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- Alembic
- Something that refines or transmutes as if
by distillation.
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- Annwn
- Pronounced something like Ann-noon , this is the Celtic other world, the underworld, or the land of the dead. It is a place of great power and contained a cauldron that King Arthur had to travel into Annwn to fetch.
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- Blunderbore
- Blunderbore is the Welsh giant in Jack the Giant- Killer that Jack that Jack kills, with the giant's brother, with a noose and sword.
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- Brutus
- According to Geoffrey of Monmouth, Brutus was the founder of Britain. He was a Trojan general fleeing Troy after the Trojan War. After receiving a religious vision, he and Corineus sailed through the Mediterranean and up the Atlantic and founded Britain. The word Britain is supposed to be derived from the name Brutus.
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- Caliburn
- The Welsh name of Arthur's sword. In medieval legend, the name was Romanticized to Excalibur.
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- Chapbook
- Inexpensive paper bound books primarily intended for children and sold on streets by 'chapmen' from a shallow box supported by a cloth tie around the chapman's neck much as cigarettes used to be sold in clubs.
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- Cousin Jack
- Cornish men referred to themselves as Cousin Jack within Cornwall and all over the world. Calling the giant Jack's uncle may be no more than a device to use this phrase.
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- Corineus
- According to Geoffrey of Monmouth, Corineus was the founder of Cornwall; he was Brutus's first general. Brutus, according to Geoffrey, was a Trojan who founded Britain.
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- Cormoran
- According to Opie, this giant is alternatively named Cormilian, Cormelian, and Corinoran. Opie attributes the latter possibly to Corineus of Geoffrey of Monmouth.
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- Ding Dong Mine
- An ancient tin mine in Cornwall, one of the oldest in the county, in the parish of Penwith. Popular tradition has it that Joseph of Arimathea may have brough a young Jesus as a boy or young man here, possibly to address the miners.
(A. H. Lewis Christ in Cornwall? from A Glastonbury Reader, pages 172-197 [page 173, page 176, page 184]).
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- Droll
- A comic or farcical composition, from the noun 'a funny or waggish fellow.' Our use of droll as an adjective means 'intentionally facetious, amusing,' and as a verb 'to jest.'
In Cornwall, a droll-teller can be considered a modern version of a Welsh bard. Droll-tellers wandered from village to village trading telling of standard stories around a blazing hearth for his meals and lodging for the evening. The droll-teller relied on his prodigious memory as did the Welsh bards. Often, the listeners knew the tales just as well, so improvisation was undertaken by the droll with caution. The droll, like the tinker, brought news from outside the parish; but his tools were his memory of hundreds of stories and his mouth to tell them, plus a dash of theater to really bring it off.
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- Excalibur
- The Romanticized name of Arthur's sword. In Welsh legend, the sword's name is Caliburn.
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- Geoffrey Of Monmouth
- Geoffrey Of Monmouth is famous for writing The Histories of the Kings of Britain in the twelfth century. Shakespeare is supposed to have based MacBeth and King Lear on this work.
Geoffrey's work is one the earliest manuscripts to survive that mentions King Arthur. Geoffrey's work has been attacked by scholars. The notion of History in Geoffrey's time is not the same as ours today. Geoffrey and his contemporaries used the word to describe accounts of historical figures more like the writer of Genesis; that is, as a suitable myth to frame important events. Geoffrey narrates stories about giants such as Gogmagog that, although entertaining, are not and were not considered as literal, historical fact in order for his work to have value.
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- Gogmagog
- Geoffrey of Monmouth writes in his The Histories of the Kings of Britain that when Brutus founded Britain that the island was inhabited by a race of giants. One of their leaders, Gogmagog, wrestled with Brutus's general Corineus near where Plymouth, Devon, is today.
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- Griffin
- A fabulous animal typically half eagle and half lion.
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- Joshua bar Miriam
- I have read someplace that Joshua bar Miriam is the likely Jewish name of the man commonly called Jesus Christ. Jesus is a likely Christian version of the Jewish name Joshua; just as James is of Jacob, and Mary of Miriam.
The word bar means son of the female or son of the mother; whereas, ben signifies son of the male or son of the father.
It is argued that Joshua would have been called Joshua bar Miriam instead of Joshua ben Joseph because of the unmarried state of his mother at conception, which some refer to as 'virgin birth.' To put it another way, Joseph was not Joshua's father; therefore, Joshua could not be named Joshua ben Joseph, but he was the son of Miriam, so he could be named Joshua bar Miriam.
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- Lob's Pound
- Prison; jail; place of confinement.
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- Mould
- Decayed organic matter; earth.
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- Strow
- Scatter by hand.
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- Sword and Belt
- In celtic mythology, a fairy gift that confers immortality. Morgan gives Arthur an embroidered scabbard for his sword Caliburn (later Excalibur) that protected the wearer from loss of blood. When Arthur's sword and scabbard are stolen and a fake substituted, he suffers wounds.
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- Taliesin
- Celtic bard, poet, and seer thought to have lived about the time of Merlin and Arthur. This puts him somewhere at the end of the fifth century AD to the beginning of the sixth century AD.
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- Tallow Dips
- Candles made by dipping wicks in tallow (clear, whitish animal fat). Candles were often carried home from market tied to the waist belt.
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- The Land's End
- The extreme southwest point of Cornwall. Cornwall, in turn, is at the southwest corner of Britain. The Cornish always refered to it as The Land's End.
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- White Hind
- A hind is the female of a red deer. However, to the Celts, any white animal comes from Annwn.
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