Vanglemesh

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Revision as of 15:07, 9 February 2015 by GallifreyanWitch (talk | contribs)
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Vangelmesh is a mysterious country marked on The Discworld Mapp as being in the foothills of the Klatchistan mountains, rimwards of Smale, Ushistan and Betrek. Very little is known about it, except that by proximity it may once have been a conquered satellite of Omnia. it is highly possible that Vanglemesht is spoken here.


Annotation

Given the sound of the name, there might be a link to the Roundworld Bangladesh. Good old Wikipedia describes it as being being bordered by India to it's west, north and east - which given the proximity and relative location of Ghat seems somewhat similar when looking at the The Discworld Mapp - and while mostly low lying, it does feature a hilly region and rivers - on the Discworld Map a river is visible coming out of this Vanglemesh. Bangladesh also has several more mountainous neighbors, such as Nepal, which seems reminiscent of Vanglemesh's location in the foothills of the Klatchistan Mountains as mentioned above.

And if that wasn't enough support for the link it seems that once again, Pratchett has looked to historic place names and etymologies to name places on the Disc: The name Bangladesh may derive from the ancient Kingdom of Vanga (which in turn, interestingly enough, is thought to link to the Austric word "Bonga" meaning Sun God - perhaps a link to the Mountains of the Sun?). "-desh" is linked to the Sanskrit word simply meaning "land" or "country". The area has also been known as "Vangla" (back in 805 AD) and "Vangaladesa" (in the 11th century).