‘Goat glerheads’. What does this mean????

[NomNomNominativeDeterminism]

Can anyone make sense of this? I’m baffled and no help from Google.

It’s in a 1942 book about music in England. This is the line:

‘However, we may perhaps hardly expect them to take to Elgar or Vaughan Williams unless we more extensively cultivate Bruckner or Roussel or Casella, so we remain goat glerheads.’

Eh what??? WHAT do we remain?

Is it a typo? Is it a 1940s common or garden expression? Did everyone have a goat, and at least one glerhead, and was this a bad thing?

At loggerheads?

Looks like a typo to me!

My guess is a typo/printing error and perhaps it was meant to be simply “goatherds”- still not sure what it would mean but maybe a bit like suggesting people are sheep/goats and need to be shown the way by their herders?

what is the wider context- who is speaking and what is the purpose of the book?

Is it a kindle book/e-book? They very commonly introduce errors when old books are scanned to make digital versions, so I think the guess of 'at loggerheads' is a good one.

Oh ‘at loggerheads’ is an excellent unmangling and would make sense!

The wider context is that the author Eric Blom is peeved that people Abroad believe ‘there is no such phenomenon as a British composer’.

"At loggerheads" is an exact anagram. If that helps at all...

V sharp of @Sunbird24 to spot that.

It’s a printed paperback, 1947 revised edition. Not revised enough my friend! That’s one hell of a misprint.

I like the idea of goatherds shepherding recalcitrant continentals toward Elgar and Vaughan Williams.

But ‘for ever remaining at loggerheads’ makes sense. He also struggles to come to terms with opera having developed in Italy rather than England.

If only, if ONLY we had more extensively cultivated Bruckner, Roussel and Casella! Then all these loggerheads could have been avoided! World peace and that.

Absolutely good skills @Sunbird24 and goat glerherds would be an amazing name change! 😆

Well goat glerheads née @DoreenonTill8 let me make you a present of it!