Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Tintern 'secret' medieval tunnel system found by accident

bbc.co.uk

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 113 posts

Re: Tintern 'secret' medieval tunnel system found by accident

#31

Post by gumby »

dmix wrote: post #12

You have to love the s/weird/unusual [1] names of places in the UK (and it looks like a beautiful area from the small picture): > Tintern, in the Wye Valley, Monmouthshire There's also plenty of "upon the"s and "x-in-y" (ie: Henly-in-Arden). Not just the England but seems just as common in Scotland, or even more common. I can imagine the early computer systems of the postal organization having to deal with these quir…

> There's also plenty of "upon the"s and "x-in-y" (ie: Henly-in-Arden).

These are common in many languages.

Even in England: Weston-super-Mare is just latin for "Weston by (literally "over") the sea".

And constructs like "Stratford-upon-Avon" (to disambiguate from other Stratfords) are pretty common in most places; consider "Frankfurt am Main" and "Frankfurt an der Oder" all of which specify that their town is the one on this specific river.

Also a lot of those European place names (ignoring the prepositional affixes) are themselves compounds of other nice properties.

I don't know why this construct is uncommon in the USA.

Re: Tintern 'secret' medieval tunnel system found by accident

#32

Post by tomxor »

dmix wrote: post #12

You have to love the s/weird/unusual [1] names of places in the UK (and it looks like a beautiful area from the small picture): > Tintern, in the Wye Valley, Monmouthshire There's also plenty of "upon the"s and "x-in-y" (ie: Henly-in-Arden). Not just the England but seems just as common in Scotland, or even more common. I can imagine the early computer systems of the postal organization having to deal with these quir…

It also has some great rock climbing along the same part of the wye, a mere ~100 meters at most if you go to wintours leap but you get some of the most beautiful views. My favorite spot for local summer trad climbing.

Re: Tintern 'secret' medieval tunnel system found by accident

#33

Post by dhosek »

moron4hire wrote: post #4

Did anyone else read the subject line and think of a particular blonde journalist, his puppy, and his alcoholic, sea-faring friend?

I was an English major in college. I immediately thought of Wordsworth's “Lines on Tintern Abbey.”

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45527/lines-composed-...

Re: Tintern 'secret' medieval tunnel system found by accident

#34

Post by BerislavLopac »

dmix wrote: post #22
BerislavLopac wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't see how "King's Rocks" (Tintern) is more weird than, say, "Gathering Place By The Water" (Milwaukee)...

I think you guys are taking "weird" a bit too literally, I don't mean it in a negative way. If it was common here in Canada then I wouldn't find it 'weird' or unusual would I? And I can assure you it's not very common. Even if there are exceptions. Regardless that was not what the Brits (or whichever Euro empire) chose to eventually name Milwaukee, they chose Milwaukee. So that's a poor counterpoint...

I chose that example precisely because both of them are in the language of the former natives, now barely spoken in the area, and not in the language of the empire that conquered it. ;)

Re: Tintern 'secret' medieval tunnel system found by accident

#35

Post by gorgoiler »

kraftman wrote: post #24
dmix wrote: post #12

You have to love the s/weird/unusual [1] names of places in the UK (and it looks like a beautiful area from the small picture): > Tintern, in the Wye Valley, Monmouthshire There's also plenty of "upon the"s and "x-in-y" (ie: Henly-in-Arden). Not just the England but seems just as common in Scotland, or even more common. I can imagine the early computer systems of the postal organization having to deal with these quir…

If you're interested, Wye comes from the name of the river, which means either to wander, or crooked hills. Either seem relevant given the strange way that the river wye goes from wide, slow meandering bends across floodplains into rapids through steep crooked valleys (as opposed to most rivers that start in mountains and end in floodplains.) Monmouth is at the mouth of the river Monnow, a tributary of the Wye.

Keep unpacking meanings please, this is really interesting.

Where do Monnow and Tintern come from?

Re: Tintern 'secret' medieval tunnel system found by accident

#36

Post by dfxm12 »

gumby wrote: post #31
dmix wrote: post #12

You have to love the s/weird/unusual [1] names of places in the UK (and it looks like a beautiful area from the small picture): > Tintern, in the Wye Valley, Monmouthshire There's also plenty of "upon the"s and "x-in-y" (ie: Henly-in-Arden). Not just the England but seems just as common in Scotland, or even more common. I can imagine the early computer systems of the postal organization having to deal with these quir…

> There's also plenty of "upon the"s and "x-in-y" (ie: Henly-in-Arden). These are common in many languages. Even in England: Weston-super-Mare is just latin for "Weston by (literally "over") the sea". And constructs like "Stratford-upon-Avon" (to disambiguate from other Stratfords) are pretty common in most places; consider " Frankfurt am Main " and " Frankfurt an der Oder " all of which specify that their town is th…

There's Manchester-by-the-Sea, MA. There's also a lot of "New" versions of older European locations as a way to distinguish them from other similarly named places when there aren't any rivers nearby, I guess, like New Jersey. Don't forget, a lot of places in the US were also already named before European settlers arrived.

It might also simply not be needed as a matter of practicality. There are many Springfields, but probably not very many per state (although I know New Jersey has two) and certainly a max of one per zipcode. Sure Springfield, MA 12345 isn't as whimsical as Springfield-upon-the-Connecticut (or whatever) in terms of distinguishing it from Springfield, NJ 08765, but it gets the job done.

Re: Tintern 'secret' medieval tunnel system found by accident

#38

Post by grumblepeet »

bigfudge wrote: post #30
BerislavLopac wrote: post #21

I love Tintern Abbey [0]... When you're peacefully driving down the Wye Valley (say, after visiting Puzzlewood [1]), enjoying the green scenery and cosy little villages along the river, the last thing you expect are the colossal ruins of a medieval church... [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tintern_Abbey [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puzzlewood

Me too. It's on one of my favourite bike rides too... the road up to Monmouth is a great day out from Bristol.

Agreed. I used to drop my son up to Hereford from Bristol and often took this scenic route. It’s an absolutely beautiful road with great scenery. When you come around the corner and get hit by the sight and sheer size of the ruined church especially when there’s a bit of mist with the sun streaming through it it’s almost a mystical experience.

Favourite place name near here? Nempnett Thrubwell. Or Chew Magna. Great names.

Re: Tintern 'secret' medieval tunnel system found by accident

#39

Post by mprev »

sonofhans wrote: post #14
dmix wrote: post #12

You have to love the s/weird/unusual [1] names of places in the UK (and it looks like a beautiful area from the small picture): > Tintern, in the Wye Valley, Monmouthshire There's also plenty of "upon the"s and "x-in-y" (ie: Henly-in-Arden). Not just the England but seems just as common in Scotland, or even more common. I can imagine the early computer systems of the postal organization having to deal with these quir…

In England years ago we would visit Weston-under-Lizard (the town of Weston in the shadow of the hill Lizard — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weston-under-Lizard ). That’s my favorite name of this type.

Never thought I’d see my part of the world on here; used to drive through Weston under Lizard every day.

Some good place names in Shropshire, too, but Durham has my favourite with No Place and Pity Me.

Re: Tintern 'secret' medieval tunnel system found by accident

#40

Post by Lammy »

kraftman wrote: post #24
dmix wrote: post #12

You have to love the s/weird/unusual [1] names of places in the UK (and it looks like a beautiful area from the small picture): > Tintern, in the Wye Valley, Monmouthshire There's also plenty of "upon the"s and "x-in-y" (ie: Henly-in-Arden). Not just the England but seems just as common in Scotland, or even more common. I can imagine the early computer systems of the postal organization having to deal with these quir…

If you're interested, Wye comes from the name of the river, which means either to wander, or crooked hills. Either seem relevant given the strange way that the river wye goes from wide, slow meandering bends across floodplains into rapids through steep crooked valleys (as opposed to most rivers that start in mountains and end in floodplains.) Monmouth is at the mouth of the river Monnow, a tributary of the Wye.

Also a common term for a particular type of railway junction that resembles the river: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wye_(rail)
Post reply on HN