the sunless sky …
Heaven’s fiery horse, beneath his warrior-form,
Paws the light clouds, and gallops on the storm.
   —Campbell: Pleasures of Hope, i. (1799).

AVENEL, Julian Avenel; the usurper of Avenel Castle.

Lady Alice Avenel, widow of sir Walter.

Mary Avenel, daughter of lady Alice. She marries Halbert Glendinning.—Sir W. Scott: The Monastery (date 1559).

Avenel (Sir Halbert Glendinning, knight of), same as the bridegroom in The Monastery.

The lady Mary of Avenel, same as the bridge in The Monastery.—Sir W. Scott: The Abbot (time, Elizabeth).

Avenel (The White Lady of), a spirit mysteriously connected with the Avenel family, as the Irish banshee is wit h true Milesian families. She announces good or ill fortune, and manifests a general interest in the family to which she is attached, but to others she acts with considerable caprice; thus she shows unmitigated malignity to the sacristan and the robber. Any truly virtuous mortal has commanding power over her.

Noon gleams on the lake,
Noon glows on the fell;
Awake thee, awake,
White maid of Avenel!
   —Sir W. Scott: The Monastery (time, Elizabeth).

Avenel (Dick), in lord Lytton’s My Novel (1853). A big, blustering, sharp Yankee, honest, generous, and warm-hearted.

Avenger of Blood, the man who had the birthright, according to the Jewish polity, of taking vengeance on him who had killed one of his relatives.

… the Christless code,
That must have life for a blow.
   —Tennyson: Maud, 11, i. r.

Avicen or Abou-ibn-Sina, an Arabian physician and philosopher, born at Shiraz, in Persia (980–1037). He composed a treatise on logic, and another on metaphysics. Avicen is called both the Hippocratês and the Aristotle of the Arabs.

Of physicke speake for me, king Avicen …
Yet was his glory never set on shelfe,
Nor never shall, whyles any worlde may stande
Where men have minde to take good bookes in hande.
   —Gascoigne: The Fruits of Warre, lvii. (died 1557).

Avilion [“the apple island”], near the terrestrial paradise. (See Avalon.)

Where falls not hail, or any snow,
Nor ever wind blows loudly; but it lies
Deep-meadowed, happy, fair with orchard-lawns
And bowery hollows crowned with summer sea,
Where I [Arthur] will heal me of my grievous wound.
   —Tennyson: Morte d’Arthur.

Aylmer (Mrs.), a neighbour of sir Henry Lee.—Sir W. Scott: Woodstock (time, Commonwealth).

Aymer (Prior), a jovial Benedictine monk, prior of Jorvaulx Abbey.—Sir W. Scott: Ivanhoe (time, Richard I.).

Aymon, duke of Dordona (Dordogne), He had four sons, Rinaldo, Guicciàrdo, Alardo, and Ricciardetto (i.e. Renaud, Guiscard, Alard, and Richard), whose adventures are the subject of a French romance entitled Les Quatre filz Aymon, by Huon de Villeneuve (1165–1223).

The old legend was modernized in 1504, and Balfe wrote an opera on the subject (1843).


  By PanEris using Melati.

Previous chapter/page Back Home Email this Search Discuss Bookmark Next page
Copyright: All texts on Bibliomania are © Bibliomania.com Ltd, and may not be reproduced in any form without our written permission.
See our FAQ for more details.