The Great And Little Ormes

[poliphilo]

Llandudno lies between two rocky headlands- the Great Orme and the Litlle Orme. Here's the great Orme.



And here's the Little Orme.



And here's The Little Orme again, shot from the Great Orme. Yes I climbed to the top and it's very steep and my legs are killing me. 



Looks like a great serpent sliding out to sea, doesn't it? I've got it into my head that the word "orme" is related to the old English "wurm" meaning serpent or dragon- but I can't find any  conformation.

Comments

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Thanks. That's really interesting.

It seems like it's an insoluble puzzle how these two Welsh headlands wound up with what seem to be Viking names.

[saare-snowqueen.livejournal.com]

Not really, The Vikings were intrepid travellers. They went anywhere they thought they might find something to steal. Its just that most of the time they went home again. I would not have been difficult for them to get to the outside of the British Isles. After all they got to America before Columbus, perhaps making a stop in Wales whilst on the way. Their boats were very manouverable and very sea worthy. Our local Viking club commissioned the building of a replica. It is so beautiful and WORKS!!!

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

It's just that all the other place names on the coast are Welsh. I don't doubt that the Vikings could have got there if they'd have wanted to, only there's no evidence to suggest they actually did.

Would the local Welsh have accepted a couple of Scandanavian placenames from people who were only passing by? That's the real puzzle.