Month names in fantasy settings
Fantasy readers and writers, I’m super curious: when you’re reading or writing a story in a fantasy setting, do you prefer:
A) brand-spanking new original names for months and days that align with that world’s calendar and have nothing to do with Julius Caesar or Pope Gregory XIII
B) recognisable months named after your favourite Roman emperor
It was never something I ever thought about in a great amount of detail until the subject incidentally cropped up in two separate reviews on two separate pieces of work I was reading. Both reviewers (and people in their comments) felt that their immersion was immediately broken the moment they saw the word ‘January’ or 'July’. They were then forced to contend with the fact that this must mean that Julius Caesar somehow, somewhere, existed in this world. Which, as you can imagine, is pretty distracting.
And my first thought was oh shit they have January, and May, and June, and November, and Monday, and Wednesday, and Sunday in Song of the Stag.
Rather than break my immersion, I always find the use of our names for days and months actually helps it. It gives me an anchoring point in the world, so if I see that it’s 'June’ in any particular fantasy world, I have an immediate sense of weather and feeling outwith the author’s descriptions of climate. World-building has never been my strong point, and when I’m wrapping my head around a new world, I enjoy the shorthand of Monday and Tuesday or January and February to contextualise the time around the characters, both when reading and writing. I’ve always viewed the use of these words as 'translations’. The characters maybe have their own word and concept for what we view as 'Sunday’, but the story has been adapted for an audience in our world, hence the use of our names for months or days.
In saying that though, I can see why that can be viewed as really short-sighted and limited in world-building, after all, there are so many layers of lore that can be uncovered by creating new names for months and days, from folklore and religion to industry and politics. Not to mention that not every fantasy world is going to be a cookie-cutter replica of Earth when it comes to physical geography. Who’s to say that June in *insert preferred fantasy world* is the same as ours? Coming up with original names and the lore behind those names can increase the feeling of a world tenfold and make it feel that much more real.
I suppose it comes down to different degrees of world-building? Hard vs soft, on a spectrum of what is important to you as a reader or writer.
Basically, this is a very long-winded poll. How do you prefer your months and days to be named?
