in which its dative, Ταρανοου of the U declension, occurs as the name of a divinity. I should, however, hesitate to substitute Taranus for Taranis in Lucan's verse, as I believe both to have been real names of a divinity associated with thunder.[1] One or both were also probably the Gaulish for thunder itself, and careful study of the cognate Celtic words inclines me to regard Taranis, or Taranus, not as a god but as a goddess, which is countenanced by Lucan's verse in that it institutes a comparison with a Diana (p. 44). The corresponding Goidelic form appears in an Ogmic inscription on a remarkable stone at Ballycrovane, near a bend of the long sea-arm called Kenmare River, in the west of the county of Cork. It reads:[2]
| ᚋ | ᚐ | ᚊ | ᚔ | ᚇ | ᚓ | ᚉ | ᚉ | ᚓ | ᚇ | ᚇ | ᚐ | ᚄ | ᚐ | ᚃ | ᚔ | ᚈ | ᚑ | ᚏ | ᚐ | ᚅ | ᚔ | ᚐ | ᚄ |
| M | a | q | i | D | e | c | c | e | d | d | a | s | A | w | i | T | o | r | a | n | i | a | s. |
Monuments commemorative of persons styled Mac Decet have been found not only in Munster, but also in the county of Kildare, in Anglesey and even in Devon. Awi is a genitive like the Latin fili (for filii), and the nominative plural would, as in Latin, be of the same form; further, Awi Toranias or better Awi Toranjas (with j = Eng. y in yes), would, subject to the known laws of Irish phonology, have to become in later times Úi Torna, and the name was borne by a people so-called in the county of Kerry,
- ↑ See also Cerquand, Rev. Celt. v. 381-8; Mowat, Bull. Épig. i. 123-9.
- ↑ I examined it in 1883, but could not feel quite certain whether Toranias or Turanias was the better reading, though I was inclined to the former.
anon. The rest of the difference between toirn and torunn is paralleled by the Irish iarn, 'iron,' which takes also the form of iarann, of the same meaning.
