(urth) Wizard Questions

[Martinus Scriblerus]

On 4/8/07, thalassocrat at nym.hush.com <thalassocrat at nym.hush.com> wrote:
>
>
> On Sun, 08 Apr 2007 09:49:43 +1000 Batrinque at aol.com wrote:
> >Having just finished reading "The Wizard", a myriad of questions
> >present
> >themselves.  A couple are:
> >
> >Is "Ormsby" an alternative form of "Pendragon"?
>
> I'm in a minority, I think, in believing it isn't. The -by suffix
> usually means something like "village" or "town", and I take the
> name to mean "from the village of the dragon". But what *that*
> means, in story terms, I'm still trying to work out ...

While visiting a 2nd hand book shop & cafe in St Ives today I bought a
copy of the Oxford Dictionary of English Place Names. According to
this Ormesby or Ormsby are considered to be a combination of the Old
Scandinavian personal names 'Ormr' or 'Ormarr' and 'by' meaning farm
of village. Of course the personal name probably derives from 'snake'
or 'dragon'. I make the distinction because the Great Ormes Head in
Conwy and Great & Little Ormside in Cumbria are linked directly to Old
Scandinavian 'Ormr' meaning 'snake'.

Fascinating book - I could browse it for hours.

While I was there I also picked up a copy of "Endangered Species".  A
good day out.

-- 
Martinus Scriblerus scripsit ex 50º 21' N, 4º41' W