Prydain

Prydein (Welsh [' prədein ] ), younger Prydain, is the Celtic name for Britain. As a personification Britto, Brutus, Prydein, Britus, Britain Mael or Cruithne is referred to as a deity and forefather of the Britons and Picts in the island of Celtic literature in turn.

Etymology

The word is derived from the Cymric Prydein Prydyn, originally designated as the Irish Cruithin among the Celts of Britain only the people of the Picts. Both words are attributed to the older form * Qrtenī, which means " cut " or " scratch " could mean. This suggests an original meaning of Prydyn and Cruithin as the " tattooed " (cf. the Latin Picti, "The Painted " [? ] ).

However, there is also a derivative of Old Irish Cruth, welsh accepted pryd, both from the original * K ʷ ritenoi, meaning " beauty, beautiful form ," which would describe the Picts as "the well Landscaped ." Off * K ʷ ritenoi the Britannic * Pritenī created (also * Pritanī ) and from this the name of the island Ynys kymrische Pridein. The Greeks used the form τα βρετανικά νησιά ( hai Prettanikaì nesoi, " the British Isles " ), the Romans, however, the version of Britannia, which was then accepted by the residents. The kymrische Brython is only used in the language of scholars.

Versions and short forms are loud Birkhan Brittania, Ρρεττανία, Prydyn, Prydain, Cruithen, Britton, Brittia, Breizm ( Breton ). The first entry was allegedly in a demotic papyrus from the early first millennium BC, here the word is pretan used for tin, which came from Cornwall to Egypt.

Different names for elves and goblins, Puck, Pixie, etc., also derive from these forms. The migrated into the ground earlier inhabitants seem to be appeased with Hüllwörtern. But here also the Picts might be demonized Folk etymology.

Personifications

Britain ( surnamed Mael " the Bald " ) is a figure of Irish / Celtic mythology. In Lebor Gabala Eirenn ( "The Book of acquisitions of land in Ireland " ), he is considered the forefather Britons. In Wales there is the related figure Britus, son of Aed Mawr.

Britus, also Britovius, is the name of a Gallic deity. From the Romans, he was equated with Mars. ( Nemausis, Gallia Narbonensis ) and Dijon ( Divio, Gallia Belgica / Germania Superior) were votive inscriptions found in Nîmes.

Geoffrey of Monmouth Historia Regum Britanniae mentions in his ( "History of the Kings of Britain " ) is also a Britto or Brutus as the first ruler of Britain. All of these characters have their roots probably should be, been in ancient reports of a Celtic king named Bretannos, the father of Keltine, the ancestress of the Gauls. From late antiquity indeed a god named Mars or Mars Britus Britovius is handed down from Britain, the genius of the island of Britannia, however, was mostly meant female.