>The full name Tuatha D� [sic! = "Goddess's"] Danann is, as Chris Gwinn
> >pointed out some time ago, a rather late literary invention. Anyway, >if
>some Proto-Celts had named _themselves_ after a river (be it the >Danube,
>Donwy, or anything with *da:nu- or *da:neujo- in it), I >wouldn't be
>surprised at all. Many Slavic tribes, for example, derived >their names
>from hydronyms. But you seem to claim that somebody else >named the Danes
>in that manner (*dan- can't be a Germanic reflex of >*da:nu-), and that
>they accepted the foreigner-given name, which >people are reluctant to do,
>on the whole.
While I would tend to agree that Dane doesn't come from PIE*Da-nu but, to
play devil's advocate, I will admit that we do have a classic example of a
people taking on a foreign name - the Gaels.
The Irish weren't a politically unified people anciently, but during the
6th-7th centuries, the Irish began to develop a new sense of common identity
- especially when coming into contact with the Britons (whom the Irish were
often in conflict with). From the Welsh the Irish borrowed their new ethnic
name (replacing the popular Scotti) - Goedel (which was an attempt at
reproducing Welsh Gwyddel - perhaps meaning "forest people" or "wild
people").
Perhaps the Danes got their name from remnant Celtic populations in the area
(a form of Celtic culture likely existed anciently in southern Denmark).
-Chris Gwinn
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