Reference  |  Brewer's Phrase & Fable  |  L  |  Lemnian Earth to Lerna

L — Lemnian Earth to Lerna (Part 3 of 3)

Leopards So the French designate the English, because their heralds describe our device as a lion leopardé. Bertrand du Guesclin, the famous Breton, declared that men “devoyent bien honorer la noble Fleur-de-lis, plus qu'ils ne faisaient le félon Liépard.”

Lepracaun The fairy shoemaker. (Irish leith-bhrogan, from leith-brog, one-shoe maker, so called because he is always seen working at a single shoe.)

“Do you not catch the tiny clamour,
Busy click of an elfin hammer.
Voice of the Lepracaun singing shrill,
As he merrily plies his trade?”
W. B. Yeats: Fairy and Folk Tales, p. 82.
Lerna A Lerna of ills (malorum Lerna). A very great evil. Lake Lerna is where Hercules destroyed the hydra which did incalculable evil to Argos.
“Spain was a Lerna of ills to all Europe while it aspired to universal monarchy”- P. Motteaux: Preface to Rabelais.