Dublin.
* * * * *
"GRINDLE."
(Vol. vii., p. 107.)
The question of C. G. supplies a new instance of an ancient and heroic word
still surviving in a local name. The only other places in England that I
have as yet heard of are, _Grindleton_ in the West Riding of Yorkshire, and
a _Gryndall_ in the East Riding. The authority for this latter is Mr.
Williams' Translation of Leo's _Anglo-Saxon Names_, p. 7., note 3.
In old England, the name was probably not uncommon: it occurs in a
description of landmarks in Kemble's _Codex Dipl._, vol. ii. p. 172.: "on
_grendles_ mere."
There is a peculiar interest attaching to this word; or, I might say, it is
invested with a peculiar horror, as being the name of the malicious fiend,
the man-enemy whom Beowulf subdues in our eldest national Epic:
"W[=æ]s se grimma gæst Grendel háten,
M[=æ]re mearc-stapa, se þe móras heóld,
Fen and fæsten--fífel-cynnes eard
Won-sæli wer...."
_Beowulf_, l. 203. _seqq._--Ed. Kemble.
So he is introduced in the poem, when, in the dead of night, he comes to
the hall where the warriors are asleep, ravining for the human prey. The
following is something like the meaning of the lines:--
"Grendel hight the grisly guest,
Dread master he of waste and moor,
The fen his fastness--_fiends among_,
Bliss-bereft...."
This awful being was no doubt in the mind of those who originated the name
_grendles mere_, before quoted from Kemble. The name is applied to a
locality quite in keeping with the ancient mythological character of
_Grendel_, who held the moor and the fen. Most strikingly does the same
sentiment appear in the name of that strange and wildering valley of the
Bernese Oberland, in Switzerland:--I mean the valley of Grindelwald, with
its two awful glaciers.
But when we come to consider the etymology of the name, we are led to an
object which seems inadequate, and incapable of acting as the vehicle for
these deep and natural sentiments of the inhuman and the horrible.
_Grendel_ means, originally, no more than a _bar_ or _rod_, or a palisade
or lattice-work made of such bars or rods. Also a bar or bolt for fastening
a door, or for closing a harbour. Middle-aged people at Zurich recollect
when the old "Grindel" was still standing at the mouth of their river. This
was a tremendous bar, by which the water-approach to their town could be
closed against an enemy; who might otherwise pass from the Lake of Zurich
down the river Limmat, into the heart of the town of Zurich.
It was in Germany that this word lived longest as a common substantive.
There is no known instance of it in Anglo-Saxon, other than in proper
names, and of these I know no more than are already enumerated above;
whereas, in the Middle High German, it is by no means uncommon. It occurs
in a mystery on the resurrection preserved in this dialect, and edited by
Ettmüller, 1851 (_Dat Spil fan der Upstandinge_). I cannot now find the
line, but it is used there for "the gates of hell." Cf. also Ziemann's
_Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch_, voc. GRINDEL.
Grimm, in his _Mythology_, establishes a connexion between _Grendel_ and
_Loki_, the northern half-deity half-demon, the origin of evil. He was
always believed to have cunningly guided the shaft of Flöder the Blind,
who, in loving sport, shot his brother Balder the Gay, the beloved of gods
and men. So entered sorrow into the hitherto unclouded Asaland.
Grimm draws attention to the circumstance that Loki is apparently connected
with the widespread root which appears in English in the forms _lock_ and
_latch_. Here is a very striking analogy, {308} and it is supported by an
instance from the present German: _Höllriegel_ = vectis infernalis, brand
of hell, is still recognised as = _teufel_; or for an old witch = devil's
dam.
And even in Latin documents we find the same idea represented. Thus, in a
charter of King Edgar (_Cod. Dipl._, No. 487.), which begins with a recital
of the fall of man, and the need of escaping the consequent misery, we have
the following:
"Quamobrem ego Eadgar, totius Britanniæ gubernator et rector, ut hujus
miseriæ _repagulum_ quam protoplastus inretitus promeruit ... evadere
queam, quandam ruris particulam ... largitus sum," &c. &c.
As to the application of this name to localities, it seems to represent the
same sentiment as the prefix of Giant, Grim, or Devil: and this sentiment
would be that of the grand or awful in Nature, and mysterious or
unaccountable in artificial works. I think we may then safely conclude,
that all dikes, ditches, camps, cromlechs, &c., which have such titles
attached to them, date from an age previous to the Saxons being in England.
For example, if we did not know from other sources the high antiquity of
Wayland Smith's Cave in Berkshire, we might argue that it was at least
pre-Saxon; from the fact that the Saxons called it by the name of their
Vulcan, and therefore that it appeared to them so mysterious as to be
_dignus vindice nodus_.
If your correspondent C. G., or any of your readers, can, either from their
reading or from local knowledge, add any further illustrations or examples
of this ancient heathen word, I, for one, shall receive them gratefully.