Eggcorn Forum

Tasmania was a British penal colony during the first half of the nineteenth century. In those days it was known to the world as “Van Dieman’s Land.” Abel Tasman, the first European to explore the island, named it after Anthony Van Dieman, the Governor of the Dutch East Indies. Nearly 75,000 prisoners were sentenced to be transported to Van Dieman’s Land in the fifty years that it received the offscourings of Britain. When the island ceased being a penal colony, it incorporated as Tasmania, partly, it seems, because of the bad associations of the old name. People were in habit of calling it “Van Demon’s Land.” An ugly name for a beautiful land.

The demon-Dieman pun on the former name of Tasmania should be a historical footnote today. Recently, however, the name “Van Dieman’s Land” has resurfaced in the media. It is the title of a ballad sung by Bono and Edge (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQ61jqKFo74 ) and, just this fall, it became the name of film about Tasmania’s penal colony period. (http://www.vandiemensland-themovie.com/ ). In the film, a group of prisoners escape from a compound on the island and find themselves prisoners of a landscape determined to kill them.

For better or worse, the return of the pre-Tasmania name has brought back the old associations. Some of the web examples of “Van Demon’s Land” look like they might be fresh eggcorns. A small sample of them:

Guitar forum post: “ van demon’s land makes me wonder why…[E]dge doesn’t sing more songs by himself”

Flickr discussion: “It’s an anthem sung at football matches, Liverpool.etc. It can be a sad song, about an Irish rebel banished to Van Demon’s Land ”

Discussion board for the town of Abbeyfeale: “Perhaps they have gone to watch the test cricket – or to check out distant relatives who might have been deported to Van Demon’s Land in the last century”

Last edited by kem (2009-12-30 23:33:55)