Cheshire Dialect

The dialect has existed for centuries and is distinct from standard British English. The works of the 14th century poets; such as, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and others supposed to be by the Gawain poet are written in this dialect. This also includes the religious poem St. Erkenwald, which dates from the late fourteenth or early fifteenth century. Perhaps unsurprisingly many of the dialect words in Cheshire are farming terms, particularly those relating to dairy farming, such as "shippen" (or shippon) from the Old English scypen (cow-shed, stall).

Gawain
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a late 14th-century Middle English chivalric romance. The author is unknown; the title was given centuries later. Various clues suggest that the anonymous poet of Sir Gawain came from the vicinity of Wirral. The poem itself is written in the medieval dialect spoken in Cheshire, and it is noticeable that the picture of Arthur’s kingdom is vague until it reaches North Wales and Wirral.

It is one of the best known Arthurian stories, with its plot combining two types of folk motifs, the beheading game and the exchange of winnings. In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the Green Knight appears before Arthur's court during a Christmas feast, holding a bough of holly in one hand and a battle axe in the other. Despite disclaim of war, the knight issues a challenge: he will allow one man to strike him once with his axe, with the condition that he return the blow the next year. At first, Arthur accepts the challenge, but Gawain takes his place and decapitates the Green Knight, who retrieves his head, reattaches it and tells Gawain to meet him at the Green Chapel at the stipulated time. The story later contains an account of Gawain's journey to the "Green Chapel".


 * alle þe iles of anglesay on lyft half he haldez and farez ouer þe fordez by þe forlondez ouer at þe holy hede til he hade eft bonk in þe wyldrenesse of wyrale wonde þer bot lyte þat auþer god oþer gome wyth goud hert louied (All the isles of Anglesey on his left side he holds, And fares over the ford by the forelands, Over by the Holy Head, until he again had the shore. In the wilderness of Wirral dwelt there but few, That either God or man with good heart loved.)

Several scholars have attempted to find a real-world correspondence for Gawain's journey to the Green Chapel. The Anglesey islands, for example, are mentioned in the poem. In line 700, Gawain is said to pass the "Holy Head", believed by many scholars to be either Holywell or the Cistercian abbey of Poulton in Pulford. Holywell is associated with the beheading of Saint Winifred. As the story goes, Winifred was a virgin who was beheaded by a local leader after she refused his sexual advances. Her uncle, Saint Beuno, put her head back in place and healed the wound, leaving only a white scar. The parallels between this story and Gawain's make this area a likely candidate for the journey. Chester has its own version of the Winifred legend see: Shoemaker's Row.

Arrow Park
One source of evidence for paganism in Wirral is to be found in place names and field names containing the element "harrow". This possibly derives from the Old English "hearg", meaning a pagan shrine, related to the Old Norse hörg. A harrowe hay is recorded in Heswall in 1293, while a group "harrow" field names is to be found not far from the apocryphal Thor’s Stone. Possibly the best known occurence is "Arrowe Park", with its possible connections to the Gawain legend through nearby Woodchurch and Overchurch.

Erkenwald
St. Erkenwald is an alliterative poem of the fourteenth century, thought to have been composed in 1386. It has sometimes been attributed to the Gawain poet. It takes as its subject Earconwald, the Bishop of London between 675 and 693.

John Stanley
John Stanley has been suggested as the as-yet unidentified "Gawain Poet". The Garter motto "Honi soit qui mal y pense" appears at the end of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and the poet exhibits a detailed knowledge of both hunting (he was Master Forester of Wirral) and armour.

John Massey
John Massey of Cotton, was a retainer in the house of Lancaster.

Related Pages

 * Stanley Palace;

Glossaries

 * A glossary of words used in the county of Chester, Robert Holland (1886);


 * A Glossary of Words Used in the Dialect of Cheshire, Egerton Leigh (1877);


 * Old Cheshire Dialect;

Other References

 * Some South Cheshire Dialect - mostly dairy farming terms;
 * From Cilgwri to Westernesse - Wirral in Medieval Legend;
 * Sir John Stanley (c. 1350-1414) and the Gawain-Poet, Arthuriana, vol. 14 no. 1, 2004, p. 15-30.