[Bell Historians] Re: Clock = Klok = Bell

[David Hope]

There are photos of the Marden and Bosbury Irish iron bells in Ella Leather's "Folklore of Herefordshire" (1912). She relates the following story about the Marden bell:

"In former times Marden church stood close to the river, and by some mischance one of the bells was allowed to fall into it. It was immediately seized by a mermaid, who carried it to the bottom and held it there so fast that any number of horses could not move it. The people of the parish were told how to recover it, by wise men, according to some; others say the bell itself gave directions from the bottom of the river. A team of twelve white free-martins, i.e. heifers, was to be obtained and attached to the bell with yokes of the sacred yew tree, and bands of "wittern", or, in some versions, the drivers' goads were to be of witty or wittern (mountain ash).

The bell was to be drawn out in perfect silence; it was successfully raised to the edge of the river with the mermaid inside fast asleep. In his excitement a driver, forgetting that silence was all-important, called out:-

'In spite of all the devils in hell,
Now we'll land Marden's great bell'.

This woke the mermaid, who darted back into the river, taking the bell with her, ringing:-

'If it had not been
For your wittern bands (or witty goads),
And your yew tree pin,
I'd have had your twelve free-martins in'.

So Marden folks have never had their bell back from the bottom of the river to this day, and sometimes it may still be heard ringing, echoing the bells of the church. It lies in a deep clear pool."

Actually, it's now in Hereford museum.

Stephen Ivin was a great man.

David

--- In bellhistorians at yahoogroups.com, Peter Whisker <peter at ...> wrote:
>
>  From the 7th to the 11th century, Ireland remained one of the few 
> centres of civilisation in Europe with the important university at 
> Glendalough was one of the few major centres for study and writing in 
> western Europe with Ireland becoming know as the "Land of Saints and 
> Scholars". Christianity had all but died out in Britian and large parts 
> of Western Europe, and the Irish monastic centres produced many 
> evangelists who went out across Britain and Europe, to Italy, 
> Switzerland, France, Germany. Columba, Aidan, Fiacre being well known 
> (St. Fiacre gives his name to horse drawn cabs in Italy...).
> 
> Many of the Irish saints are depicted carrying a hand bell (rectangular 
> in section), so it does seem sensible that the Irish gaelic word "clog" 
> became first associated with bells and then clocks as early ones just 
> consisted of a mechanism to chime a bell.
> 
> Unfortunately the independent Irish church with its stress on strict 
> personal holiness did not do well against the political machinations of 
> the Roman church and was gradually subsumed by the latter following the 
> Synod of Whitby in the 7th century.
> 
> Peter
> 
> ticktocktwang wrote:
> > A final word re the use of the word "clock" in England should be left to Mr. C.M. O'Keeffe, whose interpretation was printed in 1857 in the Ulster Journal of Archaeology.    I have transcribed it here as it must have required years of painstaking research to come to this succinct conclusion.
> >
> >
> > Ulster Journal of Archaeology, series 1, volume V, p165-166, 1857
> >
> > Queries Section.
> >
> > Is the English word "clock" derived from the Irish clog, a bell?  If not, from what is it derived? 
> >
> >  I think the derivation is likely: because Dean Swift has said –
> >
> > "England, confess this land of mine
> > First taught thee wisdom, human and divine;"
> >
> > that is to say, the Saxon pagans of England received the arts of civilisation from Irish missionaries; and these probably were the first to introduce bells.  The most noticeable part of a clock to a rude people would be its bell, which sounded the hours; and the name of that part would come in time to be applied to the whole machine.
> >
> > 							C. M. O'Keefe
> >
> >
> > So there you have it  -  Mr O'Keeffe's interpretation of Dean Swift's ditty puts a final end to this question!!  No need for any further discussion!!  I browsed through more of Mr O' Keeffe's comments regarding other trivial matters .  A little further down the same page, a query regarding the origin of the names of the counties of Ireland  does not merit a straight answer but instead we are told on very good authority by Mr. O'Keeffe, that at the Council of Constance, 1477, it was decided that there ought to be Four Empires in Europe – Rome, Constantinople,  Ireland &  Spain.  
> >
> >
> > Yes, I thought it was hilarious too, it could never happen - imagine, including Spain????  
> >
> >
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> >
> > ------------------------------------
> >
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> >
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