Llan (placename) explained

Llan (in Welsh pronounced as /ɬan/) and its variants (Breton: lan; Cornish: lann; lhan; Irish and Gaelic; Scottish Gaelic: lann[1]) are a common element of Celtic placenames in the British Isles and Brittany, especially of Welsh toponymy. In Welsh the (often mutated) name of a local saint or a geomorphological description follows the Llan morpheme to form a single word: for example Llanfair is the parish or settlement around the church of (Welsh for "Mary"). Goidelic toponyms end in -lann.

The various forms of the word are distantly cognate with English land and lawn and presumably initially denoted a specially cleared and enclosed area of land.[2] [3] In late antiquity it came to be applied particularly to the sanctified land occupied by communities of Christian converts. It is part of the name of more than 630 locations in Wales and nearly all have some connection with a local patron saint. These were usually the founding saints of the parish,[4] relatives of the ruling families who invaded Wales during the early Middle Ages.[5] The founder of a new llan was obliged to reside at the site and to eat only once a day, each time taking a bit of bread and an egg and drinking only water and milk. This lasted for forty days, Sundays excepted, after which the land was considered sanctified for ever.[4] The typical llan employed or erected a circular or oval embankment with a protective stockade, surrounded by wooden or stone huts.[6] Unlike Saxon practice, these establishments were not chapels for the local lords but almost separate tribes, initially some distance away from the secular community.[7] Over time, however, it became common for prosperous communities to become either monasteries forbidden to lay residents or fully secular communities controlled by the local lord.[8]

In the later Middle Ages llan also came to denote entire parishes, both as an ecclesiastical region and as a subdivision of a commote or hundred.

Place names in Wales

Places named after saints

()

Place names with religious connections other than a saint

Place names without a religious connection

Place names in counties bordering Wales

Furthermore, some Welsh exonyms for English settlements contain the element llan, these include:

Uncertain of origin

Place names in Cornwall

Places named after saints

Place names with religious connections other than a saint

Place names without a religious connection

Place names in areas bordering Cornwall

Place names in Brittany

Place names in Cumbria

The Cumbric language was spoken in Cumbria and elsewhere in The Old North up until the Early Middle Ages and some place names in Cumbria and surrounding counties have a Brythonic origin.

The historic name Llan Lleenawc may have been in this region and named after either Laenauc, a father of Guallauc, or *Lennóc, a saint name.

Place-names in areas bordering Cumbria

In addition, *landā-, the earlier Brittonic word ancestral to llan occurs in Vindolanda, the name of a Roman fort.

Place names in Scotland

Some place names in Scotland have Pictish and Cumbric elements such as aber- and lhan- (also spelled lum-, lon- and lin-) that are cognate with those in other Brittonic languages. The Gaelic form lann ("enclosure, churchyard") also occurs, and its existence in Pictland may represent adoption into Gaelic of the Pictish usage.[12]

Places named after saints

Places with other religious connections

Places with no known religious connections

In fiction

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. Book: Watson . W.J. . Taylor . Simon . The Celtic Place-Names of Scotland . 2011 . Birlinn LTD . 9781906566357 . 387 . reprint .
  2. Oxford English Dictionary, 1st ed. "land, n.¹". Oxford University Press (Oxford), 1901.
  3. Oxford English Dictionary, 1st ed. "laund, n." Oxford University Press (Oxford), 1902.
  4. Baring-Gould, Sabine. The Lives of the Saints, Vol. 16, "The Celtic Church and its Saints", p. 67. Longmans, Green, & Co. (New York), 1898.
  5. Baring-Gould, p. 40.
  6. Baring-Gould, p. 33.
  7. Baring-Gould, p. 92.
  8. Baring-Gould, pp. 37–38.
  9. Web site: GO BRITANNIA! Wales: Sacred Places – Llandaff (Thlan daff) Cathedral . Britannia.com . 2013-06-11.
  10. Web site: Lamplugh . Whitehaven and Western Lakeland . 15 February 2019.
  11. Web site: James . Alan . A Guide to the Place-Name Evidence . SPNS – The Brittonic Language in the Old North . 25 November 2018 . https://web.archive.org/web/20170813011121/http://spns.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Alan_James_Brittonic_Language_in_the_Old_North_BLITON_Volume_II_Dictionary.pdf . 13 August 2017 . dead .
  12. Web site: James . Alan G. . A Guide to the Place-Name Evidence – Guide to the Elements . Scottish Place Name Society – The Brittonic Language in the Old North . 11 October 2019.
  13. Book: Johnston . James B . Place-names of Scotland . 1892 . D Douglas . Edinburgh, Scotland . 162. 9780854096343 .
  14. Web site: Longannet Point – Tulliallan, Fife – Places of Worship in Scotland | SCHR.
  15. Book: Simon . Taylor . Markus . Gilbert . The Place-names of Fife . 2006 . Shaun Tyas . 9781900289771 . Illustrated.

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