Jabberwocky Details

There is little argument regarding the fact that Lewis Carroll produced most of his poem Jabberwocky while visiting relatives in Sunderland, there is documentary evidence of the fact, which can be found further on in the Blog.

It is claimed that Lewis Carroll based his ideas for the Jabberwocky on the local Legend in Sunderland of the Lambton Worm.

The poem, "The Lambton Worm" tells of how the Worm could wrap its body Seven times roond Pensher Hill, which is now spelt Penshaw.

The area behind Penshaw Monument is still a little rural enclave of Sunderland.

Down from the monument is the small village of Cox Green.

In the village there is a small well, which is known as Alice's Well, which was rebuilt in 1895. It is commonly thought the well was named after Alice (Liddell), though I have never been able to find conclusive evidence, it could be truth.

With a number of events taking place in Sunderland to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Alice in Wonderland there has been a renewed interest in the story and you never know one day conclusive evidence might be found.

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A decade before the publication of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and the sequel Through the Looking-Glass, Carroll wrote the first stanza to what would become "Jabberwocky" while in Croft on Tees, close to Darlington, where he lived as a child, and printed it in 1855 in Mischmasch, a periodical he wrote and illustrated for the amusement of his family. The piece was titled "Stanza of Anglo-Saxon Poetry" and read:

Twas bryllyg, and ye slythy toves
Did gyre and gymble in ye wabe:
All mimsy were ye borogoves;
And ye mome raths outgrabe.

Carroll wrote the letter-combination ye throughout the poem instead of the word the, using the letter Y in place of the letter þ (Thorn) in combination with the superscript E, as in þe, a common abbreviation for the word the in middle and early modern English, presumably to create a pseudo-archaic impression.

The rest of the poem was written during Carroll's stay with relatives at Whitburn, near Sunderland. The story may have been partly inspired by the local Sunderland area legend of the Lambton Worm.

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