Chapter Guarinos to Guides of G by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Guarinos to Guides

Guarinos (Admiral). One of Charlemagne's paladins, taken captive at the battle of Roncesvalles. He fell to the lot of Marlotes, a Moslem, who offered him his daughter in marriage if he would become a disciple of Mahomet. Guarinos refused, and was cast into a dungeon, where he lay captive for seven years. A joust was then held, and Admiral Guarinos was allowed to try his hand at a target. He knelt before the Moor, stabbed him to the heart, and then vaulted on his grey horse Trebozond, and escaped to France.

Gubbings Anabaptists near Brent, in Devonshire. They had no ecclesiastical order or authority, "but lived in holes, like swine; had all things in common; and multiplied without marriage. Their language was vulgar Devonian ... They lived by pilfering sheep; were fleet as horses; held together like bees; and revenged every wrong. One of the society was always elected chief, and called King of the Gubbings." (Fuller.)
   N.B. Their name is from gubbings, the offal of fish (Devonshire).

Gudgeon Gaping for gudgeons. Looking out for things extremely improbable. As a gudgeon is a bait to deceive fish, it means a lie, a deception.
   To swallow a gudgeon. To be bamboozled with a most palpable lie, as silly fish are caught by gudgeons. (French, goujon, whence the phrase faire avaler le goujon, to humbug.)

"Make fools believe in their foreseeing
Of things before they are in being,
To swallow gudgeons ere they're catched,
And count their chickens ere they're hatched."
Butler: Hudibras, ii. 3.

Gudrun A model of heroic fortitude and pious resignation. She was a princess betrothed to Herwig, but the King of Norway carried her off captive. As she would not marry him, he put her to all sorts of menial work, such as washing the dirty linen. One day her brother and lover appeared on the scene, and at the end she married Herwig, pardoned the "naughty" king, and all went merry as a marriage bell. (A North-Saxon poem.)

Gudule (2 syl.) or St. Gudula, patron saint of Brussels, was daughter of Count Witger, died 712. She is represented with a lantern, from a tradition that she was one day going to the church of St. Morgelle with a lantern, which went out, but the holy virgin lighted it again with her prayers.
   St. Gudule in Christian art is represented carrying a lantern which a demon tries to put out. The legend is a repetition of that of St. Geneviève, as Brussels is Paris in miniature.

Guebres or Ghebers [Fire-Worshippers ]. Followers of the ancient Persian religion, reformed by Zoroaster. Called in Persian gabr, in the Talmud Cheber, and by Origen Kabir, a corruption of the Arabic Kafir (a non-Mahometan or infidel), a term bestowed upon them by their Arabian conquerors.

Guelder Rose is the Rose de Gueldre, i.e. of the ancient province of Guelder or Guelderland, in Holland.
   But Smith, in his English Flora, says it is a corruption of Elder Rose, that is, the Rose Elder, the tree being considered a species of Elder, and hence called the "Water Elder."

Guelpho (3 syl.), son of Actius IV., Marquis d'Este and of Cunigunda, a German, King of Carynthia. He led an army of 5,000 men from Germany, but two-thirds were slain by the Persians. He was noted for his broad shoulders and ample chest. Guelpho was Rinaldo's uncle, and next in command to Godfrey. (Tasso: Jerusalem Delivered, iii.)

Guelphs and Ghibellines. Two great parties whose conflicts make up the history of Italy and Germany in the twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth centuries. Guelph is the Italian form of Welfe, and Ghibelline of Waiblingen, and the origin of these two words is this: At the battle of Weinsburg, in Suabia (1140), Conrad, Duke of Franconia, rallied his followers with the war-cry Hie Waiblingen (his family estate), while Henry the Lion, Duke of Saxony, used the cry of Hie Welfë (the family name). The Ghibellines supported in Italy the side of the German emperors; the Guelphs opposed it, and supported the cause of the Pope.

Guendolen (3 syl.). A fairy whose mother was a human being. One day King Arthur wandered into the valley of St. John, when a fairy palace rose to view, and a train of ladies conducted him to their queen. King Arthur and Guendolen fell in love with each other, and the fruit of their illicit love was a daughter