Archaic England : $b an essay in deciphering prehistory from megalithic monuments, earthworks, customs, coins, place-names, and faerie superstitionsBayley, Harold
History
Archaic England : $b an essay in deciphering prehistory from megalithic monuments, earthworks, customs, coins, place-names, and faerie superstitions
Bayley, Harold
Archaeology; England -- Antiquities
In Cornwall at St. Isseys there used to be a sacred fountain known as
St. Giggy's Well, and as every stream and fount was the supposed home of
jinns or genii it is possible that "_Saint_ Giggy" may be equated with
_igigi_, a word meaning in Babylonian mythology "_the spirits of
Heaven_". Jinn or Genie may also be connoted with a well near Launceston
known as Joan's Pitcher, the pitcher or vase whence the living waters
were poured being a constantly recurring emblem of Mother Nature. It
will be noticed in Fig. 25, p. 142, and in Fig. 256, p. 428.
The French have an expression _a gogo_ ("origin unknown") which means at
one's ease, or in clover; in old French _gogue_ ("origin unknown") meant
pleasantry or fun, and _goguenard_ a funmaker, or a jester. All these
and kindred terms are probably correlate to the jovial Gogmagog
carnivals and festivals. In London the house of Gog and Magog is the
Guildhall in Aldermanbury: if born within the sound of the bells of the
neighbouring St. Mary-le-Bow a Londoner is entitled to be termed a
_cockney_; Cockayne is an old and romantic term for London, and it would
therefore seem likely that among the cluster of detached _duns_ which
have now coalesced into London, the followers of Gog and Magog had a
powerful and perhaps aboriginal footing. Around Londonderry in Ireland
are the memories of a giant Gig na Gog, and at Launceston in Cornwall
there used to be held a so-called Giglot Fair. At this _a gogo_ festival
every wench was at liberty to bestow the eye of favour, _ogle_, or look
_gougou_, on any swain she fancied: whence obviously the whole village
was agog, or full of eagerness, and much ogling, giggling, goggling, and
gougounarderie.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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