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Lying midway between
England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales, the Isle of Man has, during its
history, been successively Irish, Scandinavian, Scottish and English.
Yet today the Island is politically and culturally independent of them
all. Quocunque jeceris stabit is its motto: Whichever way you
throw me I shall stand.
The name of the Island, Man, has long been a puzzle to philologists.
It has been suggested that the Island took its name from Mananan,
the Celtic Neptune. Caesar in 54 BC called it Mona. Nennius in AD 858
referred to it by the name of Eubonia, while the Welsh Annals of AD
1154 call it Manaw and the Scandinavian Sagas use Mon or Maon. Broadly
speaking, all of these appear to be derived from a root meaning mountainous
or hilly land. The present local name is Ellan Vannin.
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