You are sadly all too right about the lazy tendency for writers to use Celtic materials as 'different' in naming conventions. It irritates the hell out of me. The starting point for that rant was a comment that 'bad' fantasy names are polysyllabic and that this latter is unrealistic. I thought about that for a while and came to the conclusion that it's not in fact true -- lots of cultures use polysyllabic names routinely, but the (Americanised) West doesn't do so as much. Hence the rant. You are absolutely right about the Eurocentricity. I really don't like books which are Europe-with-fantasy-names (Francika, Germanoria, Hispaniana etc etc). It's lazy, and it's a form of cultural imperialism and white-washing. I didn't say that Celtic names were underused and I don't think Kit did. I just quoted some of the longer (and, to lazy modern eyes less palatable) ones as an example of how polysyllabic names are not in fact odd or uncommon. (When I was still teaching full-time, I used to dream of a moratorium on Celtic fantasy so that I could get on with my subject -- mediaeval Ireland and Wales -- without having to deal with all the modern myths.)
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The starting point for that rant was a comment that 'bad' fantasy names are polysyllabic and that this latter is unrealistic. I thought about that for a while and came to the conclusion that it's not in fact true -- lots of cultures use polysyllabic names routinely, but the (Americanised) West doesn't do so as much. Hence the rant.
You are absolutely right about the Eurocentricity. I really don't like books which are Europe-with-fantasy-names (Francika, Germanoria, Hispaniana etc etc). It's lazy, and it's a form of cultural imperialism and white-washing.
I didn't say that Celtic names were underused and I don't think Kit did. I just quoted some of the longer (and, to lazy modern eyes less palatable) ones as an example of how polysyllabic names are not in fact odd or uncommon.
(When I was still teaching full-time, I used to dream of a moratorium on Celtic fantasy so that I could get on with my subject -- mediaeval Ireland and Wales -- without having to deal with all the modern myths.)
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