The origin of the names of some countries is puzzling. Ice Greenland translates as "Green Land" and the islands in Melanesia are named after King Solomon.
Greenland
Why is Greenland - a huge island covered with glacier all the time - is it called Greenland (in Norwegian Grønland), which means "Green Land"? It seems that the Vikings who discovered it were a little too clever with geographic landmarks and confused it with Ireland or Britain. But there is also a more fun version. According to the 11th century chronicler Ari the Wise, Greenland got its name from the light hand of its discoverer Eric the Red, who wanted to attract colonists there with a promising name. Even the Vikings needed a reason to go somewhere.
True, there is another hypothesis according to which in the 10th century the climate in Greenland was indeed more hospitable than today, and the coastal areas of the south-west of the island, which Eric saw, were covered with dense grassy vegetation.
Madagascar
The island of Madagascar owes its name to the Italian traveler Marco Polo, who confused it with the peninsula. Obviously, studying the sources, he correlated in his descriptions "Madagashikara" (the island of Madagascar) with the territory of Mogadishi - the current name of the capital of Somalia. Which, in general, is not surprising, since, despite his colorful descriptions of the local nature and fauna, he himself has never been there.
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Solomon islands
The Solomon Islands in Melanesia were discovered by the Spaniard Medanya de Nera in the 16th century. Having exchanged gold from the local residents, he compared the new land with the legendary biblical country of Ophir, from where they allegedly brought jewelry and diamonds for Solomon's temple. According to the Holy Scriptures, ships to Ophir were sent just in this direction from the ports of the Red Sea.
It is not known whether Medanya really believed that he had discovered the land of the mines of King Solomon, or whether he simply had a beautiful story by the way. But it is worth noting that the legend of Ophir was really widespread in those days.
Australia
Australia's name also fell short of expectations from its discoverers, who believed they had finally found Terra Australis Incognita, the most Southern Land traditionally depicted on maps from ancient times to the 18th century. Its outline disappeared from the maps after the travel of James Cook in 1772, who declared that if the Southern mainland existed, it was located very close to the polis and was of no value.
Before that, the inhabitants of Europe believed that the southern land was quite suitable for life. Its outlines on ancient maps were accompanied by images of mountains, rivers and lakes. In 1770, shortly before Cook's discovery, the English navigator Alexander Dalrymple wrote a work in which he cited evidence that the population of the Southern continent exceeds 50 million people.
In general, thanks to the well-known and popular myth, Australia has remained Australia, in translation - "South Land". This term was used by the traveler, Matthew Flinders, who first explored the Australian coast.
Brazil
Brazil also owes its name to the legendary land - the island of Brasil (O'Brazil and Hi-Brasil) from Irish mythology. At least according to one of the versions. The mythological island in the Atlantic Ocean was marked on many maps of the XIV-XVII centuries. He was most often depicted west of Ireland.
The legendary island promised great prospects, as it was considered the island of the Blessed, the Promised Land. Therefore, expeditions to find him were undertaken repeatedly. Also, many newly discovered lands were personified with him. One of them, obviously, could be Brazil, which amazed the discoverers with its abundance. According to another version, the name "Brazil" appeared in 1510, when a Lisbon merchant established a trade in local redwood with the metropolis. The Portuguese called the valuable tree pau-brasil (from the Portuguese brasa - heat, coals), since they decided that they had found the place from which the Arabs took the mahogany, known in Europe since the 12th century.
