Sv: Ultreaya

[fkjaer]

Hi Stephanie,

You are more than welcome to ask.
I do not remember if the expression ¡Ultreya! has been explained on this list.
Browsing through my harddrive I found the following writings from the now closed Santiago ListServ santiagoaHUMnet.UCLA.EDU.

This one is written by Linda Davidson, the owner of the GoCamino-list:

>>"Ultreia"  was an expression used in the 11th and 12th centuries by Crusaders
in the Holy Land. There are some medieval French poems that also use it
directly connected with crusade themes.
I did some research a long time ago on those poems and the relationship of
ultreia to the Santiago route. Since the word appears in the "dum pater
familias" 12th-c. song (more about that only if you all want it) , I suspect
it's because the transcriber of the "Dum pater" song was French and just
threw in the Ultreai phrase in the middle of the latin poem.

Linda Davidson<<

and:

>>"Ultreia" stems from the French outre mer (modern French, probably spelled
differently in the 12th c.) - - referring to "overseas" and to the Crusades in the Holy Land.
linda d<<

and - also on Santiago ListServ - Lost N Austin wrote:

>> ULTREIA
Some time back someone asked the origin of "Ultreia"
In the book Priez pour nous a Compostelle, it was described as a "cry of
encouragement and a rallying call" within groups of travellers.

The original cry was  <<E ultreia!  E sus eia! Deus aia nos!>>
Which became in the book ( french) <<et outre, et sus, Dieu nous
aide>>
which becomes in English,as best I can << further, onwards, God help
us>><<

and finally Rosina wrote:

>>Ultramar means "Beyond the sea", which was a was of referring to what lay
after Finisterre in the pre-Galilean minds.<<


Hope this answers your question,

¡Ultreya!

Frans from Denmark.