I may have to get these as Christmas presents- interesting and humorous maps of the world and Europe, originally published in German, now in English. The maps depict the names of cities and countries translated into English, giving a funny and interesting effect that many (including the publishers) have commented on by saying they sound like the descriptive place names of Tolkien’s Middle Earth.
Travel to such storied lands as Here Is The Palace, Land of the Pure One (Sarajevo, Bosnia), The Awesome (Grozny), Bear Guard Home, Angleland (Birmingham, England), Go and Milk! (Somalia), Army Camp, Mountainous Land (Tehran, Iran), Stink Onion (Chicago), Place to Find Gold (Cuba), Threshold, Troopland (Prague, Czech Republic), City of Boatmen, Land of the Frank Ones (Paris, France), and more. Even old New York was once New Wild Boar Village- why they changed it, I can’t say. Perhaps even more surprising are places like Newfoundland, which means exactly what it sounds like: a new-found land, and thus needs no translation.
The publishers are aware some of the translations may be apocryphal (such as “Yucatan” meaning “I Don’t Understand You”), but estimate that 80% of the translations are correct. But even the apocryphal ones seem amusing.
(thanks to Strange Maps, a wonderful blog)