e of Man when he spoke of Mona; others
say he meant Anglesea. The present name is modern. So is Elian Vannin,
its Manx equivalent. In the Icelandic Sagas the island is called Mon.
Elsewhere it is called Eubonia. One historian thinks the island derives
its name from Mannin--in being an old Celtic word for island, therefore
Meadhon-in (pronounced Mannin) would signify: The middle island. That
definition requires that the Manxman had no hand in naming Man. He would
never think of describing its geographical situation on the sea.
Manxmen say the island got its name from a mythical personage called
Mannanan-Beg-Mac-y-Learr, Little Mannanan, son of Learr. This man was
a sort of Prospero, a magician, and the island's first ruler. The story
goes that if he dreaded an enemy he would enshroud the island in mist,
"and that by art magic." Happy island, where such faith could ever
exist! Modern science knows that mist, and where it comes from.

OUR HISTORY

It falls into three periods, first, a period of Celtic rule, second of
Norse rule, third of English dominion. Manx history is the history of
surrounding nations. We have no Sagas of our own heroes. The Sagas are
all of our conquerors. Save for our first three hundred recorded years
we have never been masters in our own house. The first chapter of our
history has yet to be written. We know we were Celts to begin with, but
how we came we have never learnt, whether we walked dry-shod from Wales
or sailed in boats from Ireland. To find out the facts of our early
history would be like digging up the island of Prospero. Perhaps we had
better leave it alone. Ten to one we were a gang of political exiles.
Perhaps we left our country for our country's good. Be it so. It was the
first and last time that it could be said of us.

KING ORRY

Early in the sixth century Man became subject to the kings and princes
of Wales, who ruled from Anglesea. There were twelve of them in
succession, and the last of them fell in the tenth century. We know next
to nothing about them but their names. Then came the Vikings. The young
bloods of Scandinavia had newly established their Norse kingdom in
Iceland, and were huckstering and sea roving about the Baltic and among
the British Isles. They had been to the Orkneys and Shetlands, and
Faroes, perhaps to Ireland, certainly to the coast of Cumberland, making
Scandinavian settlements everywhere. So they came to Moen early in the
tenth century, led by one