Notes and Queries, Number 178, March 26, 1853: A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc. — John Shaqi
Notes and Queries, Number 178, March 26, 1853: A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc.Various
History
Notes and Queries, Number 178, March 26, 1853: A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc.
Various
Questions and answers -- Periodicals
In the consecration of the first six bishops in the list, the Archbishop of
Canterbury was Dr. William Howley; in all the others he was Dr. John Bird
Sumner. The Bishop of Lincoln, wherever mentioned, was Dr. John Kaye. The
Bishop of Llandaff was Dr. E. Coplestone; the Bishop of London was Dr. C.
J. Blomfield; the Bishop of Bangor, Dr. Christopher Bethell; the Bishop of
Worcester, Dr. H. Pepys; the Bishop of Rochester, Dr. George Murray; the
Bishop of Hereford, Dr. Thomas Musgrave; the Bishop of Lichfield, Dr. John
Lonsdale; the Bishop of Calcutta, Dr. Daniel Wilson; the Bishop of
Winchester, Dr. C. R. Sumner; the Bishop of Oxford, Dr. Samuel Wilberforce;
the Bishop of Salisbury, Dr. Edward Denison; the Bishop of Chichester, Dr.
A. T. Gilbert; the Bishop of Norwich, Dr. Samuel Hinds; the Bishop of
Toronto, Dr. John Strachan.
TYRO.
Dublin.
* * * * *
"GRINDLE."
(Vol. vii., p. 107.)
The question of C. G. supplies a new instance of an ancient and heroic word
still surviving in a local name. The only other places in England that I
have as yet heard of are, _Grindleton_ in the West Riding of Yorkshire, and
a _Gryndall_ in the East Riding. The authority for this latter is Mr.
Williams' Translation of Leo's _Anglo-Saxon Names_, p. 7., note 3.
In old England, the name was probably not uncommon: it occurs in a
description of landmarks in Kemble's _Codex Dipl._, vol. ii. p. 172.: "on
_grendles_ mere."
There is a peculiar interest attaching to this word; or, I might say, it is
invested with a peculiar horror, as being the name of the malicious fiend,
the man-enemy whom Beowulf subdues in our eldest national Epic:
"W[=æ]s se grimma gæst Grendel háten,
M[=æ]re mearc-stapa, se þe móras heóld,
Fen and fæsten--fífel-cynnes eard
Won-sæli wer...."
_Beowulf_, l. 203. _seqq._--Ed. Kemble.
So he is introduced in the poem, when, in the dead of night, he comes to
the hall where the warriors are asleep, ravining for the human prey. The
following is something like the meaning of the lines:--
"Grendel hight the grisly guest,
Dread master he of waste and moor,
The fen his fastness--_fiends among_,
Bliss-bereft...."
This awful being was no doubt in the mind of those who originated the name
_grendles mere_, before quoted from Kemble. The name is applied to a
locality quite in keeping with the ancient mythological character of
_Grendel_, who held the moor and the fen. Most strikingly does the same
sentiment appear in the name of that strange and wildering valley of the
Bernese Oberland, in Switzerland:--I mean the valley of Grindelwald, with
its two awful glaciers.
But when we come to consider the etymology of the name, we are led to an
object which seems inadequate, and incapable of acting as the vehicle for
these deep and natural sentiments of the inhuman and the horrible.
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