Talk:Grannus

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[edit] Sun god ?

I'm not so sure that the "grian" similarity can really be used to deduce that Grannus was a sun deity. The Irish name Gráinne (as in the story of Dermod and Gráinne) is not normally acknowledged as having sun as its etymology, even if many mythographs have wanted to associate her with solar symbolism. --Svartalf 15:32, 13 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Etymology of Name

I have a book here that claims that Grannus comes from the ancient name for Grand in the Vosges (there was an ancient cult centre there). It also mentions that attempts have been made to associate Grannus with the Irish word for sun (grian) but that it hasn't worked. I've got more information here than in the article. I'm tired now, but I'll expand the article over the next couple of days. T@nn 10:43, 23 February 2007 (UTC)

SexyEnglishGayLad has done a fabulous job of expanding this article, for which he deserves a hearty commendation. At the end of his article, however, he proposes the following etymology:

"More likely is the notion that the name "Grannus" represents a Continental Celtic form of a Proto-Celtic *grat-no-s ‘ardent’ an extended suffixed form of the Proto-Celtic *grat-jo-s ‘ardour’ <ref> [1] </ref>."

How is this "more likely"? From an etymological standpoint *grat-no-s seems wholly implausible. Furthermore, the reference (the URL has now moved to http://www.spns.org.uk/ProtoCelt.pdf) is the same limited Proto-Celtic lexicon that used to be hosted on the University of Wales Celtic studies website – limited because, as I recall, it had excluded continental Celtic lexemes altogether. Worse, the lexicon itself does not support ?grat-no-s ‘ardent’ (it doesn't appear there), nor does it link ?grat-no-s to the god Grannus in any way. A more likely lead, working from the same incomplete lexicon, might be *granndo- 'step'; but in fact both are probably wrong.

Nevertheless, a big thumbs up for the rest of the expansion. Now all we need are a few photos of statues, inscriptions or relevant landscapes, and we'll have a top-notch article. Q·L·1968 ☿ 17:18, 26 December 2007 (UTC)