h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

>> Interesting, Brittany wasn't called Brittany until after Britain claimed it (back)? <<

That's what I'm trying to figure out. It might be the other way round though. Maybe Britain got its name as the major island in the archipelago of 2500 islands (the Britannic Archipelago?) that run north offshore of Britanny.

You have to see it from the perspective of the Romans marching north to the shores of Brittany and seeing something out there in the fog.

If you were in a place called Britanny and one day the fog lifted so you could see a big island out there, wouldn't you perhaps call that island Brittania? Or perhaps Brittannia meant all the British Isles, referring to the entire archipelago beyond Britanny.


~jwf~

2500 islands? How big does a rock have to be to be called an island?

Wasn't Brittany formerly known as "Less Britain"? Or am I getting completely confused here?

RF

Well the Irish for Wales is 'An Bhreatain Bheag' which means 'Little Britain'.

That's why the Irish name Breathnach (pronounced Brannoch) is translated as Walsh (Welsh).

Before the coming of Christianity or the Normans the Irish legal system was known as the Brehon Law. Where does that leave us?

>> Where does that leave us? <<

Well as James Joyce saw it, and I agree with him whole-heartedly, it leaves us having to put up with Christians and Normans and Greco-Judeo notions and Roman institutions that have little to do with reality north of the Mediterranean.

But, c'est le guerre. C'est dommage.
I wish I could say it wasn't so.


~jwf~

So, jwf, the only two inevitable things in your world view should be beards and axes?

Wow, thanks for all the responses. So very, very fascinating.

The disagreement started because I considered using 'albion' as the word of the week, which I contribute to my library's staff news sheet, but after the disagreement, I decided against it! My word for the coming week will probably be 'discombobulated'.

David

discom"bob"ulated IF that means talking about giveing me or another bob the sackI much rather you did'nt.

It's OK, you're safe, it's a word describing a state of confusion. I think of it as the waking up and thinking 'where am I' feeling.

"So, jwf, the only two inevitable things in your world view should be beards and axes?"

Or maybe just one, a bearded axe.

Perhaps jwf is harking back to an earlier time when the frozen white north was less well populated and a beard nescessary facial protection from the cold winters or while working the frozen northern seas and the axe representing the conquest of the land by man, cut down the trees to provide warmth and shelter.
Then again he could just be talking rubbish.




Nah, that'd never happen, would it...

Yes but I am permently confused ! ,my name is bob (irl) I also have a beard! when does a hatchet become an axe as I have a hatchet!

Once again proof of the great-circular-thought of those who live under the northern lights which is unknown in the linear lands to the south! Discom-BOB-ulated of course harkens back to our earlier dicussion of PLUMBing the depths.

Those weighty brass (or lead) thingies on a string that always point DOWNwards are also called BOBs or PLUMB-BOBS. To become discom-BOB-ulated refers to losing your BOB, to drop your lead, or even somehow getting tangled in the string. (Don't ask me how they might do this, I've never undertsood mechanical incompetence ! )

And of course discom-BOB-ulated is another negative orphan because one cannot be simply BOB-ulated. (Although I suppose some might get BOB-elated if dangling PLUMBs are the kind of thing that turn you on.)


~jwf~

Discombobulated
Actually Disco-Mbobulated from Disco-Mbobulate a West African dance invented around 1972 to accommodate European tourists who were bringing lights and strange sounds with them from the colder continent

Discombobulated

This is really as simple a word as can be imagined:
it merely indicates which combobulated is nearer to hand - clearly "Discombobulated" is more proximate than "Datcombobulated".

>> So, jwf, the only two inevitable things in your world view should be beards and axes? <<

Most morthmen wore beards but not all northwomen were battle-axes.

The lack of understanding about ancient pagan European society, and the prevailing prejudice that they were all pillaging savages, is the result of revisionist Latin histories. To the victor goes the right to write the history. Rome, 'civilised', everyone else, 'savages'.

In fact, a glorious and productive culture existed in the north before the Romans brought us pizza and bibles and heated running water. Much of that culture was deliberately suppressed or appropriated into the new Mediterranean values that have been imposed upon us these past 2000 years.

But I still insist there is more Truth about human nature and more good in the Mother Goose folktales of northen Europe than can be found in the middle eastern collection called the Bible. Certainly more relevant Truth and more viable good. And better suited for all ages too.


~jwf~

"the result of revisionist Latin histories"

and I thought that the Ancient Brits didn't get to meet Sven and his chums until after the Eyeties had left.

Who was travelling by Tardis?
(That's intended as a question but it probably makes more sense as a atatement.)

Plaguesville, what you say about the Ancient Brits is true, but remember, the Ancient Brits became the Welsh. The English are descended from Sven and his close cousin Aethelred, who invaded the country in the 4th - 8th centuries. That's where "British" folk tales come from, not from the old celts who lived in the island at the time of the Romans.

Does that make any sense? No. Disregard it.

The Latinist revision came in when the Christian religion spread out from Rome and the Latin-speaking monks started to write down all the local legends, adding their own morality. The North Europeans were never ones for writing stuff. Most uses of runes were for inscriptions such as "Joe owns this cup". They rarely wrote down their poetry and stories. The monks, however, were compulsive recorders.