Danube once appears as the mother of Vrtra, "a dragon blocking the course of the rivers." The Finnish word for Danube is Tonava, which is most likely derived from the word for the river in Swedish and German, "Donau". Its Sámi name "Deatnu" means "Great River". It is possible that "dānu" in Scythian as in Avestan was a generic word for "river": "Dnieper" and "Dniestr", from "Danapris" and "Danastius", are presumed to continue Scythian "*dānu apara" "far river" and "*dānu nazdya-" "near river", respectively. The river was known to the ancient Greeks as the "Istros" (Ἴστρος) a borrowing from a Daco-Thracian
International Association for Danube Research conference of the 50 Anniversary in Vienna-Klosterneuburg 2006 and the 38 IAD conference in Dresden 2010 were published in the international journal "River Systems". The Conference Proceedings and IAD books are hosted by, and can be gathered at the Academic Library of Biology at the University Vienna (Fachbereichsbibliothek Biologie an der Universität Wien). International Association for Danube Research The International Association for Danube Research, or IAD, is the oldest NGO of an active network of scientists in the Danube River Basin of Europe. The board of the IAD is composed of the president, vice-president and general secretary, forming the presidium,