Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland (Volume 11 ) (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1876. Excerpt: ... Mull has no connection with Muli = & jutting crag; but i Myl of the Saga repeats exactly the Celtic Maol, in this place meaning "Bare,"--a name (Maleos) as old at least as the second century. Mod, in Wales, signifies a towering hill on which no wood grows.--Richards Diet. The names of these large islands have been explained from Gaelic, but it is by no means to be inferred that they are Gaelic names in the sense that they were attributed to the islands by the Scottic (= Hibernian) Gael. Two (Scetis, Maleos), perhaps three (Egga-rhicina, a name apparently compounded of Egg ] Rachrin) are on record before any known invasion of the Hebrides by the Scotti. They were in fact names bestowed by the Northern Britons who are first known as independent tribes, but by the sixth century were consolidated, at least in degree, into the Pictish kingdom. As the Northmen, when adopting the names of the larger islands into their own language, expressed the sound of letters which are elided in Gaelic, but retained in Welsh, the names are allied to the latter; but the readiness with which the names can be Englished from the Gaelic, and the evidence of the Welsh themselves in calling the Northern Britons, "Painted Gael" (Owydyl Fichti), supports Mr Skene's conclusion, that the language of the Picts, while having many forms peculiar to itself--as is proved by the topography of the east of Scotland--and some which were common to Britain as a whole, was yet very closely allied to Gaelic. It may be repeated here that, in the Hebrides, the larger islands, such as the Northmen would call lands, or countries, retain their pre-Norse names; even the Orkneys is pre-Norse, and although Shetland is Norse, the names of Unst, Yell, and Fetlar cannot be satisfactorily explained by Icelandic...