GRIEG 



423 



, El>VARI>, a Norwegian comber, lorn 



At Borgen, l-'itll .Illlie ISl.'t. H WHS of Scotch 



descent, his ancestors, Greigs, having emigrated 



f i Praser burgh during tlie Jacobite troubles. 



: received iiiHtruction in music from his motlier, 

 till at tin- age of fifteen, on the recommendation of 

 ON- Bull, he was sent to the Conservatorium at 

 Loip/ig. Thence, in 1863, after a severe illness, 

 In- went to Copenhagen, iiml afterwards to Christ i- 

 \\ here he was settled as a teacher for alxmt 

 oi;,'ht years, and enjoyed the intimate friendship 

 n M-OM and Ibsen. He visited Liszt in Home 

 in IS69. For awhile a wanderer, he occupied for 

 some years a romantic hut on the Hardangerfjord, 

 and subsequently settled near Bergen. The Nor- 

 wegian parliament conferred a pension on him to 

 enable him to devote himself to composition. His 

 works are mainly for the pianoforte, and in small 

 forms, hut embrace a sonata and a concerto for 

 pianoforte, three violin ami pianoforte sonatas, 

 numerous songs', and a few orchestral and small 

 choral pieces. Beyond that of any other com- 

 poser, his music is characterised by the strongest 

 national peculiarities, extreme gloom and brilliance 

 alternating like the Norwegian summer and winter; 

 its merriment is often wildly elfish in its freaks, 

 and its pathos sometimes has a ghostly weirdness. 

 He is as far removed from the commonplace as 

 Chopin. He is of course immensely popular with 

 his countrymen, and the great and growing favour 

 with which he is regarded in England was strongly 

 expressed on his visits in 1888, 1889, and 1897. 



Grierson, SIR ROBERT, of Lag, persecutor of 

 the Covenanters, was born about 1655, and 

 succeeded his cousin in the family estates in 1669. 

 He acted for some years as steward of Kirkcud- 

 bright, and carried out the infamous work of 

 harrying the peasantry with such zest and vigour 

 as to leave his name after two hundred years a 

 byword in Galloway for ferocious cruelty. And 

 bis ln-iit al speech to Kenmure about a martyr's 

 body which lie had denied the decency of burial : 

 'Take him, if you will, and salt him in your 

 beef-barrel,' shows tin* popular tradition to be in 

 harmony with fact. He. was brother-in-law to the 

 Duke of Queenslierry, and through his influence 

 w.-is made a Nova Scotia baronet in 1685, and 

 awarded a pension of 200. He was one of the 

 judges of the Wigtown martyrs, and his name 

 survives in infamy upon their tombstone. After 

 tin- Revolution he was heavily fined .and imprisoned 

 for his obstinate opposition, and later was charged 

 with coining false money when experiments in 

 stamping linen alone were in question ! He died 

 .SUt December 1733. A rough but really vigorous 

 piece of verse, Lncfs Elegy, was current in Dum- 

 friesshire soon after his time, and was admired in 

 the next century l>y Carlyle. The popular imagina- 

 tion wove many a gloomy and awful fancy around 

 I/i;r's memory, and all the most effective of these 

 Scott worked with marvellous art into 'Wandering 

 Willie's Tale' a magnificent phantasy of genius. 

 ()1<1 Redgauntiet, with the horseshoe frown upon 

 his brow, and his pre-eminence among the damned 

 in hell, is but a creative realisation of the Laird 

 of Lag traditional in Galloway. See Colonel 

 !'! _'u-~ ou's book, The Lain/ <>f I.'ig : a Life Sketch 

 (1886). 



Grh'shacli. .Ton A NX JAKOB, author of the 

 first critical edition of the New Testament, was 

 born at Hutxbach, in Hesse- Darmstadt, January 4, 

 I71">. He studied theology at Tubingen; at Halle, 

 whore Sender influenced his whole after-life ; and 

 at Leipzig, where he became acquainted with 

 Krnesti. He commenced lecturing as /iriraf-rfocent 

 in Halle, and in 1773 was made extra-ordinary 

 professor; but in 1776 he was called as ordinary 



professor to .1. na, where IK- continued to teach with 

 great HUCC<*KH till his death on 24th March 1812. 

 The x'eat work with which his name in associated 

 is his critical revision of the New Testament text. 

 Amongst his notable works are the Synojiiti* 

 !:>< uHjeliorum (2 volu. 1774-75; 3d ed. 1809); hi* 

 edition of the whole New Testament ( 1775 ; new 

 ed. 1796-1806) ; Populure H<,gm,iti/.- ( 1779 ; 4th ed. 

 1789); Commentan/tU Critirus in TextumN. Test. 

 (1798-1811); and the Opuscula Acatleinica (1825). 

 The grand feature of Griesbach'H critical system in 

 bis threefold division or classification of the New 

 Testament MSS. : ( 1 ) The Alexandrine recension ; 

 (2) the Latin or Western recension; (3) the 

 Byzantine or Eastern recension. See BIBLE ; and 

 the Lives by Kothe (1812), Augusti (1812), and 

 Eichstiidt (1815). 



Griffin (Lat. gryphus; Gr. gri/ps), a chimerical 

 creature, first mentioned by Aristeas about 500 B.C. 

 The griffin is variously descril>ed and represented, 

 but the shape in which it most frequently appears 

 is that of a cross between a lion and an eagle, 

 having the body and legs of the former, with the 

 beak and wings of the latter, and the addition of 

 pointed ears. Sometimes the four legs are all like 

 those of an eagle, and the head is that of a cock. 

 The figure seems to have originated in the East, as 

 it is found in ancient Persian sculptures. Amongst 

 the Greeks it appears on antique coins, and as an 

 ornament in classical architecture. Griffins abound 



in the legendary tales of the Teutonic 



nations, and the name (Ger. grcif, 

 Dan. grif, &c. ) has passed into most 

 Teutonic dialects. In the bestiaries 

 of the middle ages the appearance and 

 habits of the griffin were discussed 

 with much particularity ; it was the 

 emblem of vigilance, and was under- 

 stood to guard hidden treasures in 

 Bactria ; and the griffin ( or gry- 

 phon) is still familiarly known to 

 heraldry. As such it appears in the arms of the 

 city of London, griffins oeing the supporters ; and 

 on the removal of Temple Bar a sculptured griflin 

 was erected on the site (November 1880). For the 

 Griffin Vulture, see VULTURE. Griffin is a name 

 jocularly given in India to a newcomer from Eng- 

 land, a greenhorn. 



Griffin, GEKALD, novelist, was l>orn at Limerick, 

 12th December 1803, and early began to write for 

 the papers and magazines. He came to London 

 in 1823, resolved to 'revolutionise the dramatic 

 taste.' Of course he failed to get his tragedies 

 acted, but he was more successful with novels 

 Holland Tide (1827), Talcs of the Miniver I-'extiruls 

 (1827), and The Collegians (1828), on which the 

 drama of the Colleen Jiau-n is founded. These 

 were followed by some dozen more novels and 

 many minor tales. Griffin joined the Stx-ioty of 

 Christian Brothers, and died in the North Monas- 

 tery, Cork, 12th June 1840. 



Griffith's Valuation, the main authority for 

 the adjustment of rents under the lri>h Land Act, 

 was calculated by Mr (afterwards Sir) Richard 

 Griffith, appointed commissioner to carry out the 

 scheme resolved on by the government in 1825. 

 The results were first published in 1850, and have 

 been much discussed in recent years; but the 

 valuation may l>e regarded as a most minute and 

 exact basis for equitable taxation and the fixing 

 of fair rents. 



Griff, or GLUT (Angitilla lutirtmtris}, a widely 

 distributed species of eel, found on British and 

 Kuropean, Chinese, West Indian, and other coasts. 

 See EKL. 



Grigoriopol, a town of Kherson, South Russia, 

 on the left bank of the Dniester, 82 miles XW. 01 



Griffin 

 (Heraldry). 



