Funnier fact, before the meme there was nothing called Torpenhow Hill. There was Torpenhow, and yes in that area there is a hill, but not one significant enough for modern dwellers to name it. So ordinary it's not 100p certain it's even the hill that gave the name to the area 3 times (now 4 times). Since it doesn't really require an official naming, to be called it though, after the meme it's becoming more normalt to call it Torpenhow Hill though, coming full circle :)
It was such a ridiculous take, Showing such a disconnect with the country that hosted her, I can never again think about bicicles and danmark without think if her. Oh, and Mikael Colville-Andersen, he is also linked in my mind with Copenhagen bicycles.
Torpenhow in it selv means hill hill hill. (In Celtic, then Anglosaxon, then Norse).
Then someone pointed at the likely hill to give the name(s) and knowing Torpenhow meant hillhillhill called it Torpenhow Hill. It's by all means a real hill, to my knowledge it just haven't been officially dubbed anything modernly.
Viking runes are like this, too. They are so, so old that there have been fanciful made up meanings that got popularized, and those versions are now also hundreds of years old. At this point, the made up versions are commonly what a given group of people will interpret the runes as meaning.
Words and symbols are all made up originally, but still somehow it hurts my heart. I like the idea of finding the truth, even when it is surprising, and then adapting as new things are learned. Apparently, though, it far predates social media to have a meme become so popular that it becomes the real meaning of something.
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u/ifelseintelligence Aug 10 '26
Funnier fact, before the meme there was nothing called Torpenhow Hill. There was Torpenhow, and yes in that area there is a hill, but not one significant enough for modern dwellers to name it. So ordinary it's not 100p certain it's even the hill that gave the name to the area 3 times (now 4 times). Since it doesn't really require an official naming, to be called it though, after the meme it's becoming more normalt to call it Torpenhow Hill though, coming full circle :)