Wisdom's Kiss (57 page)

CHATEAU DE MONTAGNE (sha•TOE duh mon•TAINE) Translated from the French as "castle of mountain," the term is notable for its wrongness: the French, who take their articles
très
seriously, would write it as "le Château de la Montagne": "the castle of the mountain." My novel
Princess Ben,
which first introduced both Montagne and Ben to the world, describes how Montagne was named as though it were the
only mountain
in the world. The same can be said of its chateau: it's the only castle worth knowing. I think so, anyway, but I've always been a
castle fanatic
.
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DARLING COLLEGE FOR WOMEN Tell me this is not hilarious, especially coming from a woman's college graduate (a college with a name not quite as patronizing, though harder to spell).
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DRACHENSBETT (DROKH•enz•bet) German for "dragon bed." In the ever-expanding world of fantasy fiction, pretty much all the good dragon words are taken: Drachensberg (Dragon Mountain), Drachensland (Dragon Land), anything "dragon" in English ... But I really wanted to use the word "dragon" as a place name, and the Germanic
drachen
struck me as a good place to start: those Drachensbett men in
Princess Ben
seemed very German
to me. So, ta da, Drachensbett, and I ensnared myself in yet another another
spelling challenge
. That said, Drachensbett is a blast to say aloud. Especially while sneering.
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FARINA Pronounced like the cereal, Farina began life in the pages of
Princess Ben,
there a
humble barony
. When selecting place names, I far prefer odd-but-real words to fabricated ones.
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FRIZZANTE (Fre•ZAHN•tay) Pronounce with typical Italian gusto on the ZAHN. Onomatopoetically enough,
frizzante
is Italian for "fizzy." Italian sparkling wine is either
frizzante
or (if it's really fizzy)
spumante.
Sparkling water is similarly labeled: "San Pellegrino acqua minerale frizzante" = "Saint Pilgrim water mineral fizzy." Yet another peculiar word I appropriated because it's so darn much fun to say.
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FROGLOCK Pronounced as it's spelled. Originally I called the capital of Farina Farinastadt, just as the capital of Alpsburg was
Alpsburgstadt
. But the name didn't satisfy, and while I was pondering a better one I happened to come across a selection of antique bronze locks shaped like animals. "Piglock" I rejected for reasons I can no longer remember, and "Ducklock"...no. But "Froglock" I loved. (I bought the lock, too.) It was only later, while writing the
encyclopedia entry
, that I came up with those other explanations for the word.
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GEBÜHR (guh•BUERE) German for "toll"; tolls are so important within the Empire of Lax that a country is even named after them! At the time I thought this was very clever, but I subsequently forgot the translation and had to look it up while writing this ... So fares my self-delusion. Similarly, with Rundel ([run'dle]; an obscure term for "small stream," not to be confused with rundle, "a rung of a ladder"), I thought it was terribly witty to feature a poet from mountains awash in creeks ... But "rundel" isn't even in my
OED.
Good luck trying to use it in Scrabble. Gebühr is also home to the
Darling College for Women
(see
above
).
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HÖCHSTELAND (HOEKH•ste•land) The umlaut gives you permission to pronounce this really deeply in your throat: HOEOEKKKHHHHsteland. Slobbering is optional but encouraged. Höchsteland translates as "highest country," which is a most fitting name for a region full of mountains. Like
Sottocenere
, this duchy once had a far more important role in earlier drafts of
Wisdom's Kiss;
I vaguely recall a discussion of diamond mines. Now it serves only to provide Wilhelmina, via marriage, with that coveted title of duchess.
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