Poul Anderson describes Avalon before, during and after colonization.
Exploration: "The Problem of Pain."
Colonization of the Hesperian Islands: "Wingless."
Colonization of the Coronan continent: "Rescue on Avalon."
Long after: The People Of The Wind.
During the exploration, the planet has not yet been named because that will be done by the colonists, if any. The explorers informally call the planet "Gray" after the captain of the discovering Grand Survey ship.
Thus, we read about places that will be named later:
the largest continent (Corona);
a great gulf (Falkayn Bay?);
an archipelago (Oronesia).
One name is bestowed: Olga Berger christens the immense floating islands of vegetation "atlantis weed" (p. 34). The "...monstrous marine creatures..." (p. 33) that graze the weed will later by called "kraken." We know all this if we reread the Technic History which indeed is the only way to appreciate it.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I'm reminded of the different ways planets were named in Larry Niven's Known Space stories. The UN bureaucrats on Earth insisted on officially naming planets by which ever name, word, phrase happened to be first used for it. Hence we see silly sounding names like "Lookithat," from a causal exclamation by an original explorer. The planet's colonists later tried without success to replace it with a more dignified name.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
I heard that some rivers in Africa have names meaning, "I don't know what it' called ask the chief!" River or "It's a bloody river, isn't it?" River etc.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
And such replies were then carried over into English phonetically? I can well believe names can be invented by such comic means!
Ad astra! Sean
Post a Comment