Horsa or Thor?

[Rheghead]

I have always understood that Thurso town had its etymological roots with the Norse god Thor. However, according to the Historical Gazetteer of Scotland Vol. 1, Thurso gets its name from River Thurso which is an anglicised translation for 'Avon-Horsa'.

There are no navigable rivers in this county. The principal river is the water of Thurso, which originates from springs in the mountains bounding with Sutherland, and partly from the Latheron hills; thence it passes through several, lakes and small Lochs, 24 of which are in one flat bog in Strathmore, in the parish of Halkirk, and all send their tributary streams to this river and after traversing a distance of about 20 miles, discharges itself into the Pentland frith at Thurso bay. Its ancient name, in the Gaelic language is ‘Avon.Horsa'—that is, ‘Horsa’s river;’ and the town of Thurso is called Bal-inver-Horsa, _that is, ‘the town of Horsa’s harbour.’

Horsa is a 5th century warrior (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horsa) and pre-dates the Scandinavian God.

Could this rewrite people's widely held misunderstanding of the etymological origins of Thurso?:confused

EDIT I have had a think about it, and Horsa himself may be the origin of the Thor myth, I am not an expert on this though, lol.

[Aaldtimer]

According to the "Dictionary of Scottish Place-names" by David Ross :-THURSO (Highland), "Bull's river". thjor-s (Old Norse) "bull's", aa (Old Norse) "river". It was recorded as Thorsa in a document of 1152, and this still accords with local pronunciation.

[Rheghead]

"Thor's Day" is Þórsdagr in Old Norse, Hósdagur in Faroese

which could back up the Thor theory.

[Rheghead]

thjor-s (Old Norse) "bull's", aa (Old Norse) "river"..

According to wikipedia, :roll:, bull in Old Norse is buli and I would have thought thjord-s was more akin to fjord which could be a river?

[Aaldtimer]

I'd be very wary of accepting anything on Wiki that isn't referenced. I don't think Thurso River could ever be described as a fjiord! Ford, maybe?
The book the quote comes from is published by Birlinn, and came free with Scotland on Sunday some weeks ago. I assume David Ross may be an academic, but who knows. Scottish Place Names Survey at the School of Scottish Studies in Edinburgh, and Scottish Place-name Society (www.st-andrews.ac.uk/intitutes/sassi/spns/ (http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/intitutes/sassi/spns/)) are mentioned in the introduction.
No info on the author though.
I don't think Thor or Horsa come into the equation.

[Errogie]

I think this David Ross is the journalist on the Scotsman who was told to knock up a nice little supplement for his Sunday version of the daily. He may well have gone through academic sources for his material but I would be wary of conclusions from this source.

[Rheghead]

I'd be very wary of accepting anything on Wiki that isn't referenced. I don't think Thurso River could ever be described as a fjiord! Ford, maybe?

I don't think it is reasonable to reject anything from Wikipedia unless there is good reason.

I wasn't meaning the actual river of Thurso was akin to a fjord:roll:, I was meaning that the Thur part in Thurso could be derived from the same root as the norse word fjord.

However, I don't have any reason to doubt the gazetteer's explanation that Thurso river is derived from a meaning of Horsa's River.

[domino]

i awas always led to believe that Thurso was from Thor's aa. Thors river