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David Dimbleby. (NEW CONCEPTS)
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TelMiles


In: London
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Is David Dimbleby of the AE persuasion? Did anyone watch the first episode of The Seven Ages of Britain last week? It was pretty orthodox stuff until he went to visit the woman who owned the land at Sutton Hoo. He was talking to her about the dig, and then said: "Of course, all this was found just as we were heading into war." Was he trying to claim that Sutton Hoo was faked? Just a convenient national symbol found at the exact time a national symbol was needed? Is he really an AEist?

Probably not.
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Grant



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Dimbleby probably hasn't read Mick's book because he was also talking about Anglo-Saxon being the ancestor of English. Surely the programme takes an absolutely uncritical view of orthodox art history?
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Hatty
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In: Berkshire
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The Sutton Hoo finds coming just before the war didn't strike a 'sinister' note; it was only after the end of the war that the real biz got going wasn't it? But preparations for war might have galvanised the lady of the manor, she'd probably had it on her list of things to do and thought she'd better get a move on in the circs.

There was something in this evening's programme that was interesting. When he was talking about heraldic emblems he pointed out three ermine tails before moving swiftly on. Ermine is what royalty is clad in, the black tail tips giving the fur its spotted look. Its etymology is thought to come from 'Armenian mouse' which is truly weird. Makes one wonder if the Armenian for ermine is English mouse. In folklore the ermine symbolised purity (because they were quaintly believed to prefer death to having their fur sullied). Two highly stylised portraits of famous women with (live) ermines exist: one is by Leonardo da Vinci of Ludovico Sforza's mistress, the other is of Elizabeth I.

Ermines are stoats (whose etymology is so uncertain that they don't have one). The coat changes from reddish-brown to pure white when the temperature dips below a certain level. Perhaps this metamorphosis has some connection with Hermes/Mercury?
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Hatty
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In: Berkshire
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PS. Just seen something else. Ermine tails feature in the arms of Brittany. Wasn't Brittany called Armorica or something? Talking of royal ermine I immediately think of another portrait, the one of Bonaparte on his throne.
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Chad


In: Ramsbottom
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Hatty wrote:
Ermines are stoats (whose etymology is so uncertain that they don't have one). The coat changes from reddish-brown to pure white when the temperature dips below a certain level. Perhaps this metamorphosis has some connection with Hermes/Mercury?


The ermine is a member of the weasel family.

There is a very strong Hermetic association:

For as to the weasel, many still think and say that as it is impregnated through the ear and brings forth by the mouth, it is a likeness of the birth of reason (logos).
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Hatty
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In: Berkshire
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There is a very strong Hermetic association:

Well, upon my word. I suppose the association comes from the closeness of the names. When they're reared up to survey their surroundings they look a bit look standing stones ('hermaion').

I've only seen a stoat once on the North York moors (it was brown being summer); it moved so fast and low down it could have been a snake. I wonder if Ermine Street from Yorkshire to London was named for a fur trade (less likely to get white-coated animals down south).

PS. Did this situation -- a number of look-alike creatures with a variety of names but more or less the same -- arise because they come from different regions or because they were bred?
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Boreades


In: finity and beyond
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Hatty wrote:
Hermetic ...('hermaion').


Hermione Granger?
Does J.K.Rowling's etymology needs checking?
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