Placenames in different languages?

[Ireth]

In my stories involving the Fae (which is most of them), the Fae are a fairly even blend of Irish and Welsh, with a bit of Scottish thrown in. I want their various placenames to reflect that diversity, but I've run into a problem. The two Fae strongholds, that of the Winter and Summer rulers, each have two names: the Winter Stronghold is Caer Celynnen (Welsh) or Caislean Cuileann (Irish), both of which translate to "holly castle"; the Summer stronghold is Caer Derwen (Welsh) or Caisleann Darach (Irish), meaning "oak castle". This was originally because in my first Fae novel, Winter's Queen, the Winter rulers were a mixed pair, a Welsh king and an Irish queen. In later stories such as my latest WIP, the character of King Madoc does not exist, nor do his son and daughter; Queen Brigh is the sole ruler and has no heir. These continuities are not meant to be connected, though some of the Fae's names overlap from one story to the next.

The problem is, in my latest WIP (in which far more of Faerie is explored than in Winter's Queen) I've taken to referring to both places solely by their Welsh names, even if the ruler/founder, or the person referring to the stronghold, is Irish instead of Welsh. I'm not sure how to rectify this. Would switching the names up according to the nationality of the speaker or the POV character be too confusing? In the case of non-Fae POV's, they'd just use whatever name they were told first. What are your thoughts on this?

 

[Devor]

Too many exotic languages can cause problems. I would pick one and go with it, and maybe use the other in hyper-formal moments (a ball, the sign on the castle door, that kind of thing), if at all. Mostly I would want to use the Holly/Oak names.

In my work, I've tried to merge the foreign with an English name. So I have a place called "Towering Tianleng," or another, "Daiwon, the Yellowdepths." My hope is that'll help the name to make an impression on readers and help ease the burden of remembering all these exotic places.

 

[Bruce McKnight]

I would stick with one name for each place unless there is a compelling reason (such as two races/families/groups who insist on calling it "their" name or there is something else critical to the story) that is explained in the story, otherwise you risk confusing simpleton readers such as myself.

 

[skip.knox]

I've got a somewhat analogous problem. My solution has been to use the English version most of the time. Where it feels appropriate, I'll use the Latin or the German or whatever other language is in play. IIRC, Tolkien does this as well, giving us Elvish or Dwarvish (or Orcish) here and there, but giving us "ordinary" language most of the time.

I'm with the camp that doesn't much care for words that make the reader stumble. Too much of that, at the reader starts looking at his feet instead of following the story.

 

[Ireth]

I'm inclined to agree on some cases, but there are others where translating the name into English would just sound weird. I use a few Norse placenames throughout the story, like Alfheimr, Svartalfheimr and Midgard; to me they would be jarring when written as Elfhome, Blackelfhome and Middle-realm (Middle-earth, anyone?). Likewise, Holly Castle just doesn't have the same mystical ring to my ear as Caer Celynnen does. Maybe because it reminds me of Cair Paravel in Narnia. *shrug*

 

[Mara Edgerton]

Half the names of places around me are Lenni Lenape in origin--Hoboken, Hackensack, Passaic, Matawan, Wanaque, Secaucus; the list goes on and on and on--and I rarely find myself looking up the meaning and never find myself trying to replace the names with something based in English. I think this is true all over North, Central and South America, where indigenous names are often the norm. We get used to whatever name we heard first.

So, in the case of your fic, I say choose one name for each place--whichever people called it first--and stick with that. If an Irish name is the oldest, I'd find it completely believable that people speaking Welsh or Norse nonetheless kept to that original name.

 

[wordwalker]

Still, it's a waste if you have some really great names and don't slip the meanings of a few of them into the story, just for a hint of the history or current irony of it. But that can get old fast if too many characters (or the narration) stop to say "it means Holly Castle, matched to Oak Castle down that way" again and again. Ways to make it easier might be if a character was a chatty historian, or if you had any kind of forward (it's a good place to mention "if you're interested," give a couple more names... and then point to your website, a perfect place for fans in the right frame of mind to look up more).