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A legend exists in various forms that giants were either the original inhabitants, or the founders of the land named Albion. John Milton told the story in his History of Britain (1670) In Book I he recounts that the land was “subdu’d by Albion a Giant, Son of Neptune; who call’d the Iland after his own name, and rul’d it 44 Years.
The name Albion appears to have fallen out of use sometime after the Roman conquest of Great Britain, after which Britain became the more commonplace name for the island called Great Britain. [9] After the Anglo-Saxon period, Britain was used as a historical term only.
aryved in this Ilande, whyche was called Albion, at a place now called Totnes in Devonshire, the yere of the world. 2855. the yeare before Christs nativitie. 1108. wherein he first began to raigne, and named it Britaine, (as some write) or rather after his owne name Brutaine, as Æthicus that wonderfull Philosopher (a Scithian by race, but an ...
The Trojans win most of their battles but are conscious that the Gauls have the advantage of numbers, so go back to their ships and sail for Britain, then called Albion. They land on "Totonesium litus "—"the sea-coast of Totnes". They meet the giant descendants of Alebion and defeat them.
Albion founded a country on the island and ruled there. Britain, then called Albion after its founder, was inhabited by his Giant descendants until about 1100 years before Julius Cæsar's invasion of Britain, when Brutus of Troy came and defeated the small number of Giants that remained (as a group of the Giants had killed all the others).
At that time, it was in contrast to the smaller island of Ireland, which he called mikra Brettania (little Britain). [67] In his later work Geography, Ptolemy refers to Great Britain as Albion and to Ireland as Iwernia. These "new" names were likely to have been the native names for the islands at the time.
Although none of his own writings remain, writers during the following centuries make frequent reference to them. The ancient Greeks called the people of Britain the Pretanoí or Bretanoí. [3] Pliny's Natural History (77 AD) says the older name for the island was Albion, [3] and Avienius calls it insula Albionum, "island of the Albions".
[note 2] Another, post-conquest, Roman name for the island of Great Britain was Albion, which is cognate with the Scottish Gaelic name for Scotland: Alba. There is an emerging trend to use the term Caledonia to describe New Caledonia in English, which reflects the usage in French of Calédonie (where the full name is La Nouvelle-Calédonie ...