Getting Squiffy in Brittany

Squiffiec has always been one of my favourite place names in Brittany. It conjures up squiffy - a place where people are 'slightly drunk'; and maybe their eyes are slightly skewiff - they've had enough (Breton cider) to make them 'awry, wonky'.

The Breton name for Squiffiec is Skinvieg; this suggests they've actually had a lot more than that: perhaps more like a skinful - 'enough (calvados) to make one drunk'.

The name actually comes from the Old Breton: skaw/ieg, '(place with) elder trees’. This is equivalent to the Welsh ysgeifiog found in place names such as Ysgeifiog and Llanfihangel Ysgeifiog. In Cornish scaw is found in place names like Boscawen and Tresco/Trescau (Scilly Islands).

It was believed in Britain at one time that if you stood under an elder tree you couldn't be hit by lightning - and they were regularly planted next to houses. Whoever thought up this idea must have been a more than a little bit squiffy!

Comments

What really links place names in Brittany, Cornwall and Wales (apart from a few hundred Celtic saints)?

Place Name Elements in Breton, Welsh and Cornish (with examples and English gloss) BRETON CORNISH WELSH ENGLISH EXAMPLES C=Cornwall; W= Wales aut , alt, aod alt, als, aulz allt hill, slope, cliff Duault (22), Nansalsa (C), Allt-golau (W) ael ael ael summit, brow, ridge Hirael (35), Aelbryn (W) aval aval, avallen afal, afallen apple Availles-sur-Seiche (35), Rosevallen (C), Dolafallen (W) aon, aven auon, awan afon river Pont-Aven (29); Arrowan (C), Aberavon (W) arcae - argae dam, embankment Erquy (22), Argae Alwen (W) ard, art, arz are, ard, arth ardd hill, elevation Arzon (56); Trenarth (C), Pennard (W) arz, arzh art, arth arth bear Île-d'Arz (56), Carn Arthen (C), Aber-arth (W) ascorn - asgwrn, esgyrn bone/s Coatascorn (...

The legend of Saint Gwen of Brittany and Dorset

The church of Whitchurch-Canonicorum in Dorset is dedicated to Saint-Candida (a.k.a Saint-Wite). Below the east window there is an altar tomb with three openings which allowed devotees to reach inside the shrine in the hope of a miraculous cure for whatever ailed them. On the top of this there used to be a 14th century coffin built into a slab of local marble. When the local vicar opened it in 1848 he found a stone box. Inside the stone box he discovered a Saint's relics. When the coffin was examined again in 1899 another vicar found teeth, a lot of bones resembling those of small, forty year old woman and an inscription: Here lie the relics of Saint Wite What was even more extrordinary about this find was that all relics such as these had been destroyed during the Protestant Reformation. The only other collection of saint's remains still extant were those of St Edward the Confessor in Westminster Abbey. Perhaps this shrine looked mo...

Why all the Ermine?

The ermine ( Mustela erminea ) a.k.a. stoat or short-tailed weasel is the national emblem of Brittany. Its much sought after white winter coat was used for the cloaks, crowns and caps of the aristocracy. Ermine The eleven 'ermine spots' which form the pattern in the top left corner of the Breton flag represent the way the black-tipped tails were hung on the white fur. This heraldic ermine canton was a feature of the arms of the Dukes of Brittany. Breton flag with ermine canton The story goes that Anne de Bretagne, the last independent Breton ruler and the wife of two successive French kings, saw a group of hunters chasing after an ermine. When the ermine reached the edge of a muddy lake the ermine decided to stand up to his attackers rather than risk soiling his beautiful white fur. ANNE DE BRETAGNE Anne, it appears, was so impressed that she saved the ermine and adopted it as the emblem of her dynasty along with the mott...

QUIMPER-VANNES

Search This Blog