Dun Cow

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The dun cow is a common motif in English folklore. "Dun" is a dull shade of brownish grey.

1 Dunsmore Heath
2 Durham
3 Pubs
4 See also

[edit] Dunsmore Heath

The Dun Cow of Dunsmore Heath was a savage beast slain by Guy of Warwick. A huge tusk, probably that of an elephant, is still shown at Warwick Castle as one of the horns of the Dun Cow.

The fable is that this cow belonged to a giant, and was kept on Mitchell's Fold (middle fold), Shropshire. Its milk was inexhaustible; but one day an old woman who had filled her pail, wanted to fill her sieve as well. This so enraged the cow, that she broke loose from the fold and wandered to Dunsmore Heath, where she was slain by Guy of Warwick.

Isaac Taylor, in his Words and Places (p. 269), says the dun cow is a corruption of the Dena Gau (Danish region) in the neighbourhood of Warwick. Gau, in German, means region, country. If this explanation is correct, the great achievement of Guy of Warwick was a victory over the Danes, and taking from them their settlement near Warwick.

(From the 1898 edition of Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable).

[edit] Durham

Legend of the founding of Durham depicted on cathedral

Legend states that Durham was founded in 995 AD, when a group of monks from Lindisfarne were led to the location that became the city by milkmaids searching for a lost dun cow, which was found resting on the spot. There is a street near Palace Green named Dun Cow Lane, and a public house in the city named for the legend. A frieze (right) depicting the event is carved on the exterior of Durham Cathedral.