Worcestershire | Archive | 2002 | February | 27
From the archive, first published Wednesday 27th Feb 2002.
REGARDING the article by Ann Wheeldon headlined "Faithful City could be best-kept secret" and Councillor Andrew Roberts' assertion that Sabrina Bridge was named after the murdered daughter of German King Humber the Hun (Evening News, February 16), I would like to make the following points.
In Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, Millennium Edition, it states:
"Sabrina was the Roman name of the River Severn, but according to Geoffrey of Monmouth (Historia Regum Britanniae c 1136) it is from Sabre, daughter of Locrinus, eldest son of mythical Brutus, King of England, who on the death of his father became King of Loegria, the Welsh name for England derived from Lloegr) and his concubine Estrildia, whom he married after divorcing Guendoloena.
"The ex-queen gathered an army and Locrinus was slain. Estrildia and Sabre were consigned to the waters of the Severn. Nereus (a sea god of Greek mythology) took pity on Sabre, or Sabrina, and made her the river goddess."
There is a gentle Nymph not far from hence,
That with moist curls sways the smooth Severn stream,
Sabrina is her name, a virgin pure. - Milton (1637)
As for King Humber, the Dictionary states:
"Humber, the legendary king of the Huns, fabled by Geoffrey of Monmouth to have invaded Britain about 1000 BC. He was defeated by Locrinus near the river that bears his name. Humber made towards the river in his flight and was drowned in it, on account of which it has since borne his name."
In the King's School Gardens, opened in 1931, there is a fountain on the site of the 80ft high mound of the Castle of Worcester, where a 1930s cast sculpture of Sabrina kneels on one knee on top of a stone column, overlooking the River Severn.
DAVID A ATTWOOD, Droitwich.
© Newsquest Media Group 2008