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

Fri Sep 7 21:25:13 BST 2012

I know the feeling.  I've mislaid my book of archaeological field  
notes amassed over decades.  Drawings and tiny notes written with a  
0.1mm Rotring drawing pen.  It's only A5 size and I know it's here  
somewhere.  But I do have a house filled with paper.

Craig

On 7 Gwn 2012, at 21:20, ewan wilson wrote:

> Thanks, Craig, for the explanation. Now I see it in Nance!
> I suspect it's probably in your book on Late Cornish but for the  
> life of me I cannot lay my hands on this- and it's bulging with  
> notes I've made so I sincerely hope it turns up soon. It's driving  
> me nuts, now I know it's not where I usually keep it!
>
> Ewan.
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Craig Weatherhill
> To: Standard Cornish discussion list
> Sent: Friday, September 07, 2012 12:18 AM
> Subject: Re: [Spellyans] Fw: Cornish in a Thriller! & Place  
> NameQueryForCraig
>
> 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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