(urth) Wizard Questions
Martinus Scriblerus
martinus.scriblerus at gmail.com
Mon Apr 9 10:41:32 PDT 2007
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
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