R. A. Walker

While reading the magnificent first chapter of David Rohl's Legend entitled "In Search of Eden," Rohl mentioned a slim typed booklet by one Reginald Arthur Walker called The Land of Eden. I was able to snag one via bookfinder.com for about $20. As a historian who deals with toponyms, I considered much of Walker's "name games" a bit outlandish. Walker started by linking the names of Greek gods, for instance, the goddess "Hera"; to their "basic sounds, thus *H.Ra"; to a toponym, "Kara," in the Caucasus. While this seems fruitful, it actual breaks several linguistic rules (in the vein of Velikovsky's silly "alter ego" "name game"). Walker's point is to link the Greeks with their Caucasian homeland, the Eden of the book's title. (One wonders, however, why the Indo-European/Caucasian Greek personal god names would be similar to the Semitic/Hebrew place-names in the Genesis.) Chapters two and three, though, are the best. These two focus specifically on ancient names and the biblical record to pinpoint the area east of Lake Urima near Tabriz as the biblical Eden. And he makes a very good case. However, this slim typescript is unnecessary, as the evidence is much better presented, with new material to back it up, in Rohl's book. Buy it instead.… (más)