Albion

The white cliffs of Dover.

Albion (Greek: Ἀλβιών) is the oldest known name of the island of Great Britain. It is thought to derive from the white cliffs of Dover. Today, it is still sometimes used poetically to refer to the island or England in particular. It is also the basis of the Scottish Gaelic name for Scotland, Alba. New Albion and Albionoria ("Albion of the North") were briefly suggested as possible names of Canada during the period of Canadian Confederation.^[1][2]

[edit] Etymology

The derivation of the name Albion is discussed by Eilert Ekwall in an article called "Early names of Britain" in Antiquity 1930.

Gallo-Romance Albiōn (cf. Middle Irish Albbu) derives from the Proto-Celtic * Alb-i̯en-, sharing the same stem as Welsh elfydd "earth, world", together with other European and Mediterranean toponyms such as Alpes and Albania has two possible etymologies, both plausible: either *albho-, a Proto-Indo-European root meaning "white" (in reference to the white southern shores of the island), or *alb-, Proto-Indo-European for "hill". The term, though, is much more likely to derive from the Gaelic albio, with the meaning of "land" or "world"; evidence for this can indeed be found in other Gaelic names for the British nations: Scotland was called Alba (as was Ireland, sometimes) while Wales was also called Yr Alban.

[edit] Attestation

The early writer (6th century BC), whose periplus was translated by Avienus at the end of the 4th century (see Massaliote Periplus), does not use the name Britannia; instead he speaks of nesos 'Iernon kai 'Albionon: the islands of the Ierni and the Albiones. Likewise, Pytheas of Massilia (ca. 320 BC) speaks of Albion and Ierne. But Pytheas' grasp of the νῆσος Πρεττανική nesos Prettanicé (Britanic island) is somewhat blurry, and appears to include anything he considers a western island, including Thule.^[3]

The name was used by Isadorus Charactacenis and subsequently by many classical writers. By the 1st century AD, the name refers unequivocally to Great Britain. The Pseudo-Aristotelian text De mundo (393b) has:

Ἐν τούτῳ γε μὴν νῆσοι μέγισται τυγχάνουσιν οὖσαι δύο, Βρεττανικαὶ λεγόμεναι, Ἀλβίων καὶ Ἰέρνη

"the largest islands they reached were two, called the Britannic [isles], Albion and Iernē."

Pliny the Elder, in his Natural History (4.16.102) likewise has:

"It was itself named Albion, while all the islands about which we shall soon briefly speak were called the Britanniae.^[4]"

In his Geographia, Ptolemy, writing in the 2nd Century AD, uses the name "Albion" instead of the Roman name Brittania; possibly following the commentaries of Marinus of Tyre.^[5]

In 930, the English King Æthelstan used the title: rex et primicerius totius Albionis regni^[6] ("King and chief of the whole realm of Albion"). His nephew King Edgar styled himself Totius Albionis imperator augustus (August emperor of all Albion) in 970.^[7]

[edit] In Myth

According to the 12th century Historia Regum Britanniae ("The History of The Kings of Britain") by Geoffrey of Monmouth, the exiled Brutus of Troy was told by the goddess Diana;

"Brutus! there lies beyond the Gallic bounds
An island which the western sea surrounds,
By giants once possessed, now few remain
To bar thy entrance, or obstruct thy reign.
To reach that happy shore thy sails employ
There fate decrees to raise a second Troy
And found an empire in thy royal line,
Which time shall ne'er destroy, nor bounds confine".^[8]

After many adventures, Brutus and his fellow Trojans escape from Gaul and "set sail with a fair wind towards the promised island".^[9]

"The island was then called Albion, and inhabited by none but a few giants. Notwithstanding this, the pleasant situation of the places, the plenty of rivers abounding with fish, and the engaging prospect of its woods, made Brutus and his company very desirous to fix their habitation in it." After dividing up the island between themselves "at last Brutus called the island after his own name Britain, and his companions Britons; for by these means he desired to perpetuate the memory of his name".^[10] Geoffrey goes on to recount how the last of the giants are defeated, the largest one called Goëmagot is flung over a cliff by Corineus.

Because Geoffrey of Monmouth's work was regarded as fact until the late 17th century, the story appears in most early histories of Britain. Wace, Layamon Raphael Holinshed, William Camden and John Milton repeat the legend and it appears in Edmund Spencer's The Faerie Queene.^[11]

A further legend originating in the 14th century, concerns the daughters of the Emperor Diocletian, the eldest being called Albynia. They are all banished to Albion after plotting to murder their husbands, where they couple with the local demons; their offspring are a race of giants.^[12]

[edit] Identification as Sveta-Dvipa

Several scholars from the 19th century attempted to identify Albion as Svetadvipa – the northern “White Island” of ancient Indian literature.^[13][14] Major F. Wilford in his article Sacred Isles in the West (1805) published in Asiatic Researches (“Transactions of the Bengal Asiatic Society“, Vol. 11, 1812) cited the Mahabharata which describes Svetadvipa as follows:

...“On the northern shores of the Ocean of Milk there is an island of great splendour called by the name of White Island. The men that inhabit that island have complexions as white as the rays of the Moon and that are devoted to Narayana.”^[15]

In Wilford's view, Svetadvipa or the “White Island” which was inhabited by men with white skin was Albion (Britain) and its ancient celtic population.^[16]

[edit] See also

• Perfidious Albion

[edit] References