ST. PATRICK—MAUNE AND MAN.
Amongst the many strange derivations given of the name of Mona or Man (the island), I find one in an old unpublished MS. by an unknown author, of the date about 1658, noticed by Feltham (Tour through the Isle of Man, p. 8.), on which I venture to ground a Query. The name of the island is there said to have been derived from Maune, the name of the great apostle of the Mann, before he received that of Patricius from Pope Celestine.
Now if St. Patrick ever had the name Maune, he could not have given it to the island, which was called Mona, Monabia, and Menavia, as far back as the days of Cæsar, Tacitus, and Pliny. I have not access to any life of St. Patrick in which the name Maune occurs; but in the Penny Cyclopædia, under the head "Patrick," I find it said, "According to Nennius, St. Patrick's original name was Maur," and I find the same stated in Rose's Biographical Dictionary. But the article in the latter is evidently taken from the former, and I suspect the Maur may in both be a misprint for Maun.[[3]] Can "N. & Q." set me right, or give me any information likely to solve the difficulty?
I may as well notice here that amongst the many ways in which the name of this island has been pronounced and spelt, that of Maun seems to have prevailed at the period of the Norwegian occupation. On a Runic monument at Kirk Michael, we have it very distinctly so spelt.
With regard to the name Mona, applied both to Man and Anglesea, I have little doubt we may find its root in the Sanscrit man, to know, worship, &c., whence we have Manu the son of Brahma, Menu, Menes, Minos, Moonshee, and Monk. The name Mona would seem to have been applied to both islands, as being specially the habitation of the Druids, whose name probably came either from the Celtic Trow-wys, wisemen, or the Saxon dru, a soothsayer, very close in signification to the Sanscrit mooni, a holy sage, learned person. As connected with this idea I may ground another Query: Might not these two Monas, the abode of piety and wisdom, be the true, μακαρων νησοι, the Fortunatæ Insulæ of the ancients?
J. G. Cumming.
Castletown.
Footnote 3:[(return)]
In Monumenta Historica Britannica the passage reads "Quia Maun prius vocabatur." In a note from another MS. the word is spelt Mauun.—Ed.