Chapter Gryphon to Guiderius of G by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Gryphon to Guiderius

Gryphon, a fabu lous monster, having the upper part like a vulture or eagle, and the lower part like a lion. Gryphons were the supposed guardians of goldmines, and were in perpetual strife with the Arimaspians, a people of Scythia, who rifled the mines for the adornment of their hair.

As when a gryphon thro the wilderness,
With winged course, o’er hill or moory dale,
Pursues the Arimaspian, who, by stealth,
Had from his wakeful custody purloined
The guarded gold.
   —Milton: Paradise Lost, ii. 943, etc. (1665).

The Gryphon, symbolic of the divine and human union of Jesus Christ. The fore part of the gryphon is an eagle, and the hinder part a lion. Thus Dantê saw in purgatory the car of the Church drawn by a gryphon.—Dante; Purgatory, xxix. (1308).

Guadiana, the ’squire of Durandartê, changed into a river of the same name. He was so grieved at leaving his master that he plunged instantaneously under ground, and when obliged to appear “where he might be seen, he glided in sullen state to Portugal.”—Cervantes; Don Quixote, II. ii. 6 (1615).

Gualberto (St.) heir of Valdespesa, and brought up with the feudal notion that he was to be the avenger of blood. Anselmo was the m urderer he was to lie in wait for, and he was to make it the duty of his life to have blood for blood . One day as he was lying in ambush for Anselmo, the vesper bell rang, and Gualberto fell in prayer, but somehow could not pray. The thought struck him that if Christ died to forgive sin, it could not be right in man to hold it beyond forgiveness. At this moment Anselmo came up, was attacked, and cried for mercy. Gualberto cast away his dagger, ran to the neighbouring convent, thanked God he had been saved from blood-guiltiness, and became a hermit noted for his holiness of life.—Southey; St, Gualberto.

Guards of the Pole, the two stars b and g of the Great Bear, and not the star Arctophylax, which, Steevens says, “literally signifies the guard of the Bear,” i.e. Boötoês (not the Polar Guards). Shakespeare refers to these two “guards” in Othello, act ii. SC. I, where he says the surge seems to “quench the guards of the ever-fixed pole.” Hood says they are so called “from the Spanish word guardare, which is ‘to behold,’ because they are diligently to be looked unto in regard of the singular use which they have in navigation.”—Use of the Celestial Globe (1590).

How to knowe the houre of the night by the [Polar] Gards, by knowing on what point of the compass they shall be at midnight every fifteenth day throughout the whole year.—Norman: Safegard of Sailers (1587).

Guarini (Philip), the ‘squire of sir Hugo de Lacy.—Sir W. Scott: The Betrothed (time, Henry II.).

Guarinos (Admiral), one of Charlemagne’s paladins, taken captive at Roncesvallês. He fell to the lot of Marlotês, a Moslem, who offered him his daughter in marriage if he would become a disciple of the Arabian prophet. Guarinos refused, and was kept in a dungeon for seven years, when he was liberated, that he might take part in a joust. The admiral then stabbed the Moor to his heart, and, vaulting on his grey horse Trebozond, escaped to France.

Gudrun, a lady married to Sigurd by the magical arts of her mother; and on the death of Sigurd to Atli (Attila), whom she hated for his fierce. cruelty, and murdered. She then cast herself into the sea, and the waves bore her to the castle of king Jonakun, who became her third husband.—Edda of Sämund Sigfusson (1130).

Gudrun, a model of heroic fortitude and pious resignation. She was the daughter of king Hettel (Attila), and the betrothed of Herwig king of Heligoland, but was carried off by Harmuth king of Norway, who killed Hettel. As she refused to marry Harmuth, he put her to all sorts of menial work. One day, Herwig appeared with an army, and having gained a decisive victory, married Gudrun, and at her intercession pardoned Harmuth the cause of her great misery.— A North-Saxon Poem (thirteenth century).