Durotrages
Attested: Ptolemy 2,3,29 Δουροτριγες, a tribe with one πολις at Δουνιον
inscription C DVRTRG #ENDINESIS; inscription CI DVROTRAG LENDINIESI#
Where: Dorset, where Ptolemy's coordinates for Δουνιον probably match Maiden Castle, but beware of assuming that the Durotrages were a politically unified tribe or that LEND- necessarily referred to *Lindinis and that that was at Ilchester.
Name origin: Duro- ‘transport hub’ is clear enough, and Lendin- probably arose from *lendh- ‘wetness’. Second element -trages matches Latin traho ‘to draw’, but it is uncertain whether the underlying PIE root ‘to draw, to drag’ should be written *dragh- or *tragh- or *dreg-. Modern English words drag, tractor, trek, trigger, truck, and thrall all have a sense of pulling, but show the same uncertainty about the vowel as the ancient sources, plus the tendency of D/T/Θ to interchange. Either way, the *Durotrages were probably ‘through-transporting people’, presumably referring to their situation astride the trans-peninsula route, leading on the Dorset side towards France and on the Somerset side towards Wales and Ireland.
Notes: Delamarre (2017:293-7) here offered a translation of ‘feet of steel’, inspired by Welsh dur and Irish traig ‘foot’. Not convincing.
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Last edited 9 Mayy 2023 To main Menu