Chapter Giralda to Glass Slipper of G by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Girnington (The laird of), previously Frank Hayston, laird of Bucklaw, the bridegroom of Lucy Ashton. He is found wounded by his bride on the wedding night, recovers, and leaves the country; but the bride goes mad and dies.—Sir W. Scott: Bride of Lammermoor (time, William III.).

Gjallar, Heimdall’s horn, which he blows to give the gods notice when any one approaches the bridge Bifröst.—Scandinavian Mythology.

Gladiator (The dying), more correct, as some think, Galatian. This famous statue, found at Nettuno (the ancient Antium), was the work of Agasias, a sculptor of Ephesus.

Gladsmoor (Mr.), almoner of the earl of Glenallan, at Glenallan, House.—Sir W. Scoot: The Antiquary (time, George III.).

Glamorgan, according to British fable, is gla or glyn Morg an (valley or glen of Morgan). Cundah and Morgan (says Spenser) were sons of Gonorill and Regan, the two elder daughters of king Leyr. Cundah chased Morgan into Wales, and slew him in the glen which perpetuates his name.

Then gan the bloody brethren both to raine:
But fierce Cundah gan shortly to envy
His brother Morgan …
Raisd warre, and him in batteill overthrew;
Whence as he to those woody hilles did fly,
Which hight of him Gla-morgan, there him slew.
   —Spenser: Faèrie Queene, ii. 10, 33 (1590).

This is not quite in accordance with Geoffrey’s account—

Some restless spirits … inspired Margan with vain conceits,…who marched with an army through Cunedagius’s country, and began to burn all before him; but he was met by Cunnedagius, with all his forces, who attacked Margan,…and, putting him to flight,… killed him in a town of Kambria, which since his death has been called Margan to this day.—British History, ii. 15 (1142).

Glasgow (The bishop of).—Sir W. Scott: Castle Dangerous, xix. (time, Henry I.).

Glasgow Arms, an oak tree with a bird above it, and a bell hanging from one of the branches; at the foot of the tree a salmon with a ring in its mouth. The legend is that St. Kentigern built the city and hung a bell in an oak tree to summon the men to work. This accounts for the “oak and bell.” Now for the rest: A Scottish queen having formed an illicit attachment to a soldier, presented her paramour with a ring, the gift of her royal husband. This coming to the knowledge of the king, he contrived to abstract it from the soldier while he was asleep, threw it into the Clyde, and then asked his queen to show it him. The queen, in great alarm, ran to St. Kentigern, and confessed her crime. The father confessor went to the Clyde, drew out a salmon with the ring in its mouth, handed it to the queen, and by this means both prevented a scandal and reformed the repentant lady.

In 1688 James II., in his escape, threw the Great Seal (Clavis regni) into the Thames, as he was on his way to Sheerness to meet the vessel which was to take him to the continent. But the Seal was found by a fisherman in his net, and delivered to the prince of Orange.

There are several stories somewhat similar. One is told of Dame Rebecca Berry, wife of Thomas Elton of Stratford Bow, and relict of sir John Berry (1696), the heroine of the ballad called The Cruel Knight. The story runs thus: A knight, passing by a cottage, heard the cries of a woman in labour. By his knowledge of the occult sciences, he knew that the infant was doomed to be his future wife; but he determined to elude his destiny. When the child was of a marriageable age, he took her to the seaside, intending to drown her, but relented, and, throwing a ring into the sea, commanded her never to see his face again, upon pain of death, till she brought back that ring with her. The damsel now went as cook to a noble family, and one day, as she was preparing a cod-fish for dinner, she found the ring in the fish, took it to the knight, and thus became the bride of sir John Berry. The Berry arms show a fish, and in the dexter chief a ring.