ALBION

'Albion' (called ''Alouion'' by Ptolemy) is the most ancient name of Great Britain, though sometimes used to refer to the United Kingdom, or specifically (incorrectly) to England.
Occasionally it instead refers to only Scotland, whose name in Gaelic is ''Alba'' (and similarly, in Irish, and ''Yr Alban'' in Welsh^[1]). Pliny the Elder, in his ''Natural History'' (iv.xvi.102) applies it unequivocally to Great Britain: "It was itself named Albion, while all the islands about which we shall soon briefly speak were called the Britanniae." The name Great Britain originates with the Picts, a people present in the British Isles before the Celts.^[2] The Britons and early Welsh of the south knew them, in the P-Celtic form of "Cruithne", as ''Prydyn''; the terms "Britain" and "Briton" come from the same root. The name ''Albion'' was taken by medieval writers from Pliny and Ptolemy.
The name is of Celtic origin, with an exact cognate in Welsh ''elfydd'' "earth, world" (in fact, the personal name 'Albio'rix means 'world king' or 'king of the world'), from the Proto-Indo-European root that denotes both "white" and "mountain", but the Romans took it as connected with ''albus'' (white), in reference to the chalk "White Cliffs of Dover", and Alfred Holder's ''Alt-Keltischer Sprachschatz'' (1896) unhesitatingly translates it ''Weissland'' ("white-land"). The early writer (6th century BC) whose periplus was translated by Avienus at the end of the 4th century AD (see ''Massaliote Periplus'') does not use the name ''Britannia''; he speaks of ''nesos 'Iernon kai 'Albionon'' (island of the Ierni and the Albiones). So Pytheas of Massilia (4th century BC) speaks of ''Albion and 'Ierne''. From the fact that there was a tribe called the ''Albiones'' on the north coast of Spain in Asturias, some scholars have placed Albion in that neighbourhood (see G. F. Unger, ''Rhein. Mus.'' xxxviii., 1883, pp. 156-196).
The pejorative sobriquet ''perfidious Albion'' takes its meaning from this old name for Britain.
Various British football clubs bear the name Albion, not least Brighton & Hove Albion F.C., based on the south coast, Burton Albion F.C., based in Burton upon Trent, Plymouth Albion R.F.C., based in Plymouth, Stirling Albion F.C. and Albion Rovers F.C. in Scotland and West Bromwich Albion F.C., based in the West Midlands.
The original lyrics to Advance Australia Fair contain a reference to Albion in the second verse:
:''When gallant Cook from Albion sail'd,
:''To trace wide oceans o'er,
:''True British courage bore him on,
:''Till he landed on our shore.

Contents

In literature, multimedia and music

References

In literature, multimedia and music

★ In the Led Zeppelin song "Achilles Last Stand", Robert Plant sings "Oh Albion remains, sleeping now to rise again".

★ The song "The Spirit Lives" from Roy Harper's 1975 Album HQ refers to "The Celt of Albion".

★ There is a Babyshambles album named ''Down in Albion'', with the title song naming towns and cities in Great Britain as part of the chorus. Pete Doherty is a believer of Albion as a form of Arcadia.

★ In the Japanese novel ''Trinity Blood'', which has manga and anime adaptations, Albion is the name of post-apocalyptic England.

★ In ''Children of Men'', a propaganda radio station is named Radio Albion.

★ In the Tom Holt book ''Grailblazers'', Great Britain is referred to as Albion by one of the main characters.

★ In "A Study in Emerald", a short story by Neil Gaiman, Albion refers to the country which was once England, now ruled by the Queen of Albion and her royal family, all horrible monsters keeping the humans in line.

★ William Blake refers to Albion and, sometimes, the Giant Albion in his geopolitical prophetic poems.

★ In his 1989 book ''Albion's Seed'', David Hackett Fischer defines the four waves of "Anglo" immigrants to America.

★ In the Rudyard Kipling tale "How the Whale Got His Throat", the Mariner is from Albion. ('Nay, nay!' said the Mariner. 'Not so, but far otherwise. Take me to my natal-shore and the white-cliffs-of-Albion, and I'll think about it.' And he began to dance more than ever. )

★ The "St Albion Parish News" is a column in ''Private Eye'' lampooning Tony Blair.

★ The song "Draconis Albionensis" by British band Bal-Sagoth speaks of the gathering of "the last of Albion's great Dragon Lords".

★ The epic poem by Lord Byron, Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, references Albion as the home of the "Childe Harold". “Whilome in Albion's isle there dwelt a youth”

★ In the novel "Kings of Albion", Julian Rathbone uses the Wars of the Roses as a backdrop to his tale of exotic travellers from the Middle East visiting a savage and insular England in the mid-15th century.

★ In 2004 released computergame Fable by Lionhead Studios for the original X-box and the pc, the fictional world in which the player roams resembles medieval England, or in some ways, Wales. This world is called Albion.

References

1. Welsh Lexicon Forms. Cardiff University, Cardiff School of Computer Science. Retrieved 19 January 2006.
2. Old Irish ''cruth'' and Welsh ''pryd'' are the Q- and P-Celtic forms respectively of a word meaning "form" or "shape": taken to be a reference to the Picts' practice of tattooing their bodies. See The Scottish Place-Name Society and MacBain's Dictionary.