What did people experience when they first looked at a place? The Atlas of True Names attempts to reveal that sense of wonder by unearthing the original etymological meanings behind our place names. Stephan Hormes and Silke Preust are German cartographers who started this project after being inspired by the directness of the place names in Lord of the Rings. Our geographical names are just as direct as those in Middle-earth, with the majority stemming from descriptions about a place’s inhabitants and its natural surroundings.
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