Albion is an alternative name forGreat Britain. The oldest attestation of thetoponym comes from the Greek language. Today the term is only used poetically.
The name forScotland in most of the Celtic languages is related to Albion:Alba inScottish Gaelic,Albain (genitiveAlban) inIrish,Nalbin inManx andAlban inWelsh andCornish. These names were laterLatinised asAlbania[citation needed] andAnglicised asAlbany, which were once alternative names for Scotland.
New Albion andAlbionoria ("Albion of the North") were briefly suggested asnames of Canada during the period of theCanadian Confederation.[1][2]Francis Drake gave the nameNew Albion to what is nowCalifornia when he landed there in 1579.
The toponym in English is thought to derive from the Greek wordἈλβίων mentioned bypseudo-Aristotle inDe Mundo,[3]Latinised asAlbiōn (genitiveAlbionis). It is similarly mentioned byPtolemy in hisGeography[4] andPliny in theNaturalis Historia.[5]
The root*albiyo- is also found inGaulish andGalatianalbio- 'world' andWelshelfydd (Old Welshelbid 'earth, world, land, country, district'). It may be related to other European and Mediterranean toponyms such asAlpes,Albania or the river godAlpheus (originally 'whitish').[citation needed] It has two possible etymologies: either from theProto-Indo-European word*albʰo- 'white' (cf. Ancient Greekἀλφός, Latinalbus), or from*alb- 'hill'.
The derivation from a word for 'white' is thought to refer perhaps to the whiteCliffs of Dover in the southeast, visible from mainland Europe and a landmark at thenarrowest crossing point. On the other hand, Celtic linguistXavier Delamarre argued that it originally meant 'the world above, the visible world', in opposition to 'the world below', i.e. the underworld.[6][7][8]
Judging fromAvienius'Ora Maritima, for which it is considered to have served as a source, theMassaliote Periplus (originally written in the 6th century BC, translated by Avienus at the end of the 4th century AD), does not use the nameBritannia; instead it speaks ofnēsos Iernōn kai Albiōnōn "the islands of the Iernians and the Albiones".[9] Likewise,Pytheas (c. 320 BC), as directly or indirectly quoted in the surviving excerpts of his works in later writers, speaks ofAlbiōn and Iernē (Great Britain and Ireland). Pytheas's grasp of theνῆσος Πρεττανική (nēsos Prettanikē, "Prettanic island") is somewhat blurry, and appears to include anything he considers a western island, includingThule.[10][failed verification]
The nameAlbion was used byIsidore of Charax (1st century BC – 1st century AD)[11] and subsequently by many classical writers. By the 1st century AD, the name refers unequivocally to Great Britain. But this "enigmatic name for Britain, revived much later by Romantic poets like William Blake, did not remain popular among Greek writers. It was soon replaced byΠρεττανία (Prettanía) andΒρεττανία (Brettanía 'Britain'),Βρεττανός (Brettanós 'Briton'), andΒρεττανικός (Brettanikós, meaning the adjective British). From these words the Romans derived the Latin forms Britannia, Britannus, and Britannicus respectively".[12]
Describing the ocean beyond theMediterranean Basin, thePseudo-Aristotelian textOn the Universe (Ancient Greek:Περὶ Κόσμου,romanized: Perì Kósmou; Latin:De Mundo) mentions the British Isles, naming the two largest islands Albion andIerne:
—Pseudo-Aristotle,On the Universe, 393b[13]
Pliny the Elder, in the fourth book of hisNatural History (Latin:Naturalis historia) likewise calls Great BritainAlbion. He begins his chapter on the British Isles (Latin:Britanniae,lit. 'the Britains') as follows, after describing theRhine delta:
—Pliny the Elder,Natural History, IV.16[14]
In his 2nd centuryGeography,Ptolemy uses the nameἈλουΐων (Alouiōn, "Albion") instead of the Roman nameBritannia, possibly following the commentaries ofMarinus of Tyre.[15] He calls both Albion and Ierne in Ancient Greek:νῆσοι Βρεττανικαὶ,romanized: nēsoi Brettanikai,lit. 'British Isles'.[16][17]
In 930, the English kingÆthelstan used the titlerex etprimicerius totius Albionis regni,'king and chief of the whole realm of Albion'.[18] His nephew,Edgar the Peaceful, styled himself in 970:totius Albionisimperatoraugustus,'august emperor of all Albion'.[19]
A legend exists in various forms that giants were either the original inhabitants, or the founders of the land named Albion. John Milton told the story in his History of Britain (1670) In Book I he recounts that the land was "subdu'd by Albion a Giant, Son of Neptune; who call'd the Iland after his own name, and rul'd it 44 Years."
According to the 12th-centuryHistoria Regum Britanniae ("The History of The Kings of Britain") byGeoffrey of Monmouth, the exiledBrutus of Troy was told by the goddessDiana:
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.
— Geoffrey of Monmouth,History of the Kings of Britain/Books 1, 11
After many adventures, Brutus and his fellowTrojans escape fromGaul and "set sail with a fair wind towards the promised island".[20]
"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".[21] Geoffrey goes on to recount how the last of the giants are defeated, the largest one calledGoëmagot is flung over a cliff byCorineus.
The 13th centuryProseMerlin drew on Geoffrey's story, but instead had Brutus andCorneus as two barons of Troy, who fled the city after its destruction. Brutus went to Britain and founded London, while Corneus, who was descended from giants, went to Britanny, where he founded cities and castles, and gave his name toCornouaille. In this version the giants were descended from Corneus, and survived until the time ofKing Arthur, when they fought alongside theSaracens against the Britons during theSaxon invasion of Britain. In the story, they are eventually defeated by Arthur and his knights, and flee to a forest "that noon ne a-bode other";Merlin warns not to chase them, "ffor soone shull thei mete with folke that shall do hem I-nough of sorowe and care."[22]
Later, in the 14th century, a more elaborate tale was developed, claiming thatAlbina and her sisters founded Albion and procreated there a race of giants.[23] The "Albina story" survives in several forms, including theoctosyllabic Anglo-Norman poem "Des grantz geanz" dating to 1300–1334.[24][a][25][26][b][28] According to the poem, in the 3970thyear of the creation of the world,[c] a king of Greece married his thirty daughters into royalty, but the haughty brides colluded to eliminate their husbands so they would be subservient to no one. The youngest would not be party to the crime and divulged the plot, so the other princesses were confined to an unsteerable rudderless ship and set adrift, and after three days reached an uninhabited land later to be known as "Britain". The eldest daughter Albina (Albine) was the first to step ashore and lay claim to the land, naming it after herself. At first, the women gathered acorns and fruits, but once they learned to hunt and obtain meat, it aroused their lecherous desires. As no other humans inhabited the land, they mated with evil spirits called "incubi", and subsequently with the sons they begot, engendering a race of giants. These giants are evidenced by huge bones which are unearthed. Brutus arrived 260 years after Albina, 1136 before the birth of Christ, but by then there were only 24 giants left, due to inner strife.[28] As with Geoffrey of Monmouth's version, Brutus's band subsequently overtake the land, defeatingGogmagog in the process.[28]
The octosyllabic poem appears as a prologue to 16 out of 26 manuscripts of the Short Version of the Anglo-Norman proseBrut, which derives fromWace. Octosyllabic is not the only form the Anglo-NormanDes Grantz Geanz, there are five forms, the others being: thealexandrine, prose, short verse, and short prose versions.[24][29] The Latin adaptation of the Albina story,De Origine Gigantum, appeared soon afterwards, in the 1330s.[30] It has been edited by Carey & Crick (1995),[31] and translated by Ruth Evans (1998).[32]
A variant tale occurs in theMiddle English proseBrut (Brie ed.,The Brut or the Chronicles of England 1906–1908) of the 14th century, an English rendition of the Anglo-NormanBrut deriving fromWace.[d][33][34] In the Prolog of this chronicle, it was King "Dioclician" of "Surrey" (Syria[35]), who had 33 daughters, the eldest being called "Albyne". The princesses are all banished to Albion after plotting to murder their husbands, where they couple with the local demons; their offspring became a race of giants. The chronicle asserts that during the voyage Albyne entrusted the fate of the sisters to "Appolyn", which was the god of their faith. The Syrian king who was her father sounds much like a Roman emperor,[35] thoughDiocletian (3rd century) would be anachronistic, andHolinshed explains this as a bungling of the legend ofDanaus and his fifty daughters who foundedArgos.[36]
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 andJohn Milton repeat the legend and it appears inEdmund Spenser'sThe Faerie Queene.[37]
William Blake's poemsMilton andJerusalem feature Albion as an archetypal giant representing humanity.(Quotation needed)
In 2010, artistMark Sheeky donated the 2008 paintingTwo Roman Legionaries Discovering The God-King Albion Turned Into Stone to theGrosvenor Museum collection.[38]
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