Gormagon A Mythical Monster Or Just A Riddle
Gormagon is described in print just twice and has been described as an improper riddle. It is in fact described as a mythical beast. Its sole appearance in this spelling is in the 1785 first edition of Captain Francis Groses Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue: A monster with six eyes, three mouths, four arms, eight legs, five on one side and three on the other, three arses, two tarses, and a *** upon its back. Tarse is worthy of attention in its own right, since it is an old Germanic term for the penis. One might also be surprised to know that the monster is described as a distant cousin of the beast with two backs. In the early eighteenth century a word of the same spelling was applied to a member of a society imitating the Freemasons. Jenny Uglows book Hogarth: A Life and a World describes its genesis. The early days of Freemasonry in London in the 1720s were marred by an internecine dispute over its constitution. A member of one of the opposing parties posted a hoax notice announcing that the Ancient Noble Order of the Gormagon had recently come to England. Hogarth drew a cartoon in 1725, The Mystery of Masonry Brought to Life by the Gormagons. The Oxford English Dictionary proposes that in this sense Gormagon is meaningless and probably pseudo-Chinese because it was said to have been brought into England by a Mandarin.But it seems more likely that the name of these fictitious creature is linked to that in the beast in the coarse riddle in some way. A sighting in North America in 1761 suggests the fame of the riddle and this beast in the oral tongue was both widespread and ancient. A notice in the New York Mercury of 16 February 1761 announced that a Gormagon had been caught in Canada and had been brought to James Elliots tavern at Corlears Hook, where it will be exhibited till the Curious are satisfied. A Gormagon is said to be larger than an Elephant, having three Heads, eight Legs, three Fundaments, two Male Members, and one Female Pudendum on the Rump. It is said to be of various colors, very beautiful, and makes a Noise like the conjunction of two or three Voices. It is said to live to a great Age. Captain Grose finally explains his riddle, stating that a Gormagon is a man on horseback, with a woman behind him. His five legs on one side description is easily explained as the woman was riding sidesaddle. Thus, the head of the woman, the man and the horse were the three heads, and the four arms were that of the man and the woman. The rest part of the riddle thus also becomes very clear. Worldwidewords