[Spellyans] Fw: Cornish in a Thriller! & Place Name QueryForCraig

[Craig Weatherhill]

It's the Late Cornish form of <gwel>, "open field", usually just  
translated as "field".  The <ea> in Late Cornish represents the long  
E, roughly "ai".

Craig


On 7 Gwn 2012, at 00:21, ewan wilson wrote:

> Again, Thanks!
> What's the etymology of 'gweal' in any case, now I come to think of  
> it, in these componds? My Nance dictionary doesn't seem to list  
> anything.
> Ewan.
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Craig Weatherhill
> To: Standard Cornish discussion list
> Sent: Thursday, September 06, 2012 11:36 PM
> Subject: Re: [Spellyans] Fw: Cornish in a Thriller! & Place Name  
> QueryForCraig
>
> No, on the edge of St Ives, between there and Carbis Bay.
>
> The other place I mentioned, Gwealcarn, was totally obliterated by  
> the Giew Mine at Cripple's Ease (just N of the Engine Inn).  Field- 
> names apart, I can't think of any settlement name with <gweal> west  
> of those two.
>
> Craig
>
>
>
>
> On 6 Gwn 2012, at 21:31, ewan wilson wrote:
>
>> Thanks, Craig, for the prompt reply.
>> I'd never heard of her before, either, but came across three of her  
>> books in a charity shop and as this one was set in Cornwall I  
>> thought it the next best thing to visiting it which I can't do this  
>> year.
>> It's a wee bit 'slow' for a thriller, to be honest, but all the  
>> Penwith references make it fascinating. And she does seem to have  
>> done her homework on Cornish culture.
>> I wonder if she was just taking some 'poetic licence' with the  
>> topography, especially as St Edzell is obviously fictitious, but  
>> from the decriptions can only be either St Ives or Penzance.  But  
>> the way she mentions the 'direct route' from there to Minack makes  
>> it sound as if you hit St Buryan first. Chy an Gweal...is that on  
>> the outskirts of Penzance?
>>
>> Ewan.
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: Craig Weatherhill
>> To: Standard Cornish discussion list
>> Sent: Thursday, September 06, 2012 7:04 PM
>> Subject: Re: [Spellyans] Fw: Cornish in a Thriller! & Place Name  
>> Query ForCraig
>>
>> Well, there are places with Gweal in their name:  Gwealcarn,  
>> Towednack;  Chy an Gweal, St Ives, to name just two, but there's no  
>> place called Gweal (as a simplex element), apart from Gweal,  
>> Scilly, which is a contraction of *gwydh-yel, "tree-grown" (it's  
>> far from being that now, but probably was in antiquity).
>>
>> I must admit, I've never heard of the book or its author.
>>
>> Craig
>>
>>
>>
>> On 6 Gwn 2012, at 18:46, ewan wilson wrote:
>>
>>> Think this went the wrong way and should have come here!
>>> Ewan.
>>> ----- Original Message -----
>>> From: ewan wilson
>>> To: spellyans-bounces at kernowek.net
>>> Sent: Thursday, September 06, 2012 6:43 PM
>>> Subject: Cornish in a Thriller! & Place Name Query For Craig
>>>
>>> One does come across Cornish in the most peculiar places!
>>> I have been reading Wheel Fortune, a 'suspense thriller' written  
>>> by a Karen Campbell and published by Wm. Collins&Sons back in  
>>> 1973. The title's a play on the word 'Wheal', as it refers to a  
>>> presumably fictitious Cornish tin mine somewhere on the Penwith  
>>> Peninsula.
>>> Anyway, Miss Campbell obviously knew her UC as she has one old  
>>> Cornish woman welcome back her young friend with the greeting:
>>> ' Da yu genef agas gweles.'
>>> This young woman, having been raised in Cornwall, recalls at a  
>>> later stage in the story some Cornish she knew:
>>> 'Byth dorn rever dhe'n tavas re hyr.'
>>>
>>> At a crucial point in the action she is lured to the Minack  
>>> Theatre and she writes:
>>> ' The direct route from Sr Edzell's to Minack is via St Buryan and  
>>> Gweal- but I took the roundabout devious way on the unmade roads  
>>> over the moor.'
>>> Now, I think St Edzell's is supposed to be either St Ives or  
>>> Penzance but I cannot work out if there actually is a 'Gweal'  
>>> around the Penwith Peninsula. If not, i'm baffled why she should  
>>> mention an actual spot like St Buryan yet ficionalise a 'Gweal'!  
>>> Craig- any ideas?
>>> I know next to nothing about this author, save that she penned a  
>>> few 'suspense' novels in the early 70s and dedicated one to a  
>>> 'Catherine Campbell McNeill of Kilchoman', presumably a relative  
>>> and obviously Scottish as the name had hinted.
>>> I am left fascinated about how she came to know at least a working  
>>> smattering of UC!!!
>>> Sorry this is a bit off topic but I thought Craig'd be worth while  
>>> consulting and you'd all like to know the unlikely reach of Cornish!
>>>
>>> Ewan.
>>>
>>>
>>>
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>>
>>
>>
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