The McIlwain

Internet Dictionary of

Fantastic Places

A B C D E F G H I J K L M
N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

! ! ! UNDER CONSTRUCTION ! ! !

AARU (Egypt): The fields of Aaru are the heavenly underworld where Osiris ruled.
ACHERON (Gk/Rom): A river in northern Greece known as the “River of Woe” due to the fact that it flows partially underground. It was believed to be one of five rivers which led to the Underworld. The Underworld itself was sometimes referred to as Acheron.
AEA (Gk/Rom): The island of the sorceress Circe, situated in the west (Odyssey, X, 135). Cape Circei (the current S.Felice di Circeo) in Latium. Also the land where the Golden Fleece was kept, somewhere in the east, associated with Colchis.
ALFHEIM (Norse): The world of the elves in Norse mythology; the Vanir god Frey was a frequent visitor.
ANGKOR WAT (Cambodia): A temple in Cambodia built for King Suryavarman II in the early 12th century as his state temple and capital city. It has remained a significant religious center since its foundation - first Hindu, dedicated to Vishnu, and later, Buddhist. The temple is the epitome of the high classical style of Khmer architecture. It has become a symbol of Cambodia, appearing on its national flag, and it is the country's prime attraction for visitors.; Angkor Wat is designed to represent Mount Meru, home of the gods in Hindu mythology: within a moat and an outer wall just over 2 miles in length are found three rectangular galleries, each raised above the next. At the center of the temple stands five towers. Unlike most Angkorian temples, Angkor Wat is oriented to the west; scholars are divided as to the significance of this. The temple is admired for the grandeur and harmony of the architecture, its extensive bas-reliefs and for the numerous devatas, or lesser deities, adorning its walls.
ANNWYN (British): (see OTHERWORLD)
ANTILLIA (Portugal/Spain): An island said to lie in the Atlantic Ocean far to the west of Spain. It is known by several other names such as Antilia, Isle of Seven Cities, Septe Cidades, Sanbrandan (or St Brendan), etc. Antillia was also identified with islands including the "Isles of the Blest" and the "Fortunate Islands".; A Portuguese legend tells how the island was settled by the Archbishop of Porto accompanied by six bishops and their parishioners in either 714 or 734 in the face of the Moorish conquest of Iberia. The archbishop and bishops each founded a city, known as Aira, Anhuib, Ansalli, Ansesseli, Ansodi, Ansolli and Con. A similar Spanish tradition claims that these bishops were all Spanish.; The island is first known to have appeared on a map in 1424. It was later claimed that it had been sighted by a Spanish ship in 1414, while a Portuguese crew claimed to have landed on Antillia in the 1430s. Many expeditions were launched in an attempt to find the island, and in 1492 Christopher Columbus planned to stop there on his journey to Asia.; On maps, Antillia was typically shown as being almost the size of Portugal, lying around two hundred miles west of the Azores. It was an almost perfect rectangle, its long axis running north-south, but with seven or eight trefoil bays shared between the east and west coasts. This has made some scholars to identify the island as Puerto Rico. Each of the seven cities lay on a bay. Some, the first being Peter Martyr d'Anghiera in 1493, believe that Antillia represented a previous discovery of the West Indies, and as a result the Caribbean islands became known as the Antilles. A less popular theory identifies the island with Sao Miguel in the Azores, where seven villages around twin lakes are known as Sete Cidades.; Either way, this and the improving knowledge of the Atlantic led to Antillia shrinking on maps and disappearing entirely after 1587.
APOKOLIPS (DC Comics): Home planet of the evil tyrant Darkseid. It is a megalopolis covered with burning fire pits. The inhabitants of Apokolips are largely kidnapped from conquered planets, and suffer at the hands of Darkseid and his loyal troops.; Darkseid and his minions are the children of the original "old gods" of the "Fourth World" parallel universe. Created by legendary artist Jack Kirby, Apokolips first appeared in "The New Gods" #1, published in February 1971.
APRIL VALLEY (20th cent.): Home of Peter Cottontail, the Easter Bunny, and the many rabbits who help prepare for the Easter Bunny's journey at Eastertime.; Formerly ruled by Col. Bunny, Peter won the right to be the chief Easter Bunny and thus ruler of April Valley after defeating the evil rabbit Irontail in an egg delivering contest.; Peter's exploits and the story of April Valley are detailed in the 1971 television special Here Comes Peter Cottontail featuring the voices of Danny Kaye, Vincent Price, and Casey Kasem.
AREA 51 (USA): A “secret” military installation in Nevada (?) established after World War II at which is kept evidence of UFOs, interstellar travel, and alien life.; Area 51 rose to prominence in recent years due to the FOX television series “The X-Files” and popular films such as “Independence Day”.
ARCADIA (Gk/Rom; Greece): A mountainous region of the central Peloponnesus of ancient Greece frequently chosen as background for pastoral poetry. The pastoral character of Arcadian life together with its isolation partially explains why it was represented as a paradise in Greek and Roman poetry and in the literature of the Renaissance. The historical region is not exactly coextensive with the present day department of Arkadhía, which extends on the east to the Gulf of Argolis.; The plateau of Arcadia, with basins at elevations of 1,650 to 3,300 feet, is bounded on the north by the Erímanthos and Killíni mountains and is itself divided by numerous subsidiary ranges. In eastern Arcadia the ranges enclose a series of plains drained only by underground channels. The western plateau is more open, with isolated mountains through which wind the Alpheus River and its tributaries. A region of erratic rainfall, Arcadia has a few vineyards but no olive trees. There are patches of oak forest, but the eastern reaches are drier and less verdant.; In ancient times Arcadia was bounded on the north by Achaea, on the south by Messenia and Laconia, on the east by Argolis, and on the west by Elis. It was thus cut off from the coast on all sides. Because it was isolated from the rest of mainland Greece, Arcadia was not occupied by the Dorians during their invasion of Greece (1100-1000 BC), and it retained a dialect that still resembles that of the Greeks who settled in Cyprus (the Arcado-Cypriot dialects). By 550 BC Tegea, Mantinea, and the smaller Arcadian towns had all accepted forced alliances with Sparta, and discord between the towns subsequently prevented them from uniting against Spartan power. Most Arcadians remained faithful to Sparta during the Peloponnesian War (431-404 BC), though in 370 BC the Arcadian League, with its capital at Megalopolis, united the Arcadians for a few decades before internal discord paralyzed their confederation. In Roman times Arcadia fell into decay.; The Greek nature god Pan is chiefly identified with Arcadia. Mount Cyllene (modern Killini), was sacred to him. The god had as a cult title “Cyllenean Pan”.
ARISILON (Milton-Bradley): One of four kingdoms in the 1981 game “Dark Tower”. The goal of the game is for a player to orginate in a kingdom and journey through the other kingdoms in search of special keys (bronze, silver, gold) which will enable to player to enter the Dark Tower, defeat the brigands who hold it, and recover a magic scepter.
ARKHAM, MASSACHUSETTS (20th cent.): A city in Massachusetts. H. P. Lovecraft set many of his stories there and Cthulhu Mythos writers have continued to feature the town in stories written since his death. Arkham is the home of Miskatonic University, which figures prominently in many of Lovecraft's works. Its newspaper is the Advertiser. Arkham's precise location is unknown. However, it may be surmised from Lovecraft's stories that it is some distance to the north of Boston.
ARKHAM ASYLUM (DC Comics): The "Elizabeth Arkham Asylum for the Criminally Insane" is a psychiatric hospital located near Gotham City, and is where those of Batman's foes considered to be legally insane are incarcerated (other foes are incarcerated at Blackgate Penitentiary). Although it has had numerous administrators, its current head is Jeremiah Arkham. Inspired by the works of H.P. Lovecraft, the asylum was created by writer Dennis O'Neil and first appeared in Batman #258 (October 1974); much of its back-story was created by writer Len Wein during the 1980s.; Arkham Asylum does not have a good record, at least with regard to the high profile cases; escapes are frequent (on at least one occasion, an obsessive-compulsive multiple murderer was signed out of Arkham into the care of an incontinent, alcoholic vagrant, on the grounds that he "looked like a responsible citizen"), and those who are "cured" and released tend to re-offend. Furthermore, several staff members, including at least one director, have ended up as residents, notably Dr. Harleen Quinzel, Lyle Bolton and, in some incarnations, Drs. Jonathan Crane and Hugo Strange. In addition to the criminally insane, prisoners with unusual medical conditions that prevent them from staying in a regular prison are housed there. For example, Mr. Freeze is not technically insane, but he requires a strongly refrigerated environment to stay alive, which only Arkham can provide.; Other notable residents have included Bane, Clayface, Dr. Destiny, Harley Quinn, the Joker, Killer Croc, the Mad Hatter, the Penguin, Poison Ivy, the Psycho-Pirate, the Riddler, the Scarecrow, Two-Face, and even Batman.
ASHTON, ALABAMA (21st century): Town featured in Tim Burton's film Big Fish.
ASHTON, MASSACHUSETTS (20th century): Town featured in Frank Peretti's book This Present Darkness.
ASGARD (Norse): The home of the gods in Norse mythology. Located in the heavens, it was connected to Earth (Midgard) by Bifrost, the rainbow bridge. Asgard was vast, containing within its borders Valhalla, the eternal home for heroic warriors.
ASTRO CITY (Image Comics / Homage Comics): Superhero-filled city featured in Kurt Busiek's comic book series Astro City.
ATLANTIS (Gk/Rom): An island kingdom mentioned by Plato in Timaeus and Critias as existing at one time in the western ocean beyond the Pillars of Heracles (the Straits of Gibraltar). Atlantis apparently flourished until a great catastrophe, at which time it was submerged.; Atlantis is the “mother of imaginary lands”. Many believe it to be a myth invented by Plato as a part of his moral teaching. Still others have suggested various sites for Atlantis, the most likely being the Greek island of Thira Santorini.; Many writers have made use of the myth. Some of the more interesting recent Atlantis works include: Taliesin by Stephen Lawhead, in which the concept of Atlantis is merged with Arthurian legend and Christian teaching; the comic book characters Aquaman (DC), Seaking (ARC), and (especially) Namor the Sub-Mariner (Marvel), all rulers of Atlantis; and the 2001 Disney film Atlantis: The Lost Empire.
ATTILAN (Marvel Comics): The royal city of the Inhumans in Marvel Comics. The Inhumans are a sub-species of homo sapiens in which every person is born radically different from the previous generation, mutated in some way. Attilan was originally in Asia before the king of the Inhumans, Black Bolt, relocated the city to Earth’s moon.
AURORA ISLANDS (South America/South Atlantic): A group of three islands first reported in 1762 by the Spanish ship "Aurora" while sailing from Lima to Cádiz, and then again in 1794 by the corvette "Atrevida", which had been sent to find them. Their reported location was east of Cape Horn, approximately half way between the Falkland Islands and South Georgia at 53ºS, 48ºW.; The islands were last sighted in 1856, and have subsequently been ascribed a mythical status, although they continued to appear on maps of the south Atlantic until the 1870s.; It is unknown if the Aurora Islands ever actually existed, or if persistent reports of them may have simply been the result of mid-ocean atmospheric peculiarities or optical illusions. They are the subject of a 2001 novel entitled Hippolyte's Island by Barbara Hodgson, during which they are rediscovered by the book's protagonist.
AVALON (British): A mystical location in British mythology. It is usually portrayed as an island and is often associated with apples, called sometimes the “Isle of Apples”. Originally probably a pagan paradise, it became important in the Christianized Arthurian legends. King Arthur was taken to Avalon to be healed after the battle of Camlann, and he reputedly waits to return in Britain’s hour of need.; There are many possible sites for Avalon. The most intriguing possibilities for Avalon are an island somewhere off Brittany, the Isle of Man, and Glastonbury.; In recent years, there have been many interesting treatments of Avalon in Arthurian fiction. Especially notable are Catherine Christian’s The Pendragon, Stephen Lawhead’s Pendragon Cycle, and Marion Zimmer Bradley’s The Mists of Avalon.
AZTLAN (Aztec): The mythical ancestral home of the Aztecs (which means “people of Aztlan”). The white war god Huitzilopochtli led the Aztecs from Aztlan to central Mexico.
BABAR'S KINGDOM (France): Babar's Kingdom, also known in French as "Le pays des Éléphants" (Elephant Land), is a fictional country in Africa ruled by intelligent elephants, which are usually bipedal and civilized.; The political regime seems to be an absolute monarchy. Since Babar is the founder, it is yet unknown whether it is hereditary or elective but there are a few Royal Princes (Pom, Flore and Alexandre). There is also a Prime Minister, the old Cornélius, who seems to be also Secretary of Defense, and a Minister of Foreign Affairs, Pompadour (who wears a 18th century wig) but no Parliament and no legislative body.; The capital is Celesteville, which was built by Babar and named after his Queen. The name of the city is sometimes used for the country.; Its neighbor is Rhino Land, ruled by the tyrannical King Rataxes. The relations between Celesteville and Rhinoland are cold at best.
BADON (British): The greatest of King Arthur’s battles, generally placed between 490 and 520, at which he totally defeated the Saxons and sealed his claim on the throne. St. Gildas, writing in the sixth century, mentions the battle in his De Excidio but does not connect Arthur with it. The battle, sometimes described as a siege, is connected with many sites throughout Britain, with Badbury being the most likely candidate.
BATCAVE (DC Comics): The Batcave serves as the headquarters for the superhero Batman. Located underneath Wayne Manor just outside Gotham City, the cave is home to a variety of technological marvels, including a world class crime lab, a supercomputer, and various vehicles, most notably the Batmobile.; Though originally known to only Batman (Bruce Wayne) and his butler Alfred, others came to be familiar with its location, including Dick Grayson (Robin/Nightwing) and Tim Drake (Robin).
BAYPORT (20th century): Town which serves as the home of the Hardy Boys.
BEDFORD FALLS (20th century): Town featured in Frank Capra's 1946 film It's A Wonderful Life.
BEDROCK: Town which serves as the home of the Flintstones.
BERMUDA TRIANGLE (Atlantic Ocean): A triangular area in the North Atlantic Ocean between Bermuda, Florida, & Puerto Rico, which is the site of numerous reported disappearances of at least 20 planes and 50 ships.; Reports of unexplained occurrences in the region date to the mid-19th century. Some ships were discovered completely abandoned for no apparent reason; others transmitted no distress signals and were never seen or heard from again. Aircraft have been reported and then vanished, and rescue missions are said to have vanished when flying in the area.; However, wreckage has not been found, and some of the theories advanced to explain the repeated mysteries have been fanciful. Scientific searches have revealed nothing to substantiate the storied peril of the region. Boaters and fliers continue to venture through the Triangle without event.
BIFROST (Norse): The rainbow bridge said to connect Asgard, the home of the gods, to Midgard (Earth).; Bifrost is guarded by the god Heimdall, whose primary role is to blow his horn when giants from Jotunheim move onto the bridge to do battle with Asgard, thus ushering in the great battle at the end of time, Ragnarok.
BIKINI BOTTOM: Undersea home of SpongeBob Squarepants.
BLUDHAVEN (DC Comics): Home of Dick Grayson, alias Nightwing. Bludhaven is located just north of Gotham City.
BLUE VALLEY (DC Comics): Home of Wally West, alias the third Flash.
BRIGADOON (British): The Scottish village of Brigadoon became enchanted centuries ago. The community remains unchanging and invisible to the outside world except for one, special day every hundred years, when it could be seen and visited by outsiders. Visitors might be allowed to stay, but if anyone ever left Brigadoon, the miracle would be broken, and that would be the end of them all.; Brigadoon, written by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe, was a popular musical play which opened at the Ziegfeld Theatre in March 1947 and ran for 581 performances. It continues to enjoy frequent revivals to this day. Brigadoon was also made into a movie of the same name, starring Gene Kelly. Among the best known songs from the show are “Almost Like Being In Love” and “Heather on the Hill”.; Lerner's story was based on a story by Friedrich Gerstacker that had nothing whatever to do with Scotland. The original tale concerned the mythical, German village of Germelshausen that fell under an evil, magic curse.; In the show, by fortunate coincidence, a couple New Yorkers visiting Scotland on a hunting trip stumble upon a remote, misty glen on the very day when Brigadoon makes its brief, centennial appearance. American tourist Tommy meets Brigadoon citizen Fiona, and it's love at first sight.; Unfortunately, the love birds have a large problem to resolve. Fiona cannot leave Brigadoon, without breaking the centuries-old magic spell, thereby dooming all her friends and relations. On the other hand, if Tommy chooses to stay with her, he must leave behind everything and everyone in the modern world that he knows. Things work out nicely in the end and the love birds stay together. Brigadoon is great fun if you have little concern for cultural authenticity. The show is a good-natured, if fanciful, interpretation of all the nice things that North Americans imagine about Scotland, replete with swinging kilts, bonnie lassies, droning bagpipes, Highland flings and “Heather on the Hill”; The name of Lerner's imaginary locale was probably based on a well-known Scottish landmark. The real Brig o' Doon (Bridge of Doon), can be seen in Alloway, Scotland, in the heart of Robert Burns country.; According to the tale made famous by Burns, this ancient, single span, constructed of stone in the 13th century, is the very bridge over which the legendary Tam o' Shanter fled on his horse Meg in order to escape from the three witches who were chasing him.
BRITAIN: Britain is an island to the west of the European mainland. Today, it forms the heart of the United Kingdom and is divided into the countries of Scotland, Wales, and England.; Britain is rich in legends and, seemingly, there is a faerie behind every rock and a sprite behind every tree. Like few others on Earth, it is a magical land.
BRITTANY, FRANCE: A territory in modern day France which in the early Dark Ages was largely inhabited by an immigrant population from Britain. Many wealthy families from Britain fled their homeland for Brittany due to the great unrest. Hoel was said to be king, and he was an eventual ally of King Arthur of Britain. Arthur’s greatest general, Lancelot, came from Brittany and was part of an immigrant family.; Many Arthurian tales take place in Brittany, a land which was said to be filled with magic.; The enchanted forest of Broceliande was in Brittany, and Avalon was sometimes associated with it. Some medieval writers even placed Camelot in Brittany.
BRYNTHIA (Milton-Bradley): One of four kingdoms in the 1981 game “Dark Tower”. The goal of the game is for a player to orginate in a kingdom and journey through the other kingdoms in search of special keys (bronze, silver, gold) which will enable to player to enter the Dark Tower, defeat the brigands who hold it, and recover a magic scepter.
BUSS ISLAND (Scandinavian/North Atlantic): An island discovered during the third expedition of Martin Frobisher in September 1578 by sailors aboard the "Emmanuel" and put on maps as existing between Ireland and mythical Frisland at about 57° N. The island was named after the type of vessel that its discoverers used, a "busse". It is believed that Frobisher took Greenland for Frisland and Baffin Island for Greenland and the Emmanuel, returning home, made a mistake in dead reckoning and mistook optical effects near Greenland at around 62° N for a new land.; Thomas Shepard claimed to have explored and mapped the island in 1671. As Atlantic traffic increased the island's existence was less certain and its supposed size was greatly reduced. In 1745 it was suggested that the island had 'sunk' as the supposed area was relatively shallow. The island or 'site of sunken island' persisted on charts into the 19th century.
BUYAN (Russian): A mysterious island in the ocean with an ability to appear and disappear. Three brothers – the Northern, Western, and Eastern Winds – live there. A lot of strange things are said to happen on this island. Koschei the Deathless keeps his soul hidden here inside a needle placed inside an egg in the mystical oak-tree.
CAMELOT (British): King Arthur’s capital. Its location is unknown. Some historical pieces point to the possibility that Colchester is Camelot; in Roman times it was known as Camulodunum.; Archaeological evidence seems to support Cadbury in Somerset as a site, as there was a leader’s fortified dwelling there during the Arthurian period.; In recent years, the name of Camelot has become known chiefly for the 1960 musical play Camelot and the association with the administration of U.S. President John F. Kennedy.
CAMLANN (British): King Arthur’s final battle, roughly twenty years after Badon, at which Arthur’s reign came to a complete end. His exact foes remain unknown, but fiction has suggested a resurgent Saxon force, Arthur’s son Mordred, or even Lancelot, Arthur’s general. Arthur himself was so wounded after the battle that he was taken to Avalon to be cared for until the day of his return in the hour of Britain’s need.; Possible sites for Camlann are multudinous. Sir Thomas Malory favored Salisbury Plain, others choosing a location near the Camel River in Cornwall and still others a town in Wales. Various sites in Scotland are also mentioned as possibilities.
CANTREF GWAELOD (Britain): A legendary ancient sunken kingdom said to have occupied a tract of fertile land stretching northwards from Ramsey Island to Bardsey Island over what is now Cardigan Bay to the west of Wales, often described as the 'Welsh Atlantis'.
CANDYLAND (Milton-Bradley): A magical land in the children’s board game of the same name. One can make chocolate bats in Lord Licorice's palace, build ice cream floats in Queen Frostine's Ice Cream Sea, help Gramma Nutt decorate her house, decorate lollipops with Princess Lolly, play musical games in Mr. Mint's Peppermint Forest, and catch Plumpy in the Gingerbread Plum Forest in order to make plum pies.
CASTLE DRACULA (20th cent.): Bran Castle, once the home of Prince Vlad Tepes the Impaler, bestter known as Count Dracula. It is located in Transylvania, in the Carpathian mountains, in the modern nation of Romania.
CASTLE FRANKENSTEIN (20th cent.): Home of the archetypal mad scientist, Dr. Victor (sometimes called Henry) von Frankenstein, this medieval castle is located near Darmstadt, Germany. Frankenstein was obsessed with the creation of artificial life. The doctor, though not perhaps certifiably mad, was near that point in his obsession about creating new life from stitched-together corpse parts, aided by his assistant, the hunchbacked Igor (or Ygor). He kept his uncanny creation locked away. It, after the fashion of most monsters, managed to escape and terrorize the countryside. During a siege by a torch-bearing mob, the doctor was carried off by the monster and, after a confrontation with it in an old mill, was nearly killed.; Later, a demented alchemist, one Dr. Septimus Pretorius, blackmailed Dr. Frankenstein into creating a woman. Dr. Pretorius had earlier succeeded in creating a collection of homunculi, but is unable to make a normal-sized being, so is inspired to collaborate. While the brain for the female monster is created alchemically by Pretorius, its other parts are, like those of its intended husband, second-hand.; Decades later, Frankenstein's grandson travels to the castle where he becomes obsessed with his grandfather's project, repeating the experiment and creating yet another monster, though one who can sing and dance.; Frankenstein's story was initially told in Mary Wollstonecraft Shelly's classic Frankenstein, but was re-told in may films, starring such legendary performers as Boris Karloff, Colin Clive, Elsa Lanchester, Basil Rathbone, Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, Gene Wilder, Teri Garr, Peter Boyle, and Robert DeNiro.
CEDAR FOREST (Mesopotamia): The glorious realm of the gods of Babylonian mythology.
CENTRAL CITY (DC Comics): In Will Eisner's "The Spirit", home to Denny Colt, alias The Spirit. In the DC Universe, home to Barry Allen, alias the second Flash. Central City is also the capital city portrayed in the 1972 film Conquest of the Planet of the Apes.
CHRISTMASTOWN (20th century): Town featured in Tim Burton's film A Nightmare Before Christmas.
CICELY, ALASKA (20th century): Town featured in the CBS television series Northern Exposure.
CLEVELAND, OHIO (USA): A place of torment and the habitation of the fallen, with everlasting hideousness and eternal damnation for its faithful. Also known as “the worm that never dies” and “the infernal regions”. William Shakespeare prophetically described it in Love’s Labours Lost as “the hue of dungeons and the scowl of night.”; The presence of American League baseball (hardly real baseball) and a "professional" football team known as the "Browns" (their color is orange...go figure) confirms these observations.
COAST CITY (DC COMICS): Home of Hal Jordan, alias the second Green Lantern.
COCKAIGNE (British): Legendary country described in medieval tales, where delicacies of food and drink were to be had for the taking. "The Land of Cockaygne" is a 13th-century English poem satirizing monastic life.
COCYTUS (Gk/Rom): A river in northern Greece known as the “River of Wailing”. It was believed to be one of five rivers which led to the Underworld. The unburied dead were reputed to wander its banks for a hundred years after their deaths.
DIAGON ALLEY (20th cent.): In the Harry Potter books by J.K. Rowling, Diagon Alley is a shopping district hidden from the view of non-magical people ("muggles").; Among the notable places to visit in Diagon Alley are: Gringots, the bank run by goblins; Madame Malkin's Robes for All Occasions; and Ollivander's, a magic wand shop.
DAVY JONES’ LOCKER (British): Davy Jones, according to the mythology of sailors, is the fiend that presides over all the evil spirits of the deep, and is often seen in various shapes, perching among the rigging on the eve of hurricanes, shipwrecks, and other disasters to which sea-faring life is exposed, warning the devoted wretch of death and woe. So his “locker” is the bottom of the sea, the ocean's depths.; There are various stories about the origin of the term, usually attempting to identify a real David Jones. One of this name was said to run a pub in London as well as a privatized press gang, drugging unwary patrons and storing them in his ale lockers at the back of the pub until they could be taken on board some ship.; Another theory suggests that Davy Jones was a fearsome pirate, who loved to make his captives walk the plank, so they ended up at the bottom of the sea. No one to date has identified this alarming outlaw with any historical personage.; It is reasonably certain that this Davy Jones is not related in any way to the popular teen idol and Monkees singer of the same name.
DILMUN (Sumeria): Paradise, perhaps the Persian Gulf, sometimes described as 'the place where the sun rises' and 'the Land of the Living'. It is the scene of a Sumerian creation myth and the place where the deified Sumerian hero of the flood, Ziusudra (Utnapishtim), was taken by the gods to live for ever.
DINOTOPIA (20th cent.): Utopian island where humans and dinosaurs (and other prehistoric entities such as mammoths, flying reptiles, and exotic plants) live together in peace. Races and sexes are equal, long life is assured, and innovation is used to benefit the inhabitants, all thanks to the dinosaurs' benign influence. It became known to the world via a long lost diary chronicling the discoveries of biologist Arthur Denison and his son after an 1862 shipwreck.
DOGPATCH (20th century): Town featured in "Li'l Abner".
DREAMTIME (Australia): Indigenous Australian people conceive of all things beginning with "Dreamtime" or "Altjeringa", a sacred time out of time in which ancestral totemic spirit beings formed creation.; The expression "Dreamtime" was coined in 1899 by anthropologists W.B. Spencer and F.J. Gillen from the word "alcheringa" from the Arrernte language. Dreamtime in modern scholarship often refers to the "time before time", "time outside of time" or "time of the creation of all things", as though it were the past, but in a real sense it is also present and in the future. Anthropologist W.H. Stanner described it as "the Everywhen". This is an apt and evocative approximation to what the indigenous Australian Peoples refer to in translation as the "all-at-once" time which is experienced as a co-existing confluence of past, present and future. This does not counter the Indigenous Australians People's concept of linear time, but it informs and qualifies it. Indigenous Australians consider Dreamtime to be objective, whilst linear time was considered a subjective construction of waking consciousness of one's own lifetime. This is in the converse of the European concept which views dreams as subjective and linear time as objective.; Dreamtime has thus often been portrayed as both a time and a place, outside of linear time and the material world. Dreamtime has appeared in, among other works, Neil Gaiman's Sandman and Sam Kieth's The Maxx.
DULOC (21st century): A so-called "perfect place" ruled by the mad and diminutive Lord Farquaad. Farquaad enforced rules such as, "Don't make waves, stay in line...Please keep off of the grass, Shine your shoes, wipe your...face."; After evicting local fairy tale creatures (including the Seven Dwarfs, Pinocchio, and the Gingerbread Man) to a nearby swamp, Farquaad faced a very angry ogre named Shrek who lived in the swamp and desired to be left in solitude. Shrek subsequently rescued, with the help of a talking donkey, the princess Fiona from a dragon and brought her to Farquaad in order for Farquaad to agree to leave the swamp alone.; Shrek and Fiona, however, fell in love, and went to live in the swamp together as ogre and wife. Farquaad was eaten by the previously mentioned dragon, and live in Duolc returned to normal.; The story of Duloc is told in the animated 2001 film Shrek.
DUNWICH, ENGLAND (Britain): Dunwich was once a prosperous seaport and centre of the wool trade in the county of Suffolk in England during the early middle ages, with a natural harbour formed by the mouths of the River Blyth and the River Dunwich. Over time, the rivers silted up, and Dunwich was lost to the sea over a period of two to three hundred years through a form of coastal erosion known as long-shore drift.; Dunwich was one of the largest ports in eastern England, with a population of around 3,000, eight churches, five houses of religious orders, three chapels and two hospitals. The main exports were wool and grain, and the main imports were fish, furs and timber from Iceland and the Baltic region, cloth from the Netherlands, and wine from France.; Little remains now but a village, and most of the original buildings have disappeared, including all eight churches (a new church was built in the 19th century). However, the remains of a Franciscan priory and a building constructed as a hospice for lepers can still be seen. As a legacy of its previous significance it retained the right to send two Members to Parliament until 1832.
DUNWICH, MASSACHUSETTS (20th cent.): A town which appears in the horror works of H. P. Lovecraft, most notably in the story "The Dunwich Horror". It is named after the lost city of Dunwich in England.
DURNIN (Milton-Bradley): One of four kingdoms in the 1981 game “Dark Tower”. The goal of the game is for a player to orginate in a kingdom and journey through the other kingdoms in search of special keys (bronze, silver, gold) which will enable to player to enter the Dark Tower, defeat the brigands who hold it, and recover a magic scepter.
EAST PROCTER, ENGLAND (20th century): Town which dealt with a werewolf problem in the film An American Werewolf in London.
EASTER ISLAND (Pacific Ocean): Spanish Isla de Pascua, also called Rapa Nui, an island in the eastern Pacific Ocean, 2200 miles west of Chile. It is a province that today is administratively part of Chile's Valparaiso region.; Easter Island is small and hilly, formed by a series of separate underwater volcanic eruptions, and has an area of 63 square miles. The island is mostly covered with grassland.; The climate is subtropical, and farming is the traditional occupation. Its mixed population is predominantly of Polynesian ancestry; almost all live in the village of Hanga Roa on the sheltered western coast. There is no natural harbour, but anchorages are found off the coasts of neighbouring islands.; Initially inhabited about AD 400 by Polynesians from the Marquesas, Easter Island has long been famous for the rongorongo hieroglyphs and remarkable monolithic stone statues in human form. They have evoked various legends and theories as to their origin. The statues, carved from tuff, a soft volcanic stone, range in height from 10 to 40 feet, some weighing more than 50 tons. The non-Polynesian vestiges on Easter Island have given rise to much speculation, but the most recent archaeological work indicates that most of the statues were erected in AD 1000-1600) and that environmental degradation and fighting among the islanders, culminating in the Peruvian slave raids of 1862-63, in which about one-third of the population was carried off, brought precipitous decline to the island's fortunes. When a few of the abducted islanders were returned, they brought smallpox and tuberculosis, and the island suffered further severe depopulation and cultural decline. With the introduction of Christianity in the later 1860s, the surviving Polynesian traditions were eventually forgotten.
EASTWICK, MASSACHUSETTS (20th century): Town featured in the novel and film The Witches of Eastwick.
ECALPON (21st cent.)
EDEN, GARDEN OF (Hebrew): The Garden of Eden is an earthly paradise and the original home of humankind according to the book of Genesis in the Holy Bible. After creating man and woman, God placed them in the garden to live and flourish. The Garden was also the home of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, whose fruit was the only thing forbidden by God to the first man (Adam) and woman (Eve).; Upon eating of the fruit after being tempted by a villainous serpent (often associated in Judeo-Christian tradition with the Devil), God banished Adam and Eve from this paradise and placed a cheub (angel) with a flaming sword in the garden to guard it, not permitting anyone to enter.; The location of Eden has never been discovered, although places in both Mesopotamia and Africa have been identified as such.
EL DORADO (S. Amer.): El Dorado is Spanish for “guilded man”. It is a mythical city of tremendous wealth, believed by early European settlers to be located in South America. Its king, El Dorado himself, was said to be so wealthy that his body was daily powdered with gold dust.; The origins of the legend sprang from observations of Inca coronation rites in which the new king was smeared with resin and then covered with a fine layer of gold dust.
ELYSIUM (Gk/Rom): Paradise inhabited by the virtuous. Also known as the Islands of the Blessed or the Elysian Fields, it originally was to be found beyond the great river which surrounded the world. Later, it was “relocated” to the center of the earth.; In some traditions, Elysium was ruled by Chronos, the king of the Titans and father of Zeus.; Elysium was featured prominently in the 2000 film Gladiator.
EMERALD CITY (20th cent.): In L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and its sequels, the Emerald City is a great green city ruled by the great and powerful wizard of Oz. It is here that Dorothy and her companions travel to meet the wizard.; Brilliantly portryaed in the 1939 film classic The Wizard of Oz, the Emerald City is a magical sight to behold.
FABLETOWN (Vertigo Comics): Secret city serving as the setting for the series Fables.
FAIRVALE, CALIFORNIA (20th century): Home of Norman Bates & his motel in Psycho.
FANTASY ISLAND (20th cent.): Island on which wishes have been granted and dreams have come true. The island is actually a resort operated by the mysterious Mr. Rourke and his protege Tattoo. It is not known if the magic of the island is due to the mystical nature of the island itself or the special abilities of Rourke. Fantasy Island was an Aaron Spelling-produced television series on ABC from 1978 to 1984, starring Ricardo Montalban as Rourke and Herve Villechaize as Tattoo. A second series, darker in tone, aired briefly in the 1990s with Malcolm McDowell as Rourke, but the series was not as successful.
FAWCETT CITY (DC Comics): Home of Billy Batson, alias Captain Marvel. Its name is derived from the original publishers of Captain Marvel comics, Fawcett Comics.
FINLAND: Finland is a nation in northern Europe which is rich in legend and magic. The mythical tales of ancient Finland are wonderfully told in the Kalevala, the Finnish national epic.; Few nations on Earth seem to be as magical and entrancing as Finland.
FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE (DC Comics): The Fortress of Solitude is an Arctic base carved out of an mountain by Superman for his own use as a place of private reflection and storage. In this “secret sanctum”, far from civilization, are: the fabulous trophy room, housing the hard-won memorabilia of more than a thousand adventures; the workshop and super-laboratory, where Superman labors in search of an antidote to kryptonite and performs other experiments; the gymnasium and recreation facilities, where Superman exercises, relaxes, and indulges in a variety of super-hobbies; the interplanetary zoo, containing live species of wildlife from distant planets; special rooms and memorials in honor of Superman's parents, foster parents, and closest friends; the bottle city of Kandor, a city of the planet Krypton that was reduced to microscopic size and stolen by the space villain Brainiac sometime prior to the death of Krypton; special monitors for communicating with Kandor, the undersea realm of Atlantis, the Phantom Zone, distant planets, and alien dimensions; Superman's Superman-robots and other special equipment; and numerous other rooms, exhibits, weapons, machines, and scientific devices.; Pointing toward the door, from atop a nearby peak, is a gigantic, golden, arrow-shaped key that fits neatly into a matching keyhole at the center of the massive door. Its function is to lock and unlock the massive Fortress door.; Because the invasion of the Fortress by an outsider could result in the placing of these devices in the hands of evildoers, as well as endanger Superman's secret identity, the exact location of the Fortress remains one of the world's most closely guarded secrets.
GATEWAY CITY (DC Comics): Home of Terry Sloane, the first Mr. Terrific, of Jim Corrigan, the first Spectre, and, much later, of Cassie Sandsmark, the second Wonder Girl.
GEHENNA (Hebrew; Gk/Rom): From a Hebrew word meaning “Valley of Hinnom”, Gehenna is the abode of the damned in the afterlife in Jewish and Christian eschatology. Gehenna originally was a valley west and south of Jerusalem where children were burned as sacrifices to the Ammonite god Molech. This practice was carried out by the Israelites during the reigns of King Solomon in the 10th century BC and King Manasseh in the 7th century BC and continued until the Babylonian Exile in the 6th century BC. Gehenna later was made a garbage centre to discourage a reintroduction of such sacrifices.; The imagery of the burning of humans probably contributed to the concept of “hellfire” to Jewish and Christian eschatology. Mentioned several times in the New Testament (e.g., Matthew, Mark, Luke, and James) as a place in which fire will destroy the wicked, it also is noted in the Talmud, a compendium of Jewish law, lore, and commentary, as a type of Purgatory, a place of purification, after which one is released from further torture.
GILLIGAN’S ISLAND (20th cent.): Island on which several castaways from the SS Minnow were stranded on the 1960s television series of the same name. The island was seemingly located somewhere in the tropics and was rich in food, cannibals, and adventures for the colorful cast of characters.; The castaways included: Gilligan; the Skipper, too; the Millionaire, and his wife; the Movie Star; the Professor; and Mary Ann.
GLASTONBURY (British): A small town in Somerset which is the site of a Medieval abbey said to have been founded by St. Patrick before his mission to Ireland or another ancient saint. Glastonbury has been identified by some with Avalon. Bones discovered there in the Middle Ages were said to be those of King Arthur and Guinevere. Local folk tales tell of Arthur and his riders being seen at night.
GOBBLERS’ KNOB (USA): Home of Punxsutawney Phil, the groundhog and weather forecaster around whom the holiday of Groundhog Day revolves.; Phil emerges from his sleep in Gobbler's Knob, located in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, every Februray 2. If he sees his shadow and is thus scared back into his hole, six more weeks of winter can be expected. Should he fail to see his shadow, spring is on the way.; It should be noted that Phil is rarely correct in his prediction.; In the film Groundhog Day starring Bill Murray, a suburb of Chicago substituted for Punxsutawney and Gobbler's Knob.
GONDWANALAND: Gondwanaland is the hypothetical former supercontinent in the Southern Hemisphere, which included South America, Africa, peninsular India, Australia, and Antarctica. The name was coined by the Austrian geologist Eduard Suess in reference to the Upper Paleozoic and Mesozoic formations of the Gondwana region of central India, which display typical developments of some of the shared geologic features.; The concept that the continents were at one time joined in the geologic past was first set forth in detail by Alfred Wegener, a German meteorologist, in 1912. He envisioned a single great landmass, Pangaea, which supposedly began to separate late in the Triassic Period (245 to 208 million years ago). Subsequent workers distinguished between a southern landmass, Gondwanaland, and Laurasia to the north. It should be noted that much of Wegener's hypothesis of continental drift was based on the apparent geographic “fit” of the bulge of eastern South America and the western coast of Africa. The geologic evidence cited earlier was provided by subsequent investigators.; The idea of Gondwanaland languished for many years, except among scientists in countries of the Southern Hemisphere, until the 1960s, when evidence of sea floor spreading from the loci of oceanic ridges proved that the ocean basins are not permanent global features and vindicated Wegener's hypothesis of continental drift. Although the term Gondwanaland does not appear in the modern literature with great frequency, the concept of continental drift and former continental connections is widely accepted.
GOTHAM CITY (DC Comics): Gotham City is a large coastal city in the United States best known as the home of the crimefighter known as the Batman. Gotham is also populated by various other costumed figures including the heroes Nightwing, Robin, and Batgirl, and criminals such as the Joker, Catwoman, the Penguin, and the Riddler.; Fixtures of Gotham City include police commissioner James Gordon and billionaire capitalist Bruce Wayne.
GRACELAND (USA): Elvis Presley's estate in Memphis, Tennessee. Elvis is buried in the backyard, although a spelling error on his gravestone has led to speculation that he is not truly dead, but is either living in obscurity somewhere in America (probably pumping gas) or that he, like Britain's Arthur and Ireland's Finn will someday rise again to help his country in the hour of its greatest need.; It is one of America's foremost tourist destinations.
GREAT ZIMBABWE (Africa): Site of a series of empires in southeastern Africa. Built consistently throughout the period from the 11th century to the 15th century, the ruins at Great Zimbabwe are some of the oldest and largest structures located in Southern Africa. The ruins that survive are built entirely of stone. The ruins span 1800 acres and cover a radius of 100 to 200 miles. At its peak, estimates are that the ruins of Great Zimbabwe had as many as 18,000 inhabitants. What little evidence exists suggests that Great Zimbabwe also became a center for trading, with artifacts suggesting that the city formed part of a trade network extending as far as China. Chinese pottery shards, coins from Arabia, glass beads and other non-local items have been excavated.; The Kingdom of Mutapa existed from 1450-1629, stretching between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers. The Gokomere people, a Bantu-speaking group of migrant farmers, inhabited the Great Zimbabwe site from about AD 500, displacing earlier Khoisan people. From about 1000, the fortress took shape, reaching its peak by the fifteenth century. These were the ancestors of the Shona (or Mashona) people, who make up about 80% of modern Zimbabwe's population. The Kingdom of Mutapa existed from 1450-1629, stretching between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers. The Rozwi Empire ruled from 1684-1834. The Matabele (Ndebele) people arrived in 1834, follwing wars with Shaka and the Zulu nation. Conflict with the Portuguese was frequent. In the late 19th century, the British Empire conquered the area, and the era of the kingdoms of Great Zimbabwe came to an end.
GREENBOW, ALABAMA (20th century): Home of Forrest Gump.
HADES (Gk/Rom): (see UNDERWORLD)
HAPPY HUNTING GROUNDS (N. Amer.): Heaven in much native American lore.
HAZZARD COUNTY (20th cent.): A rural county in the American south best known as the home of the Duke family. Luke Duke (an ex-Marine), Bo Duke (an ex-stock car driver), their cousin Daisy (brilliantly portrayed by Catherine Bach), and their uncle Jesse (an ex-whiskey bootlegger), were good, decent folk who always looked out for the little guy in the county.; Among the other fixtures of Hazzard County were: Jefferson Davis "Boss" Hogg, county commissioner and local business kingpin; Rosco P. Coltrane, the county sherriff who took orders from Boss Hogg; Enos Straitt, the kindhearted patrolman who worked for Rosco; Cooter Davenport, an excellent mechanic; Cletus Hogg, Boss Hogg's distant cousin who replaced Enos when Enos moved to Los Angeles; and Flash, Rosco's bassetthound.; The Dukes were often seen driving through Hazzard County in their car, a 1969 Dodge Charger named the "General Lee".; The Dukes of Hazzardwas a television series on CBS from 1979 to 1985. Most of the surviving cast has returned on occasion for television movies based on the series.
HAWAI'IKI (USA): The fabled original homeland of the Hawaiians and probably of all Polynesians. Because their new home reminded them of their ancestral home, they named the new land Hawai'i. The unifying mystery is how the various folklores speak of one land-of-long-ago, where everyone's ancestors lived in bliss. Hawai'iki, Havai'i, Ra'iatea, Kahiki, and many more names, are all the same place. It is the language of the people which changed, as they moved and started new social groups who forgot how to speak in the old tongue. There is no question that massive migrations of merging cultures actually occurred, mostly from west to east, across the Pacific Ocean. But pin-pointing exactly who, came from where, first, is a jig-saw puzzle that may never be solved. Because Polynesians had no organized written language before the intervention of Europeans, such stories of origin were transmitted by word-of-mouth, and thus gathered mossy vagueness, contradicting elements, and even a different name for the original land. It would not be improbable to imagine that all of the names constituted a simple expression like the "old country" reference used by European immigrants to North America.
HEAVEN: Heaven may refer to the physical heavens, the sky or the seemingly endless expanse of the universe beyond. The term is often used to refer to a plane of existence (sometimes held to exist in our own universe) in various religions, typically described as the holiest possible place, accessible to people according to various standards of divinity, goodness, and piety.; Christianity has taught "Heaven" as a generalized concept, a place of eternal life, in that it is a shared plane to be attained by all the elect (rather than an abstract experience related to individual concepts of the ideal). Christians do not always agree regarding the means whereby people gain this eternal life, but most theories center on God's incarnation in Jesus Christ and Jesus' subsequent suffering, death, and resurrection.
HEL (Norse): The abode of the dead in Norse mythology, sharing a name with its ruler queen. Hel is mentioned several times in Snorri Sturluson's Poetic Edda, but features more prominently in the Prose Edda. (see VALHALLA)
HELL: A location in the afterlife in many religions, which is often described as a place of suffering and torment. Hell has been depicted as existing underground. Within Christianity and Islam, Hell is traditionally depicted as fiery and painful, inflicting guilt and suffering. Some other traditions, however, portray Hell as cold and gloomy. It is typically portrayed as the eternal residence of those who do not enjoy forgiveness for evil deeds and impure living.; In Christianity, the New Testament has served as the primary basis for doctrines of Hell, but the influence of Dante Alighieri's 14th century work Inferno cannot be overstated. In the work, Dante describes various circles of Hell as well as many inhabitants.
HIYOYOA (New Guinea): The Wagawaga land of the dead. It is believed to lie under the sea near Maivara on Milne Bay. This land resembles the upper world. The god Tumudurere and his wife and children live there.
HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY (20th cent.): A school of magic located in Scotland for witches and wizards between the ages of eleven and eighteen in J.K. Rowling's "Harry Potter" novels. Six of the seven books in the series are largely set at the school, with each book lasting the equivalent of one school year. In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, most of the book is set outside Hogwarts as main characters Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger do not attend their final year of school. The climactic battle of the book, and the series, however, is set at Hogwarts.
HONALEE (20th cent.): A land by the sea most notable as the home of Puff, the magic dragon.; Little Jackie Paper visited Puff in Honalee regularly and brought him things like strings, sealing wax, and other fancy stuff. Often they would travel together on a boat with billowed sail and Jackie would use Puff's gigantic tail as a lookout tower.; One gray night it happened that Jackie Paper came no more and Puff sadly retreated to his cave in Honalee, where presumably he still resides in sorrow.
HUNDRED ACRE WOOD (20th cent.): In A.A. Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh books, the Hundred Acre Wood is the home of Pooh Bear and his friends, Eeyore, Kanga and Roo, Owl, Piglet, Rabbit, and Tigger. Located just outside of Christopher Robin's house, the Hundred Acre Wood was the place of many adventures for Pooh and his companions.
HYPERBOREA (Gk/Rom): A land believed to lie "beyond the north wind", at the edge of the world, in a region of unbroken sunshine. Here the natives enjoy continuous and perfect happiness. Apollo spends the winter among the Hyperboreans, and also the heroes Heracles and Perseus visited them.
IRKALLA (Near Eastern): A hell-like underworld from which there is no return according to Akkadian and Sumerian mythology. It is also called Arali, Kigal, Gizal, and the lower world. Irkalla is ruled by the death god Nergal (in Babylonian mythology) and his consort Ereshkigal.; The Sumerian netherworld was a place for the bodies of the dead to exist after death. One passed through the seven gates on their journey through the portal to the netherworld leaving articles of clothing and adornment at each gate, not necessarily by choice as there was a guardian at each gate to extract a toll for one's passage and to keep one from going the wrong way. The living spirits of the dead are only spoken of in connection with this netherworld when someone has been placed here before they are dead or wrongly killed and can be saved. The bodies of the dead decompose in this afterlife, as they would in the world above.
ISLA NUBAR: (see JURASSIC PARK)
ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU (19th/20th cent.): An island somewhere in the Pacific Ocean whose exact location is unknown. A man named Edward Pendrick visited the island which was controlled by the mad scientist Dr. Moreau. Moreau's brilliant experiments have resulted in the creation of "beast people", half-animal, half-human. After Moreau was killed by "Puma Woman", Pendrick escaped the island to tell the story of its frightening inhabitants and the insane doctor.; Originally published as a novel by H.G. Wells in 1896, The Island of Dr. Moreau is a science fiction classic, a social satire attacking those who felt that human progress was unstoppable, and a parable of Darwinian theory.; It has been made into a film several times, most notably with Charles Laughton and Bela Lugosi in 1933 (called The Island of Lost Souls), Burt Lancaster and Michael York in 1977, and Marlon Brando and Fairuza Balk in 1996.
ISLAND OF MISFIT TOYS (20th cent.): An island whose exact location is unknown. When a child fails to love a toy, the toy is sent to this island to live out its days, always in hopes of finding a new, loving home. The island is ruled by a kindly flying lion with a heart for the toys.; The so-called "misfit toys" were taken off the island by Santa Claus thanks to the intervention of the reindeer Rudolph and loving homes were found for all.; The island is prominently featured in CBS' 1964 animated Christmas special Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer, featuring the voice of Burl Ives.
ISLAND OF THE SEVEN CITIES (Spain): A land where seven bishops founded seven cities, after they left Spain during the dominion of the Moors. According to legend, many people have visited the island but no one has ever wanted to leave.
ISLE OF DEMONS (Europe/Northwest Atlantic): Island believed to exist near Newfoundland. It was generally shown as two islands. It began appearing on maps in the beginning of the 1500s, and disappeared in the mid-1600s.; It was believed that the island was populated by demons and wild beasts. The demons and wild beasts would torment and attack any ships that passed or anyone that was foolish enough to wander on to the island.
IVY TOWN (DC Comics): Home of Ray Palmer, the second Atom.
JOTUNHEIM (Norse): One of the Nine Worlds in Viking mythology, Jotunheim was the home of the infamous jotuns, or frost giants. It was a freezing, mountainous, dangerous land. Jotunheim was a gift to the jotuns from the god Odin.; Ruled primarily by the giant-king Thrym from his city of Utgard, the jotuns would leave Jotunheim to menace the humans (who lived in Midgard) and the Aesir gods (in Asgard). Jotunheim was believed to be destroyed in Ragnarok, the great battle which saw the demise of the Aesir gods and the Nine Worlds.
JURASSIC PARK (20th cent.): A theme park located on the island of Isla Nublar, said to be 120 miles off the coast of Costa Rica.; It was zoo-like park filled with genetically engineered dinosaurs created by billionaire industrialist John Hammond and the InGen corporation. Hammond intended the island to be visited by millions from around the world, bringing delight to children in addition to impressive profits. However, while he was showing the island to people whom he intended to endorse it, the dinosaurs got loose and terrorized the park. The island was then chemical-bombed by the Costa Rican Air Force.
KALEVALA (Finnish): The "lands of Kaleva", a great king of Finnish mythology. Kalevala is home to many heroes and gods, most notably the shaman-warrior Vainamoinen, whose powerful magic is revealed in poetry and song. The good heroes of Kalevala are engaged in a bitter stuggle with the evils of the land of Pohjola. The stories of Vainamoinen and the other inhabitants of the land are magnificently told in the Finnish national epic, also called the Kalevala.
KALUWALHATIAN (Philippines): Heaven in ancient Philippine mythology. It is said to be located under the earth.
KEYSTONE CITY (DC Comics): Home of Jay Garrick, alias the original Flash.
KRYPTON (DC Comics): The distant planet which was the home world of Superman until it exploded into fragments as the result of a cataclysmic chain reaction originating at the planet's core. It was as the doomed planet shuddered and rumbled in its dying moments that the Kryptonian scientist Jor-El and his wife Lara placed their infant son in an experimental rocket ship and launched him into the void, eventually to arrive on the planet Earth and to grow to maturity there as Superman. Krypton was a planet of giant size located somewhere in the outer reaches of trackless space. Described as an unusual planet with a unique atmosphere and a tremendous gravitational pull far greater than that of Earth, Krypton had a massive uranium core and was occasionally swept by windstorms so violent that the planet's tallest skyscrapers had to be lowered into the ground to prevent their being toppled by the powerful gales.; Krypton was an advanced civilization, with people of great intelligence and physical perfection. The planet was apparently divided into a series of separate nations, but these nations had long since combined to form a planet-wide union, uniting all Kryptonians under a single flag, a single government, a single constitution, and a single planet-wide language, Kryptonese.; Possessed of high intelligence, the people of Krypton had built a super-scientific civilization far beyond that of Earth. Crime was virtually unknown on Krypton and there had been no war on the planet for thousands of years. Capital punishment was unknown, and Kryptonians were bound, in all their dealings with each other, by a strict Kryptonian Code of Honor. Indications are that they were a freedom-loving people who would have preferred death to dictatorship.; By the time Krypton's day of doom arrived, Kryptonian civilization was 10,000 years old. The planet's destruction was caused by gathering atomic pressure at the core of the planet. The scientist Jor-El, Superman’s father, had correctly predicted that the end was coming, but was unable to either prevent its occurrence or to persuade the scientific community to adopt his proposal for the construction of a fleet of rocket-driven space arks to enable Krypton's population to flee the coming cataclysm.; The titanic interstellar explosion that destroyed Krypton transformed the hurtling remnants of the shattered planet into kryptonite, a glowing, green, radioactive substance which is toxic, and potentially fatal, to all Kryptonian survivors.; Superman remains the most famous survivor of the cataclysm that destroyed Krypton, but the years have revealed the existence of a great many others, including: Krypto the Superdog; Beppo the Super-Monkey; the people of Kandor, the shrunken “city-in-a-bottle”; the inhabitants of the Phantom Zone; and Super-Ape and the other experimental apes launched into outer space by the Kryptonian scientist Shir Kan.; According to Action Comics #243, the legendary enchantress Circe was herself a native of the planet Krypton.; The inhabitants of Argo City survived for more than fifteen years following the death of Krypton after their city had been hurled into outer space by the force of the cataclysm. Virtually the entire population, however, ultimately succumbed to kryptonite poisoning, the only survivors of the calamity apparently having been Supergirl and her parents, Zor-El and Alura.; Far from Krypton, in the alien environment of Earth, any Kryptonian survivor acquires mighty super powers, including X-ray vision, invulnerability, superhuman strength, and the power of flight, and all things Kryptonian become indestructible.
KUMARI KANDAM: A sunken continent in the south of Kanyakumari (at the southern tip of India). Kumari Kandam has often been compared and identified with Lemuria.; According to Tamil Tradition, the Dravidians originally came from a submerged island Kumarikhandam in the south of India. The Epics "Shilappadikaram" and "Manimekhalai" describe the submerged city of "Puhar". According to the legend, there were two main rivers in Kumari Kandam, the Pagliyaru and Kumari River. There were also mountains. The First Tamil Sangam, Idai Sangam, was believed to be in the Lemurian continent.; At Mahabalipuram, near Chennai, submerged ruins have been found in the ocean.
KYOPELINVUORI (Finnish): In Finnish mythology, is the place where dead women haunt. It is rumoured that virgins who died at a young age gather there after their death at the start of their afterlife. It is also said to be the ancient home of mountain witches who fly on brooms with black cats. The witches leave the area only during Easter in order to spook children.
LAND OF A THOUSAND DANCES (20th cent.): A song written and first recorded by Chris Kenner in 1962. Famous for its "na na na na na" hook, which was added by Cannibal & the Headhunters in 1965, the song's best-known version was Wilson Pickett's 1966 hit recording. In 1989, this version was ranked number 152 on Dave Marsh's list of "The 1001 Greatest Singles Ever Made".; In the original recording by Chris Kenner sixteen dances are specifically mentioned: the Pony, the Chicken, the Mashed Potato, the Alligator, the Watusi, the Twist, the Fly, the Jerk, the Tango, the Yo-Yo, the Sweet Pea, the Hand Jive, the Slop, the Bop, the Fish and the Popeye.
LAND OF THE LOST (20th cent.): A prehistoric land whose location is largely unknown. The Marshall family, on a routine camping trip, were inadvertantly caught in an earthquake, which caused their raft to plummet down an enormous waterfall into a strange land where dinosaurs still roamed. The Marshall family consisted of: Rick, the father; Will, his teenage son; and Holly, his pig-tailed daughter.; The Marshalls lived in the Land of the Lost and had many adventures. Among their enemies were the dinosaurs Grumpy (a tyrannosaur), Big Alice (an allosaur), Spot, and Lu-Lu, as well as the violent lizard men known as the sleestaks.; Among the Marshalls allies were: Chaka, the monkey boy; Dopey, Holly's pet dinosaur best known for his high-pitched squeal which attracted some of the larger carnivorous dinosaurs; and Enik, the kind but mysterious sleestak from the distant past.; Among the more bizarre features of the Land of the Lost were the many pylons set up in various spots which housed crystal tables. The crystals, when utilized properly, were able to power time travel and other sorts of fantastic situations. Whether they were mystical or technological in nature remains unknown.; At some point, Rick Marshall accidentally left the Land of the Lost, leaving Will and Holly behind. They were soon joined by their uncle Jack, who had been searching for the lost family. The ultimate fate of the Marshalls remains a mystery.; Land of the Lost was a television series produced by Syd & Marty Krofft and was on the air from 1974 through 1976.
LANKHMAR (20th cent.): A great city situated on the world of Nehwon, just west of the Great Salt Marsh and east of the River Hlal, serving as the home of the barbarian warrior Fafhrd and his partner the Gray Mouser.; Lankhmar is richly described as a populous, labyrinthine city rife with corruption; it is decadent and squalid in roughly equal parts and said to be so shrouded by smog that the stars are rarely sighted (the city's alternate name is "The City of Seven Score Thousand Smokes".) Located next to the Inner Sea, Lankhmar is visited by ships from across Nehwon and is the starting point for Fafhrd and the Mouser's many sea voyages.; The city is ostensibly ruled by an Overlord and a nobility. The Thieves' Guild is influential as well, and controls Lankhmar's abundant criminal element, with the notable exceptions of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser.; Streets in Lankhmar are often evocatively named (the Thieves' Guild is located on Cheap Street near Death's Alley and Murder Alley.) Commonly referenced locations are the Silver Eel Tavern, behind which is Bone Alley, and the Golden Lamprey. The main meeting place is the Plaza of Dark Delights, which is the setting of the popular story The Bazaar of the Bizarre. The religious center of Lankhmar is the Street of the Gods, along which numerous (and often bizarre) cults seek to arrange themselves in order of popularity. The true gods of Lankhmar, however, are feared rather than worshipped; these "Black Bones" (mummified ancestors of the Lankhmarese) occasionally leave their temple to fight threats to the city - or threats to their own position as preeminent religion within the city.; Beneath Lankhmar is an underground city inhabited by sentient rats. At one point the Mouser, suitably reduced in size, infiltrates this world.; Created by Fritz Leiber, Lankhmar features prominently in many of the author's fantasy novels and stories.
LATVERIA (Marvel Comics): Latveria is a small central European nation which is ruled by its monarch, Victor Von doom, commonly known as "Dr. Doom". Its estimated population is 500,000, although there has not been a proper census in several decades. Ethnicity is mixed though primarily gypsy, and languages spoken include German, Hungarian, and Latverian (a dialect of Hungarian).; A closed nation due to its dictator, little is known about contemporary Latveria.
LAURASIA: A hypothetical continental mass in the Northern Hemisphere that included North America, Europe, and Asia (except peninsular India). Its existence was proposed by Alexander Du Toit, a South African geologist, in Our Wandering Continents (1937), a reformulation of the continental drift theory advanced by the German meteorologist Alfred Wegener.; Whereas Wegener had posulated a single supercontinent, Pangaea, Du Toit theorized that here were two such great landmasses: Laurasia in the north and Gondwanaland in the south, separated by an oceanic area called Tethys. Laurasia is thought to have fragmented into the present continents largely during the Mesozoic Era (from approximately 245 million to 66.4 million years ago).
LEMURIA: An ancient civilization which existed prior to and during the time of Atlantis. It is believed that Lemuria existed largely in the Southern Pacific, between North America and Asia/Australia. Lemuria is also sometimes referred to as Mu, or the Motherland (of Mu). At its peak of civilization, the Lemurian people were said to be both highly evolved and very spiritual.; Lemuria was destroyed in some kind of great cataclysm not unlike the disaster that befell Atlantis; the islands of the Pacific are said to be all that remains of Lemuria's highest mountain peaks.
LIMBO: In Roman Catholic doctrine, Limbo is situated between Heaven and Hell. It is the abode of the dead whose souls have been excluded from heaven through no fault of their own.; There are two forms of Limbo: the Limbo of the Fathers and the Limbo of Infants. In the first the souls of the just await their redemption by Christ. In the second the souls of unbaptized children and others free of personal sin are detained. They have no hope of entering heaven and are in a perpetual state of oblivion.; While never an acceptable part of mainstream Christian theology, the idea of Limbo has nonetheless been a powerful motivator regarding the baptismal sacrament. Since the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s, the Roman Catholic denomination has wisely adn thankfully not emphasized this rather bizarre part of its heritage.
LOST WORLD (20th cent.)
LYONESSE (British; French): Medieval tradition describes a former land beyond southwest England. Tales of lands lost off the coasts of Britain and France abound in local tradition. The most famous, Lyonesse, was said to link Land’s End and St. Michael’s Mount in Cornwall with the Scilly Isles. In the Bay of Douarnenez off Brittany, there is reputed to lie the sunken city of Ker-Is which may once have had links with Mont-St-Michel.; The earliest written report of a lost land off the coast of Cornwall is to be found in the 15th-century Itinerary of William of Worcester. He refers to ‘woods and fields and 140 parochial churches, all now submerged, between the Mount and the Isles of Scilly’. But he does not give the drowned land a name. Moreover, midway between Land’s End and the Scilly Isles lay a group of rocks called the Seven Stones, bounding an area known in Cornish as Tregva, ‘a dwelling’. Here fisherman reported drawing up pieces of doors and windows.; In Arthurian romance, Lyonesse is the name of the homeland of the hero Tristan, nephew of King Mark and lover of Mark’s wife, Iseult. Because Mark was King of Cornwall, Carew or another author assumed that the Cornish ‘lost land’ and Lyonesse were one and the same. But medievalists believe this is an error and that ‘Lyonesse’ is a corrupt form of an earlier name given to Tristan’s country. This was Loenois, actually Lothian, in Scotland. Such a location agrees with the fact that Tristan’s own name belonged to a Pictish prince of the 8th century.; Once Cornwall’s lost land had been identified with Lyonesse, it became bathed in the glow of Arthurian legend. New connections were made. Alfred Lord Tennyson placed Arthur’s court or Camelot there, and mystics expected to see Lyonesse rise again from the waves or to behold it off Land’s End in vision.; It is also possible that when the monks from the abbey of Mont-St-Michel in Brittany founded the Cornish daughter-house of St Michael’s Mount in Cornwall, they brought the flood story with them. Wherever the tale started, it is not hard to believe there was once a flood which, like all disasters, was improved in the telling: a little village became a town and the town eventually became a whole kingdom.
MAYBERRY, NORTH CAROLINA (20th century): Home of Andy Taylor, his son Opie, and friend Barney Fife on The Andy Griffith Show.
MELNIBONE (20th cent.): An island country also known as the "Dragon Isle" featured in the writings of Michael Moorcock. It is the homeland of Elric, one of the incarnations of the "Eternal Champion".; Centuries before Elric's birth, Melniboné ruled its world through sorcerous might and sheer power. However, by the time of Elric's birth, it had slipped from its preeminent place, being merely one of many nations. Its people, the Melnibonéans, are not human, resembling instead the elves of legend — skilled with magic and beautiful, though psychologically based upon cats, leading to a callous nature. They are bound by many ancient customs.; Melniboné's capital and only surviving city is Imrryr, known as "The Dreaming City". Most of the rest of the island has been allowed to revert to wilderness by Elric's time. Caverns exist below the island, in which dragons sleep, awaiting the Melnibonéans' summons to war.; The island features prominently in Moorcock's works, notably the novels The Stealer of Souls (1963), Stormbringer (1965), Elric of Melniboné (1972), Elric at the End of Time (1984).
METROPOLIS (DC Comics): Home of Clark Kent, alias Superman. Other prominent citizens include journalists Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen, and Perry White, and billionaire industrialist Lex Luthor.
MICTLAN (Aztec): The land of the dead. Mictlan was a terrifying place but not solely a region of punishment, because everyone had to pass through it except those who died violently, in which case they went immediately to one of the celestial regions. Souls on route to Mictlan, where the god Mictlantecuhtli presided, encountered sharp knives and turbulent waters.; Only the god Quetzalcoatl successfully entered and exited Mictlan, as Mictlantecuhtli was not fast enough to trap him.
MIDDLE EARTH (20th cent.)
MIDDLETON, COLORADO (DC Comics): Home of the Martian Manhunter. Denver and Middleton are sometimes referred to as "twin cities".
MIDGARD (Norse): The defensive fortress which the gods build about the middle portion of the earth allotted to men in order to protect mankind from the giants. Midgard ("middle world") is on the same level as Nidavellir (land of the dwarfs), Svartalfheim (land of the dark elves/dwarfs) and Jotunheim (the land of the giants).
MIDWAY CITY (DC Comics): Former home of the Silver Age Hawkman and Hawkgirl, and the sometime home of the Doom Patrol.
MISTER ROGERS’ NEIGHBORHOOD (20th cent.): A neighborhood believed to be in the vicinity of suburban Piitsburgh which serves as the sometime home of Mister Fred Rogers. Mister Rogers often visits his many friends in the neighborhood, notably deliveryman Mr. McFeely and Mrs. McFeely, Chef Brockett, Bob Trow and Joe Negri. Often, his visits are accompanied by jazz music primarily courtesy of Johnny Costa.; Mister Rogers' small house in the neighborhood also serves as a gateway to the so-called "Neighborhood of Make Believe". Typically, this fanstasy neighborhood is accessed via a small electric trolley which runs underneath a picture window. Additionally, the home contains a notable fish tank and "Picture Picture", an early video playing device.; Mister Rogers' Neighborhood was a children's television program produced by WQED in Pittsburgh which ran from 1968-2001. Its star and producer, Fred Rogers, created or co-created every aspect of the neighborhood.
MONGO (20th cent.): A planet ruled by evil dictator Ming the Merciless, whose totalitarian control makes the world a terrible place to inhabit. Mongo is inhabited by a number of different cultures, some quite technologically advanced, that fell one by one under the domination of the vicious tyrant Ming.; Mongo is highly Earth-like, with an atmosphere fully compatible with Terran life, and indeed the dominant species on Mongo appears to be fully familiar homo sapiens. Other intelligent races do exist, though most seem to be either homo sapiens variants or creatures of a clearly humanoid pattern, such as Thun the Lion-man. Terrans are stronger on Mongo than on Earth, so apparently Mongo's surface gravity is at least slightly lower than that of Earth. It appears to be close, however, as would be expected from its highly Earth-like surface environment.; Mongo's surface is host to a variety of climates and biomes. Part of the planet is covered by the forest realm of Arboria, ruled by Prince Barin, another by caverns and mountains, and part is the frozen kingdom of Frigia, ruled by Barin's cousin, Queen Fria. East of Arboria in the Sea of Mystery is the underwater kindgom of Coralia, which is ruled by Queen Undina. Also bordering the Sea of Mystery is the Land of the Lion Men, ruled by its current monarch, King Thun. Directly east of the Lion Men's kingdom are the Magnetic Mountains, where Ming the Merciless established a new base of operations after he was removed from Mongo's throne. North of there is the Sky City of the Hawk Men, led by their king, Vultan. Directly east lies the jungle continent of Tropica, ruled by Queen Desira, and on Tropica's eastern coast, the Fire Lands, home of Gundar the Desert Hawk. Mongo is also shown to have extensive underground domains.; Mongo featured prominently in the Flash Gordon comic strip by Alex Raymond, which began syndication in 1934. The strip followed the adventures on Mongo of three Earth natives: polo player Flash Gordon, the beautiful Dale Arden, and scientist Dr. Hans Zarkov. Flash's swashbuckling liberation of Mongo was also portrayed in other media, notably a three part movie serial starring Buster Crabbe (released 1936-40), a cartoon series (1979-80), a campy 1980 film, and several comic books.
MONSTER ISLAND (20th cent.)
MOUNT OLYMPUS: (see OLYMPUS)
MOUNT SINAI (Egypt)
MU: An ancient kingdom which was destroyed in a great cataclysm. Mu is often associated with Lemuria.; To those who view Mu as distinct from Lemuria, Mu is normally placed in the Indian Ocean, Lemuria in the Pacific.
NARNIA (20th cent.)
NEGATIVE ZONE (Marvel Comics): An antimatter universe discovered by scientist Reed Richards (Mister Fantastic of the Fantastic Four). It is largely a universe parallel to Earth's own universe. The two have many similarities, but a few noteworthy differences include: all matter in the Negative Zone is negatively charged; the Negative Zone is entirely filled with a pressurized, breathable atmosphere; and near the center of the Negative Zone is a deadly vortex of unspeakable power. Since the Negative Zone is largely uninhabited, several would-be conquerors have attempted to bridge the gap to Earth and take over its small population. A few notable residents of the Negative Zone include Blastaar, Annihilus and Stygorr.; The Negative Zone is often visited by the Fantastic Four, and Richards has mapped portions of it extensively. For a number of years, Captain Mar-Vell and Rick Jones were bonded to each other, causing one of them to exist in the Negative Zone while the other would exist in the regular universe. They exchanged places by clasping the special bracelets each wore or automatically after a few hours.
NEHWON (20th cent.)
NEIGHBORHOOD OF MAKE BELIEVE (20th cent.): A kingdom accessible via a motorized trolley in Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. Ruled by King Friday XIII, who is usually correct, the kingdom is bordered by the city of Westwood, the city of Southwood, the area of Northwood (which is goat country) and the nebulous location known only as Someplace Else. The kingdom occasionally has contact with the mysterious "Planet Purple".; Among the more notable denizens of the Neighborhood of Make Believe are Queen Sara Saturday, Prince Tuesday, X the Owl, Henrietta Pussycat, Lady Elaine Fairchilde, Daniel Stripèd Tiger, Cornflake S. Pecially, Harriet Cow, Bob Dog, Lady Aberlin, Robert Troll, Handyman Negri, Purple Panda, Charles Aber (Westwood neighbor), and the Platypus family.; The largely hand puppet characters of the Neighborhood were seen on the children's television program Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, produced from 1968 to 2001. The show's principal puppeteer is Fred Rogers himself, who also developed many of the puppet characters in the 1950s for Josie Carey's program, The Children's Corner.
NEVERLAND (20th cent.)
NEW GENESIS (DC Comics): Home planet of the New Gods, ruled by a being known as the Highfather, a spiritual leader who maintains his people's connection to the primal energy field known as "The Source". The original Highfather, Izaya the Inheritor, has since perished and been replaced by Earthling superhero Takion, a living conduit of The Source. New Genesis is a veritable paradise covered in lush forests and grasslands. The only urban location is Supertown, a floating city designed not to affect the planet's surface.; The New Gods are the children of the original "old gods" of the "Fourth World" parallel universe. Created by legendary artist Jack Kirby, they first appeared on New Genesis in "The New Gods" #1, published in February 1971.
NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA (USA)
NONESTICA (20th cent.): Also known as the "Continent of Imagination", is a fictional continent within L. Frank Baum's Oz universe on which the Land of Oz is located.
NORTH POLE
NOTTINGHAM (Britain)
NUTOPIA (20th cent.): A nation conceived by John Lennon and Yoko Ono in 1972. They proclaimed the birth of a conceptual country, Nutopia, with no land, no boundaries or passports, and no laws other than "cosmic laws", only people. Citizenship in the country could be obtained by declaration of awareness of Nutopia. As ambassadors of Nutopia, Lennon and Ono asked for diplomatic immunity and recognition in the United Nations of the country and its people.; The "Nutopian National Anthem" was released as a track on Lennon's 1973 album Mind Games; the track consisted of several seconds of total silence.
OGYGIA (Gk/Rom): An island controlled by the nymph Calypso. It was a tree covered, dark, depressing land in which the temperature was cold and the beast were frighting. Calyspo detained Odysseus on Ogygia for seven long, miserable years as a prisoner of passion, a slave, and a husband. Zeus sent Hermes to Ogygia to have Calyspo send Odysseus on his way to Ithaca or suffer the consequences. So, she let him go much to her dismay.
OLYMPUS (Gk/Rom): Mount Olympus, in Greece, is the abode of the chief god Zeus. Also, the foremost gods of the Greek pantheon have their palaces at the summit. It is here that the gods assemble to consume nectar and ambrosia ("immortal"), the substances which reinforces their immortality. According to myth, the top of Olympus, which is covered in snow and hidden in the clouds, reaches all the way into the aether. It is the highest mountain of Greece and lies on the border of Macedonia and Thessaly.
ONIGASHIMA (Japanese): Mysterious, ogre-infested island about which little is known.
OPAL CITY (DC Comics): Home of Starman.
OTHERWORLD (British): The realm of the dead, the home of the gods, or the stronghold of other spirits and beings. Tales and folklore describe it as existing over the western sea, or at other times underground or right alongside the world of the living, but invisible to most humans. It is often referred to as Annwn (Welsh) or Tir na Nog (Irish), and is sometimes connected with Avalon.
OZ (20th cent.): A mystical fairyland located somewhere over the rainbow. Travel to Oz can be accomplished in several odd ways, such as catching a ride in a tornado. The land was named Oz by a Wizard also named Oz after he united the Winkies, Munchkins, Quadlings, and Gillikins. The population of Oz is over 500,000. Long ago this land was united under a king, but witches in the North, South, East, and West defeated him and divided up the land among themselves.; Prominent features in Oz include the Munchkin City, the Yellow Brick Road, and the great Emerald City. The land of Oz was the location for several adventures of Dorothy Gale, a young Kansas girl; her dog, Toto; a certain Scarecrow; a Tin Man; a cowardly Lion, and others. Dorothy was chiefly responsible for the overthrow of the Wicked Witches of the East and West.; Oz was first written about in a series of books by L. Frank Baum. The Wizard of Oz (1939), starring Judy Garland as Dorothy, is one of the greatest films ever made.
PANGAEA: A Greek word meaning “all earth”, this is a hypothetical protocontinent proposed by the German meteorologist Alfred Wegener in 1912 as a part of his theory of continental drift.; The protocontinent supposedly covered about half the Earth and was completely surrounded by a world ocean called Panthalassa. Late in the Triassic Period (245 to 208 million years ago), Pangaea began to break apart. Its segments Laurasia (composed of all the present-day northern continents) and Gondwanaland (all of the present southern continents) gradually receded, resulting in the formation of the Atlantic Ocean.; The breakup of Pangaea is now explained in terms of plate tectonics. This theory states that the Earth's outer shell, or lithosphere, consists of large, rigid plates, which move relative to each other and interact at their margins, where they diverge, converge, or slip past one another. Pangaea split apart at one of the divergent plate boundaries, and a rift developed beneath the continent. As the two segments of the continent pulled farther apart, molten rock material from the asthenosphere, the layer underlying the lithosphere, flowed upward to fill the void, creating the floor of the new Atlantic Ocean basin.
PARADISE ISLAND (DC Comics): see "Themyscira"
PEPPERLAND (20th cent.): A cheerful music-loving paradise under the sea, protected by Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, which falls under a surprise attack by the music-hating Blue Meanies; the attackers seal the band inside a music-proof bubble, then turn the Pepperlanders into statues and drain the country itself of color.; Pepperland's elderly Lord Mayor sends Old Fred (whom the mayor calls "Young Fred") off in a yellow submarine to get assistance. Old Fred travels to Liverpool, England, where he recruits the Beatles to help liberate his home.; Pepperland features prominently in the 1968 animated classic Yellow Submarine.
PERIADOR (20th cent.): A great island chain said to be the ancestral home of the Sacred Circle gods and the heart of their empire.; Not much is known of the islands or of their location, which is reputed to be somewhere west of the setting sun.
PHANTOM ZONE (DC Comics): A “twilight dimension” first discovered by Superman's father, Jor-El. Kryptonian criminals were banished to the Phantom Zone to serve out their sentences as disembodied wraiths. Inside, the exhiled inhabitants exist in a “phantom state”, unaging, requiring no food, air, or water, and communicating with one another telepathically. They are able to observe everything that takes place in the physical universe, either on Earth or in outer space, even though they cannot be seen or heard themselves. By observing Superman from inside the Phantom Zone, all its inhabitants have learned that he is secretly Clark Kent.; Exile into this twilight world proved to be a blessing in disguise for the Phantom Zone outlaws, however, for it enabled them to survive when the planet Krypton exploded. Villains then hovered invisibly in their twilight dimension, many waiting for their opportunity to escape from the Zone and conquer the Earth.; The Phantom Zone played a crucial role in the 1981 film Superman II starring Christopher Reeve.
PIA (New Zealand): In Maori traditions, a frozen land where rocks float in the white sea. Colossal fish play in this ocean and it is dark most of the time; Antarctica.
PLANET OF THE APES (20th cent.)
POHJOLA (Finnish): Translated as "Northland" in English, this land is a source of great evil, a foreboding, a forever cold land far in the north. In the Kalevala, the ruler of Pohjola is Louhi, an evil witch of great power. The great smith Seppo Ilmarinen forges the Sampo at her request as a payment for the hand of her daughter in marriage. Many heroes seek marriage with the daughters of Pohjola. These include the adventurer Lemminkäinen and the great wise man Väinämöinen. Louhi demands deeds similar to the forging of Sampo from them, such as shooting the Swan of Tuonela. When the proposer finally gets the daughter, weddings and great drinking and eating parties are held at the great hall of Pohjola. The foundation of the world pillar, also thought of as the root of the "world tree", was probably located, from the Finnish mythological perspective, somewhere just over the northern horizon, in Pohjola. The pillar was thought to rest on the Pohjantähti or North Star.
POMPEII (Italy): Roman city destroyed during an eruption of the volcano Mount Vesuvius in the year 79 AD. The eruption was described by Pliny the Younger, whose uncle Pliny the Elder died after travelling across the bay with a flotilla of naval vessels to save some of those trapped in the seaside towns.; In early August of 79 AD, all the town's wells dried up; but the warnings were not sharp enough, and the Roman world was stunned when on August 23 a catastrophic volcanic eruption of the volcano buried the city and obscured the sun on a mild afternoon. Coincidentally, the date was that of the Vulcanalia, the festival of Vulcan, the Roman god of fire.; The only reliable eyewitness account of the event was recorded by Pliny the Younger in a letter to the historian Tacitus. Pliny saw a strange phenomenon occurring over Mt. Vesuvius: a large dark cloud shaped rather like a pine tree emanating from the mouth of the mountain. After some time the cloud rushed down the flanks of the mountain and covered everything around it, including the surrounding sea.; The "cloud" that Pliny the Younger wrote about is known today as a pyroclastic flow, which is a cloud of superheated gas, ash, and rock that erupts from a volcano. Pliny stated that several earth tremors were felt at the time of the eruption and were followed by a very violent shaking of the ground. He also noted that ash was falling in very thick sheets and the village he was in had to be evacuated. Also, the sea was sucked away and forced back by an "earthquake", a phenomenon which modern geologists call a tsunami.; His description then turned to the fact that the sun was blocked out by the eruption and the daylight hours were left in darkness. His uncle Pliny the Elder had already taken several ships to investigate the phenomenon. On the other shore, Pliny the Elder apparently died from carbon dioxide asphyxiation after lying on the ground.
PRESTER JOHN, KINGDOM OF (European): In the 1130s, under the leadership of Imad ad-din Zengi, Turkish power became a serious threat to the Crusader kingdoms in the Holy Land. This caused these kingdoms to seek aid from Western Europe, and around 1145, Hugh, Bishop of Jabala, was sent to meet Pope Eugenius to ask for help. Otto von Freisingen, Bishop of Freising, recorded in his Historia de Duabus Civitatibus (1158) that Hugh told the Pope about Prester John, a Christian priest and king whose kingdom was in the extreme Orient, beyond Persia and Armenia. Prester John was supposed to be a descendent of the Magi and a possessor of great wealth. It appears that Hugh talked to the Pope about Prester John because rumors had been circulating in Europe that he was going to come to the rescue of the Crusader kingdoms and Hugh wasn't to emphasize that this would not happen as Prester John was cut off from the Middle East by the Tigris River.; In 1165, a (forged) letter allegedly from Prester John was delivered to Emperor Manuel Comnenus of Byzantium. Manuel forwarded the letter to Emperor Frederic Babarous of the Holy Roman Empire. The forgery was quite clever, for the forger had obviously read Otto von Freisingen's report and he repeated many of the same stores and further played upon the hopes and fears of the Europeans vis-à-vis the infidel Turks. The letter caused a sensation and not only were copies circulated widely, but excepts were even put to song.; Excerpts from letter:; "...I, Prester John, who reign supreme, surpass in virtue, riches and power all creatures under heaven. Seventy kings are our tributaries. I am a zealous Christian and universally protect the Christians of our empire, supporting them by our alms. We have determined to visit the sepulchre of our Lord with a very large army, in accordance with the glory of our majesty to humble and chastise the enemies of the cross of Christ and to exalt his blessed name."; "For gold, silver, precious stones, animals of every kind and the number of our people, we believe there is not our equal under heaven."; "If again thou askest how it is that the Creator of all having made us the most superpotential and most glorious over all mortals-does not give us a higher dignity or more excellent name than that of Priest (Prester), let not thy wisdom be surprised on this account, for this is the reason. We have many ecclesiastics in our retinue of more dignified name and office in the Church, and of more considerable standing than ours in the divine service. For our house-steward is a patriarch and king; our cup-bearer is an archbishop and king; our chamberlain is a bishop and king; our archimandrite, that is chief pastor or master of the horse, is a king and abbot. Whereof our highness has not seen it repugnant to call himself by the same name and to distinguish himself by the order of which our court is full. And if we have chosen to be called by a lower name and inferior rank, it springs from humility."; The only official response to the letter was that Pole Alexander III sent out a Papal emissary in 1177 with a letter for Prester John, carried by his physician, Magister Philippos, but nothing was ever heard of what became of him. Years later, in the mid-thirteenth century when Asia was opened again to Europeans by the ascendancy of the Tartars, the great search began to find this Prester John, a search which was very important opening up Asia and re-establishing ties with China. Though he was never found, his legend continued throughout the middle ages, with Kings and Popes sending off letters at different times seeking his help and dreams of his riches filling the heads of many.; The Khitai were a tribe that had ruled much of China in the late 10th century as the Liao Dynasty. As their dynasty collapsed, in 1124, a body of the imperial family escaped to Central Asia, where they established a new empire over the Turkish tribes, called Kara-Khitai (or "Black Cathay"--Black being a term of honor at the time). In 1141, in their expansion to the west, they met the eastward reaching kingdom of the Seljuk Turks of Persia. In a battle fought Sept. 8-9, 1141, at Qatawan (Katvan), near Samarkand, Yeh-lü Ta-Shih (or Yeliutashi), ruler of the empire of Kara-Khitai, defeated Sultan Sanjar, the Seljuk Turk ruler of Persia.; Reports of this great victory over the Turks reached the Crusader kingdoms soon thereafter and included was the rumor that Yeliutashi was a Christian. This appears to be somewhat unlikely, with the Kara-Khitai perhaps being confused with the Keraits, a Christian-Nestorian tribe from central Asia.; By the 14th century, all searches for Prester John and his kingdom in Asia had turned up empty. Rather than give up on this hopeful and glamorous legend, however, Europeans decided that they must have been looking in the wrong region and they turned their eyes on the interior of Africa. This was spurred by the fact that there was an actual Christian kingdom there, the Nestorian kingdom of Abyssinia or Ethiopia. Mysterious Abyssinian pilgrims sometimes visited the Holy Land, though their kingdom was rumored to be bordered by inaccessible mountains. What better place to put the Kingdom of Prester John? Eastern Africa was sometimes conflated in European thinking with the "Indies," and so here must be that great Christian King in the East. The Portuguese sent several expeditions to make contact with this kingdom and the reports which came back further confirmed the belief that finally Prester John had been found. Thus the venerable legend moved to a new continent, and it was in Africa that Prester John's Kingdom was thought to lie when the earliest printed maps made their appearance. The legend eventually passed from common belief, but not before leaving a few maps illustrating this wonderful myth.
PRYDAIN (20th cent.)
PURGATORY: In Roman Catholic teaching, Purgatory is the condition, process, or place of purification or temporary punishment in which the souls of those who die in a state of grace are made ready for heaven.; Immediately after death, a person undergoes judgment in which the soul's eternal destiny is specified. Some are eternally united with God in Heaven, often envisioned as a paradise of eternal joy. Conversely, others are destined for Hell, a state of eternal separation from God often envisioned as a fiery place of punishment. Purgatory is thus an additional state before being admitted to heaven. According to Roman Catholicism, some souls are not sufficiently free from sin and its consequences to enter the state of heaven immediately, nor are they so sinful as to be destined for hell. Such souls, ultimately destined to be united with God in heaven, must first endure purgatory, a state of purification, in which sins and guilt are purged, making the soul adequate to enter heaven.; Generally speaking, the other branches of Christianity, most especially Protestantism, reject the concept of Purgatory as being extra-Biblical and unnecessary teaching.; Purgatory figures prominently in many works, particularly since the Middle Ages, when the concept was really developed. It is importantly featured in Dante Alighieri's 14th century masterpiece The Divine Comedy.
QAYN (21st cent.)
ROANOKE (16th cent.): Roanoke Colony was the second British colony in the New World, after St. John's in Newfoundland. It was founded at Roanoke Island in what was then Virginia (now North Carolina) in two separate settlement groups, one in 1586, and a second group in 1587.; The enterprise was financed and organized by Sir Walter Raleigh, who had received a charter for the colonization of Virginia from Queen Elizabeth I of Britain.; The first settlers returned to Britain a year later after killing Winginia, leader of the natives; they had been running out of supplies. A second group of British settlers arrived on Roanoke Island on July 22, 1587 to re-establish the colony. Virginia Dare, granddaughter of Gov. John White of the colony, was born the next month on August 18th, becoming the first British child born in the Americas.; John White returned from a supply-trip to Britain on his granddaughter's third birthday after being postponed for three years by war, and found the settlement completely deserted. He organized a search, but his men could not find any trace of the colonists. Some 90 men, 17 women, and 9 children had vanished; there was no sign of a struggle or battle of any kind, and the people seemed to have left suddenly in the middle of other tasks. The only clue was the word Croatoan carved on to a tree. White took this to mean that they had moved to Croatoan Island, but no evidence of them was found there either.; What became of them is still a mystery; and Roanoke is often referred to as the Lost Colony. The site of the lost colony on the island is now a major tourist attraction.
R'LYEH (20th cent.): A sunken city deep under the Pacific Ocean where the godlike being Cthulhu resides. R'lyeh is characterized by an architecture based on non-Euclidean geometry.; Co-ordinates of S. Latitude 47° 9′, W. Longitude 126° 43′ have been stated by writer H.P. Lovecraft but never investigated. Writer August Derleth used the co-ordinates of S. Latitude 49° 51′, W. Longitude 128° 34′ in his own writings. These coordinates place the city in the middle of one of the biggest patches of empty ocean on Earth. The latter also places it about a day's journey from Pohnpei (Ponape), an actual island of the area, which consequently plays a part in the Cthulhu Mythos as the origin of the "Ponape Scripture", a text describing Cthulhu.; In Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos, the most ubiquitous liturgical phrase is "Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn!" or "In his house at R'lyeh, dead Cthulhu waits [or lies] dreaming."
ROME, WISCONSIN (20th century): Town serving as the setting for the CBS television series Picket Fences.
ROSWELL, NEW MEXICO (USA): A city which serves as the county seat of Chaves County in the southeastern quarter of New Mexico. It is best known for having its name attached to a July 7, 1947 UFO incident; the actual crash site is about 75 miles from Roswell.; In 1947, materials were recovered in secret at an alleged crash site of a UFO. Among the materials is reputed to be an actual body of an extraterrestrial lifeform. Just as famous as the alleged incident has been the alleged cover-up by the US government and military, which has led to endless speculation about what actually occurred.; Roswell has figured prominently in many works since 1947, notably the films Independence Day (1996) and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008), and the television series' Roswell (1999-2002) and The X-Files (1993-2002).
RUNGHOLT, GERMANY (14th cent.): A rich city in Nordfriesland, northern Germany. It sank on January 16, 1362 due to a storm tide (the first "grote Mandraenke") in the North Sea. Rungholt was situated on the island of Strand, which broke apart due to another storm tide in 1634, resulting in the islands of Pellworm and Nordstrand. Relics of the city were being found in the Wadden Sea until the late 20th century, but the sediment movements of the sea have rinsed the last of these into the sea.; Impressed by the fate of the city and the relics, the German poet Detlev von Liliencron wrote a poem about this lost city which starts with the words: "Heut bin ich über Rungholt gefahren, die Stadt ging unter vor sechshundert Jahren". (Today I travelled across Rungholt, the City went under six hundred years ago)
RUPES NIGRA (Italy): A magnetic island of black rock, 33 miles wide and located at the Magnetic North Pole. It purportedly explained why all compasses point to this location. The idea came from a lost work titled "Inventio Fortunata", and the island features on maps from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS (USA): A city in Essex County which was founded in 1626 at the mouth of the Naumkeag River by a company of fishermen; it was incorporated in 1629.; Salem is best known as the location of the so-called "witch trials", a series of hearings before local magistrates, followed by county court trials to prosecute people accused of witchcraft in Essex, Suffolk, and Middlesex Counties of colonial Massachusetts, between February 1692 and May 1693. Over 150 people were arrested and imprisoned, with even more accused who were not formally pursued by the authorities. The two courts convicted 29 people of the capital felony of witchcraft. 19 of the accused, 14 women and 5 men, were hanged. One man who refused to enter a plea was crushed to death under heavy stones in an attempt to force him to do so. At least 5 more of the accused died in prison.; The community and the trials have been the basis of many works throughout American history, notably Esther Forbes' A Mirror for Witches (1928), the Veronica Lake film I Married A Witch (1942), and Arthur Miller's The Crucible (1952).
SAGUENAY, KINGDOM OF THE (Canada): A land of vast riches believed to exist by early French explorers of Canada. Chief Donnacona told stories about it, claiming it had great mines of silver and gold, when he was imprisoned in France in the 1530s. The name Saguenay, from the legend, came to be applied to the Saguenay River.; Today, the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean region of Quebec is sometimes referred to metaphorically as the Kingdom of the Saguenay (Royaume du Saguenay), for example in tourist marketing.
SAVAGE LAND (Marvel Comics): A hidden prehistoric land located in a tropical preserve in Antarctica. Created by incredibly intelligent, powerful, and technologically advanced extraterrestrials in order to observe human evolution at an acceptable rate, the Savage Land is home to a variety of prehistoric animals and mutated creatures found nowhere else on Earth. Subterranean generators maintain a warm, humid tropical climate. Prominent among the denizens of the Savage Land are Ka-Zar and Shanna, two humans who have chosen to live in this strange domain. They are typically accompanied by their sabretooth tiger, Zabu.; The Savage Land was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby and first appeared in The Uncanny X-Men #10 (March 1965).
SCOTLAND (Britain)
SESAME STREET (20th cent.): Street in New York City which is home to Big Bird, Oscar the Grouch, Bert and Ernie, and other muppets. Hooper's Store is a prominent local landmark.
SHANGRI-LA (20th cent.): Hugh Conway, a British diplomat in the 1920s, was skyjacked and he & his traveling companions ended up in the Himalayas. They were led to the hidden Valley of the Blue Moon and the city of Shangri-La, where folks do not age and the "powers that be" were collecting all of the world's knowledge and greatest artworks, so that it would be safe from the turbulent political storms of the outside world. Eventually, the high lama revealed to the diplomat that he had been chosen to take over leadership of Shangri-La and, after an abortive attempt to leave (at the insistence of one of his fellow travelers), Conway assumed his destined place in Shangri-La.; Conway's story is told in James Hilton's book Lost Horizon (1930).
SHEOL (Hebrew)
SHERWOOD FOREST (Britain): A thick forest located in nottinghamshire, England, Sherwood Forest is best known as the home of the thief Robin Hood and his band of "Merry Men".; Robin Hood was one of the great heroes of medieval England. The stories about Robin celebrate his courage, generosity, skill in archery, and comic flair. He did not hesitate to fight and steal from his enemies, but he always showed compassion for the poor, protected women and children, and offered assistance to anyone of honor.; The key members of Robin's Merry Men were an enormous man jokingly known as Little John, a traveling priest named Friar Tuck, and the outlaw Will Scarlet. Robin was in love with a spirited young woman named Maid Marian, a cousin to the King. The main enemy of Robin’s band was the Sheriff of Nottingham, a dastardly and greedy law officer. The band clashed with dishonest local abbots as well.; Although Robin fought to overturn the power of rich landowners, dishonest church leaders, and government representatives, he and his band respected the authority of the king, Richard I, who was fighting in the Crusades. Robin Hood opposed Richard's brother, Prince John, who attempted to usurp the throne while Richard was overseas.
SKELETON ISLAND (18th cent.): Pacific island featured in Robert Louis Stevenson's 1883 novel Treasure Island. The island's location is uncertain, but is known to several pirates who have buried treasure in a hidden location somewhere on the island. Skeleton Island was the site of a grand adventure by English cabin boy Jim Hawkins and the pirate known as Long John Silver. The island has been depicted on film several times, most notably in a 1934 adaptation starring Jackie Cooper and Wallace Beery.
SKULL ISLAND (20th cent.): A remote Pacific island best known as the home of the gigantic ape known as Kong, and a variety of prehistoric creatures.; Skull Island first came to prominence when a team led by famed adventurer Carl Denham went to the island and discovered Kong, who was worshiped as a god by the natives. Kong fell in love with Denham's shipmate Ann Darrow, and Denham used that passion to entrap Kong and take him to New York City in order to present him to the world. Kong escaped, wreaked havoc on the city, and climbed to the top of the Empire State Building, Darrow in hand.; After placing Darrow down safely, Kong plunged to his death, injured by the bullets of attacking bi-planes.; Kong and Skull Island were seen initially in the 1933 film King Kong, perhaps the finest horror movie ever made.
SMALLVILLE, KANSAS (DC Comics): A small town, located hundreds of miles from Metropolis, where Clark Kent, the man who is secretly Superman, spent his boyhood after being adopted into the home of Jonathan and Martha Kent.; It was near Smallville that the experimental rocket bearing the infant Superman landed after its journey through space from Krypton. The Smallville Orphanage, where the Kents brought the infant Superman immediately upon finding him, and where he remained for a brief period preceeding his adoption, is located in Smallville. The Kents' farm, where Superman spent his early childhood years, is located somewhere outside of Smallville.; The Kents' home, where the family moved after selling their farm and where Superman spent the remainder of his boyhood, is located in Smallville, as is Jonathan Kent's general store where Clark used to work afternoons after school.
SPRINGFIELD (20th cent.): The city in which the animated American sitcom "The Simpsons" is set. Springfield is a large city in an unspecified state near a large body of water. Springfield was founded by Jebediah Springfield in 1796; the current mayor is Joe Quimby. The geography of Springfield and its surroundings are flexible, changing to address whatever an episode’s plot calls for. In the Simpson's universe, TIME magazine is said to have done a cover story on Springfield entitled "America's Worst City"; Newsweek is said to have characterized the city as "America's Crud Bucket".; There are no geographical coordinates or consistent references to U.S. states that might identify in which part of the country Springfield is located. The show's producers are intentionally deceptive in regard to Springfield's location, having hinted at and ruled out nearly every American state as the basis for the town's location. The name Springfield was chosen by Matt Groening, creator of The Simpsons, as the setting for the show because it is one of the most common place-names in the United States.
STAR CITY (DC Comics): Home of Oliver Queen, alias the Green Arrow.
ST. BRENDAN'S ISLAND (Europe/North Atlantic): Situated somewhere west of Europe, St. Brendan’s Isle is named after the Saint Brendan who founded the Clonfert monastery and monastic school; the island was apparently discovered by the saint and his followers while they were traveling across the ocean, evangelizing to islands. It appeared on maps in Columbus' time, apparently acting as one of the things spurring him on to explore the ocean Westwards; the island has been appearing on numerous maps, though no one quite knows where it should be or if it even does exist.; It also sparked some controversy, because the claim is that St. Brendan and his brethren arrived at the Americas first, around the 6th century. The first mention of the island was in the ninth century Latin text Navigatio Santi Brendani Abatis ("Voyage of Saint Brendan the Abbot"), placing the island into Irish and European folklore.; In 1976, British Navigations scholar Tim Severin undertook St. Brendan’s voyage, using a similar-sized crew and the same kind of boat, to see if the voyage was possible. They did manage to arrive at Newfoundland, following the records of the Latin text, confirming that it was possible to have made the voyage described, but they didn’t find the mysterious isle.
STONEHENGE (British): A prehistoric monument located in the English county of Wiltshire, about 2 miles west of Amesbury and 8 miles north of Salisbury. One of the most famous prehistoric sites in the world, Stonehenge is composed of earthworks surrounding a circular setting of large standing stones. Archaeologists believe that the standing stones were erected around 2200 BC and the surrounding circular earth bank and ditch, which constitute the earliest phase of the monument, have been dated to about 3100 BC. The site and its surroundings were added to the UNESCO's list of World Heritage Sites in 1986 in a co-listing with Avebury henge monument, and it is also a legally protected Scheduled Ancient Monument. Stonehenge itself is owned by the Crown and managed by English Heritage while the surrounding land is owned by the National Trust.; Its origins and purpose remain a mystery. Various theories have been suggested, including that Stonehenge is a burial site or a worship site. A mock version featured prominently in the 1984 film This Is Spinal Tap.
STORYBOOK FOREST (USA): A small, magical forest located outside Ligonier, PA in which fairy tale characters come to life. It is part of Idlewild Park, one of America's oldest amusement parks.; Shady paths lead to the Old Woman who lived in a shoe, Goldilocks and the three bears, Snow White and her dwarf friends, Jack jumping over a candlestick, the Three Men in a tub, Captain Candy on the Good Ship Lollipop, and many others.
ST. ROCH, LOUISIANA (DC Comics): Sometime home of Hawkman and Hawkgirl.
STYX (Gk/Rom): From a word meaning “Hateful”, Styx was one of the five rivers of the Underworld. It was said to encircle the land of the dead nine times, and all other Underworld rivers were its tributaries. Charon, the ghostly offspring of Erebus (“Darkness”) and Nyx (“Night”), ferried the dead across the River Styx, but refused to transport those who could not pay him. For this reason, the Greeks would place a coin in the mouth of a corpse prior to burial.; The rock band which took its name from the river is not believed to have any association with the river itself...but you never know.
SUNNYDALE, CALIFORNIA (20th century): This West Coast community is featured in both the film and television versions of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The home of Buffy and her "Scooby Gang" colleagues, Sunnydale functions as a sort of interdimensional nexus between the real world and the demon world due to its location on a "Hellmouth", a portal "between this reality and the next". As a result, Buffy is kept quite busy battling vampires, demons, and other creatures of the night.
TARTERUS (Gk/Rom): A Greek underworld, said to be deeper than Hades, which was said by some to reserved for gods and goddesses to serve punishments. The Titan king Chronos imprisoned the Cyclopes and Hecatoncheires in Tarterus; they were later freed by Zeus and Tarterus became the prison of the Titans.
THEMYSCIRA (DC Comics): The island-nation capital of the Amazons, a tribe of ancient Greek female warriors. Also known as "Paradise Island", Themyscira is the home of Princess Diana, better known as Wonder Woman. Its location, in the Aegean Sea, remains a mystery to most non-natives, despite rumors that it lies in the Caribbean or the Atlantic. Ruled by Queen Hippolyta, an enchantment prevents males from setting foot on the island, lest they immediately fall dead.
THULE (Europe): A land reputed to be the northernmost point of the world. A truly mysterious land, Thule was first was reported by Pytheas, a Greek sailing from the colony of Massalia (Marseille) in the fourth century BC. The place never was discovered by other mariners, and, consequently, his account is referred to by later writers with considerable misgiving. It may have been Iceland or even Norway. By the first century BC, the word had become an expression for the furthest place on earth; Strabo, for instance, identifies the Shetland Islands as Thule. Columbus at one point claimed that he had found Thule.
TIAN (Chinese): The celestial heavens.
TINTAGEL (British): The site of a castle in Cornwall where King Arthur was conceived.
TIR NA NOG (British): Literally "Land of the Young", this is a paradise were the deceased live. In contrast with other realms of the dead, Tir Na Nog, also called Mag Mell ("Plain of Joy"), is described as an idyllic island, or as a wonderful place at the bottom of the ocean. This realm of the dead is ruled by king Tethra of the Fomorians, a race of giants. The sea god Manannan mac Lir is also believed to rule there.
TOKOYO-NO-KUNI (Japanese): In Japanese cosmology, paradise, the spirit world, a 'distant land across the ocean'. The name means "The Eternal Country".
TOKYO (Japanese)
TRANSYLVANIA (Romania): An extensive elevated plateau region that reaches a maximum height of about 2,000 ft which occupies most of central and northwestern Romania. Transylvania is surrounded by the Carpathian Mountains, a large mountain system of central and eastern Europe.; Transylvania is best known for being the location of Bran Castle and the home of Prince Vlad Tepes, better known as Count Dracula. Tepes was born in Sighisoara in 1431. In the 15th century Romania was made up of a number of small states, each with an independent ruler. Vlad Tepes was a ruler for a state called Wallachia (not Transylvania...Wallachia is actually located just south of Transylvania). The name "Dracula" was first held by his father also named Vlad. The name means "Son of a Dragon". Vlad senior received the name because he was part of the Order of the Dragon, an order created by the Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund. The Order of the Dragon was designed as an alliance to fight the Turks. Vlad Tepes assumed the name from his father.; In current day Romanian, the word "Dracul" is synonymous with the word "Devil". As a ruler, Vlad Tepes probably had some "Devilish" habits such as brutally impaling his enemies and drinking human blood. This was done to perhaps promote fear . It was not unusual for the victor of a war in those times to "drink the blood of his enemy". Whether Dracula took it a few steps further it is not known for certain.
TREASURE ISLAND (18th cent.): see SKELETON ISLAND
TUNGUSKA (Russia): Located in western Siberia near the Podkamennaya Tunguska River in what is now Krasnoyarsk Krai, this is the site of a massive explosion between 7:00 and 8:00 AM on June 30, 1908. The explosion was most likely caused by the airburst of a large (around 66 feet across) meteoroid or comet fragment at an altitude of 3–6 miles above the Earth's surface. Although the meteor or comet is considered to have burst prior to hitting the surface, this event is still referred to as an impact event. The energy of the blast was estimated to be between 10 and 20 megatons of TNT - 1,000 times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima, or equivalent to Castle Bravo, the most powerful nuclear bomb ever detonated by the US.; The Tunguska explosion felled an estimated 80 million trees over 830 square miles. An overhead satellite view, from nearly a century later, centered at 60°55′N, 101°57′E (near ground zero for this event) shows an area of reduced forest density with a clearly visible, irregular clearing of somewhat less than one square miles in area. It is estimated to have measured 5.0 on the Richter scale.; The Tunguska event is the largest impact event in recent history. An explosion of this magnitude had the potential to devastate large metropolitan areas should it occur over a large city. This has helped spark discussion of ways to potentially stop large asteroids or comets from hitting Earth.; Other theories as to the nature of the Tunguska event include the collision of a speeding black hole with the Earth, the annihilation of a chunk of antimatter falling from space, or an exploding alien spaceship or even an alien weapon going off to save the Earth from an imminent threat.; The event has been portrayed in Arthur C. Clarke's 1972 book Rendezvous with Rama, Alistair MacLean's 1975 book Circus, in Thomas Pynchon's 2006 book Against the Day, in a 1969 episode of Star Trek entitled "That Which Survives", and in a 1996 two-episode story arc of The X-Files.
TUONELA (Finland): The land of the dead, ruled over by Tuoni and Tuonetar, aided by their hideous, dwarf-like daughters Lovitar, Kiu-Tytto, Kivutar, and Vammatar. The entrance to Tuonela was guarded by Surma, a monster perceived with ever-open jaws, ready to catch and devour humans with frightening speed, the personification of sudden death.
UHLANGA (Africa): In Zulu mythology, Uhlanga is the marsh from which humanity was born.
ULTIMA THULE (European): see THULE
ULURU (Australian): The Aboriginal name for a great sandstone outcrop also known as Ayer’s Rock. It was a place of great spiritual significance in traditional Aboriginal belief.
UNDERWORLD: The abode of the dead in many cultures. It is often known by other names, such as Hell (in Christian tradition) or Hades (to the ancient Greeks).
URRU, VALLEY OF (Dark Crystal): Home of a race known as the Mystics and the gelfling boy Jen in the 1982 Jim Henson film The Dark Crystal.; In a faraway world, a mighty astronomical event was to occur, the "Great Conjunction" of the planet's Three Suns. At the time, the cruel Skeksis ruled this world from the castle of the Dark Crystal but are frightened to learn that an ancient prophecy may be coming true: A survivor of the Gelfling, an elfin race they thought they had destroyed, is seeking to restore the missing shard of the Dark Crystal before the moment of the Great Conjunction, thus ending the tyranny of the Skeksis.; Hidden in the valley of the urRu, young Jen the Gelfling has been raised by a tribe of mystics and knows little of the world outside, but knows his Master's dying words have charged him with his mission to find the lost shard before it is too late. Traveling through many strange places and encountering many extraordinary beings, Jen races against time to unravel the mystery of his quest and save his world from the forces of evil.
UTOPIA: A land of seeming perfection. It was first written about in Sir Thomas More's Latin prose narrative Utopia (1516), which satirized the irrationality of inherited assumptions about private property and money and followed Plato in deploring the failure of kings to make use of the wisdom of philosophers. More's book describes the distant island-nation which was organized on purely reasonable principles and named Utopia (Greek for “nowhere”). On this island the interests of the individual are subordinate to those of society at large, all people must do some work, universal education and religious toleration are practiced, and all land is owned in common. These conditions are contrasted with those of English society, to the substantial disadvantage of the latter. The story is related through Raphael Hythloday, a Portuguese traveller, a decided foe of English legal practice and an ardent critic of English society.
VALHALLA (Norse): Valhalla, the "Hall of the Slain", in Norse mythology is the hall presided over by Odin. This vast hall has 540 doors. The rafters are spears, the hall is roofed with shields and breast-plates litter the benches. A wolf guards the western door and an eagle hovers over it. It is here that the Valkyries, Odin's messengers and spirits of war, bring half of the heroes that died on the battle fields (the rest go to Freya's hall Folkvang). These heroes, the Einherjar, are prepared in Valhalla for the oncoming battle of Ragnarok. When the battle commences, eight hundred warriors will march shoulder to shoulder out of each door.
VALLEY OF THE DINOSAURS (20th cent.): A hidden valley in South America which is home to prehistoric animals and people.; The Butler family - John, his wife Kim, and their children Katie and Greg - accidentally got caught in a whirlpool in the Amazon River. The whirlpool sent them into the valley. Once there, they had to learn to survive, and did so by befriending a prehistoric family: Gorak, his wife Gera, their son Lokk, and their daughter Tana. They also had a pet dinosaur named Glump.; The ultimate fate of the Butler family is unknown.; Valley of the Dinosaurs was a Hanna-Barbera cartoon series which is reputed to have been developed in direct competition to Sid & Marty Krofft's more successful Land of the Lost. Valley of the Dinosaurs aired for 16 episodes in late 1974 before being cancelled.
VANAHEIM (Norse): The land of the gods known as the Vanir. It is located in Asgard, on the highest level of the universe. In contrast to the Aesir gods who reside in Asgard, the Vanir are primarily nature and fertility deities. Many of the Vanir, such as Frey and Freya, were eventually assimilated into the Aesir ranks.
VINETA (Baltic Europe): Vineta (also called Wineta) is an ancient town believed to have been on the German or Polish coast of the Baltic Sea. Traders of the 11th and 12th century reported about a town that was the most powerful port of the Baltic Sea. Bishop Adam of Bremen wrote that Vineta was the largest of all towns in Europe.; It is unclear whether Vineta really existed. Many archaeologists have searched for remains of the city along the Baltic Sea. It is claimed that Vineta sank into the sea due to a storm.; The islands of Wolin and Usedom and the town of Barth claim to house the remains of Vineta. At all these places, Vineta museums and Vineta festivals try to attract tourists. Scientific evidence for the existence of the ancient town is still missing.
WAKANDA (Marvel Comics): A small nation in tropical Africa which has achieved great waelth and technology due to its abundant supply of vibranium, a rare metal which is nearly impervious to harm.; Wakanda is a monarchy and its current king is T'Challa, also known as the costumed crimefighter the Black Panther. Access to the nation is difficult and travel is strictly regulated in order to protect its natural resources and the secrecy of the Wakandan people.
WASTE LAND (British): A Celtic motif that ties the barrenness of a land with a curse that must be lifted by a hero. It occurs in Irish mythology and French Grail romances, and hints of it may be found in the Welsh Mabinogion.; In the Arthurian Grail material, the Wasteland's condition is usually tied to the impotence of its leader. Often the infirmity is preceded by some form of the Dolorous Stroke, in which the king is injured tragically for his sins but kept alive by the Grail. In Chrétien de Troyes' Perceval, the Fisher King has been wounded in a misfortune that is not revealed in the incomplete text, and his land suffers with him. He can be healed only if the hero Perceval asks the appropriate question about whom the Grail serves, but warned against talking too much, Perceval remains silent. In the First Continuation of Chrétien's work, the anonymous author recounts how Gawain partially heals the land, but is not destined to complete the restoration.; T. S. Eliot famously used the motif in his famous poem "The Waste Land". It is also portrayed in the 1981 John Boorman film Excalibur.
WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE (20th cent.): A land located across a dreamlike ocean which serves as home to a variety of gigantic, monstrous creatures. The land was initially explored by a boy named Max, who journeyed there via a forest in his room while being punished for poor behavior. Max remained with the creatures for a time, and was even crowned king, before deciding to return home, where he found his supper waiting for him. And it was still hot.; The land is featured in the award-winning 1963 book Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak.
WHOVILLE (20th cent.): A town just south of Mount Crumpet, populated by the merry and warm-hearted Whos, who are noted for their festive love of the Christmas holiday. Envious of the Whos' happiness, the evil Grinch, who lived on Mount Crumpet with his dog Max, descended upon the town on a particular Christmas Eve and, by means of serial burglary, deprived the Whos of their Christmas presents and decorations, in an attempt to "prevent Christmas from coming". On the following Christmas morning, however, the Grinch learned that despite his success in stealing all the Christmas presents and decorations from the Whos, Christmas came just the same. He then realized that Christmas is more than just gifts and presents. His heart grew three sizes larger, he returned all the presents and trimmings, and was warmly welcomed into the community of the Whos. And he, he himself - the Grinch - carved the roast beast.; Originally portrayed in the 1957 book How the Grinch Stole Christmas! by Dr. Seuss, the book was adapted in 1966 for a brilliant animated TV special by Chuck Jones, and featured the voices of Boris Karloff and Thurl Ravenscroft. An ill-conceived 2000 film adaptation compares unfavorably to the TV classic.
WONDERLAND (British): A magical realm populated by grotesque figures such as talking playing cards and anthropomorphic creatures. Wonderland was visited by a young English girl named Alice, who followed a white rabbit down a rabbit hole, then falling into the surreal world. Notable residents of the nonsensical realm include the White Rabbit, the mad Hatter, a smoking Caterpillar, the Mock Turtle, the Cheshire Cat, Tweedledee, Tweedledum, Humpty Dumpty, the Queen of Hearts, and the fearsome Jabberwock.; Wonderland is featured in two classic books by the Rev. Charles Lutwidge Dodgson under the pseudonym of Lewis Carroll entitled Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There. Many other artists have been influenced by Carroll's works, including Salvador Dali, Neil Gaiman (Coraline, Sandman), Jim Henson (Labyrinth), James Joyce (Finnegan's Wake), Bob Kane & Bill Finger ("Batman" #49), John Lennon ("Come Together", "Cry Baby Cry", "Glass Onion", and "I Am the Walrus", all performed by The Beatles), Alan Moore (The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Lost Girls), Grant Morrison (Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth), Grace Slick ("White Rabbit", performed by the Jefferson Airplane), the Wachowski brothers (the Matrix films), and Tom Waits (Alice). Wonderland and Alice's adventures there have been portrayed on film many times, perhaps most notably in an animated adaptation by Walt Disney in 1951.
XANADU: A corruption of the name of the ancient Mongolian city of Shang-du (or Shangdu) the ‘Upper Capital’ (previously the town of Kaiping or K'ai-p'ing) in South-eastern Mongolia (about 180 miles/290km north of Beijing). After having unilaterally moved the capital to Shangdu during squabbling over the succession of power, the Mongol general – founder of the Yuan Dynasty (1270-1368), and grandson of Genghis – Khubilai (1215-1294, reign 1260–94) or Kubla (Great Khan) was elected emperor of China. Stories of his wealth and power and the various spellings and pronunciations of the city’s name were brought to the West via the writings of Rusticello (or Rustichello or Rusticiano) of Pisa who wrote a book in Franco-Italian (a strange composite tongue fashionable during the 13th and 14th centuries) entitled ‘Divisament dou Monde’ (Description of the World) based on the dictations of the then imprisoned (in Genoa) Marco Polo (1254-1324).; Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834), English poet, critic, and philosopher (also author of "Rime of the Ancient Mariner") wrote the poem "Kubla Khan" in 1797 and said he dreamed the poem in an opium-induced sleep. The poem states: "In Xanadu did Kubla Khan/A stately pleasure-dome decree." Coleridge has thus done much to perpetuate the legend of the stately Asian paradise Xanadu.; Xanadu was also the title of an extraordinarily silly 1980s movie starring Olivia Newton John and Gene Kelly; the film is completely unrelated to the actual legend of Xanadu.
XAVIER INSTITUTE FOR GIFTED CHILDREN (Marvel Comics): The base of operations for both the superteam known as the "X-Men" is the Xavier Mansion at 1407 Graymalkin Lane in the town of Salem Center in New York State's Westchester County. The mansion belongs to the founder of both teams, Professor Charles Xavier, and has been in his family's possession for ten generations. The mansion was originally built by a Dutch seafaring ancestor of Xavier's out of local stone on the edge of Breakstone Lake. Ove the years the mansion has been electrified, renovated, and modernized. Many of the renovations involved the installation and construction of facilities for use by the X-Men, including the addition of the subterraneam hangar building, the "Danger Room" and its equipment, and the high speed transport tunnels. (The Danger Room is the area in which the X-Men and New Mutants are trained in the use of their superhuman powers.); The mansion was destroyed in an attack by Sidrian Hunters, but was rebuilt incorporating advanced Shi'ar technology provided by Lilandra Neramani, who was then the empress of the interstellar Shi'ar Empire. The general populace is unaware that the mansion serves as the headquaters of the X-Men. Instead, the mansion is publicly known as the location of Professor Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, a respected private school with a highly limited enrollment. Xavier started the school in order to teach people born with mutant superhuman abilities how to cope with their powers and adjust to society.; Charles Xavier's estate covers an extensive area between Graymalkin Lane and Breakstone Lake. There is an Olimpic-size swimming pool directly to the rear of the mansion. Elsewhere on the property there are stables and a boathouse. Hangars and a takeoff pad for the X-Men's "Blackbird" jet are located in an area of the estate far away from public view. These facilities may be reached from the mansion by means of high-speed magnetic rail cars the travel through an underground tunnel.
XIBALBA (Mayan): The Underworld. Meaning “Place of Terror”, Xibalba was said to consist of nine distinct levels. It contained numerous “houses” in which the dead face a range of perils, such as the House of Knives, the House of Jaguars, and the House of Bats. Entrances to Xibalba were in caves, ponds, and lakes.; The hero twins Xbalanque and Hunaphu overcame many of the perils of Xibalba when they journeyed to see the gods of the underworld.
YS (British/French): A legendary city of Brittany, supposedly submerged. Grallo was said to be king and was related in some way to King Arthur. Morgan may have been responsible for its destruction.
ZENON (Milton-Bradley): One of four kingdoms in the 1981 game “Dark Tower”. The goal of the game is for a player to orginate in a kingdom and journey through the other kingdoms in search of special keys (bronze, silver, gold) which will enable to player to enter the Dark Tower, defeat the brigands who hold it, and recover a magic scepter.

This web site is dedicated to my children,
Christian, Kate, Claire, & Elliot;
may you always have a sense of wonder and magic, all your days.

Site established 27 July 2001;

updated 18 August 2008

This page hosted by GEOCITIES
Get your own Free Home Page