rockall forbi

More gleanings on Rockall.

Here is a Dutch sailing song; the final verse mentions both Rockall and Iceland's Breiðafjörður:

Wij lopen 't eiland Rokol voorbij
Al naar de vogelscharen, dat kan ieder openbaren
En dan vandaar, en dan vandaar naar Bredefjord
En daar dan smijten wij de kollen buiten bord

Here is another version, I think in Afrikaans, though I am not sure:

Toen loopen nuus ‘t Eyland Rookol voorby
En nae’ de Vogelschaeren dat kan ied’reen openbaren
En van dae’ naer (bis) den Hoek Bredefiort
Daer smytten me de kollen alle buuten boord

I was only able to find these because I knew other spellings of the name Rockall, and those I learned after happening on this essay by Ken Hitchen from the Edinburgh Geologist on overshore nomenclature in the North Atlantic. Rockall gets its due there. The reader also learns that several undersea features on the south-western edge of the Rockall Plateau bear names originally of Middle Earth. There are seamounts named Rohan, Gondor, and Eriador, and banks called after Lorien, Fangorn, and Edoras. A peak is named Gandalf's Spur.

More curiously, to my mind, is the story behind the mysterious Rockall mentioned last in my previous post and its influence on submarine placenames. That website has to do with a series of books by Antony Swithin, who turns out to have been a geology lecturer at Leicester University. Hitchen explains it this way:

As a boy, Swithin was fascinated by the remote Rockall Island which, in his imagination, became a continent of magical places and beings. His novels, about the mythical continent (!) of Rockall, and written in a similar vein as Lord of the Rings, have provided names for the Lyonesse, Owlsgard, Sandarro and Sandastre igneous centres.

Another igneous center has been named for Swithin himself. He must be pleased.

Though Hitchen does not mention it, Swithin was influenced by the old idea that Rockall was the last remnant of a vanished Atlantis. That is, the fabulous pedigree extends backwards yet further.

The influence of fantastic geography on actual geography would seem to be greater than one might initially have imagined. These ideas loop back on themselves, and soon it will be difficult to rightly characterize any placename as fictional.