Etmology (n.) The study of the origin of words and the way in which the meanings have changed throughout history
A little etymological talk is enjoyable and it’s a bit of a pet subject of mine. Firsly I’m going to start off by talking about St Kentigern, a key Saint responsible for the spread of Christianity throughout Cumbria. When walking past Blencathra and walking towards the oft-derided Mungrisdale Common (for those who haven’t been there, it’s often considered a poor little cousin compared to Blencathra’s splendid slopes – and tends to bog up in wet conditions).
Often it’s quite easy to be walking through a landscape and have no idea why things are named as they are. Mungrisdale and Glenderamackin are actually one and the same, Glenderamackin is of Brythonic (ancient British and celtic) origin from Iron Age times, whilst Mungrisdale means the same thing but is incredibly Norse in its morphemes, even to this present day you can pick apart the words from modern day Norwegian and Danish: gris – pig/swine and dahl valley. The origin likely from the Danish invasion of the area. For those interested in the cogitation of the Brythonic – glyndwfr y mochyn is the correlation with ‘valley of the pigs’.
The ‘Mun’ of course stands out as not correlating between the Old Norse and the Brythonic – so where does this come from? Now, the Danish invasion was circa AD 800 and there was a St Mungo, born in AD 516 who established churches including Mungrisdale Church (AD 550) and Keswick Church AD 553), as well as a further half dozen extra churches still dedicated to St Mungo who was quite a big deal in the North West when it came to spreading Christianity.
Not everyone is bothered about the history of names on a map (wouldn’t it be boring if we all shared the same hobbies!) but with the interesting history of the Lake District incorporating so many different language roots it’s a bit of a fascinating subject the deeper you dig.
L|ve the Outdoors 