Mazes and Labyrinths: A General Account of Their History and DevelopmentMatthews, W. H.
History
Mazes and Labyrinths: A General Account of Their History and Development
Matthews, W. H.
Labyrinths; Maze gardens
Of the etymology of the term "Troy-town" some indications have already
been given in Chapter XVIII. We might, perhaps, in addition, hazard
the guess that the Sanskrit root _dru_ (= run) has some bearing on the
origin of the word so widely associated with the idea of a dance or
ceremonial, but the connection is too obscure to be very helpful.
We might further recall the ancient legend,[6] recorded in Welsh
chronicles going back many centuries before the Christian era, to the
effect that a great-grandson of Aeneas named Prydain, or Brutus, came
over to this country with the Trojan prisoners of war whom he had
helped to liberate from Greece, and with their aid built a city on the
banks of the Temus (Thames), which he called _Caerdroi-Newydd_ (New
City of Troy). This name became corrupted into _Troinovant_--hence the
"Trinobantes" of Caesar's time--and was later discarded in favour of
_Caerludd_, a name given in honour of Lludd, nephew of the Caswallon
who fought against Caesar. The Saxons afterwards corrupted the name
into _Lun-dun_.
[6] Accepted as a historic fact by Mr. E. O. Gordon in his
"Prehistoric London."
As Spenser says ("Faerie Queene," iii, 9):
"For noble Britons sprang from Trojans bold
And Troy-Novant was built of old Troyes ashes cold."
If any reliance could be placed on this old story the Corporation of
London might do well to embody the Labyrinth, or Troy-town, in their
armorial bearings, for what symbol could better typify the complexities
of our metropolis?
CHAPTER XXI
LABYRINTH DESIGN AND SOLUTION OF MAZES
There is no limit to the number of patterns which, without any
metaphorical extension of terms, we may legitimately describe as
coming within the scope of the words "maze" and "labyrinth." In common
speech we use either word to describe any artificial design or natural
pattern presenting a convoluted appearance, or any path or channel
of an intricate nature, but when we come to consider the matter more
carefully we feel the need for some definition. As we have seen, the
dictionaries do not help us much in this respect. Let us, therefore,
decide what limitations we feel compelled to observe in our use of the
terms from the point of view of designers or unravellers of mazes and
labyrinths.
In the first place we must limit ourselves to works of artifice,
_i.e._, we must exclude the "labyrinths" of nature, such as forests,
caverns, and so forth, and agree that any application of our terms to
such objects is to be regarded as strictly metaphorical.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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