Mont Velan Additions and Corrections
| Claude Mauguier | Untitled Comment | |
Hasn't voted | Marcel Kurz in "les Alpes valaisannes" vol. 1, still asks the question about the origin of such a name. This post would try to give a possible explanation.
Standing either on the Col du Gd St Bernard, or on the road of val d'Entremont, say between Orsières and Liddes, the shape of Mt Velan strikes immediately. Moreover, those who climbed it, know that one could arrange an entire football groundsite on the top (well, a bit lopsided as it slightly bends northward).
So its name could have been built with "uxello" (high, height), and "lan" (plain, flat), giving something like "uxellan", or "uhellan" (as theese consonants currently use to be "smoothed" as time goes by), i.e. "the flat height".
. The Romans, living thereafter in Aoste/a and Martigny had just to add "Montus"....and everybody forgot the old celtic signification. C.M.
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| Posted Dec 3, 2004 4:09 am |