The Facts on File Dictionary of Allusions - Green Valley High School

Grendel
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and the Middle East as the culprits who caused
aircraft to malfunction. Various explanations for
the name of these mischievous creatures have
been suggested, including one that links it to
Fremlin’s beer. Gremlins in the electrical system
meant that the car had to start the race from the back of
the grid.
Grendel (grendbl) A ferocious monster. In the
epic Anglo- Saxon poem Beowulf (c. 700) Grendel
is a fearsome underwater monster descended from
Cain who repeatedly emerges from his lake at
night to devour Danish warriors as they sleep in
the banqueting hall of their king, Hrothgar. After
12 years of these ravages the hero Beowulf of the
Geats arrives to fi ght Grendel, and after a long
struggle Beowulf manages to kill him by tearing
off his arm, to general rejoicing. Grendel’s equally
fearsome mother seeks to avenge her son, but
Beowulf follows her into the lake and kills her,
too. Like some latterday Grendel he hauled himself out
of the water and bore down upon his opponent, growling
menacingly.
Gresham’s Law (greshbmz) <strong>The</strong> theory that inferior
goods or practices tend to drive out superior
ones. <strong>The</strong> law is particularly associated with the
world of fi nance, in which it relates to the
replacement of “good” (intrinsically more valuable)
money by “bad” (intrinsically less valuable)
money as the better money is hoarded. Although
the phenomenon had been observed at an earlier
date by Copernicus among others, the law was
named after En glish fi nancier and merchant Sir
Thomas Gresham (c. 1519–79), found er of the
Royal Exchange. In modern usage, the law may
be quoted in relation to a wide range of topics,
from fi nance and trade to politics and art. Gresham’s
Law insists that “bad drives out good” and this
applies just as much in the world of fashion as it does
anywhere else.
Greta Garbo See garbo.
Gretchen (grechbn) Stock name for a German
girl or young woman. <strong>The</strong> name is well known as
that of the tragic, innocent young heroine in
Goethe’s Faust (1808), since when it has been often
employed in the context of young girls destroyed
by love. “Kathy came downstairs with her long
hair in what Helen called ‘the Gretchen style’: two
plaits pinned neatly on top of her head” (Adele
Geras, <strong>The</strong> Green Behind the Glass, 1989).
Gretna (gretnb) A runaway marriage, or the
place where it is performed. <strong>The</strong> Scottish village
of Gretna Green, close to the En glish border, was
one of the nearest places to which, in former
times, underage En glish couples lacking the consent
of parents could travel in order to obtain
marriages under Scottish law, which did not
require a license, calling of the banns, or a priest.
Marriages at Gretna were performed with a minimum
of ceremony by the blacksmith (over his
anvil), landlord, or other local offi cial. <strong>The</strong> situation
changed in 1856, when a new law insisted
that at least one of the parties to the marriage had
to have been resident in Scotland for 21 days
beforehand, but Gretna remained attractive to
eloping couples because minors still did not need
to have parental consent. In 1969, however, Gretna
fi nally fell into step with other places in the UK
when the legal age of consent to marriage was set
at 18. <strong>The</strong>ir parents refused to countenance the thought
of marriage so they ran away to Gretna.
Grimm’s Fairy Tales A source of fantastical horror.
<strong>The</strong> allusion is to the often gruesome fairy