The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #130032   Message #2923315
Posted By: VirginiaTam
08-Jun-10 - 03:21 PM
Thread Name: BS: True place names
Subject: RE: BS: True place names
Don't know if it is on a map but I have seen a sign near it that said "Torpenhow Hill"

to clarify what was said above.

tor = hill
pen = hill
how = hill

Seax (also Hadseax, Sax, Seaxe, Scramaseax,Scramsax and Sachsum-lat.-[1] ) in Old English means knife or cutting tool.[2] In modern archeology (and further in this article), the term seax is used specifically for the typically large knives that were worn by men in the 5th to 11th century, in the region roughly enclosed by Ireland, Scandinavia and Northern Italy. In heraldry, the seax is a charge consisting of a curved sword with a notched blade.

A triple red seax (curved sword with notch) on a white field is the emblem for Essex.

The name Essex originates in the Anglo-Saxon period of the Early Middle Ages and has its root in the Old English Ēastseaxe (i.e. the "East Saxons"), the eastern kingdom of the Saxons. How the term for the cutting tool got mixed up with the term for Saxons is anyone's guess. I suppose it is because the term seax was also used for the men carrying seax blades.

I love maps and this Atlas looks like great fun. Thinking it might make a very good present for a couple of family members. Maybe even for me.