The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1890-05-08
Historical Nicknames.


History supplies a crushing answer
to the question-which surely no one
but an enamored swain would have put
-"What's in name "'' For history
answers, anything. Men have died in
thousands for q name, have suffered
privation and torture, have forsaken
family and friends, have kept down
the tenderest feelings of human nature
for name. Great causes have been
carried on to victory or wrecked in
disaster through a name. And not
only names, but nicknames have in
fiuenced the fortunes of individuals and
nations and frequently diverted the
course of events in a new and uneX-
pected direction. The origin of some
of these is not always to be traced with
certainty, but, as rule, they have
been applied by the popular voice
either in derision or reverence, or they
have sprung out ofexceptional circum-
stances which have specially impressed
the minds Of rHen. I propose, how
ever, in the present paper, saysa writer
of the London Graphic, to contine
myself to purely personal nicknames-
those which attach to historical char
acters and we'll known worthless and,
therefore, possess All individual in-
telest.
No satisfactory explanation has been
given of the name "Capet," borne for
centuries by the sovereigns of France.
Pasquin says it was bestowed on the
founder of the dynasty, Hughes, be-
cause in his boyhood he was addicted
to running off with his companions
cioaks. Scarcely less absurd is the hy-
pothesis that the said Hughes invaria-
bly, wore cape, or capet, as part of his
dress. It is quite as reasonable to sup
pose that he had q big head-caput.
The medieval chroniclers affirm that
Charles, son of Pepin, and grandfather
of Charles the Great (Charlemagne),
derived his surname of "Martel," the
hammer, from the way in which he
hammered at the Saracens. But COL
lin de Piancy ignores the historical as
sociation and asserts that he was 50
called because his patron saint was
Martallus. The hammer or "ham-
merer," is common enough, however,
as an epithet for d great warrior.
Thus Judas Asnoneus was styled
"Maccabeus," and Edward the First
"Malleus Scotorum." Thor, the Scan
dinavian war-god, is represented as
ruling in heaven with his hammer and
mace, which, in his Berserker fits of
rage, "he grasps till his knuckles grow
white" Does the reader remember his
adventure with the giant Skrynior?
Thor having dealt him tremendous
blow in the face, "of force sufficient to
rend rocks" the giant slowly lifted his
eye-lids and said drowsily, Ibid a
leaf fall?' When be had again got
ten asleep, Thor delivered u second
stroke aud more heavily than before
but the giant murlnured, "Pshaw, a
grain of dust ~ Thor then put both
his hands to his hammer, and this time
seemed to make deep dent in Skryu-
lor's adanantine couutenance. But it
simply checked his snoring and half
awake, he droned out, "Sparrows must
be roostiug in this tree, fancy have
they dropped feather?'
The devastating conquesls Of Attila
procured him the terrible designation
OF "The Scourge Of God" just as, for
similar reason, the Mohammedan con-
queror kaled was called The Sword
of God" CLAUS II, was surnan.ed
"The Famished," because during his
reign severe famine prevailed in Den
mark. Gustavus Adolphus, the Swed-
ish hero, was known as The Snow
King because he CAME from the
North, and his enemies predicted that
he would melt away before the I'M
perialists forces like his own SHOWS.
The shameful title of 1.-The Butcher"
has frequently been branded on the
back of sanguinary princes, as on the
Duke Of Guise, who perpetrated the
bloody massacre Of the Huguenots
Varsy in 1862; on William Duke Of
in allusion to his cruel
ties after Culloden, and on Djizzar
Pacha, formerly Mohammedan ruler
n Syria. 1t was also applied to Lord |
Csstlereagh after the episode of 1.-The
peterloo Massacre" in 1919. Dente
,alls the father of Hugh Capet "il Boc-
,olo de Parizi," the Butcher of Paris.
His love of wine induced the Roman
wits to nickname the Emperor Tiberius
'Biberius," from bibere, to drink. The
Cardinal de Guise, for the Same reason,
vas ridiculed as the cardinal Ges
and Louis XVIII, wcs
as the French "Vitellius"
md as lie Boi Panade," or King of
Stops. !
Besi i,s William "the Silent" Prince
# Orang', whose stirring story has