"Frona Welse"
Daniel P. B. Smith
character, but...
"Frona Welse" is the name of the heroine of Jack London's novel
"Daughter of the Snows." Both "Frona" and "Welse" seem to be pretty
unusual names, and I'm wondering what they call to mind, and whether
Jack London had any particular reason for using them.
Frona Welse is the daughter of "Jacob Welse," the "trapper father who
had come of the study Welse stock which trickled into early Ohio out of
the jostling East," and builds a huge commercial empire in the Yukon.
Some quick Alta Vista searches suggest that Welse is certainly not a
Welsh name. It seems to be a German name. It does not seem to be the
German for "Welsh," either ("Waliser" is how freetranslation.com
translates "Welsh.") Switchboard.com seems to know of only one person
with the surname "Welse" in the entire United States.
"Frona" is not quite that rare, but I can't find out much about the
name. Web searches turn up only people who are _named_ Frona.
--
Daniel P. B. Smith
Current email address: dpbs...@bellatlantic.net
"Lifetime forwarding" address: dpbs...@alum.mit.edu
Visit alt.books.jack-london!
paul_m...@my-deja.com
"Daniel P. B. Smith" <dpbs...@bellatlantic.net> wrote:
> "Frona Welse" is the name of the heroine of Jack London's novel
> "Daughter of the Snows." Both "Frona" and "Welse" seem to be pretty
> unusual names, and I'm wondering what they call to mind, and whether
> Jack London had any particular reason for using them.
Jack London's mother was named Flora Wellman... do you see a similarity
there?
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