Some people have streets named after them. Some, parks. Some, towns. Some, mountains.
University of Saskatchewan Geology Prof. William Sarjeant found out quite by accident the other week he has been immortalized in a very special place -- at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. And he couldn't be more thrilled.
In an energetic life that has seen him become accomplished not only in geology, but also in pursuits as diverse as mystery writing, fantasy writing, folk singing, and heritage preservation -- to name a few -- Sarjeant says this latest honor "exceeds my wildest imagination".
A friend in the U.S. recently sent him a copy of a paper in the Edinburgh Geologist, in which author Ken Hitchen described how he named a number of "igneous centres", or seabed geological formations, after place-names in Sarjeant's four-book fantasy series, The Perlious Quest for Lyonesse, and after his pen-name, Anthony Swithin -- Sarjeant's real middle names.
Names from the books -- including Lyonesse, Owlsgard, Sandastre and Swithin -- now grace the seabed near the small real-life island of Rockall in the North Atlantic, northwest of Scotland and Ireland. The tiny outcrop was the subject of fantasy for Sarjeant as a boy in England, and in his books he has created a rich fantasy world around a much larger, mythic Rockall. Adoption of the names "is the most unexpected thing that's ever happened to me," Sarjeant says.
He says it's a "great thrill and pleasure" to have his place-names close-by other undersea place-names taken from J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings.
Bill Sarjeant wrote the article The Three Mary Annings in the last issue of Wat on Earth, Editors.