d'ar gêr ! ***** à la maison ! ***** back home !

Noms de lieux

Noms de personnes

La rivière Severn / Afon Hafren

Sabrina

page ouverte le 13.10.2005         forum de discussion

* forum du site Marikavel : Academia Celtica 

dernière mise à jour 15/05/2008 13:32:09

Définition : rivière de Grande Bretagne, qui prend sa source en Pays de Galles, dans les Plynlimon, entre les sommets Bryn Cras, 2083 feet, et Plynlimon Cwm-Biga, 2008 feet. Elle arrose Llanidloes, Llandinem, Caersws, Y Drenewydd / Newtown, Y Trallwng / Welshpool, quitte la Pays de Galles à Melverley, puis arrose, en Angleterre, Shrewsbury , Wroxeter / Viroconium, Ironbridge, Worcester, Evesham, Birlingham, Tewkesbury, Gloucester, et débouche dans le Canal saint Georges, entre *** et ***, après un parcours de *** km environ.

Extrait de William REES : An Historical Atlas of Wales. Plate 3.

La couleur bleue a été rajoutée par JC Even

* M.N Bouillet (1863) : "SEVERN, vulg. Saverne, en latin Sabrina, le plus grand fleuve de l'Angleterre, naît dans le Pays de Galles, sur les limites des comtés de Cardigan et de Montgomery, et, après avoir décrit une courbe, coule au sud, puis au sud-ouest, baigne Shrewsbury , Worcester, Glocester, reçoit la Liddon à droite, la Stour, l'Avon à Gauche, et entre par un large estuaire dans le canal de Bristol. Cours, environ 330 km".

Étymologie

* Rivet & Smith (1979-1982) : SABRINA

SOURCES

Tacitus, Annals XII,31 (as emended by Bradley): cis TRISANTONAM et SABRINAM fluvios

- Ptolemy II, 3, 2: Sabrina eisxnais (= SABRINA AESTUARIUM) 

- Ravenna 108,25 (= R&C 239) : SARVA, var. SARNA

- Ravenna 109,15 (=R&C 287) : SOBRICA

Ravenna's Sarva or Sarna is properly placed in the river-list, arnong names which we recognise as belonging to south-west Britain. The Severn is otherwise omitted from Ravenna, and it is logical to expect mention of it at this point; the equivalence of this entry with Sabrina was suggcsted by Mùller and Holder, and such miscopying can be paralleled elsewhere in the text. It is fair to note, however, that R&C thought Sarna another south-western river, citing Italian Sarnus and Sarnis in support of its independant existence. Sobrica has not hitherto been associated with the Severn. In Ravenna it figures in a list of islands, but sevcral of these are already suspect, and this name is probably also Sabrina read from a map m which it had been written in the western sea. R&C took it as a good name whose second element was -brica for -briga, though doubting whether initial So- could be correct. Duplication in Ravenna, from different map-sources, causes no surprise.

DERIVATION. No clear Celtic etymon is identifiable. The name is doubtless connected with other river-names such as Saba, Sabis > Sambre (Belgium), *Savara > Sèvre (Niortaise, Nantaise) and > Sèvres (Seine-et-Oise, France), Sabatus (a river of Bruttium) ; also *Sabrona > Old Irish Sabrann, the river of Cork (see O'Rahilly, EIHM 4). There has recently appeared at La Graufesenque a graffito Ad Sabros, perhaps the name of the river there now known as the Dourbie (REA, LXXVI (1974), 269). Rostaing ETP 243 thinks the root *sab- a pre-Indo-European water-name, but it is clear that it was taken into Celtic (British), for in addition to the present name, Savernake (Wilts.) has the same origin, and there are a few others listed by Pokorny in ZCP, XXI (1940), 121; furthermore, *-ina is a recognised Celtic suffix (see LINDINIS). According to Ross (1967) 21, Sabrina is a divine name which underlies the river-name. Pokorny in ZCP, XXI (1940), 79, proposes that the root *sab-, common in water-names, means 'Saft' and has Illyrian connections, and suggests more specifically (p. 121) an adjectival *sabro- as a basis for some of the names. This seems an entirely reasonable approach.

Accurate memory of the Romano-British name long survived. Gildas (3) writes Sabrinae (gen.), and Bede (v, 23) ultra amnein Sabrinam. This was so for some time still when Welshmen wrote Latin, even though during the later sixth ccntury initial s- became h- (the Welsh name of the river is Hafren); on this and on reasons why the Anglo-Saxons took over the name still with S- (Saefern), see the very detailed discussion of Jackson in LHEB 516-19 and passim; also D. Jenkins in BBCS, XXV (1973), 114-16, with a riposte by Jackson in studia Celtica, X/XI (1975-76), 44, note 1.

i

Extrait de Bartholomew Half Inch Map Series. Mid Wales. N° 22

La source de la Sévern est indiquée par un point rouge entre deux lignes rouges.

i

Extrait de Bartholomew Half Inch Map Series. Wye Valley. N° 13 : la basse vallée

i

Extrait de Bartholomew Half Inch Map Series. Wye Valley. N° 13 : l'estuaire

Bibliographie :

* M.N Bouillet : Dictionnaire Universel d'histoire et de géographie. Hachette. 1863.

* Ordnance Survey : Map of Roman Britain. 1956

* Éditions Jules Tallandier et Nelson Doubleday Inc. Tour du Monde. Pays de Galles. 1970.

* William REES : An Historical Atlas of Wales, from Early to Modern times. Faber & Faber. London. 1951. Édition 1972.

* John Bartholomew & Son Ltd : Half Inch Map Series  (échelle métrique, environ : 1 / 12500) : 

- Wye Valley, N° 13. 1973.

- Mid Wales. N° 22. 1973. 

- North Shropshire. N° 23. 1974

* A.L.F Rivet & Colin Smith : The Place-Names of Roman Britain. B.T Batsford Ltd. London. 1979. Édition 1982.

 hast buan, ma mignonig vas vite, mon petit ami

go fast, my little friend

Retour en tête de page