Pendueles

Camino del Norte

Principado de Asturias

Toponym of disputed origin. The most sustained reading derives it from the Latin or late-Latin anthroponym Pendolius or Pendulius, derived from pendulus ('hanging, suspended'), in possessive plural. An alternative reading connects it with Latin pendulum applied to the landscape —⁠a hanging height, a steep cornice over the sea.

Both the anthroponymic and the topographic readings derive ultimately from the Latin verb pendere ('to hang, to suspend, to be pending'). The first proposes a Roman personal name (Pendolius, Pendulius) attested in minor epigraphy; the second appeals to the landscape of the place —⁠Pendueles sits literally on a small steep cornice at two hundred metres above the Cantabrian Sea, where the cliffs of the Asturian coastal shelf fall vertically into the sea. The hamlet belongs to the council of Llanes, in the heart of the maritime Picos de Europa natural park. The final plural -ueles could reflect either the family genitive (the Pendolios) or an Asturian-Leonese locative suffix. The parish church of Santa María preserves a notable Baroque organ and sits on the top of the hill, dominating the ria and the nearby islets. The pilgrim crosses it after Colombres, on one of the most scenically spectacular stages of the Camino del Norte.

Evolution of the name

  1. Pendolius / pendulum late Latin 3rd — 9th centuries
  2. Pendueles medieval Asturleonese from the 12th century

Reflections, to the letter

A 'hanging' Roman landlord and a height that hangs over the sea both trace back to Latin pendere, and here the landscape sides with the second. Pendueles sits on the coastal shelf that leans out over the Cantabrian Sea, and the pilgrim walks that cornice as far as the Bufones de Arenillas, blowholes through which a rough sea climbs and bursts skyward. The name hangs, just as the land hangs over the water.

Languages of origin

Themes

Origin status

disputed

Glossary

Anthroponym
A personal name, often used as the base of toponyms (Lucronius → Logroño, Sigerici → Castrojeriz, Sacavus → Sacavém).
Attested
A form or word documented in writing in historical sources; opposed to "reconstructed" (forms proposed by comparative inference but not actually documented).
Locative suffix
A Castilian ending marking "place of" or "workshop where X is worked": -ería (panadería, herrería), -ero/-era (barquera, Itero "place of the road"). From the Latin -arium.

Sources

  • García Arias, X.Ll. — Toponimia asturiana

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Camino del Norte

  1. ··· toward Santiago
  2. Ribadesella
  3. Nueva
  4. Celorio
  5. Llanes
  6. Andrín
  7. Vidiago
  8. Pendueles
  9. Colombres
  10. Unquera
  11. Pesués
  12. Serdio
  13. San Vicente de la Barquera
  14. La Revilla
  15. ··· toward the start