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Transcriber's Note:
Minor spelling and typographical errors have been corrected without
note. Greek text has been transliterated and is shown between
{braces}. Diacritical marks are represented as follows:
[)x] letter _x_ with upper breve.
[=x] letter _x_ with upper macron.
[oe] oe ligature.
THE
RIVER-NAMES
OF
EUROPE.
BY ROBERT FERGUSON.
WILLIAMS & NORGATE,
14, HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN, LONDON;
AND 20, SOUTH FREDERICK STREET, EDINBURGH,
CARLISLE: R. & J. STEEL.
1862.
PREFACE.
The object of the present work is to arrange and explain the names of
European Rivers on a more comprehensive principle than has hitherto been
attempted in England, or, to the best of my belief, in Germany.
I am conscious that, like every other work of the same sort, it must
necessarily, and without thereby impugning its general system, be
subject to correction in many points of detail. And in particular, that
some of its opinions might be modified or altered by a more exact
knowledge of the characteristics of the various rivers than can possibly
in all cases come within the scope of individual research.
Among the writers to whom I am most indebted is Ernst Förstemann, who,
in the second volume of his Altdeutsches Namenbuch, (the first
consisting of the names of persons), has collected, explained, and where
possible, identified, the ancient names of places in Germany. The dates
affixed to most of the German rivers are taken from this work, and refer
to the earliest mention of the name in charters or elsewhere.
I also refer here, because I find that I have not, as usual, given the
titles elsewhere, to Mr. R. S. Charnock's "Local Etymology," and to the
work of Gluck, entitled "Die bei C. Julius Cæsar vorkommende Keltische
namen."
ROBERT FERGUSON.
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTION.
The first wave of Asian immigration that swept over Europe gave names to
the great features of nature, such as the rivers, long before the
wandering tribes that composed it settled down into fixed habitations,
and gave names to their dwellings and their lands. The names thus given
at the outset may be taken therefore to contain some of the most ancient
forms of the Indo-European speech. And once given, they have in many, if
not in most cases remained to the present day, for nothing affords such
strong resistance to change as the name of a river. The smaller streams,
variously called in England and Scotland brooks, becks, or burns, whose
course extended but for a few miles, and whose shores were portioned out
among but a few settlers, readily yielded up their ancient names at the
bidding of their new masters. But the river that flowed past, coming
they knew not whence, and going they knew not whither--upon whose shores
might be hundreds of settlers as well as themselves, and all as much
entitled to give it a name as they--was naturally, as a matter of common
convenience, allowed to retain its original appellation.
Nevertheless, it might happen that a river such as the Danube, which
runs more than a thousand miles as the crow flies--being divided between
two great and perfectly distinct races, might, as it passed through the
two different countries, be called by two different names. So we find
that while in its upper part it was called the Danube, in its lower part
it was known as the Ister--the former, says Zeuss (_Die Deutschen_),
being its Celtic, and the latter its Thracian name. So the Saone also
was anciently known both as the Arar and the Sauconna--the latter,
according to Zeuss, being its Celtic name. And Latham, (_Tacitus_,
_Germania_,) makes a similar suggestion respecting the Rhine--"It is not
likely that the Batavians of Holland, and the Helvetians of Switzerland,
gave the same name to the very different parts of their common river."
It does not follow then as a matter of course--though we must accept it
as the general rule--that the name by which a river is known at the
present day, when it happens to be different from that recorded in
history, is in all cases the less ancient of the two. There might
originally have been two names, one of which has been preserved in
history, and the other retained in modern use.
It is also to be observed, that in the case of one race coming after
another--say Germans or Slaves after Celts--while the newcomers retained
the old names, they yet often added a word of their own signifying water
or river. The result is that many names are compounded of two words of
different languages, and in not a few cases both signifying water.
The names thus given at the outset were of the utmost simplicity,
rarely, if ever, containing a compound idea. They were indeed for the
most part simple appellatives, being most commonly nothing more than
words signifying water. But these words, once established as names,
entered into a different category. The words might perish, but the names
endured. The words might change, but the names did not follow their
changes. Inasmuch as they were both subject to the same influences, they
would most probably in the main be similarly affected by them. But
inasmuch as the names were independent of the language, they would not
be regulated in their changes by it. Moreover, in their case a fresh
element came into operation, for, being frequently adopted by races
speaking a different language, they became subject to the special
phonetic tendencies of the new tongue. The result is that many names,
which probably contained originally the same word, appear in a variety
of different forms. The most important phonetic modifications I take to
be those of the kind referred to in the next chapter.
There is no branch of philological enquiry which demands a wider range
than that of the origin of the names of rivers. All trace of a name may
be lost in the language in which it was given--we may have to seek for
its likeness through the whole Indo-European family--and perhaps not
find it till we come at last to the parent Sanscrit. Thus the name of
the Humber is probably of Celtic origin, but the only cognate words that
we find are the Lat. _imber_ and the Gr. {ombros}, till we come to the
Sansc. _ambu_, water. Celtic also probably are the names of the Hodder
and the Otter, but the words most nearly cognate are the Gr. {hydôr} and
the Lith. _audra_, (fluctus), till we come to the Sansc. _ud_, water.
Again, there are others on which we can find nothing whatever to throw
light till we come to the Sanscrit. Such are the Drave and the Trave,
for which Bopp proposes Sansc. _dravas_, flowing. And the Arve in Savoy,
which I cannot explain till I come to the Sansc. _arb_ or _arv_, to
ravage or destroy, cognate with Lat. _orbo_, Eng. _orphan_, &c. And--far
as we have to seek for it--how true the word is, when found, to the
character of that devastating stream; and how it will come home to the
frequenters of the vale of Chamouni, who well remember how, within the
last few years, its pretty home-steads were rendered desolate, and their
ruined tenants driven out like "orphans" into the world! With such fury
does this stream, when swollen by the melted snows, cast its waters into
the Rhone, that it seems to drive back the latter river into the lake
from whence it issues. And Bullet relates that on one occasion in 1572,
the mills of Geneva driven by the current of the Rhone were made for
some hours to revolve in the opposite direction, and to grind their corn
backwards.
Thus then, though we may take it that the prevailing element in the
river-names of Europe is the Celtic, we must turn for assistance to all
the languages that are cognate. And, for the double reason of their
great antiquity and their great simplicity, we shall often find that the
nearer we come to the fountain-head, the clearer and the more distinct
will be the derivation. It will be seen also throughout the whole of
these pages that, in examining the names of rivers, we must take not
only a wide range of philological enquiry, but also an extensive
comparison of these names one with another.
The first step in the investigation is of course to ascertain, whenever
it is possible, the most ancient forms in which these names are found.
We should scarcely suspect a relationship between our Itchen and the
French Ionne, if we did not know that the ancient name of the one was
Icene, and of the other Icauna. Nor would we suppose that the Rodden of
Shropshire was identical with the French Rhone, did we not know that
the original name of the latter was the Rhod[)a]nus.
In this, as in most other departments of philology, the industry of the
Germans has been the most conspicuous. And Ernst Förstemann in
particular, who has extracted and collated the ancient names of places
in Germany up to the 12th cent., has furnished a store of the most
valuable materials.
And yet after all there will be occasions on which all the resources of
philology will be unavailing. Then we can but gather together the
members of the family and wait till science shall reveal us something of
their parentage. Thus the Alme that wanders among the pleasant meads of
Devon--the Alm that flows by the quaint dwellings of the thrifty
Dutch--the Alma that courses through the dark pine forests of the far
North--the Almo that waters the sacred vale of Egeria--and the Alma,
whose name brings sorrow and pride to many an English household--all
contain one wide-spread and forgotten word, at the meaning of which we
can but darkly guess.