| E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898. |
| | | Gan’elon (g hard). | | |
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Count of Mayence, one of Charlemagne’s paladins, the “Judas” of knights. His castle was built on the Blooksberg, the loftiest peak of the Hartz mountains Jealousy of Roland made him a traitor; and in order to destroy his rival, he planned with Marsillus, the Moorish king, the attack of Roncesvallës. He was six and a-half feet high, with glaring eyes and fiery hair; he loved solitude, was very taciturn, disbelieved in the existence of moral good, and never had a friend. His name is a by-word for a traitor of the basest sort. | 1 |
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“Have you not held me at such a distance from your counsels, as if I were the most faithless spy since the days of Ganelon?”—Sir Walter Scott: The Abbot, chap. xxiv. |
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“You would have thought him [Ganelon] one of Attila’s Huns, rather than one of the paladins of Charlemagne’s court.”—Croquemitaine, iii. |
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