Ardua ravenatone

Attested:  Ardua ravenatone at position 9 in the Ravenna Cosmography, as two distinct words but not separated by the dot that separates most names.

Where:  in Cornwall, probably on the south coast.  Most likely St Michael's Mount at SW514298.

Name origin:  Latin ardua ‘high’ came from PIE *erədh- ‘high’, whose many relatives include Old Irish ard, Cornish ardh ‘high place’, and possibly Latin orior ‘to rise’.  Raven- has no easy explanation in Latin or Celtic, but it survives as a word in Germanic languages, notably English crow and corvid, and Old English hræfn ‘raven’ from PIE *ker- ‘caw’.  (The word is onomatopoeic and could have existed in other language families.)  The ending –atone resembles early Germanic words for ‘to show, to appear’, such as Gothic at-augjan (literally ‘at eyes’) related to modern Dutch tonen.

Notes:  The meaning ‘raven-showing height’ is persuasive because birds were important to ancient sailors as a sign that land was nearby.  For example, Iceland was allegedly discovered after Hrafna-Flóki released hungry caged ravens and watched which way they flew.  Ravenna itself, an important sea port ruled by Goths in the Cosmographer's time, but which has no agreed etymology, may even have been named from ravens.  Cornwall's county bird, the chough, is one of many corvids that might also have been called ravens.  One possible location is the tip of the Lizard Peninsula, where there would have been Veneti sailors revenant ‘returning’ to Cornwall, but the coast there hardly qualifies as a cliff.  What tips the balance towards St Michael's Mount and a meaning more like ‘bird-rich rocks’is the nearby Marazion Marsh Nature Reseserve, at the mouth of Red River, coloured by mining runoff in the river over millennia (compare Dubglas).  Note also Αβραουαννου river mouth beside the Machar peninsula of Galloway, which is almost a twin of the Lizard in shape and was the terminus of an ancient trade route by sea across the North Channel to Ireland.

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Last edited 8 November 2025       To main Menu