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"Finally, consider this account of Ethelred's DANzig on the Co-DAN Gulf (now the Bal-
Coronation: tic), and DENmark or DANmark (DAN'S
Land). There is a River DON in Aberdeen-
"'Two Bishops with the Witan shall lead him shire and another in Yorkshire. On the latter
to the Church. When the King arrives at the stands DONcaster which, on an old map, is
Church he shall prostrate himself before the spelt DONcastre. Devonshire, again, is the
altar and the Te Deum shall be chanted. When modern name for DANnonia. In Ireland there
this is finished the King shall be raised from are, among many others: DUNdalk, DONegal
the ground and having been chosen by the and DONaghadee -- the last-named, trans-
Bishops and people shall, with a clear voice, lated, becoming 'DAN my witness'.
before God and all the people, promise that he
will observe three rules.' 'Dan, noted its maritime activities (Judges 5,
17), also left its name along the Mediterranean
"'There followed the Coronation oaths, the coast. The three outstanding examples are
crowning ceremony and the giving of the scep- MauriTANia (the northern African coast of
tre and the rod. The whole ceremony bears a Algeria) which, in the HEBREW, means a set-
remarkable similarity to that of the coronation tlement or colony of DAN; and SarDINia
of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, in 1953, (Sar-DON-i) meaning emigrant, dispersed or
which included part of the old Saxon service detached DANITES. Keating, in his 'History
-- the lesson from Matthew 22:21, three of Ireland', tells us that: 'The Dan-ans were a
prayers and the anthem, 'Zadok the Priest and people of great learning and wealth: they left
Nathan the Prophet anointed Solomon king.' Greece after a battle with the Assyrians and
went to Ireland and also to Danmark, and
"There is little doubt that early Saxon kings called it DANmares, Dan's country.'
knew of the Stone of Destiny, and its signifi-
cance. Hence the Kingston Stone was to them 'A bold, seafaring people, they had to fight
a substitute against that day when Jacob's Pil- their way into the Isles of Britain against the
low should come to its appointed place at the strenuous opposition of their kinsmen, the An-
heart of the Nation." gles, Saxons and Jutes. They came across the
North Sea, during the ninth and tenth centu-
-- John F. Battersby for Wake Up!, ries, from Denmark and ScanDINavia. Both
July/August 1996. these place names contain the appellative
'DAN'. It is highly probable that many of
The Pioneering Danites these DANES were DANITES, who were in
the habit of naming places 'after the name of
Dan, their father'. After a long struggle with
'Dan was the pioneering clan (Deuteronomy the Saxon kingdom, which was predominant
33, 22), and the great rivers and waterways under Alfred the Great, the Danes under Ca-
of Europe bear witness to the tribal habit of nute gained the upper hand and the kingdom
naming places 'after their father DAN' became gradually welded together -- ready
(Judges 18, 29). The following are a few ex- for the final consolidation under William the
amples of this custom culled from 'Dan: Lost Conqueror when the rearguard of wandering
and Found' by the late H. H. Pain. In Europe, ISRAEL arrived in the Appointed Place.
there are the DANube, the DANaster (D'Ni-
ester), the DANapris (D'Nieper), the Russian -- Wake Up! January, 1980.
DON, the RhoDAN (now the Rhone),

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