Chips from a German Workshop, Volume 3: Essays on Literature, Biography, and AntiquitiesMüller, F. Max (Friedrich Max)
Religion
Chips from a German Workshop, Volume 3: Essays on Literature, Biography, and Antiquities
Müller, F. Max (Friedrich Max)
Comparative linguistics; Folklore; Literature -- History and criticism; Mythology; Religions
(3.) We find that the second form of the Cornish name, namely, _cara
clowse in cowze_, may either be a merely metamorphic corruption of _cara
cowz in clowze_, readily suggested and supported by the new meaning which
it yielded of “gray rock in the wood;” or, even if we accept it as an
original name, that it would be no more than a name framed by the
Cornish-speaking monks of the Mount, in order to embody the same spurious
tradition which had given rise to the name of “Hore rock in the wodd.”
I need hardly add that in thus arguing against Mr. Pengelly’s conclusions,
I do not venture to touch his geological arguments. St. Michael’s Mount
may have been united with the mainland; it may, for all we know, have been
surrounded by a dense forest; and it may be perfectly possible
geologically to fix the date when that forest was destroyed, and the Mount
severed, so far as it is severed, from the Cornish coast. All I protest
against is that any one of these facts could be proved, or even supported,
by the Cornish name of the Mount, whether _cara cowz in clowze_, or _cara
clowse in cowze_, or by the English name, communicated by William of
Worcester, “the Hore rock in the wodd,” or finally by the legend which
gave rise to these names, and which, as can be proved by irrefragable
evidence, was transplanted by mistake from the Norman to the Cornish
coast. The only question which, in conclusion, I should like to address to
geologists, is this: As geologists are obliged to leave it doubtful
whether the insulation of St. Michael’s Mount was due to the washing of
the sea-shore, or to a general subsidence of the country, may it not have
been due to neither of these causes, and may not the Mount have always
been that kind of half-island which it certainly was two thousand years
ago?
1867.
XVI. BUNSEN.(97)
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