GOG AND MAGOG WILL RISE AGAIN

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23861, 11 January 1941, Page 4 (Supplement)

GOG AND MAGOG WILL RISE AGAIN

GO <; and M.'i gog have died " iwiore. Tin'y have always come hack again, imm.or'ta i t as. (ho spirit of London. Aloft in the Ouildhal! !!ie y (Milbodied quaint an! i-luit \ . Magog, hand on hip, ■ lookeii Lm>re<l wit h pomp and \ i»allljiiel inn. liis twin looked sad. Now lhe\ arc adies, and Hermann triumphs for a timr. Onco iw two hitc one gin nt, a lionhern liuiiatli, with man} brethren, I So ;u le.i-t the I>!<I myth say-. It, was • when our isle was .\lhioa, and Brut; the Trojan had imiic as a relngee To; smth.' there, li was a pleasant, land . and rielily forested with oak and elm, i but in the greenwood groat giants 1 roared and prowled, Hut when they attneked the camp the valourous men of Troy drove them oil, killed some and captured one. He was Goemagot. both our giants in one. Now C'orineus the Trojan was a mighty wrestler, and he looked on the captive monster with appraising eyes. The two stripped and closed, and filled the air with breathless gasping. Three of (.'orineus' ribs were broken, two on the right side : and one en the left, and so wroth

was he that lie heaved Goemagot, high, ran to the eiifftop and hurled the deadly monster to the rocks below. So it seems that there may have heen : only one eiant, and that, tin* name was corrupted by its similarity to those of the princes of .Meshech in L/.ekiel s prophecy. Others say 111; 11 the Webb Caur-Aiadog gave the names. I ins means "the yiant of Madoi;," who was the oll.spi'ing of an evil -pint ami a daughter of Diocletian, the last imperial persecutor oi (lie Church. In tliis en-e it is a etiod thine tlial Corimms dealt wit ii him. Dead e;iant-. however. never lie down, and Goema>ioi haunted t h<niyihs of south-east Lowland. In M'd'i, while Columbus was more usefully employed, we find the ( orporation of I'lymoutli usirej; pub'ie money to cut j,n the turf at the Horn "the pourdraduri' of 'mo men wil b elubbe ■ in t heir hands." Tho-o, sav the records of the

By E. M. BLAiKLOCK ( 'urjM>rrn inn. were (liiiiniapia: and ('onneus. DMiking invadors. ;uid n 4 - jll< > n i'! n•fi 11 fj; Kzekinl. tii" local popniai ion eliminated Cormeus, and it was dm,'litli';--. as and Miijjog thai tin: two giants «atc!i"il Orake |ilay how!-, and .-aw i l llii;5) nt Spain fail t»> follow lirut of Troy and the infamous Duke of Normandy. Kven Spenser, who uses the corrc't lorin (loemagot in the Faerie roiikl not revive Corineus. i 1 <• his name to Cornwall, said tho my t h-makers. a- Jirut pive his to Britain, and departed. And all tlie King's horses and all the kinsmen have since been unable to make on>.' jjiant out ol Gojr and Magoy.

In London. references '..mine hack to 111 O associate two giants with civic processions. In 1022 they are dubbed : | lon-nlc and Samson. In LW the ! same pair celebrate a pageant ol Queen , Kiizabetii in heroic ver-e. I hen tin 1 i (inihllia!l appears. In 1-Y.M someone | wrote of "iuo lulU ot clialke isoere i Cambridge." These ridues, the site ot { a R.inian camp, ii com-, of N'ero iuuml there mean anything, are the (iooj maL'.oe Mills. Accordiiij: in tlie man of I 1.7.!,1. \t |; t < put l hem t here, i 1111 ■ I * d 1 ; 11; 11 \ enough, "to tiie end that solicitors | -mould walke ihe;her sometime. And \iias. he continues, wa< related to i ('orineus, "of h lumi \ on may see t he i imaL'c in the "S*ea 1 <iii:t!l of London.'' In 1 !.">"7, 131siiop Hal' -peaks ol ! The iTiililrei' porter of the (oiihlha I! urates j While he his fnirhi fa! heel !e rlevates ! The next year a German came to Lie,land. 1 le.cril'ii'". the Guildliall he speaks of tlie statues of Conucus oi

Britain and Gogmagog of Albion, who !u' 11 m i (] the British against tin 1 Romans, i ■ It seems then that the Guildhall had! it- statues at least M4O years ago. The Great Kin- in IHfitj burnt them ' hoth. Temporary replacements were j soon in position, for the Lord Mayor j hired hoth ;n K'n'J for the Show. His | Worship had to sign a paper that they! uon id he restored intact,, his procession; being more lively then than now. Long' obscurity follows, a lapse, in fact, of a century, during which account hooks containing facts and figures ahout the; giants pi fished by lire in the Chamber-1 ; lain's office. Fire is no novelty to Gog.; and Magog. ,\or are rats. Hats ate | : the entrails ol the wicker substitutes i put up after the Great Fire, and some-; where during the eighteenth century; the fifties which perished last week j were placed in position. Writing in i someone says, "I stood upright l in the body of Gog. The images are ! composed of pieces of fir, and I am ; j informed were the production of a j ship-carver.'' Dimensions follow. They j ! are as wearisome as dates, which have j | served our purpose. Barhanj and Christendom 1 And our purpose is simply to show i j that it was a chapter only, and not a I story, which was closed by the firej bombs. i Gog and -Magog were symbols of a' 1 deathless thing. That, ancient religious urge which j peopled the world with monsters brought; them and their myth to birth. ; The Greeks had their Titans, the East j its Djinns, the Maoris Maui and the j tauiwha. The same superstition carved the great white horses on the chalk hills of southern England and perhaps ; set up Stonehenge. Strange finds of I fossil monsters in cliffs and pits may I have fathered the fables. Indeed, huge ; jaws ami teeth were found on Plymouth Hoe itself when forts were built there eighty years ago. But what the giants once meant matters little. That is Chesterton's j point in his ballad of Alfred and the | Danes. In Gut'nrum, the king tights Barbary, and behind the battle stands; like a symbol the carved white horse, on the Wessex hillside. The figure fades, for creeping grass and weed j obscure the outlines and undo the toils; of men. Comes peace, and busy spades | cleanse and restore the ancient pagan; I workmanship. "Because," says Chester-1 ! ton. "on 1 v Christian men guard even I | heathen things." j It is profoundly true. All ancient I thought, the poet meant, is fertile in; i new ways in the soil of Christian j lihertv. The faith creates, and builds | all that man has done into the fabric, j | The Dane came, as the Nazi comes, j with burning brand and sword. He lives 1 ; to destroy, a curse and accursed. Not ! Mi the Christian man. Even old myths,! i old symbols, grim or whimsical, find new and gentle meanings in the new! tradition which takes the host of all the! past and baptises it with usefulness.! Witness the cleansed hillside horse, wit-! n ess Christmas, witness Gog and his. brother. That is why they will rise again. : j They have looked on London long j enough to he more than graven images.; ! ,\s sure as peace u ill one day come! | again, so sure will the memory of stern! I endurance and the bravery of simple , men set up aan in all that which baffled | hate has battered down. And in that day some of London's spirit; will clothe ! , it-elf again in wood or stone and call! I itself Gog and Magog.