What is "Aidenn" in The Raven? I can't find out what this means in either dictionary, thesaurus or encyclopedia.

Thanks

-- Anonymous, April 19, 2001

Answers

i'm pretty sure it means eden.. or paradise. 90 % sure ...

-- Anonymous, April 20, 2001

Jeff is, of course, quite right. It is Poe's variant of 'Eden' used here to mean 'Heaven'. It is a spelling unique to Poe, and almost certainly is derived from the Arabic 'Adn', again meaning 'Eden'.

He uses the spelling 'Aidenn' again in 'The Conversation of Eiros and Charmion' and in 'The Power of Words', but uses 'Eden' (meaning Heaven) in 'The Lake' and 'To F____".

The best source for looking up things like this in Poe is Thomas Ollive Mabbott's wonderful 'Complete Poems of Edgar Allan Poe' which has recently been reissued.

-- Anonymous, April 20, 2001