Gwendolen

Historical scholarship

Passages quoted verbatim from public-domain reference works. They reflect the scholarship of their time, not current consensus, and may use obsolete spellings.

• 1884From the archives

  GWENDOLEN— “white browed”

  GWENDOLEN, _f._ _Welsh_, Kelt. white browed, 265

  Yonge, History of Christian Names (1884), Glossary of Christian Names · Public domain (Project Gutenberg)

• 1884From the archives

  Gwendolen— “white browed”

  The Welsh saints give us St. Gwendolen or Gwen as the mother of Caradog Vreichfras, the excellent Sir Cradocke of the Round Table. In the _Triads_ and the _Mabinogion_, Gwendolen is a beauty of Arthur’s court, and in the bardic enumeration of the thirteen wonders of Britain appears the gold chess-board of Gwendolen, on which, when the silver men were placed, they would play of themselves. Gwendolen, Gwen, and Gwyn have never been disused in Wales. The first was the daughter…

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  The Welsh saints give us St. Gwendolen or Gwen as the mother of Caradog Vreichfras, the excellent Sir Cradocke of the Round Table. In the _Triads_ and the _Mabinogion_, Gwendolen is a beauty of Arthur’s court, and in the bardic enumeration of the thirteen wonders of Britain appears the gold chess-board of Gwendolen, on which, when the silver men were placed, they would play of themselves. Gwendolen, Gwen, and Gwyn have never been disused in Wales. The first was the daughter of the last native prince, and her name is increasingly in favour with the lovers of archaisms.

  Yonge, History of Christian Names (1884), Part V, Chapter IV (Names Of Cymric Romance), Section III (Gwenever) · Public domain (Project Gutenberg)