Interesting.
There is more in the Wikepidia article. It points to the term ‘nostalgia’ – what we understand as longing for the past, but it has been used before as a medical term for homesickness, which was seen as a serious illness on its own (the German term “Heimweh” for homesickness sounds so much more poetic). Can understand nostalgia as the longing for that which you’ve lost (home, past). And with the waters of Lake Nostos you can still the longing (thirst for the past, what is gone) by getting the lost back.
@Clessidor Of course, Frau Holle! *headdesk* How could I not think of that.
To spark some more speculation adding: In the tale of “Frau Holle” the reason that a maiden jumps into the well in the first place is, that she lost a spindle in the well, which she wanted to clean from her own blood. She was forced to spin all day and worked so hard, her fingers bled. No, story has nothing to do with the fairy tale of Rumpelstiltskin. Just a coincidence. 😉
There is one problem with the theory of the well in Storybrook being a way to Lake Nostos in Fairy Tale land: the lake was already dried out before the curse (episode Lady of the Lake, 2×03) Makes me wonder about the wishing well in Storybrook we see in “What Happened to Frederick” and in the season 01 final. That well must have some magic anyway, as it looks the same but is not in the same place in the two episodes (nagging about details). But does it has to do anything with Lake Nostos, besides that they use the same description of magical power, and that August mentions, that a legends says its water is coming from an underground lake? How is that possible, seeing that Lake Nostos was dried out before the curse? Or hasn’t the lake dried out but someone stole its water, hidding it somewhere else? Or was the water not totally gone but just disappeared underground? But why should it now be in our world feeding the well?
It’s not the same well though where Prince Thomas disappeared, that one looked different, and I doubt, they meant it to be the same one.
¯\_(?????? ?)_/¯