Slughorn
Encyclopedia
Slughorn can refer to several things and one (fictional) person.
Thomas Chatterton, The Rowley Poems, Hastings ii.90 and footnote 15 to Eclogue the Second, at Project Gutenberg, accessed on 12 July 2006.
Robert Browning, Browning's Shorter Poems, selected and edited by Franklin T. Baker, A.M., Macmillan, 1917 at Project Gutenberg, accessed on 12 July 2006.
- It is an obsolete form of the word sloganSloganA slogan is a memorable motto or phrase used in a political, commercial, religious and other context as a repetitive expression of an idea or purpose. The word slogan is derived from slogorn which was an Anglicisation of the Scottish Gaelic sluagh-ghairm . Slogans vary from the written and the...
, closer to its derivation from the Scots GaelicScottish Gaelic languageScottish Gaelic is a Celtic language native to Scotland. A member of the Goidelic branch of the Celtic languages, Scottish Gaelic, like Modern Irish and Manx, developed out of Middle Irish, and thus descends ultimately from Primitive Irish....
sluagh-ghairm (meaning war-cry).
- In turn this influenced the pseudo-Medieval poetry of Thomas ChattertonThomas ChattertonThomas Chatterton was an English poet and forger of pseudo-medieval poetry. He died of arsenic poisoning, either from a suicide attempt or self-medication for a venereal disease.-Childhood:...
. For example in a poem about the Battle of HastingsBattle of HastingsThe Battle of Hastings occurred on 14 October 1066 during the Norman conquest of England, between the Norman-French army of Duke William II of Normandy and the English army under King Harold II...
he writes "some caught a slughorne and an onsett wounde" (Battle of Hastings ii.99), meaning "some picked up a slughorn and sounded a charge". A slughorn in this context appears to be some kind of trumpet. However in a footnote to another usage of the word, Chatterton defines it as "not unlike a hautboy". The Medieval EnglishMiddle EnglishMiddle English is the stage in the history of the English language during the High and Late Middle Ages, or roughly during the four centuries between the late 11th and the late 15th century....
word hautboy is the origin of the modern word oboeOboeThe oboe is a double reed musical instrument of the woodwind family. In English, prior to 1770, the instrument was called "hautbois" , "hoboy", or "French hoboy". The spelling "oboe" was adopted into English ca...
and has never referred to any instrument comparable to a trumpet.
- Chatterton's usage inspired Robert BrowningRobert BrowningRobert Browning was an English poet and playwright whose mastery of dramatic verse, especially dramatic monologues, made him one of the foremost Victorian poets.-Early years:...
in his poem Childe Roland to the Dark Tower CameChilde Roland to the Dark Tower Came"Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came" is a poem by English author Robert Browning, written in 1855 and first published that same year in the collection entitled Men and Women. The title, which forms the last words of the poem, is a line from William Shakespeare's play King Lear...
, in particular the last stanza in which the hero sees the ghosts of all those who died trying to reach the Dark Tower before him.
-
- I saw them and I knew them all. And yet
- Dauntless the slug-horn to my lips I set,
- And blew. "Child Roland to the Dark Tower came."
- ("Childe Roland to the Dark Tower CameChilde Roland to the Dark Tower Came"Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came" is a poem by English author Robert Browning, written in 1855 and first published that same year in the collection entitled Men and Women. The title, which forms the last words of the poem, is a line from William Shakespeare's play King Lear...
" xxxiv.4-6).
- Horace Slughorn is a character in the Harry PotterHarry PotterHarry Potter is a series of seven fantasy novels written by the British author J. K. Rowling. The books chronicle the adventures of the adolescent wizard Harry Potter and his best friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, all of whom are students at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry...
series of novels by J. K. RowlingJ. K. RowlingJoanne "Jo" Rowling, OBE , better known as J. K. Rowling, is the British author of the Harry Potter fantasy series...
.
Sources
The Oxford English Dictionary, second edition, prepared by J. A. Simpson and E. S. C. Weiner, vol. xv, Ser-Soosy, under "slogan" and "slughorn (1)".Thomas Chatterton, The Rowley Poems, Hastings ii.90 and footnote 15 to Eclogue the Second, at Project Gutenberg, accessed on 12 July 2006.
Robert Browning, Browning's Shorter Poems, selected and edited by Franklin T. Baker, A.M., Macmillan, 1917 at Project Gutenberg, accessed on 12 July 2006.