Humour me

[dhampyresa]

Do you associate Avalon (the isle from Arthurian lore) with apples? Any reason why (not)?

For my part the answer is 'yes', because the Breton word for "apple" is 'aval' (pl avaloù).

Comments

[sineala]

Yes; I have the vague idea that its name means Isle of Apples? I must have heard that somewhere.

(For another data point, I asked my wife and she said "Yes, obviously, it's the Isle of Apples, what kind of question is that?" so I guess... we're both Arthurian nerds?)

[melannen]

Same here! At some point some version of the story or other called it the Isle of Apples. I think that's also part of its connection to Glastonbury somehow?

(Cheated and googled: ah, right, Giraldus Cambrensis explains that its name comes from the Welsh Ynys Afallach, which means Isle of Apples and is an old name for Glastonbury Tor, in the story about the grave that was dug up there.)

...same here on the Arthurian nerd part too I guess.

[dhampyresa]

the Welsh Ynys Afallach

... You know that would explain why googling "Enez Avallac'h" wasn't turning up much. It's bloody Welsh, not Breton.

[melannen]

Well, Giraldus was a Welsh nationalist and a bloody liar, so it very well could have been originally Breton, but he got it into the literature first

[dhampyresa]

I mean, yes obviously it's the Isle of Apples, but I wanted to know how many people made that link. (About 50/50, turns out.)