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Solsbury Hill Etymology

From:Peter Bleackley <peter.bleackley@...>
Date:Monday, October 24, 2005, 10:32
Last week, Carsten suggested "Solsbury Hill" by Peter Gabriel as a
translation exercise. This started me thinking about how I'd translate the
name itself. The "bury" part was easy enough - it's a common Anglo-Saxon
root meaning "fortified place". The equivalent of "fort" in Khangaþyagon
place names is usually "trazhel", lit "strong-place". "Hill" is "gan", so
that was easy enough. So far we have something ending with "trazhelgan".
But what of the "sols" element? A bit of research showed that the hill is
known, apart from the song, for an iron age hill fort at its summit. This
made me decide to shorten "trazhelgan" to "tragan", "strong (or fortified)
hill". Then inspiration struck. The fort is pre-Saxon, indeed pre-Roman,
and so is part of the name. Solsbury Hill is near Bath, so "Sols" might
well be from "Sulis", the ancient British goddess associated with the hot
springs at Bath - Aquae Sulis.

Obviously, Sulis is unknown to the monotheistic wizards of Huna, but
springs are considered holy in many religions. So, I just need to coin a
word for spring, and I'll get something meaning "Holy Spring Fortified
Hill". (I already have "Mall" for holy). Actually, I think I'll use "sulz",
in a nod to the original word, and thus

Mallsulztragan.

Pete