Volume 65, Issue 1

The North-West-Bohemian town Kaaden (Czech Kadaň) lies in an area where Celts settled some two millennia ago. For this reason a Celtic etymology was proposed for this placename, although a Slavic etymology based on the Common Slavic personal name *Kadanъ (attested in Old Czech, Polish, Sorabian) had existed for decades: Kadaň (taken over later on into German as Ka(a)den) was derived from the personal name *Kadanъ with the possessive suffix Common Slavic *-jь and meant originally ‘Kadan’s (castle/town)’. It will be shown that the Celtic etymology which argues for a Proto-Celtic *katu-dūno- ‘town/castle of the fight/battle’ invokes too many ad-hoc-developments and scarcely (if at all) attested soundchanges to be regarded at all plausible. The ‘classical’ Slavic etymology, on the other hand, can be shown to be flawless in all aspects.

This paper deals with the Gaulish defixio from Chartres and more generally with the Celtic tradition of malediction rituals in Antiquity, as documented by the defixiones from Chartres, Larzac and Chamalières and by contact features in Latin defixiones from the Celtic speaking provinces. It is argued that this tradition, as opposed to the Latin one, systematically advocated that the malediction ritual was performed as a defensive measure against a former malediction by the cursed persons. The same lexemes are used to refer to the cursed persons and to the performer of the cursing ritual: this stylistic device emphasises that the defixio is to be regarded as a counter-malediction.