E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898.
Rad’egund.
Queen of the Am’azons, “half like a man.” Getting the better of Sir Art’egal in a single combat, she compelled him to dress in “woman’s weeds,” with a white apron before him, and to spin flax. Brit’omart, being informed by Talus of his captivity, went to the rescue, cut off the Amazon’s head, and liberated her knight. (Spenser: Faërie Queene, book v. 4–7.)
1
St. Radegonde or Radegund, wife of Clothaire, King of France.
2
St. Radegonde’s lifted stone. A stone sixty feet in circumference, placed on five supporting stones, said by the historians of Poitou to have been so arranged in 1478, to commemorate a great fair held on the spot in the October of that year. The country people insist that Queen Radegonde brought the impost stone on her head, and the five uprights in her apron, and arranged them all as they appear to this day.
