BELFRY
WILD WORD FRIDAY!
When I hear the word BELFRY, I immediately think of churches and the beautiful sound of bells chiming across a sleepy town, so I was surprised to discover that, originally, a BELFRY was a wooden siege tower, used to help soldiers as they tried to scale and break through the thick stone-walled defenses of a castle.
In the thirteenth century the Middle English language borrowed the word – which they designated as berfrey – from the Old French berfroi, which also has connections to the Old High German word, bergfrid. Berfrid translated means protector of peace.
As often happens in languages, berfrey morphed into something a little easier to pronounce – BELFRY. Because BELFRY sounds like it should refer to bells, after a century or two, it did! So in our modern world, the meaning has, in a way, come around again to peace, the peace of a church or a university, or something made peaceful and lovely by the music of bells.
Do you have a BELFRY in the town where you live? Tell us about it!
Blessings!
Sue
(Some information from THE CHRONOLOGY OF WORDS AND PHRASES by Linda and Roger Flavell and from WEBSTER’S NEW WORLD DICTIONARY OF THE AMERICAN LANGUAGE. Photo from Wikipedia.)
I absolutely love the photo. I’ve never seen any belfry like it, Trish! Thanks for sharing it with us. I’ll put the photo up on my FB page today.
I’ve never read The Book of Hours, Arlene, although I’ve heard of it. I needs to go on my list. I think your idea of wind chimes is a wonderful substitute for belfry chimes!
That’s what we have on our church, too, Carol. As a child growing up in my home town, I loved to hear those bells, and my family “ordered” our day according to noon and evening chimes.
My DH’s first pastorate was in a small town church that had a belfry but no bells. There was a speaker installed, however, and recordings of chimes were played through it on Sunday mornings as people gathered for the service. It sounded lovely.
We have awesome belfry over looking our icon Swan River the bells ring on the hour & the sound is just beautiful. When it was being built there was alot of disharmony with public because of the cost. Where I live it’s to far for me to hear. Hope you like the picture I sent of it Sue?
I wish I had a real belfry with bells chiming. Living as far out in the country as we do, we’d never hear the town bells, so I settle for wind chimes during the months we’re not besieged by winter storms!
Have you ever read Davis Bunn’s “The Book of Hours”? One of the issues the English village is dealing with is what some townspeople have dubbed the “noise pollution” of the church bells. Yet, other parishioners cherish the fact that the historic ringing of the bells at the top of every hour reminded the people to stop and pray often during their busy days. I loved the book and have ever since wished for my own belfry atop my house!