2017, Volume 14, Issue 3
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Andrew Breeze “Good Friend” and the Goodwin Sands, Kent
Voprosy onomastiki, 2017, Volume 14, Issue 3, pp. 204–209 (in English) Received 11 March 2017 Abstract: The Goodwin Sands are a hazard to shipping in the English Channel. Their name means “good friend” and is often taken as euphemistic or propitiatory. Alternatively, in a legend with Celtic parallels, the sands have been regarded as an island which belonged to Earl Godwine (d. 1053), but was drowned by natural disaster. Science shows, however, that the Goodwins have never been land within historic times. Their name can thus have nothing to do with Godwine of Wessex. Nor is it an attempt to flatter a feared entity. The author argues that the name should be explained instead by reference to the Downs, an anchorage between the sands and the Kent coast. Dangerous to mariners, the Goodwins are nevertheless a natural breakwater; by creating the calm water of the Downs, they really were a “good friend” to seafarers. The interpretation has an equivalent with the Manacles, “stones of refuge,” off the Cornish coast. The Goodwins and Manacles have wrecked many ships, but saved far more, the first as a barrier against storms in the Channel, the second as one against storms in the Atlantic. Their names will hence display the same naming pattern. Keywords: Goodwin Sands, legends of drowned lands, shipwrecks, the Manacle Rocks of Cornwall References Bowater, E. (1970). The West Country: Gazetteer. In J. Hadfield (Ed.), The Shell Guide to England (pp. 314–383). London: Michael Joseph. Breeze, A. (2009). The Origins of the “Four Branches of the Mabinogi”. Leominster: Gracewing. Bromwich, R. (1950). Cantre’r Gwaelod and Ker-Is. In C. Fox, & B. Dickens (Eds.), The Early Cultures of North-West Europe (pp. 215–241). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Chadwick, H. M., & Chadwick, N. K. (1932). The Growth of Literature: The Ancient Literatures of Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Cloet, R. L. (1954). A Hydrographic Analysis of the Goodwin Sands. The Geographical Journal, 120, 203–215. Ekwall, E. (1936). The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-Names. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Field, J. (1980). Place-Names of Great Britain and Ireland. Newton Abbot: David and Charles. Grigson, G. (1960). English Excursions. London: Country Life. Grigson, G. (1966). The Shell Country Alphabet. London: Michael Joseph. Hughes, P. (1969). A Shell Guide: Kent. London: Faber and Faber. Lloyd, J. E. (1911). A History of Wales. London: Longmans, Green, and Co. Newby, E., & Petry, D. (1968). Wonders of Britain. London: Hodder and Stoughton. Newman, J. (1969). The Buildings of England: North East and East Kent. Harmondsworth: Penguin. Padel, O. J. (1988). A Popular Dictionary of Cornish Place-Names. Penzance: Alison Hodge. Room, A. (1988). Dictionary of Place-Names in the British Isles. London: Bloomsbury. Sims-Williams, P. (2011). Irish influence on Medieval Welsh Literature. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Smyth, W. (1934). Sailing. In J. Betjeman (Ed.), Cornwall Illustrated, in a Series of Views, of Castles, Seats of the Nobility, Mines, Picturesque Scenery, Towns, Public Buildings, Churches, Antiquities, &c. (pp. 43–44). London: Architectural Press. Watts, V. (Ed.). (2004). The Cambridge Dictionary of English Place-Names. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. |
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