Eddings in the Real World
Over the years, a lot of people have spotted names and places from Eddings' books turning up in the real world, or in other books. Thanks to all those on alt.fan.eddings who posted these, especially Cho-Hag, who came up with a great list.
Algaria: I must admit I never spotted how similar this name was to Algeria until it was pointed out to me ... same goes for Algar not far away in Spain (thanks, Lely);
Ambar of Kotu appears to have set up his own company, Ambar Diamonds, in Los Angeles, California;
Arissa has apparently been a character in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine;
Asturia: Asturias is in Spain, and Astoria is in the U.S.A.;
Barak turns up in the Old Testament of the Bible (the Book of Joshua or Kings, I believe). In ancient Hebrew, according to Cho-Hag of AFE, it means "Thunderbolt", and is the name of a particular present-day armoured brigade in Israel, not to mention its current President;
Beldin: The ugly old sorcerer makes a reappearance in the U.S.A. as Belding;
Bellina's Chocolate Shop in Cambridge, England, gave me quite a shock when I first saw its sign!
Boktor: Some of the more eagle-eyed atlas-hunters spotted Bokor in Cambodia;
Danae was Perseus' mother, a princess, in the Greek myth of Perseus and Medusa;
Darion, an ancestor of Garion, can be found in the U.S.A. as Darien;
Demos, according to its website, is "an independent think-tank and research institute based in London";
Edom was both a country and another name for Esau in the Old Testament of the Bible;
Gandahar: In our world, the country where elephant cavalry was invented has become Kandahar, in Afghanistan;
Gara: The village of Belgarath's birth, drowned under the sea at the cracking of the world, has resurfaced as Garah in Australia;
The Hagga military district in Cthol Murgos has a name similar to that of a Jewish book read at Passover, the Haggadah, according to Bill Lowther;
Issus, according to Baron Reldon of AFE (thanks, Reldon) was the name of a battle in Turkey, Persia, or somewhere in that general vicinity. It was one of Alexander the Great's most famous victories, over the Persian king Darius;
Kell: Kells, of the Book of Kells fame, is in Ireland;
Kheldar was mentioned in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine as, appropriately, a Ferengi;
Kotu, according to Leia of AFE, is a tourist resort/pleasure beach-type place in the Gambia;
Mallorea: Have you ever seen an advert for holidays in Mallorca (or Majorca) and done a double take?
Mara, also according to Cho-Hag of AFE, means, appropriately, "bitter", in ancient Hebrew;
Muros: From the centre of the Algarian cattle trade, we go to Mures, a river in Romania;
Riva: All over the place, for instance Italy, Majorca, and a rather appalling model of car from Lada, as well as quite a nice type of chocolate biscuit!
Urtag means "power socket" in Swedish, according to Peter Forsberg: "I can tell you it was very annoying for a Swedish reader to come across this evil character with the wacky name ...".
If any of you have any other suggestions, they can be posted to AFE or e-mailed to me at kamion@earthling.net.
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