blessmycottonsocks
Antediluvian
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Traditionally, the name Britain is said to have come from the Latin Britannia, which itself is probably derived from Pretani, thought to be an ancient Celtic term meaning (land of) the painted people.
Could the name's origins be far older though?
Several sources from around the 7th century AD onwards, record the legend that Brutus of Troy - the grandson of Aeneas, was banished from Italy after killing his heroic grandfather in an archery accident (c 1180 BC).
Along with some faithful warriors, including Corineus (more on him later) Brutus travelled throughout Greece and, on visiting an abandoned temple or oracle to Diana, had a vision that he was destined to travel West and discover a new land that would ensure his name would never die.
Sure enough, Brutus and his followers (a small army by most accounts) headed West, where they had a few skirmishes with some ancient Gallic tribes and founded the city of Tours. As the Gauls outnumbered Brutus' band, rather than face annihilation, they stole or constructed a small flotilla of boats and fled across the Channel to the land previous known as Albion.
Rather than the shortest Channel crossing, Brutus and co. appear to have been swept a bit further West and ending up making land at Totnes in Devon.
The spot where Brutus allegedly set foot on land is marked today by a heavily worn and rather nondescript chunk of stone embedded in a high street pavement:
In earlier accounts, this was known as the Brodes-stone which, along with the Brutus connotation, could also refer to a raised plinth on which a town crier stood to make his announcements.
Anyway, Brutus claimed the land in his name and also said the town he would found at the spot would be called Totnes.
Bear with me; ancient alternative spellings of Totnes were Totanaes, Tottanesse, Dodonesse and Dodenays with the T and D being pretty well interchangeable in early Brittonic languages. The ness part means a prominent point of land, with dod probably meaning earth.
Here's where it gets interesting! The place of the oracle that Brutus visited in Greece was called Dodona - not a million miles (or millennium or so) away from Dodenays/Totnes.
Oh and Brutus' trusted friend Corineus headed a bit further West and allegedly gave his name to Cornwall.
The fragments of Brutus' legend were collated from the various earlier written sources and embellished with much oral bardic material by Geoffrey of Monmouth in his Historia Regum Britanniae, first published around 1136.
The article I link to below is rather long (which is why I summarised it more concisely) but concludes with the reasonable statement: "there is enough potential in these ancient names to give us strong room to doubt that Geoffrey invented the legend of Brutus."
http://uriconium.blogspot.com/2010/08/possible-trojan-name-for-totnes.html
Could Britain and the British owe their national identity to this guy?
Could the name's origins be far older though?
Several sources from around the 7th century AD onwards, record the legend that Brutus of Troy - the grandson of Aeneas, was banished from Italy after killing his heroic grandfather in an archery accident (c 1180 BC).
Along with some faithful warriors, including Corineus (more on him later) Brutus travelled throughout Greece and, on visiting an abandoned temple or oracle to Diana, had a vision that he was destined to travel West and discover a new land that would ensure his name would never die.
Sure enough, Brutus and his followers (a small army by most accounts) headed West, where they had a few skirmishes with some ancient Gallic tribes and founded the city of Tours. As the Gauls outnumbered Brutus' band, rather than face annihilation, they stole or constructed a small flotilla of boats and fled across the Channel to the land previous known as Albion.
Rather than the shortest Channel crossing, Brutus and co. appear to have been swept a bit further West and ending up making land at Totnes in Devon.
The spot where Brutus allegedly set foot on land is marked today by a heavily worn and rather nondescript chunk of stone embedded in a high street pavement:
In earlier accounts, this was known as the Brodes-stone which, along with the Brutus connotation, could also refer to a raised plinth on which a town crier stood to make his announcements.
Anyway, Brutus claimed the land in his name and also said the town he would found at the spot would be called Totnes.
Bear with me; ancient alternative spellings of Totnes were Totanaes, Tottanesse, Dodonesse and Dodenays with the T and D being pretty well interchangeable in early Brittonic languages. The ness part means a prominent point of land, with dod probably meaning earth.
Here's where it gets interesting! The place of the oracle that Brutus visited in Greece was called Dodona - not a million miles (or millennium or so) away from Dodenays/Totnes.
Oh and Brutus' trusted friend Corineus headed a bit further West and allegedly gave his name to Cornwall.
The fragments of Brutus' legend were collated from the various earlier written sources and embellished with much oral bardic material by Geoffrey of Monmouth in his Historia Regum Britanniae, first published around 1136.
The article I link to below is rather long (which is why I summarised it more concisely) but concludes with the reasonable statement: "there is enough potential in these ancient names to give us strong room to doubt that Geoffrey invented the legend of Brutus."
http://uriconium.blogspot.com/2010/08/possible-trojan-name-for-totnes.html
Could Britain and the British owe their national identity to this guy?
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