I wonder if anyone has ever come across any of these words in use outside of this poem:
"Thou, paw-paw-paw; thou, glurd; thou, spotted
Glurd; thou, whitestap, lurching through
The high-grown brush; thou, pliant-footed,
Implex; thou, awagabu."
http://www.northshore.net/homepages/hope/engHollander.htmlThe glurd interests me, as the poet uses the word twice. While I am almost certain that "glurd" is an ivention of the poet, as the other names seem to be, I would be interested to learn otherwise.
You put this here just for me, didn't you?
As the cited poem indicates, the term is supposed to have originated at the beginning of time, when Adam was naming all the animals, but this is actually an anachronism. The glurd, or "spotted glurd" as is it's formal name, was in truth not discovered until the early 14th century. The glurds, now extinct, existed, in the general area of current-day Poland through Estonia. They were a slightly furry species covered in dark orange spots that ranged in height from about 40 to 60 cm. They apparently moved about with a rather slow, galloping walk, but there is some evidence providing that they occasionally harnessed rabbits as a faster method of travel.
Surprisingly, the glurds were a highly advanced "people", with their own developed matriarchal social system and language. With the aid of the newly-discovered Rosetta Root, etymologists have been able to translate parts of their language. They had a very precocious democratic government, presided over by a nudwik, or "presiding mother".
It is believed that they employed most of their time in alchemical sciences and exploration of the depths of the Baltic Sea, while some were relegated to simple farming. They lived in Hobbit-like dwellings in the sides of hills and the bases of large trees. (some think that Tolkien found inspiration for his popular novels in these creatures.)
Despite their petit size, most accounts say that they had sub-baritone voices, including the females. The term now used for this people is thought to have originated a word in their language meaning "horrible giant" which was heard most from them because it is what they screamed when encountered by humans, who were a towering four to five times as large as them. Unfortunately, this enlightened, parallel species died during the Black Plague in Europe.
Mr. Hollander freely used the word "glurd" in many of his poems because he suspected that, because they were discovered in such a dismal time, no one would know what they were, but, of course, I do.
Thank you Jazz
I knew I'd heard the word before but I just couldn't put my finger on it. It must have been my Estonian great aunt who used to talk about them all the time.
>.. awagabu?<
That's very simple: the glurds divided their time not in days, but in gabus. And because they were at least as advanced as we are, their periodic word discussion site on the slightly furry glurdnet was called awagabu.
"A WORD A GABU":
wsieber, I had no idea you were such a wag.