by DP Crisp » 3:35 pm
I had an idea that the Irish Sea/St. George's Channel is (equivalent to) the River Styx and Ireland is the Underworld or Land of the Dead. The far West is associated with death... then there's that stuff about Patrick and snakes that's all mythic and Platonic and Underworldy... and more stuff about Anglesey-that-shall-be-called-Mon that's all geometric and snaky... and then there are Hebrews crossing over...
Something shifted my attention: what if Anglesey is the (or a) Land of the Dead? That would make the Menai Strait the River Styx.
Menai Strait in Welsh is Afon Menai, the "River Menai". {Which is technically correct, since it goes between two banks.}
I thought this might be a clue: Caernarfon "comes from Welsh Caer yn Arfon = castle in Arfon" and "Arfon means [region] opposite Anglesey". But it ain't: Arfon is the region opposite Anglesey, but that's not what it means. Best guess is that Arfon = afon/avon, being the region alongside the "river" Menai.
Presumably, Menai comes from the same place as Mon, which seems to be too 'basic' to trace. But there's loads in the frame. Barmon/barmyn = barman, suggesting mon = myn = man, but maybe only because in loanwords: hwsmon/hwsmyn (houseman, surely) = husbandsman, farmer, foreman... iwmon/iwmyn = yeoman... emyn = hymn...
Hang on, hymnus/humnos = song in praise of a god or hero, so it could be Welsh/Hyperborean just as well as Greek.
Some other interesting things:
myn = kid, a variation on man, perhaps a reborn man?
mynach = monk. Relevant or a loan? A relevant loan?
mynd = to go; mynediad = going, access, admission; mynegai = index; mynegair = concordance; tremynt = view, sight; tremynu = to walk, to travel... Myn is all about directed movement, pointing, travelling... That could refer to the strait, to right-angles, to the journey into the Underworld...