On Names, Sacred Animals and Germany

This post is inspired by the fact that in these two days I’ve passed by two towns named Eberbach. For people without German knowledge: this name translates as “Wild Boar’s Spring”. For people with French knowledge — feel free to laugh that the second town is actually called Eberbach(Fils).

It may be insignificant name for you but not for me. There is no official animal for Ukraine, but if you ask people, most chances it will be pig (like bear for Russia). Thus, one may ask “do they name any towns or villages after it in Ukraine?”. Guess what? I’m aware of only one village named “??????”, which can be translated as “Little Boar (village)” or this (hopefully). In the same time (if German Wikipedia doesn’t lie) there’s maybe half a dozen of Eber… towns in Germany (mostly in Baden-Wuerttemberg and Bavaria) and one Schweinfurt (i.e. “Swine Ford”, also in Bavaria).

Pig is the only animal that Tatars and Turks didn’t take during their raid on Ukrainian territory, that’s why Ukrainian population should have very reverent position to pigs (and if you ask, say, Russians you’ll hear that Ukrainians are obsessed with “salo” which is obtained from pigs). Despite that there’re no towns named after it and only two or three monuments to pigs in whole Ukraine (IIRC all of them were installed in last ten years or so). It’s definitely a shame and may partially explain why Ukraine is in such deep you-know-what.

One Response to “On Names, Sacred Animals and Germany”

  1. Stefan says:

    I think “Wild Boar’s Creek” would be a better translation of Eberbach.

    Stefan, not far from one Eberstadt