Hob wrote:
Interesting thoughts about the Old English dragon killing. I wonder if it's possible that Simund and Sigemund might be derivatives of an earlier Anglian/Norse archetype.
It is very likely. The Sigmund character appears most Germanic folklores and dragon killing is very common with Germanic heroes (e.g. Beowulf and Bödvar Bjarki).
Hob wrote:
It's odd that Simonside has kept both an Anglian name and Anglian folklore.
It is lucky. 'Duergar' could just be a Norse loan creature but I think it is an Anglian dialectual word. The reason Northumbria is the richest in Germanic folklore is because we were not as Normanised as the south, I think.
Hob wrote:
Entities very similar to the Duergar/Brown men also make an appearance in the tales of St Cuthbert, whom they tormented on his island hermitage. There's obviously a whole tangled skein of links between different times amd cultures going on in Northumbrian Folklore. But I can't wonder if the same Anglian/Scandinavian fellas who named Simundsette were aware of the prehistoric rock art nearby, and even if they were the same ones who saw fit to engrave comment on such things, not a million miles away at Lemmington Wood
They probably did. The Anglo-Saxon settlers would likely have attributed the rock art to a Germanic race or God like they did with Wayland's Smithy in Oxfordshire.Indeed. Dwarves appear throuhout England as a reminder of their old religion. Also Gods like Woden (or Odin in Norse) appear in English myths. Woden usually leads the Wild Hunt though under many names. Wayland became the Devil and Elves (Norse Álfar) remained in our woods. Normans tried to kill our folklore and literature but in truth they only wounded it. It is a shame that some epics and tales are undoubtably lost to us.
