medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
On Sunday, December 3, 2006, at 3:07 pm, John Briggs wrote:
> John Dillon wrote:
> >
> > Curiously (given the sword-in-the-stone motif) there is an Arthurian
> name
> > 'Walgan', 'Walewein', etc. that's presumably Celtic in origin.
>
> I think you'll find that's "Gawain".
'Walganus' is Geoffrey of Monthmouth's name form for the character now best known as Gawain. 'Walewein', 'Walwanius', etc. are obvious cognates. But I don't know enough about Geoffrey's linguistic practices to state with confidence that his Latin name forms for these figures are entirely Celtic in origin. Nor do I see how clarity is achieved by substituting one name form for others that are much closer morphologically (bcause of the 'l') to the presumably Germanic one borne by the saint under discussion.
Best again,
John Dillon
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