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Sunday, July 24, 2016
No Irish in Castle Lumley
I tried to order Irish in the Library Bar of Lumley Castle, Chester-le-Street, Durham, but they only had whisky. No Bushmills. Glenfiddach (with a terminal /k/, I learned) became the drink of choice. Medicinal, by the way. That sore throat from York.
My favorite word--garsecg--from the Old English Beowulf is a kenning or poetic riddle-word for the sea. It means "the spear-man," perhaps the echo of a figure like the Norse Aegir or some other surly northern Neptune. In other texts, garsecg seems to be an adjective meaning "sea-like," "stormy" or "tempestuous."