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
St. Michael's Mount in Cornwall used to be known as Dinsul, which the
authorities suggest was _dun sol_, or the Sun Hill. Very probably this
was so, and there is an equal probability that it meant also _din seul_,
_i.e._, the hill of _Le Seul_ or _La Seule_, the Solitary or Alone.[219]
In the Old Testament Michal figures as the daughter of King _Saul_,
which is curious in view of St. Michael's Mount being named Din_seul_.
St. Michael's in Brittany and St. Michael's elsewhere are dedicated _ad
duas tumbas_, which means the two tumuli or tumps.[220] At St. Albans,
the sacred processions started from two tumps or _toot_ hills, and it
may be suggested these symbolised the two _teats_ of the primeval
parent. In Ireland at Killarney are two mounts now termed The Paps, but
originally known as The Paps of Anu, _i.e._, the Irish _Magna Mater_.
Similar "Paps" are common in other parts of Britain, and there is little
doubt that _mam_, the Welsh for a gently rising hill, has an intimate
relation to mammal or teat. The Toothills were where _tout_ or _all_
congregated together in convocation, and in all probability every toot
hill originally represented the teat of Tad, or Dad, the Celtic _tata_,
or daddy. Toot hills are alternatively known as moot hills, and this
latter term may be connoted with _maeth_, the Welsh for _nourishment_:
near Sunderland are two round-topped rocks named Maiden Paps.
Mickleham in Surrey is situated at the base of Tot Hill: Tothill Street
at Westminster marks the locality of an historic toot hill standing in
Tothill Fields, and at Westminster the memory of St. Margaret has
seemingly survived in dual form--as the ecclesiastical St. Margaret
whose church nestles up against the Abbey of St. Peter, and as the
popular giantess Long Meg. This celebrated heroine "did not only pass
all the rest of her country in the length of her proportion, but every
limbe was so fit to her talnesse that she seemed the picture and shape
of some tall man cast in a woman mould". In times gone by a "huge" stone
in the cloisters of Westminster used to be pointed out to visitors as
the very gravestone of Long Meg,[221] and this "long, large, and entire"
piece of rock may be connoted with the Megstone of the Fern Islands and
the Long Meg of Cumberland. In 1635 there was published _The Life of
Long Meg of Westminster_, containing the mad merry pranks she played in
her lifetime, not only in performing sundry quarrels with divers
ruffians about London, but also how valiantly she behaved herself in the
"Warres of Bolloinge".
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account