tiompan wrote:
Sanctuary wrote:
tjj wrote:
tiompan wrote:
tjj wrote:
Sanctuary wrote:
Viewed from the air or a map, the Swallowhead Springs take the form of a Swallow's head, so that presumably is where the name came from...or does it?
http://www.avebury-web.co.uk/avebury_map.html
If they were named prior to there being flight by aircraft or balloon then how did the name come about because you wouldn't gather it looked like a Swallow's head at ground level would you.
Thoughts?
I often find myself referring to the very first book I ever bought about Avebury -
The Secrets of the Avebury Stones by Terence Meaden. His theory is that Swallowhead is phonetically similar to Suilohead and may come from the same root as the Goddess name Sul.
That seems more like an idea based on wishful thinking than etymology . Are there any examples in Celtic /Germanic languages with a change from oo - w ? Wherereas the Fergusson suggestion , old German swal, meaning swell or whirpool is not only more likely it 's at least etymologically sound .
Yes, I agree with you (and Rhiannon) I read your earlier post and responded to it after I made this one. There is a lot of personal and archaeologically unprovable theory in Terence Meaden's book but I remain rather fond of it. His knowledge of Avebury is without question.
Isn't it all unprovable, not just Terence's book? I thought is was quite feasable to be called the Swallowhead after the shape of the river but can't prove that either :-)
But some explanations are more likely than others The swall , swallet , connection seems a good bet , it is found elsewhere , the etymology is sound . The Sul , Cunnit stuff was just wishful thinking to support an agenda , but etymologically unsound in both cases and binned long ago . Does the river look the shape of a bird and what other rivers get named after a birds shape or undistinctive head as in the case of a swallow ?
Agreed that some explanations are more plausible George, but that's all they are surely. Yes the springs area does look like the head of a bird I feel, any decent map indicates that, but it doesn't need other examples to make it more likely does it because that would suggest that the river was 'designed' and not natural if it was a common feature. One-offs of any nature are not uncommon if only just to buck a trend.
