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Albina, also known as Albine or The White Goddess, [1] is a goddess (possibly Etruscan) associated with the dawn and the founding of Great Britain. She is first mentioned in the Anglo-Norman poem Des Grantz Geanz. [2]
The first mention of Albina is in the Anglo-Norman poem Des Grantz Geanz, which dates to the late 13th or early 14th century, and has been tentatively dated no later than 1333. [3] An abridged form of the poem was appended as a prologue to the Brut Chronicle. [4]
In the poem, Albina is the eldest of 30 daughters of a Greek king. The daughters resent the subjugation of marriage and conspire to murder their husbands, but the youngest confesses to the conspiracy before they can act. When their father learns of their plot, the twenty-nine unrepentant sisters are exiled from Greece and arrive at an uninhabited island, which they name Albion after Albina. There, they are seduced by incubi and give birth to a race of giants. These giants are identified as the ones that Brutus encounters when he arrives at Britain in Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae . [2]
An alternate version of the poem has Albina and her sisters as daughters of King Diodicias of Syria. In this version, the conspiracy is not revealed in advance and the sisters are exiled after successfully killing their husbands. [5]
The account of Britain's founding by Albina is referenced and dismissed in the Holinshed's Chronicles, [6] as well as in John Milton's History of Britain. [7] The Holinshed's Chronicles attribute the story's origin to Nennius, but Milton notes that no mention of Albina is found in Nennius's body of work. Robert Graves' book The White Goddess picks up on this claim and describes Albina as of one of fifty sisters (see Danaïdes) who named Albion, ascribing the legend to Nennius. [8] It is thought that the original name for Great Britain, Albion, was inspired by the White Cliffs of Dover, derived from the Latin albus, meaning "white" or "bright".[ citation needed ]
Albina is mentioned in Charles Godfrey Leland's 1892 collection of folklore Etruscan Roman Remains in Popular Tradition. According to Leland, Albina was an Etruscan goddess of light and ill-fated lovers. The accounts of Albina were obtained by word of mouth from local and often illiterate peasants, some of whom were considered witches or Strega. [9] Possibly a combination of other deities such as Alpanu and Aurora, Albina is described as a beautiful flying woman (or fairy) and associated with light. The Albina referenced by Leland is likely only loosely related to the figure described in The White Goddess .
Captain Robert von Ranke Graves was an English poet, historical novelist and critic. His father was Alfred Perceval Graves, a celebrated Irish poet and figure in the Gaelic revival; they were both Celticists and students of Irish mythology.
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Vortigern, also spelled Vortiger, Vortigan, Voertigern and Vortigen, was a 5th-century warlord in Britain, known perhaps as a king of the Britons or at least connoted as such in the writings of Bede and Gildas. His existence is contested by scholars and information about him is obscure.
The History of the Britons is a purported history of early Britain written around 828 that survives in numerous recensions from after the 11th century. The Historia Brittonum is commonly attributed to Nennius, as some recensions have a preface written in that name. Some experts have dismissed the Nennian preface as a late forgery and argued that the work was actually an anonymous compilation.
Brutus, also called Brute of Troy, is a legendary descendant of the Trojan hero Aeneas, known in medieval British legend as the eponymous founder and first king of Britain. This legend first appears in the Historia Brittonum, an anonymous 9th-century historical compilation to which commentary was added by Nennius, but is best known from the account given by the 12th-century chronicler Geoffrey of Monmouth in his Historia Regum Britanniae.
Corineus, in medieval British legend, was a prodigious warrior, a fighter of giants, and the eponymous founder of Cornwall.
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Nennius is a mythical prince of Britain at the time of Julius Caesar's invasions of Britain. His story appears in Geoffrey of Monmouth's History of the Kings of Britain (1136), a work whose contents are now considered largely fictional. In Middle Welsh versions of Geoffrey's Historia he was called Nynniaw.
Tytila was a semi-historical pagan king of East Anglia, a small Anglo-Saxon kingdom which today includes the English counties of Norfolk and Suffolk. Early sources, including Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People, identify him as an early member of the Wuffingas dynasty who succeeded his father Wuffa. A later chronicle dates his reign from 578, but he is not known to have definitely ruled as king and nothing of his life is known. He is listed in a number of genealogical lists.
Charles Godfrey Leland was an American humorist and folklorist, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was educated at Princeton University and in Europe.
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Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches is a book composed by the American folklorist Charles Godfrey Leland that was published in 1899. It contains what he believed was the religious text of a group of pagan witches in Tuscany, Italy that documented their beliefs and rituals, although various historians and folklorists have disputed the existence of such a group. In the 20th century, the book was very influential in the development of the contemporary Pagan religion of Wicca.
Seaxburh, also Saint Sexburga of Ely, was a Queen as well as an abbess, and is a saint of the Christian Church. She was married to King Eorcenberht of Kent.
Albion is an alternative name for Great Britain. The oldest attestation of the toponym comes from the Greek language. It is sometimes used poetically and generally to refer to the island, but is less common than 'Britain' today. The name for Scotland in most of the Celtic languages is related to Albion: Alba in Scottish Gaelic, Albain in Irish, Nalbin in Manx and Alban in Welsh and Cornish. These names were later Latinised as Albania and Anglicised as Albany, which were once alternative names for Scotland.
Gogmagog was a legendary giant in Welsh and later English mythology. According to Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae, he was a giant inhabitant of Albion, thrown off a cliff during a wrestling match with Corineus. Gogmagog was the last of the Giants found by Brutus and his men inhabiting the land of Albion.
Ann Hawkshaw was an English poet. She published four volumes of poetry between 1842 and 1871.
The name Albina comes from Albina, "the White Goddess," the Etruscan goddess of the dawn and protector of ill-fated lovers. It was a common name in ancient Rome. According to Nennius, Britain gains its earliest name, Albion from Albina, the White Goddess, the eldest of the fifty Danaïdes. There appear to be several different women named Albina remembered as saints in the Roman Catholic Church.
The Brut Chronicle, also known as the Prose Brut, is the collective name of a number of medieval chronicles of the history of England. The original Prose Brut was written in Anglo-Norman; it was subsequently translated into Latin and English.
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