“They’re not from Greece either.” For those of you who do not recognise them, they are actually from Grease (an American film/musical made in 1978). Unaccountably, lots of people liked (and still like) it.
"Do-wa-diddy-diddy-DUM-diddy-DO!” This is a similarly inane lyric from Manfred Man. (Inane means “lacking sense or meaning”, from Latin inanis ‘empty, vain’)
Chapter 29
What a piece of work is a man? The incomparable Shakespeare, from Act 11 scene ii of Hamlet: “What a piece of work is a man: how noble in reason, how infinite in faculties, in form and moving how express and admirable, in action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god! The beauty of the world, the paragon of animals - and yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust?”
Quintessence noun: “the most perfect or typical example of a quality or class” OED. From mediaeval Latin quinta essentia ‘fifth essence’.
fires of passion … icy contempt. Poets use metaphor a lot. Do you remember what ‘metaphor’ is? See the chapter 3 note on it if you have forgotten. There is also mention of metaphor in a chapter 11 note.
Metaphor is one of the most important tools language has. If I were to say that language is a great technicolour dreamcoat of ideas stitched together by metaphor, I would not have wandered far from the truth.
a mouthful of trekkytalk. Star Trek fans are known as Trekkies. They hold conventions, and speak Vulcan and Romulan.
Chapter 30
‘Rhymes for Kids’. Of course, there are a lot of quality poems for children out there, and I certainly do not want to offend anyone. However, I think children should be encouraged early on to distinguish between ‘verse’ (which has its place, and which can admittedly be clever and good fun) and ‘poetry’ (which says something important in a powerful way). If a child writes:
“I caught the flu
When I went to the zoo
And I saw a gnu
That looked just like you.”
you can find several encouraging things to say about it as light-hearted verse with rhyme and rhythm, but in my opinion it is not a poem. It falls instead into the ‘dollop of codswallop’ category of light verse.
WHEREAS, if a child writes:
“Hate consumes.
It kills the mind,
ruining the lives of
all who let it in.
Hate ferments in
death and destruction.
Boundless, it wrecks cities,
brings down countries.
And when all is gone,
it howls in the wilderness,
until, with nothing
left to feed on,
it dies alone.”
(Written by Ashley Brooks in 2007, in a primary school in Macclesfield, while in year 6)
it does not rhyme, nor does it have a particular rhythm; but it is clear that it is NOT a dollop of codswallop, nor is it any other kind of verse. It is a poem.
Chapter 31
Philosophical adj: “(in this context) having or showing a calm attitude towards disappointments or difficulties” OED. From Old French philosophie, via Latin from Greek philosophia ‘love of wisdom’.
Our city. Chester, a very interesting little city (in my opinion).
Poltergeist noun: “a ghost or other supernatural being supposedly responsible for physical disturbances such as making loud noises and throwing objects about” OED. From German poltern ‘create a disturbance’ and geist ‘ghost’.
Inkling noun: “a slight knowledge or suspicion; a hint. It first appears in late Middle English in the sense ‘a mention in an undertone, a hint’, and is from the rare verb inkle ‘utter in an undertone’, of unknown origin.” OED
Chapter 32
Elizabethan times, or maybe Jacobean. Queen Elizabeth 1st reigned from 1558-1603. King James I of England (VI of Scotland) reigned from 1603-1625.
Little Melling. You will not find a Little Melling in Cornwall, nor indeed anywhere else in the British Isles (though there is – entirely coincidentally - a Melling near Carnforth in Lancashire). Gordon asked me not to reveal the real name of the village. It is already visited by as many tourists as it can reasonably cope with.
Chapter 34
Dr David Livingstone was a Scot, and an explorer of the African continent in the nineteenth century. He is often mentioned in the same sentence as a man called Henry Morton Stanley, who was a reporter for the New York Times.
Stanley was sent to find Dr Livingstone by the owner of that newspaper: a man, coincidentally, by the name of Gordon Bennett. He finally caught up with Livingstone on November 10th 1871, and, it is reported, greeted the only other white man in that part of Africa with an opening remark that has since become famous: “Dr Livingstone, I presume.”
“Nice use of The Force, Luke.” This is of, course, a reference to the film Star Wars. While he was trying to pop a bomb down the right shaft on the surface of the death star, Luke Skywalker heard the voice of Alec Guinness in the rôle of Obi Wan Kenobi advising him to: “Use The Force, Luke.”
It’s a roller coaster … preventing its tongue from getting into the grooves. What do we call this figure of speech? – the one that stitches ideas together to make the technicolour dreamcoat called language? See the relevant notes to chapters 3, 11 and 29 if you have forgotten.
the light had begun to droop and drowse. This metaphorical use of “droop and drowse” creates a feeling of foreboding in any reader familiar with the following lines from Macbeth:
“Good things of day begin to droop and drowse,
Whiles the night's black agents to their preys do rouse.”
Macbeth, Act 3, scene 2, 52-3
Dormer windows: “windows that project vertically from a sloping roof” OED. As roofs are invariably on the top of buildings, and bedrooms are normally upstairs whenever there are any stairs, then such windows are not surprisingly associated with sleep. The French for ‘to sleep’ is dormir.
Chapter 36
Tinkers and Pedlars. A “tinker” was “(especially in former times) a person who made a living by travelling from place to place mending pots and pans and other metal utensils” OED. A “pedlar” was “an itinerant trader in small goods” OED. Apparently from a dialect word ped, ‘a pannier, a kind of basket’. “Itinerant” means ‘travelling’, from the Latin iter, itiner- meaning ‘journey, road’.
Best look them in the mouth. Examining a horse’s teeth is a way of determining its age. “As horses age, their teeth begin to project further forward and so their age can be estimated by checking how prominent their teeth are. This incidentally is also the source of another teeth/age related phrase – ‘long in the tooth’” ISOTI. See also the expression: “Don’t look a gift-horse in the mouth.”
he had involved himself with Gordon. Here I am using “involve” in its original Latin sense of ‘rolled into’, from in- into and volvere ‘to roll’ (the same Latin root as in revolve ‘to roll again’). The poet John Milton (1608-1674) used it in this way in his epic poem Paradise Lost, when in Book 9 he wrote:
“There was a place,
Now not, though Sin, not Time, first wrought the change,
Where Tigris at the foot of Paradise
Into a Gulf shot under ground, till part
Rose up a Fountain by the Tree of Life;
In with the River sunk, and with it rose
Satan involv’d in rising Mist, then sought
Where to lie hid.” Book IX, 69–76
Something tells me that Zack was there when John wrote those lines.
Chapter 37
Thirteen. There is interesting and extensive information on the significance of the number 13 on the net. To this day, some architects do not have a thirteenth floor in tall buildings (instead going from 12 to 14). Housebuilders employ the same avoidance strategy when numbering the houses in a new close or crescent.
it had called to him like the ring called to Gollum, and the Aztec gold called to the Pirates of the Caribbean.
Zack extricated himself: ‘unravelled, untangled’ OED. From Latin ex- ‘out’ and tricae ‘perplexities’.
Quizzically adv: in a way that indicates “mild or amused puzzlement” OED. I gave you the meaning of the adjective in a note to Chapter 23.
Chapter 38
a coincidence of oak beams. In this sentence, the word ‘coincidence’ is used in its original 17th century sense ‘occupation of the same space’. From Latin co- ‘together’, in- ‘upon’ and cadere ‘to fall’. I hope by now that you can see how many long words in English are formed by borrowing from another language that combined smaller words to express increasingly complicated ideas.
Levitating verb: “rising or causing to rise and hover in the air” OED. From Latin levis ‘light’, leviter ‘lightly’.
Chapter 39
with straw spills poked into the fire. A “spill” is “a thin strip of combustible material used for lighting a fire, candle, pipe, etc.”
It wur Meg Kershaw saw ‘ur furst, wuren’ it Jeannie? These women are speaking English with a broad West Country accent. The spelling is meant to give you some idea of what they sounded like. Try speaking their lines (if only in your head) as they are spelled.
Chapter 40
'E'd needed 'is little baakside skelped: “skelped” means “struck, slapped or smacked”. Late Middle English: probably imitative (struck hard enough to cause a yelp?).
Chapter 41
All ‘Allows E’en: the night we now call Halloween (the evening before All Saints Day on November 1st).
as breath into the wind. When the witches disappear, Macbeth asks Banquo “Whither are they vanished?” and Banquo replies: “Into the air, and what seemed corporal melted, as breath into the wind.”
Harridan noun: “a strict, bossy, or belligerent woman” OED.
Chapter 42
a hearty Ploughman’s: “short for ‘ploughman’s lunch’: meal of bread and cheese, typically with pickle and salad” OED. In a good pub like this one, the cheeses will have been hand-picked local varieties, the bread crusty and freshly baked and the pickle home-made and delicious.
a pint of ‘Beheaded’. ‘Beheaded’ is one of Cornwall’s many real ales, chosen by Victor on this occasion for two reasons. He liked the name - though the beer was more likely to make you legless than headless (or maybe both) - and it was the strongest on sale by a fair margin.
“Both time and place do now adhere”. This chapter, not surprisingly, contains references to Shakespeare’s play Macbeth, with its witches. Here, there is an echo from Act 1, scene 7, where Lady Macbeth says to her husband:
“Nor time nor place
Did then adhere and yet you would make both.
They have made themselves, and that their fitness now
Does unmake you.”
He could see that far-away look in her eyes. Do you know the Ray Charles song: Crying Time? Have a listen to it on YouTube.
thoughts that lay too deep for tears: William Wordsworth, Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood. (1803-6) Stanza XI:
“To me the meanest flower that blows can give
Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears.”
Chapter 43
"Had I three ears I’d hear thee". This is what Macbeth replies when the second apparition says his name three times: “Macbeth, Macbeth, Macbeth.” (Act IV scene 1). Three is a powerful number (the rule of three; birth, life and death; the Trinity (Father, Son and Holy Ghost), the three points of a triangle [never walk under ladders ...])
SGGm: sixteen greats grandmother (fairly obviously!). No prizes for working out what SGGf stands for!
A bastard out of wedlock. In those days, “bastard” was the term used to describe any child born to parents who were not married.
Chapter 44
It’s a saying:
“There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.” Hamlet V i, 166-7
Chapter 45
What the blue blazes. The hottest flames burn blue.
Chapter 46
Priest hole “is the term given to a hiding place for priests built into many of the principal Roman Catholic houses of England during the period when Catholics were persecuted by law in England, from the beginning of the reign of Queen Elizabeth I in 1558. Laws against seminary priests and recusants were enforced with great severity after the Gunpowder Plot episode during James I’s reign.
It was common for the castles and country houses of England to have some precaution in the event of a surprise, such as a secret means of concealment or escape that could be used at a moment's notice. In the time of legal persecution, the number of secret chambers and hiding-places increased in the houses of the old Catholic families.” ISOTI (Wikipedia)
A “recusant” is “a person who refuses to submit to an authority or to comply with a regulation. Historically: a person who refused to attend services of the Church of England” OED. From Latin recusant- ‘refusing’ from the verb recusare.
Chapter 48
her Ladyship’s herbal detox: herbal tea, made with “active botanicals” that - it is claimed - “spruce up your insides”.
Pile noun: “(in this sense) a large, imposing building” OED. From Old French, from Latin pila ‘pillar, pier’.
Chapter 49
Hayabusa is Japanese for ‘peregrine falcon’, a bird that often serves as a metaphor for speed because of its vertical hunting dive, or stoop, of 180 to 240 miles per hour (290 to 390 km/h), the fastest of any bird.
In particular, the choice of name was made because the peregrine falcon preys on blackbirds, which reflected the intent of the original Hayabusa to unseat the CBR 1100XX Super Blackbird as the Wiccaworld's fastest production broomstick. Eventually, the Hayabusa managed to surpass the Super Blackbird by at least 10 miles per hour (16 km/h).” ISOTI (mostly)
contagion to this world. Hamlet, Act 3, scene 2. “Contagion” means ‘the communication of disease.’
mullioned windows are windows with “a vertical bar between the panes of glass” OED. Probably an altered form of monial (from Old French moinel ‘middle’).
This your djinn, is it? A “djinn” is “an intelligent spirit of lower rank than the angels, able to appear in human and animal forms and to possess humans” OED. The word is from the Arabic Jinnī. A 'genie' is “a spirit ... capable of granting wishes” OED. From French génie, from Latin genius. Zack is neither a jinnī nor a génie, though he clearly possesses some of the characteristics of both.
Alter-Ego is a Latin phrase meaning “other I”. One of the most famous alter-egos in literature is Edward Hyde in Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic novella: The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, published in 1886.
Mothballs and Lily of the Valley. Gordon was only faintly aware that this might be an anachronism. His sixteen-greats-grandmother hails from the seventeenth century, and the classic perfume of that name was not invented by a French artisan perfumer until the 18th century. It is explained by the fact that in the 21st century Gordon has an aunt that favours this perfume by Yardley, and who also takes the rather anachronistic precaution of keeping mothballs in her clothes drawers.
An “anachronism” is “a thing belonging or appropriate to a period other than that in which it exists” OED. From Greek anakhronismos, from ana- ‘backwards’ + khronos ‘time’.
Rather odd things do occur quite frequently in dreams. You won’t have noticed that this clause has thirteen syllables. Did you notice any rhythmical undertones in the language of the Fairyland dream, when Gordon was five (Chapters 11-13)? Something happens to language when it is around fairies. Listen out for it.
crave a boon. This is archaic English meaning ‘to ask for a favour’. Gordon, as you know, is keen on language, and adjusts it depending on the expectations of the person to whom he is speaking. His SGGm is from the seventeenth century. Gordon felt this expression was appropriate.
The Wars of t
he Roses were “a series of dynastic civil wars for the throne of England, fought between supporters of two rival branches of the Royal House of Plantagenet: the Houses of Lancaster and York (the ‘red’ and the ‘white’ roses, respectively). They were fought in several spasmodic episodes between 1455 and 1485, although there was related fighting both before and after this period.
The final victory went to a relatively remote Lancastrian claimant, Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond, who married Elizabeth of York, the daughter of the late Yorkist king Edward IV. This reconciled the two factions and founded the House of Tudor, which subsequently ruled England and Wales for 117 years.” ISOTI (Wikipedia)
Richard of York gave battle in vain: the mnemonic now used to help us remember the colours of the rainbow in the right order -RYGBIV – was formed with reference to “Richard, 3rd Duke of York, 6th Earl of March, 4th Earl of Cambridge, and 7th Earl of Ulster conventionally called Richard of York (21 September 1411 – 30 December 1460).
He was a leading English magnate, and great-grandson of King Edward III. He inherited great estates, and served in various offices of state in France at the end of the Hundred Years’ War, and in England, ultimately governing the country as Lord Protector during Henry VI’s madness.
His conflicts with Henry's queen, Margaret of Anjou, and other members of Henry's court were a leading factor in the political upheaval of mid-fifteenth-century England, and a major cause of the Wars of the Roses. Richard eventually attempted to claim the throne but was dissuaded, although it was agreed that he would become King on Henry's death.
Within a few weeks of securing this agreement, he died in battle. Although Richard never became king, he was the father of Edward IV and Richard III.” ISOTI (Wikipedia)