Archaic England Part 11

The ancients generally supposed the All Good as wandering abroad and peering un.o.bserved into the thoughts and actions of his children. This proclivity was a conspicuous characteristic of Jupiter, and also of the Scandinavian All Father, one of whose t.i.tles was Gangrad, or "The Wanderer". The verb to _gad_, and the expression "_gadding about_," may have arisen from this wandering proclivity of the G.o.ds or gads, and the word _jaunt_, a synonym for "gadding" (of unknown etymology), points to the probability that the rambling tendencies of "Gangrad" and other G.o.ds were similarly a.s.signed by the British to their _Giant_, "_jeyantt_," or Good _John_. _Jaunty_ or _janty_ means full of fire or life, and the words _gentle_, _genial_, and _generous_ are implications of the original good Giant's attributes.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 26.--Figure of Time with Three Faces. From a French Miniature of the XIV. cent.

From _Christian Iconography_ (Didron).]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 27.--The Three Divine Faces with two eyes and one single body. From a French Miniature of the XVI.

cent.

From _Christian Iconography_ (Didron).]

The coins of King Ja.n.u.s of Sicily bore on their obverse the figure of G.o.d Ja.n.u.s; on the reverse a dove, and it is evident that the dove was as much a symbol of Father Ja.n.u.s as it was of Mother Jane or Mother Juno.

Christianity still recognises the dove or pigeon as the symbol of the Holy Ghost, and it is probable that the word _pigeon_ may be attributed to the fact that the pigeon was invariably a.s.sociated with _pi_, or _pa geon_.[155]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 28.--BRAHMA.--From _A Dictionary of Non-cla.s.sical Mythology_ (Edwardes & Spence).]

Ja.n.u.s, "the one by whom all things were introduced into life," was figured as two-faced, or time past, and time to come, and Ja.n.u.s was the "I was," the "I am," and the "I shall be".[156] As the "G.o.d of the Beginning," Ja.n.u.s is clearly connected with the word _genesis_; Juno was the G.o.ddess who presided over childbirth, and to their names may be traced the words _generate_, _genus_, _genital_, and the like. Just as _Jan_uary is the first or opening month of the year, so _June_,[157]

French _Juin_, was the first or opening month of the ancient calendar.

It was fabled that Ja.n.u.s daily threw open the gate of day whence _janua_ was the Latin for a gate, and _janitor_ means a keeper of the gate.

All men were supposed to be under the safeguard of Ja.n.u.s, and all women under that of Juno, whence the guardian spirit of a man was termed his _genius_ and that of a woman her _juno_. The words _genius_ and _genie_ are evidently cognate with the Arabian _jinn_, meaning a spirit. In Ireland the fairies or "good people" are known as the "gentry"; as the giver of all increase Juno may be responsible for the word _generous_, and Ja.n.u.s the Beginning or Leader is presumably allied to _General_.

Occasionally the two faces of Ja.n.u.s were represented as respectively old and young, a symbol obviously of time past and present, time and _change_, the ancient of days and the _junior_ or _jeun_. In Irish _sen_ meant _senile_.

It is taught by the mothers of Europe that at Yule-Tide the Senile All Bounty wanders around bestowing gifts, and St. Nicholas, or Father Christmas, is in some respects the same as the Wandering Jew of mediaeval tradition. The earliest mention of the Everlasting Jew occurs in the chronicles of the Abbey of St. Albans,[158] and is probably a faint memory of the original St. Alban or All Bounty. It was said that this mysterious Wanderer "had a little child on his arm," and was an eye-witness of the crucifixion of Christ. Varied mythical appearances of the Everlasting Jew are recorded, and his name is variously stated as Joseph, and as Elijah. Joseph is radically _Jo_, Elijah is _Holy Jah_, whence it may follow, that "Jew" should be spelled "Jou," and that the Wandering or Everlasting Jew may be equated with the Suns.h.i.+ne or the Heavenly Joy.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 29.--The Three Divine Heads within a single triangle. From an Italian Wood Engraving of the XV.

cent.

From _Christian Iconography_ (Didron).]

In France the sudden roar of the wind at night is attributed to the pa.s.sing of the Everlasting Jew. In Switzerland he is a.s.sociated with the mighty Matterhorn, in Arabia he is represented as an aged man with a bald head, and I strongly suspect that the Elisha story of "Go up, thou bald head" arose from the misinterpretation of a picture of the Ancient of Days surrounded by a happy crowd of laughing youngsters. In this respect it would have accorded with the representation of the Divine bald-head of the Celts, leading a joyful chain of smiling captives. In England the Wandering Jew was reputed never to eat but merely to drink water which came from a rock. Some accounts specify his clothing sometimes as a "purple s.h.a.g-gown," with the added information, "his stockings were very white, but whether linen or jersey deponent knoweth not, his beard and head were white and he had a white stick in his hand.

The day was rainy from morning to night, but he had not one spot of dirt upon his clothes".[159] This tradition is evidently a conception of the white and immaculate Old Alban, in the usual contradistinction to the _young_ or _le jeun_, and we still speak of an honest or jonnock person as "a white man". By the Etrurians it was believed that the soul preserved after death the likeness of the body it had left and that this elfin or spritely body composed of s.h.i.+ning elastic air was clothed in airy white.[160] There figures in _The Golden Legend_ an Italian St.

Albine, whose name, says Voragine, "is as much as to say primo; as he was white and thus this holy saint was all white by purity of clean living". The tale goes on that this St. Albine had two wives, also two nurses which did nourish him. While lying in his cradle he was carried away by a she-wolf and borne into the fields where happily he was espied by a pair of pa.s.sing maidens. One of these twain exclaimed "Would to G.o.d I had milk to foster thee withal," and these words thus said her paps immediately rose and grew up filled with milk. Semblably said and prayed the second maid, and anon she had milk as her fellow had and so they two nourished the holy child Albine.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGS. 30 to 38.--From _Les Filigranes_ (Briquet, C. M.).]

It has been suggested that the Wandering Jew is a personification "of that race which wanders _Cain_-like over the earth with the brand of a brother's blood upon it"; by others the story is connected particularly with the gipsies. The Romany word for moon is _choon_, the Cornish for _full moon_ is _cann_, and it is a curious thing that the Etrurian Dante ent.i.tles the Man in the Moon, Cain:--

Now doth Cain with fork of thorns confine On either hemisphere touching the wave Beneath the towers of Seville. Yesternight The moon was round.[161]

Christian symbology frequently a.s.sociates the Virgin Mary with the new moon, and in Fig. 39 a remarkable representation of the Trinity is situated there.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 39.--The Holy Ghost, as a child of eight or ten years old, in the arms of the Father. French Miniature of the XVI. cent.

From _Christian Iconography_ (Didron).]

In the ill.u.s.trations overleaf of mediaeval papermarks, some of which depict the Man in the Moon in his conventional low-crowned, broad-brimmed hat, there is a conspicuous portrayal of the two b.r.e.a.s.t.s, doubtless representative of the milk and honey flowing in the mystic Land of _Can_aan. This paradise was reconnoitred by Joshua accompanied by Caleb, whose name means _dog_, and it will be remembered that dog-headed St. Christopher was said to be a Canaanitish giant.

Irishmen a.s.sign the name Connaught to a beneficent King Conn, during whose fabulously happy reign all crops yielded ninefold, and the furrows of Ireland flowed with "the pure lacteal produce of the dairy". Conn of Connaught is expressly defined as "good as well as great,"[162] and the Hibernian "pure lacteal produce of the dairy" may be connoted with the Canaanitish "milk". We shall trace King Conn of Connaught at Caen or Kenwood, near St. John's Wood, London, and also at Kilburn, a burn or stream alternatively known as the _Cune_burn. This rivulet comes first within the ken of history in the time of Henry I., when a hermit named G.o.dwyn--query _Good One_?--had his kil or cell upon its banks. King Conn of Connaught reigned in glory with "Good Queen Eda," a Breaton princess who was equally beloved and esteemed. This Eda is seemingly the Lady of Mount Ida in Candia, and her name may perhaps be traced in Maida Vale and Maida Hill. Pa Eda or Father Ida is apparently memorised at the adjacent Paddington which the authorities derive from Paedaington, or _the town of the children of Paeda_. Cynthia, the G.o.ddess of the Moon or _cann_, may be connoted with Cain the Man in the Moon, and we shall ultimately a.s.sociate her with Candia the alternative t.i.tle of Crete, and with Caindea, an Irish divinity, whose name in Gaelic means _the gentle G.o.ddess_.

Near _Con_iston in c.u.mberland is Yew Barrow, a rugged, cragged, pyramidal height which like the river Yeo, rising from Seven Sisters Springs, was probably a.s.sociated with Jou or Yew. The culminating peak known as "The Old Man" of Coniston is suggestive of the Elfin tradition:--

High on the hill-top the Old King sits He is now so old and grey, he's nigh lost his wits.

The Egyptians figured Ra, the Ancient of Days, as at times so senile that he dribbled at the mouth.

The traditional attributes of Cain, the Man in the Moon, or Cann, the full moon, are a dog, a lanthorn, and a bush of thorn. The dog is the _kuon_ or _chien_ of St. Kit, the Kaadman or the Good Man, and the lanthorn is probably Jack-a-lantern or Will-o-the-wisp, known of old as Kit-with-a-canstick or Kitty-with-a-candlestick. The thorn bush was sacred to the Elves for reasons which will be discussed in a subsequent chapter. It is sufficient here to note that the equivalent of the sacred hawthorn of Britain is known in the East as the Alvah or Elluf.[163] The Irish t.i.tle of the letter _a_ or _haw_ is _alif_, as also is the Arabian: the Greek _alpha_ is either _alpa_ or _alfa_.

The Welsh Archbard Taliesin makes the mystic statement:--

Of the ruddy vine, Planted on sunny days, And on new-moon nights; And the white wine.

The wheat rich in grain And red flowing wine Christ's pure body make, Son of Alpha.

The same poet claims, "I was in the Ark with Noah and Alpha," whence it would seem that Alpha was Mother Eve or the Mother of All Living. Alfa the Elf King and his followers the elves were deemed to be ever-living, and the words _love_, _life_, and _alive_ are all one and the same. That Spenser appreciated this ident.i.ty between _Elfe_ and _life_ is apparent in the pa.s.sage:--

Prometheus did create A man of many parts from beasts derived, That man so made he called Elfe to wit, Quick the first author of all Elfin kind, Who wandering through the world with wearie feet Did in the gardens of Adonis find A goodly creature whom he deemed in mind To be no earthly wight, but either sprite Or angel, the author of all woman-kind.[164]

_Quick_ as in "quick and dead" meant living, whence "Elfe, to wit Quick," was clearly understood by Spenser as life. It meant further, all _vie_ or all _feu_, for the ancients identified life and fire, and they further identified the _fays_ or elves with _feux_ or fires. The place-name Fife is, I suspect, connected with _vif_ or _vive_, and it is noteworthy that in Fifes.h.i.+re to this day a circular patch of white snow which habitually lingers in a certain hill cup is termed poetically "the Lady Alva's web". Whether this Lady Alva was supposed to haunt Glen Alva--a name now a.s.sociated with a more material spirit--I do not know.

The dictionaries define "Alfred" as meaning "Elf in council," and Allflatt or Elfleet as "elf purity". The big Alfe was no doubt symbolised by the celebrated Alphian Rock in Yorks.h.i.+re, and the little Alf was almost certainly wors.h.i.+pped in his coty or stone cradle at Alvescott near Witney. That this site was another Kit's Coty or "Cradle of Tudno," as at Llandudno, is implied by the earlier forms Elephescote (1216) and Alfays (1274). The Fays and the Elves are one and the same as the Jinns, the Genii, or "the Gentry".

There used to be an "Alphey" within Cripplegate on the site of the present Church of St. Alphage in London. It was believed that the Elf King inhabited the linden tree, and the elder was similarly a.s.sociated with him. Linden is the same word as London, and the name elder resolves into the _dre_ or _der_ or abode of El: in Scandinavia the elves were known as the Elles, whence probably Ellesmere--the Elves pool--and similar place-names.

We shall subsequently consider a humble Hallicondane or _Ellie King dun_ still standing in Ramsgate. There was also a famous Elve dun or Elve-haunt at _Elbo_ton, a hill in Yorks.h.i.+re, where according to local legend:--

From Burnsall's Tower the midnight hour Had toll'd and its echo was still, And the Elphin bard from faerie land Was upon _Elbo_ton Hill.

In the neighbourhood of this _ton_ or _dun_ of Elbo there are persistent traditions of a spectral hound or bandog.

In the immediate neighbourhood of the London Aldermanbury--the barrow or court of Alderman--is a church dedicated to St. Alban, and in this same district stood the parish church of St. Alphage. There figures in the Church Calendar a "St. Alphage the Bald," and also a St. Alphage or Elphege, known alternatively as Anlaf. The word Anlaf resolves into _Ancient Alif_, and it may be thus surmised that "Alphage the Bald" was the Alif, Aleph, or Alpha aged.

As has already been seen the Celts represented their Hercules as bald-headed. St. Alban's, Holborn, is situated in Baldwin's Gardens where also is a Baldwin's Place. Probably it was the same Bald One--_alias_ Father Time--that originated the Baldwin Street in the neighbourhood of St. Alphage and St. Alban, Aldermanbury.

St. Anlaf may be connoted with the St. Olave whose church neighbours those of St. Alphage, and St. Alban. By the Church of St. Alban used to run Love Lane, and _Anlaf_ may thus perhaps be rendered Ancient Love, or Ancient Life, or Ancient Elf.

The _Olive_ branch is a universally understood emblem of love, in which connection there is an apparition recorded of St. John the Almoner. "He saw on a time in a vision a much fair maid, which had on her head a crown of olive, and when he saw her he was greatly abashed and demanded her what she was." She answered, "I am Mercy; which brought from Heaven the Son of G.o.d; if thou wilt wed me thou shalt fare the better". Then he, understanding that the olive betokened Mercy, began that same day to be merciful.

A short distance from Aldermanbury is Bunhill Row, on the site of Bunhill fields where used to be kept the hounds or bandogs of the Corporation of London. The name Bunhill implies an ancient tumulus or barrow sacred to the same Bun or Ban as the neighbouring St. Albans.

The "Coleman" which pervades this district of London, as in Coleman Street, Colemanchurch, Colemanhawe, Colemannes, implies that a colony of St. Colmans or "Doves" settled there and founded the surrounding shrines. In Ireland, Kil as in Kilpatrick, Kilbride, meant cell or shrine, whence it may be deduced that the river Cuneburn or Kilburn was a sacred stream on the banks of which many G.o.dwyns had their cells. In this neighbourhood the place-names Hollybush Vale, Hollybush Tavern, imply the existence of a very celebrated Holly Tree. The ill.u.s.tration herewith represents the Twelfth Night Holly Festival in Westmorland, which terminated gloriously at an inn:--

To every branch a torch they tie To every torch a light apply, At each new light send forth huzzahs Till all the tree is in a blaze; Then bear it flaming through the town, With minstrelsy and rockets thrown.[165]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 40.--From _The Everyday Book_ (Hone, W.).]

At the Westmorland festival the holly tree was always carried by the biggest man, and in all probability this was a similar custom in the Cuneburn or Kilburn district, terminating at the Hollybush Tavern.

Scandinavian legend tells of a potent enchantress who had dwelt for 300 years on the Island of Kunnan (Canaan?) happy in the exquisite innocence of her youth. Mighty heroes sued for the love of this fairest of giant maidens, and the sea around Kunnan is said to be still c.u.mbered with the fragments of rock which her Cyclopean admirers flung jealously at one another. Ere, however, she was married "the detestable Odin" came into the country and drove all from the island. Refuging elsewhere the Lady of Kunnan and her consort dwelt awhile undisturbed until such time as a gigantic Oluf "came from Britain". This Oluf (they called him the Holy) making the sign of the cross with his hands drove ash.o.r.e in a gigantic s.h.i.+p crying with a loud voice: "Stand there as a stone till the last day," and in the same instant the unhappy husband became a ma.s.s of rock.

The tale continues that on Yule Eve only could the Lord of Kunnan and other petrified giants receive back their life for the s.p.a.ce of seven hours.[166]

Now Ja.n.u.s _alias_ Saturn had on his coins the figure of a s.h.i.+p's prow; he was sometimes delineated pointing to a rock whence issued a profusion of water; seven days were set apart for his rites in December; and the seven days of the week were no doubt connected with his t.i.tle of Septima.n.u.s. In Britain the consort of the Magna Mater Keridwen ( = _Perpetual Love_) or Ked was ent.i.tled Tegid, and like Ja.n.u.s and St.