HARDY FORUM ARCHIVE H01093 11/29/01 "ORIGIN OF THE TERM WESSEX" ==============================================================


From: bill.2.parker@bt.com
Subject: Wessex - origins
Date: Thu, 29 Nov 2001 00:32:56 -0000

Hi

I'm having a bit of a discussion with someone who claims kinship to TH - but
thats by the by.

The discussion centres around "When did Wessex become "known" as a place"

I have a vague recollection that Wessex as a term had fallen into disuse
until TH resurrected it in his writings. But I have no references or sources
I can refer to.

Can anyone help prove (or disprove - snarl) my assertion - i.e. "Thomas
Hardy helped raise the profile of Wessex as a place in the minds of people,
the term having fallen into disuse prior to his writings"

Many thanks

Bill

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Date: Wed, 28 Nov 2001 17:16:46 -0800
From: Betty  Cortus <hardycor@owl.csusm.edu>
Subject: Re: Wessex - origins


Dear Bill.
There is a longish, very detailed entry on WESSEX in _The Oxford Reader's
Companion to Hardy_, Ed. Norman Page  (461-5).  To answer you briefly it
states  "Before 1874, the word  "Wessex"  meant exclusively a Saxon kingdom
which developed in the centre of southern England in the centuries between
the Roman occupation and the Norman conquest, with King Alfred as its most
celebrated monarch. . . . . [The] rejuvenation of a word which had lapsed
into historical obscurity is the unique achievement of Hardy, who first
restored it to common usage in 1874 in _Far From the Madding Crowd . . . ."
There is much more to help you prove your assertation in the article, as
well as cross-references for further reading.

Betty Cortus
hardycor@mailhost2.csusm.edu

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