A Wizard of Dreams (Myrddin's Heir Book 1)

by Robin Chambers

Posterity noun: “all future generations of people” OED. From Old French posterité, from Latin posteritas, from posterus ‘following’ (as in posterior).

  Anteriority noun: “formal: coming before in time” OED. All past generations of people (the opposite of posterity). From French antérior or Latin anterior, comparative form of ante ‘before’. Compare post-natal and ante-natal.

  Hoi polloi plural noun: “[DEROGATORY] the masses; the common people. It came into English in the mid seventeenth century, from ancient Greek, and means literally ‘the many’” OED.

  Chapter 50

  Eaves noun: “the part of a roof that meets or overhangs the walls of a building” OED.

  He loads the vines in autumn. Mabon is associated with the Autumn Equinox. Please type “Keats Ode to Autumn” into your internet browser, and read the poem that he wrote on September 19th 1819.

  It did not choose to save me from that stake. Gordon’s ancestor begins here to speak in a rhythmical kind of blank verse, as the fairies did in Gordon’s fairytale dream, and as Gordon does himself whenever he is close to magic. We are about to discover why.

  as Yahweh left his Son upon that Cross. “Yahweh” is the Hebrew name for God.

  through a glass darkly. This is from 1 Corinthians 13 in the St James Version of The Bible: “For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face” (Paul of Tarsus)

  The Lia Fáil (Big stone of Fál). There are lots of images of this stone on Google Images. It is also known as the Coronation Stone of Tara. “It is found at the Inauguration Mound (Irish an Forrad) on the Hill of Tara in County Meath in Ireland, and served as the coronation stone for the High Kings of Ireland.” ISOTI (Wikipedia)

  Lands forlorn in fairy times. “Forlorn” has two senses: ‘pitifully sad and abandoned or lonely’, and also (of an aim or a cause): ‘unlikely to succeed’. Both senses are here because the land now called Éire belonged to the fairies before humans took it from them.

  Kernow: the Cornish name for Cornwall.

  Penzance noun: “literally ‘Holyhead’: pen is the Cornish word for a headland and zance is a Cornish form of the Latin sanctus ‘holy’. Remember that the Romans ruled Ancient Britain for almost 500 years, so their language (Latin) was bound to have had a profound influence on the ancient Brythonic language, which was a form of Celtic.

  In the same way, French had a profound influence on English because of the Norman Conquest. About half the words we use now are from French.

  Imbued: “permeated or saturated” OED. From French imbu ‘moistened’, Latin imbuere ‘moisten’.

  “May I with right and conscience make this claim?” Gordon, as you know, has total recall, and Zack must have quoted this line to him, which is from Act 1 scene 2 of Shakespeare’s Henry V.

  The pointed star is a pentagram (a five sided figure), sometimes referred to as the endless knot (because you can make it without taking your hand from the shape). That the apex is up is a sign that its magic is good. Satanists use it upside down.

  Oblivious: not aware of or concerned about what is happening. Late Middle English: from Latin obliviosus, from oblivio(n-). The Latin verb oblivisci means ‘forget’. OED

  you must stand in his stead; wait for him here and you will serve him well. Type 'Milton on his Blindness' into your browser and read his remarkable sonnet about the affliction which struck him while he was comparatively young, and how he found consolation in his philosophy. The last line reads: “They also serve who only stand and wait.”

  Chapter 51

  By a country mile: an informal expression, meaning ‘a very great distance’. Did you know that the word “mile” comes from the Latin mille ‘thousand’, and was originally the distance travelled by marching Roman soldiers in one thousand paces? A pace was left-right – sinister dexter.

  “Speak Friend and Enter”. This was the message outside the magically sealed entrance to the Mountains of Moria in The Lord of the Rings.

  A small furry dog ran into the circle. I expect you know what a cairn terrier looks like; but if you’re not sure, you know what you can do. Good old Google Images! What a valuable resource it is.

  Mother’s Boy: the best kind of boy, in my opinion.

  sighed his soul:

  “The moon shines bright. In such a night as this,

  When the sweet wind did gently kiss the trees,

  And they did make no noise, in such a night

  Troilus methinks mounted the Troyan walls,

  And sighed his soul toward the Grecian tents,

  Where Cressid lay that night.”

  Shakespeare The Merchant of Venice, Act V scene 1, 1-6

  How wonderful is THAT?!

  Chapter 52

  Rhedyn: a Welsh female name, meaning “fern”.

  Gordon’s holiday reading was The Magician’s Nephew by C.S. Lewis: the first of the Chronicles of Narnia.

  Chapter 53

  the map: Ordnance Survey Explorer 107 – St Austell and Liskeard.

  classic Du Maurier country. “Much loved novelist, playwright and biographer, Daphne du Maurier was born 13th May 1907 in London, the second of three daughters ... In 1928 she began writing short stories and her first novel The Loving Spirit was published in 1931.

  The novels she is most famous for are Rebecca, Jamaica Inn and Frenchman's Creek - each no doubt inspired by her love of Cornwall, where she made her home for many years - a seventeenth-century mansion, Menabilly (the setting for Manderley) overlooking the sea.” ISOTI

  The Cornish South coast. I was reminded of this walk by Martin Hesp’s evocative account of it, and am indebted to him for some of the scenic details (www. westcountrywalks.com).

  the mining of kaolin. Type 'The Lee Moor China Clay Works' into Google Images to get an idea of what a kaolin quarry looks like.

  a thousand ages to a God. Do you know the hymn that contains the lines “A thousand ages in thy sight are like an evening gone”? If not, type “O God, our help in ages past” + YouTube into your browser and listen to a moving rendition of that hymn in Westminster Abbey, with some spine-tingling harmonies in the final verse.

  It was a favourite hymn of Winston Churchill, and was sung at his funeral in 1965. I was in the crowds in London that day to see the cortège go by. Because a short American fellow-student friend of mine was on my shoulders, she got a much better view than I did!

  Einstein’s idea. Type Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity into your internet browser and you can read more about it. It gets a little complicated!

  Analogy noun: “a comparison between one thing and another” OED. Ultimately from Greek analogos ‘proportionate’.

  gestation period: the time between the conception of a baby and its birth.

  Fetus (sometimes still spelt foetus): “an unborn or unhatched offspring of a mammal, in particular an unborn human more than 8 weeks after conception” OED.

  Hand in hand, with wandering steps and slow. Watching Victor and Edith on that headland, I was reminded of Milton’s Paradise Lost Book 12, ll. 643-47:

  “The world was all before them, where to choose

  Their place of rest, and Providence their guide.

  They hand in hand, with wand’ring steps and slow,

  Through Eden took their solitary way.”

  Of course, they weren’t visiting the Eden Project until the following day, and their way was unlikely to be solitary.

  Chapter 54

  Biddies noun: “a woman, especially an elderly one, regarded as annoying or interfering. Of unknown origin, it originally denoted a chicken. The present-day meaning was probably influenced by the use of biddy denoting an Irish maidservant; from Biddy, a pet form of the name Bridget” OED.

  Chapter 55

  Polymer noun: “a substance which has a molecular structure built up chiefly or completely from a large number of similar units bonded together, e.g. many synthetic organic materials used as plastics and resins” OED. From Greek polumeros ‘having many parts’.
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br />   Topi is a Hindi word for hat, and the word is normally used in English to describe a kind of pith helmet worn in the tropics for protection against fierce sun and heat.

  “I’ll not be far away.” This is called 'dramatic irony' in the trade: when the reader knows something the characters in the story do not (i.e. that there is a distinct likelihood that Gordon will soon be very far away indeed).

  Epiphytes. The word dates from the mid-19th century. It was coined from two Greek words: epi ‘in addition’ and phuton ‘plant’.

  one of those questions that don’t expect an answer: they’re called 'rhetorical questions'.

  Bromeliad: “a plant of tropical and subtropical America, typically having short stems with rosettes of stiff, spiny leaves” OED. A terrestrial bromeliad is one that roots in the earth like a conventional plant.

  It was like something out of Jurassic Park. Type “black howler monkey + YouTube” into your browser, and you can hear the noise that Gordon heard. The sound of howlers was used on the Jurassic Park soundtrack.

  a keel-billed toucan and a violaceous trogon on the same branch. There are lots of pictures of these amazing birds on Google Images.

  In 2010, a keen bird-watching guest of the Orchid Garden Eco-Village Hotel in Belize came back from his day trip to the ancient Mayan City of Lamanai, ecstatic because he had seen a keel-billed toucan and a violaceous trogon on the same branch.

  Chapter 56

  Harpy Eagle. Have a look at this incredible bird if you haven’t seen one before. By now you know where to look for lots of pictures of it.

  Visceral adj: “relating to the viscera – the internal organs in the main cavities of the body, and hence relating to deep inward feelings rather than to intellect.

  Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? The phrase, as it is normally quoted in Latin, comes from the Satires of Juvenal (Juvenal was a Roman Satirist who lived between the first and second century CE).

  wide enough for three to stand abreast. On such a boat, the mortally wounded Arthur was carried to the Elfin Isle of Avalon, accompanied by three queens. This journey is mirrored at the end of the Lord of the Rings when Frodo, Bilbo and Gandalf sail off with the elves.

  to break with a sullen sound. According to Llywarch Hen's Elegy:

  "The grave of Llovan Llawdivo

  Is on the strand of Menai,

  Where makes the wave a sullen sound."

  and no birds sang:

  “Oh what can ail thee, Knight at Arms,

  Alone and palely loitering?

  The sedge has wither’d from the lake

  And no birds sing.”

  John Keats 1819 La Belle Dame sans Merci

  Mithril is the metal described by J.R.R. Tolkien in his Middle Earth trilogy as silvery, and stronger than steel, but much lighter in weight. “The malleability, lack of tarnishing and use of the metal in jewellery suggest some similarity to ... platinum, while its strength and lightness suggest titanium.” ISOTI

  He recognised their cadence: that is, their “rhythmical pattern of language.” From Gordon’s first encounter with fairies in his dreams it has been evident that fairies have a musical effect on the language spoken by or near them.

  Were it not so, I would have told you. “In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.” John 14, 2 (King James Version of the Bible).

  Here in Avalon … Here in Tír na nÓg: “Avalon (probably from the Welsh word afal, meaning apple) is a legendary island featured in the Arthurian legends. It is famous for its beautiful apples. It first appears in Geoffrey of Monmouth’s 1136 pseudo-historical account Historia Regnum Britanniae (‘The History of the Kings of Britain’) as the place where King Arthur’s sword Excalibur (Caliburnus) was forged and later where Arthur was taken to recover from his wounds after the Battle of Camlann. Avalon was associated from an early date with immortal beings such as Morgan le Fay.”

  “Tír na nÓg (Old Irish Tír inna n-Óc; roughly meaning "Land of Youth") is the most popular of the Otherworlds in Irish Mythology. It is perhaps best known from the story of Oisín, one of the few mortals who lived there. He was said to have been brought there by Niamh of the Golden Hair. It was where the Tuatha De Danann settled when they left Ireland’s surface, and was visited by some of Ireland's greatest heroes. Tír na nÓg is similar to other mythical Irish lands such as Mag Mell and Ablach.

  Tír na nÓg was considered a place beyond the edges of the map ... This otherworld was a place where sickness and death did not exist. It was a place of eternal youth and beauty. Here, music, strength, life, and all pleasurable pursuits came together in a single place. Here, happiness lasted forever.” ISOTI (Wikipedia).

  Does it remind you of anywhere else you may have heard of? It would have reminded the Ancient Greeks of Elysium, the Vikings of Valhalla.

  we follow old ways. Do you remember what Gordon’s SGGm said to him when he first saw her in the mirror? “You have begun well. But I must follow old ways.”

  My names are legion. How many can you think of? Moses, Myrddin, Māth, Merlin, Prospero, Gandalf, Obi-Wan, Albus… That’s just one list. I could offer you another. What names would be on that other list, do you think?

  Chapter 58

  A.B.V. Alcohol by volume. As a rule of thumb, a thirsty adult human male in unfamiliar territory is quite likely to use the A.B.V. as an indicator of how tasty and pleasantly relaxing a particular beverage is likely to be.

  “Poor is the pupil …”. It was Leonardo Da Vinci who said “Poor is the pupil who does not surpass his master.” (That is of course an English translation of what Leonardo Da Vinci said)

  Prescience noun: “the fact of knowing something in advance; foreknowledge.” OED. From Latin prae- ‘before’ and scire ‘to know’.

  Chapter 59

  Feta noun: “A white salty Greek cheese made from the milk of ewes or goats” OED. From Modern Greek pheta.

  whether it actually came for Greece or not.

  “BRITAIN’S only feta producer has said that a European court ruling that the name may be used only by Greek cheese-makers will lead to shortages. Judy Bell, of Shepherds Purse Cheese in Yorkshire, branded the decision by the Luxembourg court as “ludicrous”, and said that it would cost jobs and money.

  The European Court of Justice ended a 13-year dispute when it ruled that the name “feta” must be used only for white cheese soaked in brine and made in Greece. The ruling was made under the same legislation that ensures that champagne comes from Champagne in France, and Parma ham must come from Parma in Italy.

  There is no right of appeal. The ruling has caused chaos in the European feta industry, with all manufacturers, apart from Greeks, being barred from using the name from 2007.”

  (ISOTI: An article published in The Times in 2005)

  Surreptitious adj: kept secret, an action taken with the intention of hiding something from an observer. From the Latin verb surripere, from sub- ‘secretly’ and rapere ‘to seize’ OED.

  Einioes, Graslonrwydd, Gwythyr. These are Welsh names. Approximate pronunciations are EenYOess, GRASSlonrwith and GwIthir. Einioes means ‘Life’ in Welsh. Graslonrwydd means ‘Graciousness’.

  A docudrama: a documentary that has actors re-enacting scenes and events.

  Chapter 60

  Subterfuge noun: “deceit used in order to achieve one’s goal” OED. From French or late Latin subterfugium, from Latin subterfugere ‘escape secretly’, from subter- ‘beneath’ + fugere ‘to flee’.

  Suffused verb: “gradually spread through or over” OED. From Latin suffus- ‘poured into’, from sub- ‘below’ and fundere ‘pour’.

  A hundred people could have stood around it, each at arm’s length from the other. That makes it between 500 and 600 feet in circumference, and around 175 feet in diameter.

  A great cross ... a magnificent rose at its centre. Type Celtic cross into Google images to see lots of examples.

  prate of their where
abouts:

  “Thou sure and firm set earth,

  Hear not my steps which way they walk, for fear

  The very stones prate of my whereabout,”

  Macbeth, Act 11, scene 1

  Moted adj: specked with dust.

  Sable-silvered compound adj: a deep black, with white streaks. This was the colour of the beard of Hamlet’s father’s ghost.

  Palpable adj: “so intense as to seem almost tangible” OED.

  Emanating verb: “issuing or spreading out…” OED. From Latin emanat- ‘flowed out’, from e- (variant of ex-) ‘out’ + manare ‘to flow’.

  Tsunami noun: “a long, high wave caused by an earthquake or other disturbance” OED. From Japanese tsu ‘harbour’ + nami ‘wave’.

  Chapter 61

  in greater numbers than autumnal leaves. The idea for this simile came from the line: “Thick as autumnal leaves that strew the brooks in Vallombrosa” (Paradise Lost, Book 1, line 302). Paradise Lost is an epic poem in blank verse by the 17th-century English poet John Milton. It was originally published in 1667 (though written nearly ten years earlier)” ISOTI (Wikipedia). I have referred to it several times in these notes.

  aeons of weariness around his eyes:

  “Elephants in the circus

  Have aeons of weariness around their eyes.

  Yet they sit up

  and show vast bellies to the children.”

  D. H. Lawrence

  “there is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so.” Hamlet Act 2, scene 2, 251-3. Gordon quoted this line to his mother in Chapter 31. Zack first quoted it to him after an Enjoy-a-Ball session, when he was six (see the end of Chapter 17).