Alaunus

This article is about the Gaulish god. For other uses, see Alaunus (disambiguation).

Alaunus or Alaunius (Gaulish: Alaunos) is a Gaulish god of healing and prophecy [citation needed]. His name is known from inscriptions found in Lurs, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence in Southern France[1] and in Mannheim in western Germany. In the latter inscription, Alaunus is used as an epithet of Mercury.[2] The feminine form Alauna (from an earlier *Alamnā) is at the origin of many place-names and hydronyms across Europe,[3] including the Roman-era names of Valognes in Normandy, Maryport and Watercrook in Cumbria, River Alyn in North Wales, Alcester in Warwickshire, Ardoch in Perthshire, and Learchild and the River Aln in Northumberland.[citation needed]

Name

The Gaulish theonym Alaunos stems from a Proto-Celtic form reconstructed as *Alamnos. The etymology remains uncertain. It has been traditionally derived from the root *al- ('feed, raise, nurture'), and compared with the Latin alumnus ('nursling') and with names of rivers such as Almus in Moesia, Yealm (*Almii) in England, or Alme in Westphalia. *Alamnos could thus be translated as 'the Nourishing One'.[3][4]

A Gallic tribe named Alauni (Αλαυνοί) is also attested in Noricum, and linguist Xavier Delamarre has argued that the root alǝ-, meaning 'to wander', "would suit river names as much as ethnic ones". In this view, *Alamnos may be compared with the Celtic stem *alamo- ('herd'; cf. Old Irish alam, Welsh alaf), and the ethnonym Alauni rendered as the 'errants' or the 'nomads', contrasting with the name of the Anauni ('the Staying Ones').[3]

See also

References

  1. ^ Where it appears in Greek in the dative case: Αλανειουι, Alaneioui.
  2. ^ L'Arbre Celtique. "Alaunus" and "Alaunius".
  3. ^ a b c Delamarre 2003, p. 37.
  4. ^ Matasović 2009, p. 30: "The Gaul. toponym Alaunos and hydronym Alauna are usually derived from the same root, but like most etymologies of toponomastic elements, this is also uncertain."
Bibliography
  • Delamarre, Xavier (2003). Dictionnaire de la langue gauloise: Une approche linguistique du vieux-celtique continental. Errance. ISBN 9782877723695.
  • Matasović, Ranko (2009). Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Celtic. Brill. ISBN 9789004173361.

Further reading

  • Ellis, Peter Berresford, Dictionary of Celtic Mythology(Oxford Paperback Reference), Oxford University Press, (1994): ISBN 0-19-508961-8
  • Wood, Juliette, The Celts: Life, Myth, and Art, Thorsons Publishers (2002): ISBN 0-00-764059-5
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