Etymology of kingfisher hypothesis

[traplican]

After English Wikipedia "The etymology of kingfisher (Alcedo atthis) is obscure; the term comes from king's fisher, but why that name was applied is not known".

I propose a hypothesis: Wife of king Richard II, Ann of Bohemia (1366 - 1394), was a daughter of Charles IV, the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire and king of Bohemia. While she was queen of England, there were very active relations between English and Bohemian kingdoms. And one of Charles IV's sons Wenceslas IV (1361-1419), king of Bohemia, had kingfisher in his personal heraldry:

[Padfield]

That's fascinating.

The picture of Wenceslas IV in Wikipedia shows him adorned in the colours of the kingfisher too:



(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bible_Vaclav4_1.jpg)

Guy

[traplican]

Here are furher pictures:



http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Categ ... eslaus_IV.

[Padfield]

It may be the royal connection is older than that, even though the word's English form dates (so far as is known) only from the 15th century. I dug up some interesting ideas at this website:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/30767423/The-Kingfisher

The following is taken directly from there:

"Kungsfiskare: In fact the name kingfisher probably refers to the Norse roots. Kungsfiskare may have been defined by the Normans. The Normans were Norsemen in origin, but they had lived in France for a long time and adopted both the French language and civilization. In history the year 1066 marks the Norman Conquest and is taken to open the Middle Ages in England. William the Conqueror and his Norman-French barons crossed the Channel, slew King Harold and the flower of his nobles in the Battle of Hastings, and conquered England. William soon restored peace to the country. He introduced the French feudal system, the French language and culture. These were to dominate England for the next three generations. French became the the official language of the courtiers and diplomats. English was suppressed and at first only spoken by the common people. Gradually though it developed into a new form.

The Anglo-Saxon inflectional endings were dropped. The language lost some of its vocabulary, but also has been enriched by French words. Ultimately English replaced French as the official language in the 14th century. Middle English literature was very much affected by the French spirit. The English national feeling was aroused by King Edward III's victories in France at Crecy (1346) and Poitiers (1356). This may have been a good time to promote a Norse wordkungsfiskare to an English symbol for royalty. The English royals may have reminded the tomb of Henry II (1133 – 1189), painted in orange and blue and name this beautiful bird the King's fisher, who carried the same colours in its garments".

Guy

[Mikhail]

Kungsfiskare is the modern Swedish for Kingfisher. Is there any evidence that the word is derived from Old Norse, or could it be a recent coinage? Danish seems to have borrowed from German with Isfuglen for Eisvogel, which brings us neatly back to butterflies since the White Admiral is in German Kleine Eisvogel.

Misha

[Gibster]

Here's an interesting fact about kingfishers - the bright blue and orange bird found throughout much of Europe is, in fact, coloured a dull brown! The vivid iridescence showing as blues and greens is not pigment at all. The colours are caused by different wavelengths of light reflecting from different layers in the feathers and these colours will change depending on the viewing angle and posture of the bird. Neat stuff huh?

Gibster.

[Piers]

Invocation to a Kingfisher

Come as a rapier thrust of hope,
a lightening flash to stretch my eyes;
an alleluia shout of praise,
Te Deum-feathered to surprise.

You commandeered Our Lady’s cloak
from Raphael’s Nativity;
seized jewelled chalice, gilded cope;
took fire and sand; Ionian sea.

Did windows shatter, once, at Chartres
so you could steal some splintered glass -
wear Joseph’s coat upon your flight,
sport Noah’s rainbow as you pass ?

Come as destroyer of despair
dispell my darkness with your beam;
pipe your bright call to challenge me
across the lake, above the stream.

By Some old poet lady person.

[Zonda]

My wife's granny had a stuffed Kingfisher, in a 6X9 case on her mantelpiece, for forty years. It was blue and red (be it dull compared with life). She left it to me in her will, whereupon,,, on taking the case to pieces,,, it fell apart, and turned to dust. As did the Green Woodpecker.
The herring gull survived for many more years in my loft, and eventually i pictured it with a view of Portland behind in a composite that preserves it for many more years. Then,,, i had to send it to landfill.Taxidermy was an art of the people in those days.(many a gamekeeper's income was enhanced). I hasten to add that all of these gamekeepers were on my wife's side.

[Padfield]

Kungsfiskare is the modern Swedish for Kingfisher. Is there any evidence that the word is derived from Old Norse, or could it be a recent coinage?

There's online access to a Swedish etymological dictionary, but it jumps from Kungsbacka to Kungsgatan... It was written in 1922. This is the relevant page:

http://runeberg.org/svetym/0455.html

Guy