Gog and Magog: legendary guardians of the City of London

From the old ATU site:

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:P-dEIjMarKAJ:acrosstheuniverse.forumotion.com/t2047-gog-and-magog-the-city-of-london-and-george-w-bush+acrosstheuniverse+%2B+cigar+store+indian&cd=8&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk&source=www.google.co.uk

"Number of gates in the old London Wall?" thread from ATU I:

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:Hi9QP8slh0kJ:acrosstheuniverse.forumotion.com/t2055-number-of-gates-in-the-london-wall+site:acrosstheuniverse.forumotion.com+acrosstheuniverse+%2B+how+many+gates+in+the+old+London+wall%3F&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk&source=www.google.co.uk

^^

Precautionary replication of the material about before the links to the old ATU caches expire:

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Legendary giants Gog and Magog, carried in effigy in the Lord Mayor of London's traditional annual procession, have somehow morphed- through some mysterious historical process- from being the menacing figures of Ezekiel and Revelations to being the benevolent guardians of the City of London.

But not in the eyes of the former US President.

In the build-up to the Iraq war, George W Bush rambled down the transatlantic phone line to the French President, in an attempt to garner support for his Middle-Eastern adventure, about how the sinister forces of Gog and Magog must be defeated.

I wonder whether he took the same line with Tony Blair?

Nash wrote:

Quote:
have somehow morphed- through some mysterious historical process- from being the menacing figures of Ezekiel and Revelations to being the benevolent guardians of the City of London.



I always wondered about that too?

It's puzzling.

Pre-historic Albion was said in legend to be a land inhabited by such giants. There's some vague allusion to our supposed ancestor Brutus defeating them on his way back from the Seige of Troy and founding New Troy (or London).

I think adopting the giants as symbolic guardians of the City is supposed to be a kind in inverted tribute to the strength and prowess of the giants and- by association- a compliment to one's own strength and prowess in defeating them, rather like the British Foot Guards adopting the French bearskin hats after Waterloo. A tribute to a worthy enemy, as it were.

In the US, it's the cigar-store Indian: same principle.

Originally constructed by the Romans as a defensive rampart, the wall enclosing the City of London seems to have originally been pierced by just six gates: (clockwise from Ludgate in the west to Aldgate in the east) Ludgate, Newgate, Aldersgate, Cripplegate, Bishopsgate, Aldgate. The medieval addition of Moorgate makes up the canonical seven.

But what confuses me are Billingsgate (said to derive originally from Belinos' Gate, the name of a pre-Roman deity) and The Barbican. What else is a Barbican but a gate?

Just how many gates are there in the old Roman Wall?

Statue of Trajan in front of the old Roman wall at Tower Hill.

Arthur Askey wrote:

The location of Billingsgate means it's nothing to do with the City wall, and this suggests a possible origin:

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Billingsgate was known as Blynesgate and Byllynsgate before the name settled into its present form. The origin of the name is unclear and could refer to a watergate at the south side of the City where goods were landed-perhaps owned by a man named 'Biling'-or it may have originated with Belin (400BC) an ancient King of the period.


from http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/Corporation/LGNL_Services/Business/Markets/Billingsgate+Market/history.htm

As regards The Barbican, my dictionary says a barbican is an outer defence of a city or castle, especially a double tower over a gate or bridge, and the official Barbican site says:

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The Barbican has a history almost as old as London itself. It was first built by the Roman invaders to protect what was for them a new settlement by the river.

from http://www.barbican.org.uk/about-barbican/history

Boudicca by Thomas Thorneycroft, standing near Westminster Pier, London.

This fearsome-looking broad is the reason the Romans built a wall around London in the first place.

Boudicca, Queen of the Norfolk-based Iceni tribe of native Brits, had been flogged by the occupying Romans, her daughters raped and the tribal lands confiscated after the death of her husband.

The revolt she led against the Roman oppressors in 61AD, in alliance with the neighbouring Trinovantes tribe, saw the destruction of the Roman IX Legion and the towns of Colchester, St Albans and London burned to the ground. Not a stone was left standing in London, and none of the occupants escaped alive, every man, woman and child butchered.

Eventually defeated in battle, Boudicca took poison rather than surrender.

Dig down a few metres into the London clay and, to this day, you'll discover a stratum of ashes: a permanent testament to the wrath of Boudicca.

It's little wonder that, in the aftermath of her revolt, the Romans began contructing a stout wall around the City of Londinium, a project eventually completed in the 2nd c. AD.

Legend has it that Boudicca is buried under a platform at King's Cross railway station, in close proximity to Battle Bridge Road. JK Rowling's inspiration for the Hogwart Express's point of departure is not far to seek.