Cold day today. After supper I lit the fire in the sitting room for our game of scrabble. After the fire was lit I noticed Cedric who lives in the fire place. I'm afraid he only gets noticed when the fire is lit. This was the second time this winter. Cedric was carved from granite, probably in the west country, a long time ago. Some years ago I showed him to an old acquaintance of mine who is something of an expert in antiquities. He told me that Cedric is 'over a thousand years old, and probably less than two thousand years old- Dark Ages Celtic in fact.' He is a genius cucullatus - a small cloaked household god. He's a pleasant little chap. Our daughter Ruth (who blogs as Nea, and wasn't very old at the time) told me that his name is Cedric- it seems to suit him. A visitor to our home a year or two ago, a devout and rather fundamentalist Christian lady, was a bit disturbed by Cedric, and declined to hold or go near him. She seemed to feel a little shocked that we give house room to a small pagan Deity. I told her that he was a lump of well carved stone. As he doesn't bother us, and we don't appear to bother him, we continue to live in amity.
Goodnight all.
5 comments:
Cedric is a very comfortable presence in your home. He's the only member of his kin that I've ever handled. I've only seen photos and diagrams of other genii cucullati, some of them appear quite fierce but most of them give the impression they could blend back into the stone they're carved from. Most of them date from the first to the sixth century AD. I'm told British examples have only been found in groups of three while continental ones occur in isolation.
Hello Carl. Agree with all you have to say regarding genii cucullati, except for the last sentence. There are probably more triple ones than single in Britain; but, I've seen illustrations of at least three singles, and one from Ireland which is bigger than Cedric, though not unlike him, but the Irish one is a perfect horror, whilst Cedric is quite companionable.
Warm regards, Mike.
I like Cedric, but I'm not sure if I was the one to come up with the name, are you sure it was me? I'm getting old and my memory's going.
Hi young Nea, it probably was you, but I thought you said Cerdic, an early British name (modern Welsh is Caradog). Cerdic was probably the first King of Anglo-Saxon Wessex from 519 to 534.
Pootatu sounds relieved and religious today...
v-word is 'prousebe' = Praise be!
Hello Ruth. When I first brought Cedric home you said he looked like 'a prehistoric garden gnome'. You went on to say that there was a garden gnome on an Australian T.V. programme, and its name was Cedric, so we called ours that. Ring any bells? Things have come to a pretty pass when I find that my memory is better than my daughter's!!!!! When I have to start muttering 'Her memory is going, poor old dear.'
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