Goodfellow
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From David Cowart's Thomas Pynchon: The Art of Illusion:
- "according to Eric Partridge's Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English , 'goodfellow' is Covent Garden slang for 'a vigorous fornicator.' [1]
From The White Goddess:
- "In the English countryside Mary Gipsy was soon identified with the Love-goddess known to the Saxons as 'The May Bride' [...]. She paired off with Merddin, by this time Christianized as Robin Hood, apparently a variant of Merddin's Saxon name, Rof Breoht Woden, 'Bright Strength of Woden,' also known euphemistically as Robin Good-fellow. In French the word Robin, which is regarded as a diminutive of Robert but is probably pre-Teutonic, means a ram and also a devil. [...] The two senses of ram and devil are combined in the illustration to a pamphlet published in London in 1639: Robin Goodfellow, his mad pranks and merry gests. Robin is depicted as an ithyphallic [having an erect penis] god of the witches with young ram's horns sprouting from his forehead [...]." (p.396) [emphasis added] [2]
From Standard Dictionary of Folklore, Mythology, and Legend:
- "Robin Goodfellow In English folklore, a malicious or mischievous spirit, later identified with Puck in his role of household spirit. Shakespeare's Robin Goodfellow (Midsummer Night's Dream ii,I) is a servant of Oberon." [3]
References
- ↑ Cowart, David, Thomas Pynchon: The Art of Illusion, Southern Illinois University Press, 1980, p. 68
- ↑ Graves, Robert, The White Goddess, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, 1948, p. 396
- ↑ Standard Dictionary of Folklore, Mythology, and Legend, edited by Maria Leach, Funk & Wagnalls Company, New York, 1950, p. 950
