Too Many Maiden Castles
Fans of classic Nintento games know that sometimes the princess is in another castle. People researching sites called Maiden Castle have to figure out which of the sites called that in Farsi, Arabic, or English they mean.
There are the hill forts, promontory forts (fortified headlands), and ruins called Maiden Castle in England and Scotland. The Maiden Castle in Dorset is especially famous and photogenic.
There are Gasr Banat in Libya, the two sites called Qasr el-Banat in Egypt (one in the eastern desert, the other in Fayyum), Qasr el-Banat in Lebanon, and Qasr al-Banat in Raqqa on the Euphrates. All of these mean Maiden Castle in Arabic.
There is Ghal’eh Dokhtar, a Sasanid fort in Fars, Iran. This also means Maiden Castle in Farsi.
Because a name with the same meaning appears across the Arab world and in Iran, I think that British Mai-Dun “big hill” may be a folk etymology for their Maiden Castle. The idea that it is a castle which has never been conquered sounds like someone has been reading too much Freud.
(scheduled 4 February 2024)
Don’t forget Magdeburg. Although the etymology is debated, it is possibly related to the English Maiden Castles, as the languages are related.
Middle German Magd f. is definitely “unmarried woman, young woman”! Had not thought about the etymology of Magdeburg will have to see what I can dig up.
Wiki cites https://www.onomastik.com/on_geschichte_magdeburg.php and Dr. Harald Bichlmeier, “Noch einmal zum Ortsnamen Magdeburg,” Zeitschrift Namenkundliche Informationen (Band 97, Jahrgang 2010) https://www.namenkundliche-informationen.de/ni/article/view/449/438 with two etymologies from magaþ- “great” or magad “maiden”