Ingvild answers “What do you think the name itself...”

Phoebe asked this question about Skellig (Skellig, #1):

What do you think the name itself "Skellig" actually means? The "skel" made me think of skeletons, which when considering how much the bones and anatomy of birds is mentioned in the book, kinda makes sense.

Ingvild Well, I am very late to the party, but the author actually answered the question of how he arrived at that name, if you're still wondering!

"For most …moreWell, I am very late to the party, but the author actually answered the question of how he arrived at that name, if you're still wondering!

"For most of the time I was writing the book, it was called Mr. Wilson - an awful title, I knew, but I was waiting to come up with the true title. When Michael and Mina have taken Skellig to the boarded-up house, Mina asks (again!) who he is. At that point, I looked up from my computer and saw a book about the Skellig Islands and realized that he (and the book) were called Skellig.

I'd been traveling in Ireland the previous year and had wanted to visit the Skelligs, which lie a few miles off the southwest coast. The sea was too rough, so I couldn't get across, but they looked remarkable: jagged rocky outcrops lashed by rain and wind. They appear uninhabitable, but during the Dark Ages, a community of monks lived and worked and prayed there. One of the islands is called Skellig Michael, after the archangel Michael. The other is Small Skellig."(less)

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