial governor, subservient to the semi-divine emperor. In Jamaillia, the Satrap himself is regarded as divine and he certainly does not appear to acknowledge the authority of any master. Perhaps Jamaillia is a surviving fragment of a fallen empire and the Satrap of Jamaillia has usurped the emperor's status and authority while retaining his original title.

[Nuytsia]

Nice theory...!
Hehe usurped the person above you .... sounds like somewhere a Satrap did what Serillia tried to do!

[Farseer]

I'm liking your theory also, maulkin, especially as we know little of the true history of the RotE!

A couple of place names I've found, though current, not from history:

Farrow - hamlet in Alberta, Canada

Spice Island - Grenada is known as this?

The Out Islands - Bahamas

The Barrens - place in World of Warcraft OR
Barren Island - a few around the world, including one here in Queensland!

Bearns - there's The Bearn in France

Rippon - Rippon Vineyard in New Zealand

There are a few place names that are not named from other places in our history but are borrowed directly from our languages eg Tilth, a name with which I immediately just linked to the soil reference as it is an inland, farming region. Although there is a true-life Farrow, I must admit that I assumed that it was also so named, for agriculture eg pigs.

[maulkin]

Yes, some of the names are pretty generic. There is a village called Forge just up the coast from us but the people who live there seem fairly normal (for a Welsh village, that is!).

There is also a medieval city called Ripon in North Yorkshire, England, famous for it's ruined 7th Century Abbey.

[Farseer]

Perhaps Jamaillia is a surviving fragment of a fallen empire and the Satrap of Jamaillia has usurped the emperor's status and authority while retaining his original title.

This is possible. Prior to Jamaillian rule, there was the 'Old Empire'. It is mentioned in Chapter Twenty-Two, Plots and Perils, of SOM:

"The poem is called, From Kytris To His Mistress. Older than Jamaillia, from the days of the Old Empire."

These words were spoken by Kennit's charm (pretending to be Kennit) to Etta. Possibly the charm had known of the Old Empire and thus the poem via his dragon memories?

[Farseer]

I haven't really come across anything new for this thread, except that there is a Cleres (similar to Clerres?) in northern France, but I have always thought Divvytown was a clever name for a pirate port or stronghold!