The Glan is a river in Carinthia

Carinthia (state)

Carinthia is the southernmost Austrian state or Land. Situated within the Eastern Alps it is chiefly noted for its mountains and lakes.The main language is German. Its regional dialects belong to the Southern Austro-Bavarian group...

, Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

, a right tributary of the Gurk.

It rises north of the Wörthersee

Wörthersee

The Wörthersee is an alpine lake in the southern Austrian state of Carinthia.-General facts:The lake is elongated, about 20 km long and 1–2 km wide. It stretches from the Carinthian capital Klagenfurt in the east to Velden in the west...

 in the Ossiacher Tauern mountains, then running through Feldkirchen

Feldkirchen in Kärnten

Feldkirchen in Kärnten is a town in the Austrian state of Carinthia and the capital of the district of the same name. It consists of the Katastralgemeinden Fasching, Feldkirchen, Glanhofen, Gradisch, Hoefling, Klein Sankt Veit, Pernegg, Rabensdorf, Sankt Ulrich, Sittich, Tschwarzen and...

, going northeastwards passing Glanegg Castle

Burgruine Glanegg

Burgruine Glanegg is a castle in Carinthia, Austria. After Hochosterwitz and Fortress Landskron, is the third largest military complex in Carinthia.- History :...

 until it reaches Sankt Veit

Sankt Veit an der Glan

Sankt Veit an der Glan is a town in the Austrian state of Carinthia. It is the capital of a district with the same name.-Location:This town is a major point on the Glan River in the north of the Zollfeld Valley....

 where it bends sharply towards south. It flows through the Zollfeld

Zollfeld

Zollfeld is a slightly ascending plain in Carinthia, Austria. It is one of the oldest cultural landscapes in the East Alpine region.-Geography:...

 Valley, the historical heart of the Carinthian duchy

Duchy of Carinthia

The Duchy of Carinthia was a duchy located in southern Austria and parts of northern Slovenia. It was separated from the Duchy of Bavaria in 976, then the first newly created Imperial State beside the original German stem duchies....

, and through Klagenfurt

Klagenfurt

-Name:Carinthia's eminent linguists Primus Lessiak and Eberhard Kranzmayer assumed that the city's name, which literally translates as "ford of lament" or "ford of complaints", had something to do with the superstitious thought that fateful fairies or demons tend to live around treacherous waters...

, the state capital. At Ebenthal

Ebenthal

Ebenthal is a town in the district of Klagenfurt-Land in Carinthia in Austria.According to the 2001 census 4.2% of the population are Carinthian Slovenes....

 southeast of Klagenfurt is the confluence with the Glanfurt

Glanfurt

The Glanfurt River is the outflow of the Wörthersee in Austria, also called Sattnitz by the Carinthian people. It starts at the lake's eastern bay, south of the peninsula Maria Loretto and runs more like a channel straight to the east...

 River, the Glan bends eastwards and finally flows into the Gurk River.

It was first mentioned as Glana in a deed of donation issued by Emperor Otto II

Otto II, Holy Roman Emperor

Otto II , called the Red, was the third ruler of the Saxon or Ottonian dynasty, the son of Otto the Great and Adelaide of Italy.-Early years and co-ruler with Otto I:...

 at the 983 Reichstag

Reichstag (Holy Roman Empire)

The Imperial Diet was the Diet, or general assembly, of the Imperial Estates of the Holy Roman Empire.During the period of the Empire, which lasted formally until 1806, the Diet was not a parliament in today's sense; instead, it was an assembly of the various estates of the realm...

 in Verona

Verona

Verona ; German Bern, Dietrichsbern or Welschbern) is a city in the Veneto, northern Italy, with approx. 265,000 inhabitants and one of the seven chef-lieus of the region. It is the second largest city municipality in the region and the third of North-Eastern Italy. The metropolitan area of Verona...

. The name derives from Celtic

Celtic languages

The Celtic languages are descended from Proto-Celtic, or "Common Celtic"; a branch of the greater Indo-European language family...

 (Noric

Noric language

The Noric language or Eastern Celtic language was a Continental Celtic language. It is attested in only two fragmentary inscriptions from the Roman province of Noricum , which do not provide enough information for any conclusions about the nature of the language to be drawn...

) glanos meaning "bright, clear", cf. Glanis

Glanis

Glanis was a Gaulish god associated with a healing spring at the town of Glanum in the Alpilles mountains of Provence in southern France. There are cisterns at the site of the springs, where pilgrims may have bathed. Near one of them an alter to Glanis and the Glanicae was set up...

, Glanum

Glanum

Glanum was an oppidum, or fortified town, founded by a Celto-Ligurian people called the Salyens in the 6th century B.C.,. It was known for the healing power of its spring. It became a Roman city in Provence until its abandonment in 260 A.D....

, Glen

Glen

A glen is a valley, typically one that is long, deep, and often glacially U-shaped; or one with a watercourse running through such a valley. Whittow defines it as a "Scottish term for a deep valley in the Highlands" that is "narrower than a strath."...

 and English "clean".