Page:Origin and history of Glasgow Streets.djvu/9

v daughter of Loth, King of Northumbria. Thenaw was visionary, and dreamed of being a second Virgin Mary; but her paternal parent was too matter-of-fact, so he sent her to sea in a little boat, which was ultimately driven to Culross, where Saint Kentigern was born, and partly educated by Saint Serf, who latterly handed him over to the care of Semanus, Bishop of Orkney, who, after taking the good little boy in charge, found him so loving and kindly in disposition that he called him by a pet-name of his own—Mungo, from the Norwegian phrase Mongah (my friend or dear one), and this stuck to him—hence the name Saint Mungo. Kentigern, his first title, means Lord-in-Chief.

The tree denotes the frozen branch with which, by blowing into a flame, Saint Mungo re-kindled the monastery fire at Culross. The bird is the robin he brought back to life after it had been decapitated. The fish and ring are emblematic of a miracle, by which he restored to Langueth, the wife of King Ridderch of Strathclyde, a love token she had lost; and the bell represents that which he brought from Rome. He died about 601, and for more than five centuries after that date Glasgow has no authentic records.