The Anglosaxon equivalent is _Wyrd_, an expression of the very commonest

and most frequent occurrence. It should however be borne in mind that

there are two separate uses of this word, one a more abstract one, in

which it is capable of being used in the plural, and which may generally

be rendered _eventus_[735], another more personal, similar to the

Oldsaxon _Wurth_, and in which it never occurs but in the singular[736].

In the following most remarkable passage the heathen and Christian

thoughts are strangely mingled, Wierd being placed in actual apposition

with God,

swá he hyra má wólde

nefne him witig God,

Wyrd forstóde,

⁊ ðæs mannes mód[737].

“As he would more of them had not wise God, Wierd forstood him, and the

man’s courage.” How very heathen the whole would be, were we only to

conceive the word _God_ an interpolation, which is highly probable;

nefne him witig—Wyrd forstóde[738]! The following examples will show the

use of Wyrd:—“hine Wyrd fornam,”—him _Wierd_ ravished away[739]: just as

in other passages we have guð fornam[740], Wíg ealle fornam[741], swylt

fornam[742], deað fornam[743]. “Wyrd ungemete neáh[744],”— _Wierd_ was

immeasurably near him; as in the Oldsaxon passages above cited, and as

Deað ungemete neáh[745]. “Ac unc sceal weorðan æt wealle, swá unc Wyrd

geteóð, métod manna gehwǽs[746],”—it shall befal us as _Wierd_ decideth,

the lord of every man. “Swá him Wyrd ne gescráf[747],”—_Wierd_ did not

appoint. “Ealle Wyrd forsweóp[748],”—_Wierd_ has swept away. “Ús seó

wyrd scýðeð, heard and hetegrim[749],”—us doth _Wierd_ pursue, hard and

grim in hate.

-----

Footnote 735:

Ne wæs wyrd ðágen

ðæt he má móste

manna cynnes

þicgean ofer ða niht. (Beów. l. 1462.)

wyrd ne cúðon. (Ibid. l. 2467.)

Footnote 736:

One exception to be hereafter noticed seems more apparent than real.

If however it be taken in its fullest and ordinary grammatical sense,

it will show that all three or more sisters were in contemplation, and

that the name of the eldest had become a general expression for them

all.

Footnote 737:

Beów. l. 2104.

Footnote 738:

Ibid. l. 2411.

Footnote 739:

Ibid. l. 2240.

Footnote 740:

Ibid. l. 2154.

Footnote 741:

Ibid. l. 2872.

Footnote 742:

Ibid. l. 4234, 4468.

Footnote 743:

Ibid. l. 4836.

Footnote 744:

Ibid. l. 5453.

Footnote 745:

Ibid. l. 5048.

Footnote 746:

This is a most remarkable passage, for Wyrd is distinctly called

Metod, a word generally appropriated to God; but I am disposed to

think that Metten, another word for Fate, was uppermost in the poet’s

mind,—perhaps found in some heathen copy of the poem. “Ða gráman

mettena,” _saevae parcae_. Boet. p. 161. (Rawl.)

Footnote 747:

Beów. l. 5145.

Footnote 748:

Beów. l. 5624.

Footnote 749:

Cod. Vercel. Anal. l. 3121.

-----

These examples will suffice to show how thoroughly personal the

conception of _Wierd_ remained; and in this respect there is no

difference whatever between the practice in Beówulf and in the more

professedly Christian poems of the Exeter and Vercelli codices, or

Cædmon. But one peculiarity remains to be noticed, which connects our

_Wierd_ in the most striking manner with the heathen goddesses

generally, and the Scandinavian Nornir particularly. We have seen that

_Wierd_ opposes, that she stands close to the doomed warrior, that she

ravishes him away, that she sweeps away the power of men, that she

decides or appoints the event, that she is hard and cruel and pursues

her victims. But she also _weaves_, weaves the web of destiny, as we can

say even to this day without violence. It is necessary to give examples

of this expression: “Me ðæt wyrd gewæf[750],”—_Wierd_ wove that for me;

similar to which is, “Ac him dryhten forgeaf wígspéda gewiofu[751],”—but

the Lord gave him the weft of victory; where undoubtedly an earlier

weaving Wyrd was thought of. “Ðonne seó þrag cymeð, wefen

wyrd-stafum[752],”—when the time cometh, woven with _wierd_-staves, or

letters, probably _runes_. There is a remarkable passage in the same

collection[753], “Wyrmas mec ne áwǽfon, Wyrda cræftum, ða ðe geolo

godwebb geatwum frætwað,”—Worms wove me not, with the skill of _Wierds_,

those namely which the yellow silk for garments beautifully form. Here

weaving is especially put forward as that in which _Wierd_ excels, her

own peculiar craft and business[754].

-----

Footnote 750:

Cod. Exon. p. 355.

Footnote 751:

Beów. l. 1386.

Footnote 752:

Cod. Exon. p. 183.

Footnote 753:

Ibid. p. 417.

Footnote 754:

I am almost inclined to think the words searorúna gespon, _the web of

various runes_, merely a periphrasis for wyrd, taken in the abstract

sense of _event_. Cod. Ex. p. 347.

-----

Spinning and weaving are the constant occupation of Teutonic goddesses

and heroines: Holda and Bertha spin[755], and so do all the

representatives of these goddesses in popular tradition even down to the

fairies. But the Valkyriur or Shieldmays also weave, and in this

function, as well as their immediate action in the battle-field, as

choosers of the slain[756], they have some points of contact with the

Norns and Wyrd[757]. Gray has transferred to our language from the Nials

Saga a fine poem[758] which throws some light upon the weaving of the

Valkyriur, the wígspéda gewiofu. The Anglosaxon belief in the

Shieldmaidens comes to us indeed in a darkened form, yet we can hardly

doubt that it survived. The word Wælcyrge occurs in glossaries to

explain _Bellona_, the goddess of war, and one gloss calls eyes

Wælcyrigean, _gorgonei_, terrible as those of Gorgo; the flashing of the

eyes was very probably one mark of a Wælcyrge in the old belief[759], as

she floated or rode above the closing ranks of battle. In the

superstitions of a later period however we find a clear allusion to

these supernatural maidens. A spell preserved in a Harleian

manuscript[760] contains the following passages:

Hlúde wǽon hí lá hlúde, ðá hý

ofer ðone hlǽw ridon;

wǽron anmóde, ðá hý

ofer land ridon.

“Loud, lo! loud were they, as they rode over the hill: bold were they,

as they rode over the land.”

Stód under linde

under leóhtum scylde

ðǽr ða mihtigan wíf

hyra mægen berǽddon,

and hý gyllende

gáras sendon.

“I stood beneath my linden shield, beneath my light shield, where the

mighty women exercised their power, and sent the yelling javelins!”

Another spell from a MS. in Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, appears

to name them more distinctly:

Sitte ge, sígewíf,

sígað tó eorðan,

næfre ge wilde

tó wuda fleógan;

beó ge swá gemindige

mínes gódes,

swá bið manna gehwilc

metes and éðeles.

-----

Footnote 755:

“As tems ou Berte filait,” i. e. in a period anterior to the memory of

man: in the days of heathendom, of the _goddess_ Bertha, not the

queen.

Footnote 756:

Wælcyrige is derived from Wæl _the slain_ and ceósan _to choose_.

Footnote 757:

I do not know whether the expression Hine Wyrd gecéas, can be found in

Saxon poetry; but ceósan is a very common word in phrases denoting

death, though by Christian poets transferred to the doomed hero, from

the god or goddess: ǽr ðon forðcure, wintrum wæl reste. Cædm. p. 99.

“Priusquam annis [i. e. vita] praetulerit mortiferam quietem.”

Footnote 758:

The Fatal sisters. See vol. i. p. 70, Mitford’s edition.

Footnote 759:

When Ðorr visits Ðrymr under the disguise of Freya, the giant is

suspicious of the flashing eyes which he sees under the veil. Loki

explains them by the sleeplessness arising from Freya’s desire for the

giant’s embraces.

Laut und línu

lysti at kyssa;

en hann útan stökk

endlangan sal:

“Hwí eru öndótt

augu Freyju?

þikki mér or augum

eldr of brenna!”

Sat in alsnotra

ambótt fyrir,

er orð um fann

við jötuns máli:

“Svaf vætr Freyja

átta nóttum,

svá var hon óðfús

í jötunheima.”

Hamarsheimt. xxvii. xxviii.

Footnote 760:

MS. Harl. 585, fol. 186.

-----

“Sit, ye victorious women (or women of victory) descend to earth, never

fly ye wildly to the wood: be ye as mindful of good to me, as every man

is of food and landed possession.” Grimm has remarked with great

justice[761] that the sígewíf here recalls the names of Wælcyrian,

Sigrdrífa, Sigrún and Sigrlinn. I certainly see in Sigewíf, _women who

give victory_; and the allusion to the _wild_ flight and the _wood_ are

both essentially characteristic of the Wælcyrian, whom Saxo Grammaticus

calls _feminae_ and _nymphae sylvestres_. For many examples of this

peculiar character, it is sufficient to refer to the Deutsche

Mythologie[762].

-----

Footnote 761:

D. Myth. p. 402. He cites this spell, but proposes on grammatical

grounds to read _wille_ for _wilde_. If any change is necessary I

should prefer _fleógen_.

Footnote 762:

Deut. Myth. p. 401, _seq._

-----

CREATION AND DESTRUCTION.—The cosmogony of the Pentateuch was

necessarily adopted by the Saxon converts; yet not so entirely as to

exclude all the traditions of heathendom. In the mythology of the

Northern nations, the creation of the world occupied an important place:

its details are recorded in some of the most striking lays of the

earlier Edda; and several of them appear unconsciously to have acted

upon the minds of our Christian poets. The genius of the Anglosaxons

does not indeed seem to have led them to the adoption of those energetic

and truly imaginative forms of thought which the Scandinavians probably

derived from the sterner natural features that surrounded them: the rude

rocks and lakes of Norway and Sweden, the volcanoes, hot springs, ice

plains and snow-covered mountains of Iceland, readily moulded the

Northmen to a different train of thought from that which satisfied the

dwellers in the marshlands of the Elbe and the fat plains of Britain.

But as in the main it cannot be doubted that the heathendom of both

races was the same, so even in many modes of expression we meet with a

resemblance which can hardly be accidental. Like almost every other

people, the Northmen considered a gigantic chaos to have preceded the

world of order. While the giant Ymer lived, the earth was “without form

and void.” Listen to the words of the Vaulu Spá, or Prophetess’s Song:

Ár var alda When Ymer dwelt here,

þar er Ýmir bygði: 'twas the dawn of time:

vara sandr né sær cool streams were not,

né svalar unnir: neither sands, nor seas:

jörð fannsk æva earth was not

né uppkiminn, nor o’er it heaven,

gap var ginnunga, yawned the gap,

en gras hvergi[763]. and grass was nowhere.

The sons of Bur however, Oþinn, Vile and Ve, created the vast Midgard,

or realm of earth:

Sól skein sunnan The sun shone southward

á salar steina on the stone halls,

þá var grand gróin then was earth grown

grœnum lauki[764]. with green produce.

The constellations however as yet had no appointed course:

Sól þat ne vissi But the sun knew not

hvar hon sali átti, where her seat should be,

máni þat ne vissi and the moon knew not

hvat hann megins átti, what his might should be,

stjörnur þat ne vissu planets knew not

hvar þær staði áttu[765]. where their place should be.

So the holy Gods went to council, and divided the seasons, giving names

to night and noon and morning, to _undern_ and evening, that the years

might be reckoned[766].

-----

Footnote 763:

Vaulu Spá, st. 3.

Footnote 764:

Ibid. st. 4.

Footnote 765:

Ibid. st. 5.

Footnote 766:

Ibid. st. 6.

-----

The construction of the world out of the fragments of Ymer’s body, the

doctrine of the ash Yggdrasil, and of wondrous wells beneath its roots,

could of course find no echo here, after the conversion. But it is very

remarkable how nearly the description of creation given in Cædmon

sometimes coincides with the old remains of heathendom:

Ne wæs hér ðágiet There had not here as yet

nymðe heólstersceado save cavern shade

wiht geworden, aught existed,

ac ðes wída grund but this wide abyss

stód deóp and dim, stood deep and dim,

drihtne fremde, strange to its lord,

ídel and unnyt; idle and useless;

on ðone eágnm wlát on which looked with his eyes

stíðfrihð cining, the king firm of mood

and ða stowe beheóld and beheld the place

dreáma leáse. devoid of joys.

Geseah deorc gesweorc He saw the dark cloud

sémian sinnihte, lour in endless night,

sweart under roderum, swart under heaven,

wonn and wéste ... dusky and desert ...

folde wæs ðágyt the earth was yet

græs ungréne; not green with grass;

gársecg þeahte but ocean covered

sweart synnihte dark in endless night

wíde and síde far and wide

wonne wægas[767]. the dusky ways.

-----

Footnote 767:

Cædm. p. 7, l. 8 _seq._

-----

Then follows the creation of light, the separation of evening and

morning, and the production of organic life, as in the first chapter of

Genesis. The Wída grund, or _vast abyss_, is the Ginnunga gap, _yawning

gulf_, of the Edda, and a very remarkable parallel lies in the assertion

that there was no _grass_ anywhere to make green the earth.

The world was created out of the portions of Ymer’s body; but it seems

to be a remnant of ancient heathendom when we find in later times a

tradition that Man was created out of the great natural portions of the

world itself. An ancient Frisic manuscript quoted by Grimm in Haupt’s

Altdeutsche Blätter[768] says, “God scóp thene éresta meneska, thet was

Adam, fon achta wendem; thet bénete fon tha sténe, thet flásk fon there

erthe, thet blód fon tha wetere, tha herta fon tha winde, thene thochta

fon tha wolken, thene suét fon tha dáwe, tha lokkar fon tha gerse, tha

ágene fon there sunna, and tha blérem on thene helga óm.” That is,—God

created him of eight things: his bones from stone, his flesh from earth,

his blood from water, his heart from wind, his thought from cloud, his

sweat from dew, his hair from the grass, his eyes from the sun, and then

breathed into him the breath of life. In the prose Salomon and Saturn we

are also told that Adam was created of eight pounds by weight: a pound

of earth from whence his flesh; a pound of fire, whence his red and hot

blood; a pound of wind, whence his breathing; a pound of cloud, whence

his unsteadiness of mood; a pound of grace, whence his stature and

growth; a pound of blossoms, whence the variety of his eyes; a pound of

dew, whence his sweat; and a pound of salt, whence his salt tears[769].

-----

Footnote 768:

Vol. i. Part i. p. 1.

Footnote 769:

See the Authors edition, p. 181, and the notes at p. 194.

-----

But a much more striking proof of heathendom lies in the Anglosaxon

belief that after the destruction of this creation a more beautiful one

would arise; not only a metaphysical kingdom of heaven, but a concrete

world like our own, on a more imposing and glorious scale. It was the

belief of the Northmen that in the closing evening of the ages, the

Ragna-rauk, or twilight of the Gods, the old Titanic powers would burst

their fetters; Loki, the Northern Satan, would be released from his

bondage; Midgard’s orm, the serpent that surrounds the world, would rise

in his giant fury; the wolf Fenrir would snap his chain and move against

the gods; the ship Naglfar, made of the nails of the dead, and steered

by Loki, would convey the sons of Muspelheim to Vigrid, the plain on

which this heathen Armageddon was to be fought: at their head the

terrible Surtr, the black, the destroyer of the gods, beneath whose

sword of fire the whole world should perish.

Kjóll ferr austan, Eastward the ship

koma munu Muspells shall shape its journey,

um laug lýðir, Muspell’s sons

en Loki stýrir[770]. the sea shall travel,

o’er the lakes shall

Loki steer her.

-----

Footnote 770:

Vaulu Spá, st. 50.

-----

Oþinn, Thórr, and the other gods shall perish, but not unrevenged: the

wolf and the serpent will fall, one by the hands of Viðarr, Oþinn’s son,

the other under the terrible battle-maul of Thórr. The sun and moon and

earth will be destroyed, and the ash Yggrdasil wither under the flames

of Surtr.

Sól tekr sortna, Black wanes the sun,

sígr fold í mar, in waves the earth shall sink,

hverfa af himni from heaven shall fall

heiðar stjörnur; the friendly stars;

geisar eimr round the tree

við aldrnára, red fire shall rustle,

leikr hár hiti high heat play

við himin sjálfan[771] against the heaven.

But the Gods will be found again in Iðavelli; the earth will arise again

from the ocean; the sun that perished will have left a yet more

beauteous daughter to perform her task; the deities will remember their

ancient power, and the secrets of the great god; the golden tablets will

be found in the grass; Baldr, the slain god, will arise from the tomb;

Havdr, that unconsciously slew him, will return with him from the realms

of Hel, the goddess of the dead. Viðarr and Vale, sons, or rather new

births of Oþinn; Mode and Magne, sons of Thórr, will survive the

universal destruction; Allfather’s glorious kingdom will be renewed, and

the power of death and evil vanish for ever.

Sér hon uppkoma Then sees she rise

öðru sinni, a second time

jörð or œgi the world from ocean

iðjagrœna[772]. wondrous green.

Eína dóttur One bright child shall

berr Álfröðull bear Álfröðull,

áðr hana Fenrir fari; ere her form doth

sú skal ríða, Fenrir ruin;

þá er regin deyja, thus shall go,

móður brautir mær[773]. when gods have perished,

the maiden on

her mother’s journey.

Finnask Æsir Æsir meet

á Iðavelli, in Iðavelli,

ok um moldþinur doom with power

mátkan dœma, the great disasters,

ok minnask þar there remember

á megindóma, mighty judgements,

ok á fimbultýs and Fimbultýrs

fornar rúnar. former secrets.

Þar munu eptir After, shall be

undrsamligar all together

gullnar töflur found in the grass

í grasi finnask, the golden tablets,

þærs í árdaga which in time past

áttar höfðu possessed among them

fólkvaldr goða gods that ruled

ok Fjölnis kind. the race of Odin.

Munu ósánír Then unsown

akrar vaxa, the swath shall flourish

böls mun alls batna, all bale mend, and

Baldr mun koma; back come Baldr:

búa þeir Höðr ok Baldr with him Höðr dwell

Hropts sigtóptir in Hropter’s palace,

vel valtivar[774]. shrines of gods

the great and holy.

Sal sér hon standa There sees she stand

sólu fegra, than sunlight fairer,

gulli þakðan Gimli’s hall

á Gimli: with gold all covered:

þar skolu dyggvar there the just shall

dróttir byggja, joy for ever,

ok um aldrdaga and in pleasure

ynðis njóta[775]. pass the ages.

-----

Footnote 771:

Vaulu Spá, st. 56.

Footnote 772:

Ibid. st. 57.

Footnote 773:

Wafþrudnis Mál, st. 47. Álfröðul is a name of the Sun, and is said to

denote _divine splendour_. Edd. Lex. Myth. in voc.

Footnote 774:

Vaulu Spá, st. 57, 58, 59, 60.

-----

The conviction that the virtuous would rejoice with God in a world of

happiness was of course not derived by our forefathers merely from their

heathendom; but to this we may unhesitatingly refer their belief, that

after doomsday the sun and moon would be restored with greater

splendour. The Saxon Menology[776] says very distinctly:

“At doomsday, when our Lord shall renew all creatures, and all the race

of men shall rise again, and never more commit sin, then will the sun

shine seven times brighter than she now doth, and she will never set;

and the moon will shine as the sun now doth, and never will wane or wax,

but stand for ever on his course[777].” That this belief was not unknown

in Germany may be argued from an expression of Freidank,

Got himel und erde lát zergán,

unt wil dernách ein schoenerz hán[778].

Dim and fragmentary as these rays of light may be which straggle to us

through the veils of bygone ages, it is impossible not to recognize in

them traces of that primæval faith which teaches the responsibility of

man, the rule of just and holy beings superior to himself, and a future

existence of joy and sorrow, the ultimate consequence of human actions.

With what amount of distinctness this great truth may have been placed

before their eyes, we cannot tell, but it is enough that we see it

admitted in one of the most thoroughly heathen poems of the Edda, and

confirmed by an Anglosaxon tradition totally independent of

Christianity. Weak as it is while unsupported by the doctrine of a

gracious Redeemer, it is not wholly inoperative upon the moral being of

men; and its reception among the nations of the North must have tended

to prepare them for the doctrine which in the fulness of time was to

supersede their vague and powerless desires by the revelation of the

crucified Saviour.

-----

Footnote 775:

Vaulu Spá, st. 62.

Footnote 776:

MS. Corp. Christi, No. 179.

Footnote 777:

See Salomon and Saturn, p. 177. It may be observed here that the

feminine gender of the sun, and masculine of the moon, have their

origin in our heathen mythology.

Footnote 778:

Freydanck, Beschied. p. 8.

-----

HEROES.—It now remains that we should bestow a few words upon the heroic

names which figure in the Epopœa of the North, and which probably in

many cases belong to the legends and the worship of gods now forgotten,

or which at least represent those gods in their heroic form and

character; even as the Iliad in Achilles may celebrate only one form of

the Dorian Apollo, and the legends of Cadmus and Theseus may be echoes

from an earlier cult of Jupiter and Neptune.

The hero Scyld or Sceldwa[779] has been mentioned as the godlike

progenitor of the Scyldingas, the royal race of Denmark; but he also

appears among the mythical ancestors of Wóden, in the genealogy of

Wessex. It is a singular fact that the Anglosaxons alone possess the

fine mythus of this hero; the opening division or canto of Beówulf

relates of him that he was exposed as a child in a ship upon the ocean;

a costly treasure accompanied the sleeping infant as he floated to the

shores of the Gardanes, whose king he became; after reigning gloriously

and founding a race of kings, he died, and was again sent forth in his

ship, surrounded with treasures, to go into the unknown world, from

which he came; he came to found a royal race[780], and having done so,

he departs and nothing more is known of him. That this mythus was deeply

felt in England appears from its being referred to even by the later

chroniclers: Æðelweard[781] and William of Malmesbury[782] mention it at

length, and a desire to engraft a national upon a biblical tradition not

only causes Sceaf to be called by some authors the son of Shem, but

leads to the assertion of the Saxon chronicle that Sceaf was the son of

Noah, born in the ark[783], in obvious allusion to the miraculous

exposure on the waters. The mention of Scani by Æðelweard may be taken

in connection with a Norse tradition that Skjold was Skanunga goþ, a god

of the Scanings. An Anglosaxon riddle in the Codex Exoniensis[784], and

of which the answer seems to me to be only _a shield_, concludes with

the very remarkable words,

nama mín is mǽre, mighty is my name,

hæleðum gifre, rapacious among men,

and hálig sylf. and itself holy.

The second line seems to exclude the supposition of there being any

reference to Almighty God, though Scyld, like Helm, is one of his names,

examples of which are numerous in all Anglosaxon poetry. There are one

or two places in England which bear the name of this god or hero: these

are Scyldes treów[785], Scyldmere[786], and Scyldes heáfda[787]; but

except in the genealogy of Wessex and the tradition recorded by

Æðelweard and William of Malmesbury, there is no record of Sceaf.

Footnote 779:

From which form we must conclude for the reading Scyldu (as Wudu,

Duru).

Footnote 780:

ðone God sende whom God sent

folce tó frófre, to the people for their comfort,

fyrenþearfe ongeat the evil need he understood

ða híe ǽr drugon which they before had suffered

aldorleáse. while without a king.

Beów. l. 26.

Footnote 781:

Æðelw. lib. iii. He attributes the legend to Sceaf, Scyld’s father;

his words are: “Ipse Scef cum uno dromone advectus est in insula

oceani quae dicitur Scani, armis circumdatus, eratque valde recens

puer, et ab incolis illius terrae ignotus; attamen ab eis suscipitur,

et ut familiarem diligenti animo eum custodierunt, et post in regem

eligunt: de cuius prosapia ordinem trahit Athulf rex.”

Footnote 782:

William of Malmesbury (G. R. ii. 116) adds another peculiarity to the

legend, which however he gives to Sceaf, Scyld’s father; he says,

“Iste, ut ferunt, in quandam insulam Germaniae Scandzam, de qua

Jordanes historiographus Gothorum loquitur, appulsus, navi sine

remige, puerulus, posito ad caput frumenti manipulo, dormiens, ideoque

Sceaf nuncupatus, ab hominibus regionis illius pro miraculo exceptus,

et sedulo nutritus, adulta aetate regnavit in oppido quod tunc

Slasvic, nunc vero Haithebi appellatur. Est autem regio illa Anglia

Vetus dicta, unde Angli venerunt in Britanniam, inter Saxones et

Gothos constituta.” Wendover (Flor. Hist.) copies Malmesbury, with the

explanation of the name Sceafa, from Sceaf a sheaf of corn; others

derived it from scúfan, _trudere_, “quia fortunae commissus.” Die

Stammtafel der Westsachsen, p. 33.

Footnote 783:

“Se wæs geboren in ðǽre earce Noes.” Chron. Sax. 855.

Footnote 784:

Cod. Exon. p. 407.

Footnote 785:

Cod. Dipl. No. 436.

Footnote 786:

Ibid. Nos. 356, 762.

Footnote 787:

Ibid. No. 721.

-----

As in the poem of Beówulf, Scyld is said to have a son called Beówulf

from whom the kings of Sleswig are descended, so in the genealogy of

Wessex, Scyld is followed by Beaw: there is some uncertainty in the form

of the name, but upon comparison of all the different versions given by

various chroniclers, we may conclude that it was Beówa or Beów, a word

equivalent to Beówulf. The original divinity of this person is admitted

by Grimm, but he suffers himself to be misled by some over-skilful

German lexicographer who has added _Beewolf_ to the list of English

names for the woodpecker, and would render Beówulf as a sort of Latin

Picus. I am not aware that any bird in England was ever called the

_beewolf_, or that there are any superstitions connected with the

woodpecker in England, as there are in Germany; the cuckoo and the

magpie are our birds of augury. When Grimm then declares himself

disposed not to give up the termination -_wulf_ in the name, he has only

the authority of the poem on his side, in defence of his theory: against

which must be placed every other list or genealogy; and it seems to me

that these are strongly confirmed by the occurrence of a place called,

not Beówulfes hám, but Beówan hám[788], in immediate connection with

another named Grendles mere[789]: Whatever the name, this hero was

looked upon as the eponymus of various royal races, and this, though the

names which have survived are obviously erroneous[790], is distinctive

of his real character.

-----

Footnote 788:

Cod. Dipl. No. 353.

Footnote 789:

Ibid.

Footnote 790:

Stammtafel der Westsachsen, p. 18 _seq._

-----

There are various other heroes mentioned in the poem of Beówulf and in

the Traveller’s Song, some remembrance of which is still preserved in

local names in various parts of England. A few words may not be

misplaced respecting them. In the first-named poem, the hero’s lord and

suzerain is invariably named Hygelác; after whose death Beówulf himself

becomes king of the Geátas. As Hygelác is said to have perished in fight

against the Franks, and as history records the fall of a Danish king

Chochilachus in a predatory excursion into the Frankish territory about

the beginning of the seventh century[791], Outzen, Leo and others have

identified the two in fact as well as name, and drawn conclusions as to

the mythical hero, from the historical prince. The coincidence is not

conclusive: if Hygelác’s name were already mythical in the seventh

century, it may easily have been given to any leader who ventured a

plundering expedition into the Frankish territory, especially as the

warlike records of an earlier Hygelác would be certain to contain some

account of Frankish forays: nor was Hygelác, in Danish Hugleikr[792], by

any means an uncommon name. On the other hand, if we admit the

historical allusion, we must assign a date to, at any rate, that episode

of the poem which is hardly consistent with its general character. I am

therefore inclined to think that in this instance, as in so many others,

an accidental resemblance has been too much relied upon: it is in fact

quite as likely (or even more likely) that the historian should have

been indebted to the legend, than that the poet should have derived his

matter from history. It does seem probable that Hygelác enjoyed a

mythical character among the Germans: in the “Altdeutsche Blätter” of

Moriz Haupt[793], we find the following statement, taken from a MS. of

the tenth century. “De Getarum rege Huiglauco mirae magnitudinis.—Et

sunt mirae magnitudinis, ut rex Huiglaucus, qui imperavit Getis et a

Francis occisus est, quem equus a duodecimo anno portare non potuit,

cuius ossa in Rheni fluminis insula, ubi in oceanum prorumpit, reservata

sunt et de longinquo venientibus pro miraculo ostenduntur.”

-----

Footnote 791:

Leo, in his Beowulf, p. 5, cites Gregor. Turon. iii. 3, and the Gest.

Reg. Francorum, cap. 19, for the details of Chochilach’s invasion and

death.

Footnote 792:

The name Huhlék, given in Langebeke, and by Geijer, from the Ynglinga

Saga, as Hugleck. Hist. Swed. p. 378, tab. ii.

Footnote 793:

Book v. part i. p. 10.

-----

But Hygelác is not known in Germany only: even in England we have traces

of him in local names: thus Hygeláces geát[794], which, as the name was

never borne by an Anglosaxon,—so far at least as we know,—speaks

strongly for his mythical character. That the fortunes, under similar

circumstances, of a historical prince, of the same name or not of the

same name, should have become mixed up with an earlier legend, is by no

means unusual or surprising.

-----

Footnote 794:

Cod. Dipl. No. 566.

-----

Another hero of the Beówulf cycle is Hnæf the Hócing, whose fate is

described in a fine episode[795], and is connected with the poem called

“The battle of Finnesburh[796].” Of him too England has something to

tell: I find a place was called Hnæfes scylf[797], and further that

there was a Hóces byrgels[798], obviously not a Christian burial-place,

a Hóces ham[799], and a Hócing mǽd[800]. But unless resemblances greatly

deceive us, we must admit that this hero was not entirely unknown to the

Franks also; Charlemagne’s wife Hiltikart, a lady of most noble blood

among the Swæfas or Sueves (“nobilissimi generis Suavorum puella”) was a

near relation of Kotofrit, duke of the Alamanni[801]: in her genealogy

occur the names Huocingus and Nebi in immediate succession, and it seems

difficult not to see in these Hócing and Hnæf. If, as has been

suggested, the Hócings were Chauci or Frisians, their connexion with the

Sueves must be of an antiquity almost transcending the limits of

history, and date from those periods when the Frisians were neighbours

of the Swæfas upon the Elbe, and long before these occupied the

highlands of Germany, long in fact before the appearance of the Franks

in Gaul, under Chlodio.

-----

Footnote 795:

Beów. l. 2130 _seq._

Footnote 796:

Printed in the first volume of the author’s edition of Beówulf, p.

238.

Footnote 797:

Cod. Dipl. No. 595.

Footnote 798:

Ibid. No. 1267.

Footnote 799:

Ibid. No. 1142.

Footnote 800:

Ibid. No. 1091.

Footnote 801:

Thegan. vit. Hludov. Pertz, Monum. ii. 590, 591. Eginhart, § 18.

Pertz, Mon. ii. 452, 453.

-----

Among the heroes of heathen tradition are Wada, Weland and Eigil. All

three, so celebrated in the mythus and epos of Scandinavia and Germany,

have left traces in England. Of Wada the Traveller’s Song declares that

he ruled the Helsings[802]; and even later times had to tell of Wade’s

_boat_[803], in which the exact allusion is unknown to us: the

Scandinavian story makes him wade across the Groenasund, carrying his

son upon his shoulder; perhaps our tradition gave a different version of

this perilous journey. The names of places which record his name are not

numerous, but still such are found, thus Wadanbeorgas[804],

Wadanhlǽw[805]. It is otherwise, however, with his still more celebrated

son, Weland, the Wieland of German, Völundr of Norse and Galand of

French tradition. Weland is the most famous of smiths, and all good

swords are his work. In Beówulf, the hero when about to engage in a

perilous adventure, requests that if he falls his coat-of-mail may be

sent home, _Welandes geweorc_, either literally the work of Weland, or a

work so admirable that Weland might have made it.[806] Ælfred in his

Boetius[807] translates _fidelis ossa Fabricii_ by “ðæs wísan goldsmiðes

bán Welondes,” where, as Grimm[808] observes, the word Fabricius

(_faber_) may have led him to think of the most celebrated of smiths,

Weland. The use made by Sir W. Scott of Weland’s name must be familiar

to all readers of Kenilworth: from what has been said it will appear how

mistaken in many respects his view was. The place in Berkshire which

even yet in popular tradition preserves the name of _Wayland smith_, is

nevertheless erroneously called; the boundary of a Saxon charter names

it much more accurately Welandes smiððe, i. e. _Weland’s smithy_, his

workshop[809]. The legend of Weland, identical in many respects with

that of the Wilkina Saga and other Northern versions, is mentioned in

the Cod. Exon. p. 377. Here we find notice taken of his mutilation by

Niðaudr, the violence done by him to Bödhildr, and other acts of his

revenge[810], all in fact that is most important in this part of his

history. Grimm reminds me[811] that the Wilkina Saga makes Weland the

constructor of a wondrous boat, and that the act of the son may thus

have been transferred to the father, Weland’s boat to Wade.

-----

Footnote 802:

Line 44. See also Cod. Exon. pp. 320, 514. Ettmüller, Scópes wídsíð.

Footnote 803:

Chaucer once or twice refers to this in such a way as to show that the

expression was used in an obscene sense. Old women, he says, “connen

so moche craft in _Wades bote_.” Again of Pandarus:

“He song, he plaied, he told a _tale of Wade_.”

Troil. Cressid.

In this there seems to lie some allusion to what anatomists have

termed _fossa navicularis_, though what immediate connection there

could be with the mythical Wada, now escapes us. It is sufficiently

remarkable that the Greeks made a similar application of σκάφος.

ω παγκατάπυγον θἠμέτερον ἅπαν γένος·

οὐκ ἐτὸς ἀφ’ ἡμῶν εἰσὶν αἱ τραγῳδίαι.

οὐδὲν γὰρ ἐσμὲν πλὴν ποσειδῶν καὶ σκάφη.

Aristoph. Lysistr. 137.

Footnote 804:

Cod. Dipl. No. 55.

Footnote 805:

Ibid. No. 18.

Footnote 806:

Beów. l. 901

Footnote 807:

Boet. de Cons. ii.

Footnote 808:

D. Myth. p. 351.

Footnote 809:

Cod. Dipl. No. 1172.

Footnote 810:

Weland him be wurman

wræces cunnade

. . . . . . . . . .

siððan hine Niðhad on

néde legde

swoncre seonobande,

onsyllan mon.

. . . . . . . . . .

Beadohilde ne wæs

hyre bróðra deáð

on sefan swá sár

swá hyre sylfra þing,

ðæt heó gearolíce

ongieten hæfde

ðæt heó eácen wæs, etc.

Footnote 811:

D. Myth. p. 351.

-----

In the Northern tradition appears a brother of Weland, named Eigil or

Egil, who is celebrated as an archer, and to whom belongs the

wide-spread tale which has almost past into accredited history in the

case of William Tell; this tale given by Saxo Grammaticus to Toko, by

the Jomsvíkínga Saga to Palnatoki, and by other authorities to other

heroes from the twelfth till the very end of the fifteenth century, but

most likely of the very highest antiquity in every part of Europe, was

beyond doubt an English one also, and is repeated in the ballad of

William of Cloudesley: it is therefore probable that it belongs to a

much older cycle, and was as well known as the legends of Wada and

Weland, with which it is so nearly connected. Eigil would among the

Anglosaxons have borne the form of Ægel, and accordingly we find places

compounded with this name,—thus Æglesbyrig, now Aylesbury in

Buckinghamshire; Æglesford, now Aylsford in Kent; Ægleslona, in

Worcester[812]; Ægleswurð, now Aylsworth in Northamptonshire[813]; also

Ægleswyl; and lastly Aylestone in Leicestershire.

-----

Footnote 812:

Cod. Dipl. No. 549.

Footnote 813:

Ibid. Nos. 591, 423.

-----

The Wilkina Saga and the Scald’s Complaint already cited from the Codex

Exoniensis, lead us next to the legends of Ðeódríc (Dietrich von Bern)

and Eormenríc, (Hermanaríc), and through the latter to Sigfried and the

other heroes of the Nibelungen cycle. The heroic or even godlike

character of Dietrich has been well made out by Grimm[814], and the

historical Theodoric the Ostrogoth vanishes in his traditional

representative. The Anglosaxon poet evidently refers to the latter, not

indeed from the story he tells, but from the collocation of Ðeódríc

among merely mythical personages. Perhaps, as the whole scope of his

poem is to relate the misfortunes of the great and thus draw consolation

for his own, the thirty years’ residence in Mæringaburg may be

considered as a reference to Ðeódríc’s flight from before Otachar[815]

and long-continued exile. In a Saxon menology[816] of great antiquity,

the author, after stating the eighteenth of May to be the commemoration

of St. John, Pope and Martyr, goes on to say, that an anchoret on Lipari

told certain sailors how at a particular time he had seen king

Theodoric, ungirt, barefoot, and bound, led between St. John and St.

Finian, and by them hurled into the boiling crater of the neighbouring

island Vulcano. That on their return to Italy the sailors discovered by

comparison of dates that Theodoric died on the day on which the anchoret

noticed his punishment by the hands of his victims. The author expressly

tells it was Theodoricus, the king of the Goths in Ravenna; and he

concludes by saying, “That was Theodoricus the king whom we call

Ðeódríc,” which we can only understand by supposing him to allude to the

mythical Ðeódríc. Ælfred seems also to have known something of the

mythical Ðeódríc when he says, “he wæs Amaling,” a fact historically

true of the Ostrogoth Theodoric, but yet unlikely to have been contained

in Ælfred’s Latin authorities. The Traveller’s Song says[817], “Ðeódríc

weóld Froncum,” Theodoric ruled the Franks, but this I should rather

understand of one of the historical Merwingian kings, than of the

Ostrogoth.

-----

Footnote 814:

D. Myth. p. 346.

Footnote 815:

The Hiltibrants Lied says,

Hiltibrant haetti min fater. ih heittu Hadubrant.

forn her ostar gihueit. floh her Otachres nid.

hina mit Theotrihhe. enti sinero degano filu.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

sid Detrihhe. darba gistontum.

fateres mines, dat uuas so friuntlaos man.

For remarks on Ðeódríc’s exile see W. Grimm, Deutsche Heldensage, pp.

22, 24, 34, 36, 37, 201, 204.

Footnote 816:

MS. C. C. C. Cantab. No. 179. “On ðone eahtateóðan dæg ðæs monðes byð

Sce Johannes týd ðæs pápan ⁊ ðæs martyres, se gedyde þurh Godes myht

blyndum men gesyhðe. Ðone Johannes for ǽfstum [héht cwellan]

Theodoricus se wæs Gotena cyning in Rauenna ðǽre ceastre; ⁊ sum

wéstensetla on ðám ealonde ðe is nemned Liparus, he sæde sciplíðendum

mannum ðæt he gesáwe Johannes sáwle ðæs papan lǽdan ðone cyning ðe

hine ofslóh gebundenne on écum wítum. He cwæð, se Godes þeów, tó ðám

sciplíðendum: Girsan dæg on ða nigoðan tíd dæges, ðæt is on ðone nón,

Þeodricus wæs gelǽded ungyrd ⁊ unsceód ⁊ eác gebunden be ðám handum,

betweoh Johanne ðám pápan ⁊ Finianum ðám ealdormen, ⁊ he wæs fram heom

áworpen on byrnende seáð on ðysum neáh-ealande, ⁊ ðæt is nemned

Ulcania. And ða sciplíðende ða ðæt gehýredon, hig ymbhydelíce

ámearcodon ðone dæg, ⁊ him ðá cyrdon eft tó Etelwara mǽgðe, ðǽr hig

ðone cyning ǽr lyfigende forlǽton; ⁊ hig ðá eft hine ðǽr deádne

gemétton, ðý ylcan dæge ðe his wíte ðám Godes þeówe ætywed wæs. Ðæt

wæs swíðe riht ðæt he fram ðám twám mannum wǽre sended on ðæt éce fýr,

ðaðe he hér unrihtlíce ofslóh on ðisim life. Ðæt wæs Þeodoricus ðone

we nemnað Ðeódríc.” See further illustrations of this strange tale in

the Deutsche Heldensage, p. 38, where Otto of Freisingen is quoted,

but who does not give nearly so many details as the Anglosaxon legend.

Footnote 817:

Trav. Song, l. 47.

-----

The legends of Eormanríc were obviously familiar to the Anglosaxons: in

the so often quoted poem of the Traveller’s Song, this celebrated prince

is mentioned more than once, as well as in the poem which contains the

notices of Weland, Beadohild and Ðeódríc. The character given of him in

both these compositions denotes a familiarity with the details of his

history, as we find them almost universally in the Northern traditions,

and more particularly those of his wealth, his cruelty and his

treachery.

In Beówulf we have a somewhat further development of his history. We

there learn incidentally that Háma (the Ammius of Saxo Grammaticus)

carried off from him the Brósinga-mén or mythical collar of the goddess

Freya. There can be no doubt that this necklace, called in the Norse

traditions Mén Brísínga, is of a most thoroughly mythological

character[818], and any reference to it in Saxon poetry is welcome

evidence of ancient heathendom: moreover the Anglosaxon poet alone

mentions it in connection with Eormanríc. This peculiar feature is as

little known to the other Germanic nations as the beautiful legend of

Scyld Scéfing, the loves of Geát and Mǽðhild, the dragon-slaughter of

Sigmund, the wars of Hengest and Finn Folcwalding, or the noble epos of

Beówulf itself: unfortunately we have no detail as to the circumstances

under which the necklace of the goddess came into the possession of

Eormanríc.

-----

Footnote 818:

When Loki announced to Freya that Thórr would not recover his hammer

unless she married the giant who had become possessed of it, she

trembled with rage, so that the halls of the gods shook under her, and

the Mén Brísínga burst from her neck: again when Thórr disguises

himself in her distinctive dress, he does not forget the necklace,

Hamarsheimt, xiii. xv. xix. I am inclined to think the Saxon reading

erroneous, and that Brósinga is a mere error of copying. The meaning

of the word is obscure: Brising in Norse denotes a fierce flame, and

the name of the collar has been explained from its bright and burning

colour. Grimm suggests a derivation from a verb _brísan_ (found in

Middle German under the form _brísen_) _nodare_, _nodis_

_constringere_, in reference to the form of its links. But the main

difficulty in my opinion is found in the plural genitive of the

patronymic, and I would almost prefer the hypothesis of our having

entirely lost the lay which described its origin: others we certainly

have lost which had reference to it, as for instance Loki’s and

Heimdallr’s contention for it. Saxo Grammaticus has a story probably

about its origin (p. 13) which is totally unsatisfactory. Were the

Brísingas (sons of fire?) its first possessors or makers?

-----

The Traveller’s Song however has traces of many heroes who are closely

connected with the traditional cyclus of Eormanríc: among these are

Sifeca (the false Sibich of Germany) and Becca, the Bikki of the

corresponding Norse versions, whom it makes chieftain of the Baningas,

perhaps the “sons of mischief” from _Bana_. Háma, already named, and

Wudga, the Wittich and Heime of Germany, occur in the same poem: so also

the terrible Ætla, Attila the Hun, the Ætli of Scandinavia, the Etzel of

the Nibelungen cycle. In the same composition we find Gúðhere, king of

the Burgundians, the Norse Gunnar, and German Gunther; and Hagena,

probably the Norse Högni, and Hagen the murderer of Sigfried. The

Traveller’s Song, and the Scóp’s Complaint contain no mention of the

great hero of the Norse and German epos, Sigurdr Fafnisbani, Sigfried,

the betrothed of the Shieldmay Bryhyldur, the husband of the fairhaired

Chriemhilt.

All the more welcome to us is the episode in Beówulf, which not only

records the tale of Sigurdr, though under the name of his father

Sigmund, and makes particular mention of the dragon-slaughter

(Fafnis-bani)—which is a central point in the Norse tradition, although

hardly noticed at all in the Nibelungen Lied,—but also refers to the

fearful adventures which the Edda relates of the hero and his kinsman

Sinfiötli (Fitela) which appear totally unknown in Germany.

Having said thus much of the heroic personages to whom so large a

portion of Northern and Germanic tradition is devoted, it becomes

possible for me to refer to the great work of James Grimm on German

mythology for a demonstration of the connection between these heroes and

the gods of our forefathers. I regret that my own limits render it

impossible for me to enter at greater length upon this part of the

subject; but it requires a work of no small dimensions, and devoted to

it exclusively: and it is therefore sufficient to show the identity of

our own heroic story and that of Scandinavia and the continent, and thus

enable the English reader to adapt to his own national traditions the

conclusions of learned enquirers abroad, with respect to their own[819].

-----

Footnote 819:

I would particularly call attention to W. Grimm’s Deutsche Heldensage,

P. Müller’s Sagabibliothek, and J. Grimm’s Deutsche Mythologie; the

last, a very storehouse of all that bears upon this most interesting

and important subject, important whether we consider it merely in a

literary point of view, or in the far higher one of a revelation of

the creed of our forefathers, the sources of their hope and fear, the

basis of their moral being and directing motive of their actions. If

it be true that nothing human can be without interest for a man,

surely that which tells of the religious belief of our forefathers

must be of the deepest and nearest interest. It has had something to

do with making us what we are.

-----

DIVINATION AND WITCHCRAFT.—The attachment of the Germanic races to

divination attracted the notice of Tacitus[820]: he says: “They are as

great observers of auspices and lots as any. The way they use their lots

is simple; they cut into slips a branch taken from an oak or beech, and

having distinguished them by certain marks, scatter them at random and

as chance wills over a white cloth. Then if the enquiry is a public one,

the state-priest,—if a private one, the father of the house

himself,—having prayed to the gods, and looking up to heaven, thrice

raises each piece, and interprets them when raised according to the

marks before inscribed upon them. If they turn out unfavourable, there

is no further consultation that day about the same matter: if they are

favourable, the authority of omens is still required. Even here they are

acquainted with a mode of interrogating the voices and flight of birds;

but it is peculiar to this race to try the presages and admonitions of

horses. These, white in colour and subject to no mortal work, are fed at

the public cost in the sacred groves and woods: then being harnessed to

the sacred chariot, they are accompanied by the priest, the king or the

prince of the state, who observe their neighings and snortings. Nor has

any augury more authority than this, not only among the common people,

but even the nobles and priests: for they think themselves the

ministers, but the horses the confidants, of the gods. There is another

customary form of auspices, by which they inquire concerning the event

of serious wars. They match a captive of the nation with which they are

at war, however they can come by him, with a select champion of their

own, each armed with his native weapons. The victory of this one or that

is taken as a presage.”

Footnote 820:

Germ. x.

The use of lots as connected with heathendom, that is, as a means of

looking into futurity, continued in vogue among the Saxons till a late

period, in spite of the efforts of the clergy: this is evident from the

many allusions in the Poenitentials, and the prohibitions of the secular

law. The augury by horses does not appear to have been used in England,

from any allusion at least which still survives; but it was still

current in Germany in the seventh century, and with less change of

adjuncts than we usually find in the adoption of heathen forms by

Christian saints. It was left to the decision of horses to determine

where the mortal remains of St. Gall should rest; the saint would not

move, till certain unbroken horses were brought and charged with his

coffin: then, after prayers, we are told, “Elevato igitur a pontifice

nec non et a sacerdote feretro, et equis superposito, ait episcopus:

‘Tollite frena de capitibus eorum, et pergant, ubi Dominus voluerit.’

Vexillum ergo crucis cum luminaribus adsumebatur, et psallentes, equis

praecedentibus, via incipiebatur[821].” It may be imagined that the

horses infallibly found the proper place for the saint’s burial-place;

but what is of importance to us is the use of horses on the occasion. In

this country however we have some record of a divination in which not

horses but a bull played a principal part; and as bulls were animals

sacred to the great goddess Nerthus, it is not unlikely that this was a

remnant of ancient heathendom. St. Benedict on one occasion appeared to

a fisherman named Wulfgeat, and desired him to announce to duke

Æðelwine[822], his lord, that it was his the saint’s wish to have a

monastery erected to himself, to the pious mother of mercy and All

virgins. The spot was to be where he should see a bull stamp with his

foot. To use the words of the saint to the fisherman, “Ut ei igitur haec

omnia per ordinem innotescas exhortor, sermonem addens sermoni, quatenus

scrutetur diligentius in loco praedicto quomodo noctu fessa terrae sua

incumbant animalia, _ac ubi taurum surgentem pede dextro viderit

percutere terram_, ibidem proculdubio xenodochii sciat se aram erigere

debere.” Obedient to the order, duke Æðelwine set out in the morning to

find the spot: “Mira res, et miranda, ubi vir praedictus insulam est

ingressus, ... _animalia sua in modum crucis, taurum vero in medio eorum

iacere prospexit_. Et sicut quondam sancto Clementi agnus pede dextro

locum fontis, sic viro isti taurus terram pede percutiendo locum mensae

futuri arcisterii significavit divinitus[823].” St. Clement’s fountain

never rolled such floods of gold as found their way to the rich abbey of

Ramsey!

-----

Footnote 821:

Vit. Anon. Sci. Galli. Pertz, Monum. ii. 17.

Footnote 822:

The same whom the grateful monks have distinguished by the name of

_Dei amicus_.

Footnote 823:

Cod. Dipl. No. 581.

-----

Other details of heathendom in the practices of ordinary life must be

left to the appendix to this chapter; but a cursory reference may be

made to what appears to show a belief in the evil eye, and that practice

which in Latin is called _invultuatio_. The former of these is mentioned

in the poem of Beówulf[824], where Hróðgár, warning Beówulf of the frail

tenure of human life, adds, “eágena bearhtm,” _the glance of eyes_, to

the many dangers the warrior had to fear:

Nú is ðínes mægnes blæd Now is the bloom of thy strength

áne hwíle, for a little while,

eft sona bið soon will it be

ðæt ðec adl oððe ecg that sickness or the sword

eafoðes getwǽfeð, shall part thee from thy power,

oððe fýres feng, or clutch of fire,

oððe flódes wylm, or wave of flood,

oððe grípe meces, or gripe of sword,

oððe gáres fliht or javelin’s flight,

oððe atol yldo, or ugly age,

oððe eágena bearhtm, or glance of eye,

forsitteð and forsworceð. shall oppress and darken thee!

-----

Footnote 824:

Beów. l. 3520.

-----

_Invultuation_ is defined by Mr. Thorpe in the following words: “a

species of witchcraft, the perpetrators of which were called

_vultivoli_, and are thus described by John of Salisbury: Qui ad

affectus hominum immutandos, in molliori materia, cera forte vel limo,

eorum quos pervertere nituntur effigies exprimunt[825]. To this

superstition Virgil alludes:

“Limus ut hic durescit, et haec ut cera liquescit,

Uno eodemque igni, sic nostro Daphnis amore.

-----

Footnote 825:

De Nugis Curial. lib. i. cap. 12.

-----

“Of the practice of this superstition, both in England and Scotland,

many instances are to be met with; among the most remarkable, that of

Eleanor Cobham, duchess of Gloucester, and Stacey, servant to George

Duke of Clarence[826].”

-----

Footnote 826:

Anc. Laws and Inst. vol. ii. Gloss.

-----

But it seems to include also the practising against the life of an enemy

by means of a waxen or other figure, in which pins were stuck, or

against which a sharp bolt was shot. It is against this crime that the

law of Henry the First enacts[827]: “Si quis veneno, vel sortilegio, vel

invultuacione, seu maleficio aliquo, faciat homicidium, sive illi

paratum sit sive alii, nihil refert, quin factum mortiferum, et nullo

modo redimendum sit:” and this is perhaps also intended by the word

_liblác_ used by Æðelstân[828]. It is also probable that this was the

crime for which in the tenth century a widow was put to death by

drowning at London Bridge, and her property forfeited to the crown[829].

Anglosaxon homilies however also mention philtres of various kinds,

which the people are warned against as dangerous and damnable

heathendom.

-----

Footnote 827:

Leg. Hen. lxxi. § 1.

Footnote 828:

Æðelst. i. § 6.

Footnote 829:

Cod. Dipl. No. 591.

-----

Such are the fragments of a system which at one time fed the religious

yearnings and propped the moral faith of our forefathers,—faint notes

from a chorus of triumphant jubilation which once rose to heaven from

every corner of the island.

How shall we characterize it? As a dull and debasing _Fetish-worship_,

worthy of African savages? or as a vague and colourless _Pantheism_, in

which religion vanishes away, and philosophy gropes for a basis which it

cannot find? I think not.

Contemplate the child who bounds through the wood, or pauses in delight

upon the meadow, where he wantons in the very joy of life itself: to him

this great creation is full of playmates, beings animate or inanimate,

with whom he shares his little pleasures, to whom he can confide his

little sorrows. He understands their language, and in turn he has a

language for them, which he thinks they understand: he knows more of

their peculiarities than the halting step of scientific observation is

always able to overtake; for he knows what science haughtily refuses to

contemplate or, it may be, is unable to appreciate. The birds speak to

him, the forests whisper to him, the shadows and the low tones of the

hill and valley lull him to repose, the winds wanton with his curled

locks and blow them over his shoulders, the streams and brooks have

spray to play with and sprinkle in his laughing eyes. He stands before

the great spirit of nature, face to face, and knows him as he reveals

himself in every one of his divine forms; for the child sees and knows

the secrets of God, which the man, alas! is condemned to forget. Such as

the child is, has the child-like nation been, before the busy hum of

commerce, the crashing strokes of the piston, the heavy murmur of

innumerable spinning-jennies necessarily banished more natural music

from our ears. An age that thinks about itself and its own capacity,

that reflects upon its own processes of thought, and makes great

combinations of powers, and anatomizes nature till it becomes familiar

with every secret of creation, may be an earnest puritanical age, a

stern protestant age, one that will not be fed with imaginative

religions, but it cannot be one of implicit, trusting, fearing,

rejoicing, trembling belief: the age of faith ceased where the age of

knowledge began. Man knows too much, perhaps believes too little: he

will not, and he must not, yield his privilege of calm, determined,

obstinate enquiry: he will, and should, judge for himself, weigh

evidence, compare and reason, and decide for himself how much or how

little he will receive as true. How can he wonder at the stars, their

rising, their setting or their eclipse? He calculates where new planets

may be found: he weighs them in his balances when found, and tells not

only their circumference or their density, but how long the straggling

ray of light that started from them was on its journey, before it

reached the eye of the gazer. What can these wavering fragments of time

and space be to him who calculates duration by the nutation of suns, or

the scarcely appreciable difference of millennial changes? Let us

remember what our fathers were, and consider what we are. For them there

was indeed a time, a period to tell of,

“when the Sun

Knew not her dwelling, nor the Moon his power,

And the Stars knew not where their place should be!”

We know their places, and their dwellings, and their power. They are

subordinated to a hypothesis of gravitation. For us there is no wavering

bridge of the Gods, no _Bifröst_ or _Asbrú_; our rainbow is a shadowy

thing, a belt of deceptive colours, the reflection of a sunbeam in the

multitudinous prisms of a shower-cloud. We have no _Hammer_, wielded by

the Thunder-god, and dreaded by the giants; our _Miölner_ has vanished

into the indifference of opposing electricities. Apothecaries’ Hall

prepares its simples without the aid of charms, or invocation of

divinities; and though we stand as yet but on the threshold of science,

we have closed for ever behind us the portals of mystery and belief. For

we are raised upon the shoulders of the times gone by, and cast a calm

and easy view over the country which our forefathers wandered through in

fear and trembling. We fear not what they feared; we cling not to what

they clung to, for relief and comfort; we have set up our own idol, the

_Understanding_, fortified by laborious experience, taught by repeated

struggles and victories, firmly based on conquered, catalogued and

inventoried nature, on facts, the stern children of a passionless

reality. I know not whether we have gained or lost in this inevitable

career of humanity; I have faith only that He who rules the purpose of

the ages, has thus cast our lot in the infinite love and wisdom of his

own thought. But not to us, or in our finite forms of thought, can the

world be as once it was, and the “dull catalogue of common things”

admits no admixture of a fancied divinity; nay, so far are we from

seeking to instil spirit into matter, that the informing soul itself

ceases to be the object of our contemplation, while we are busied with

the nerves and tendons, or charmed with the wonderful combination of

details that form the perfect whole. We stand supreme among the subjects

of our knowledge; and the marvels of science itself will now not form

the stock in trade of a second-class conjuror. Observe the man who

threads his way with imperturbable security and speed through the

thoroughfares of a densely-peopled metropolis: the crowd throng about

him, yet he yields here, he advances there, till at length, almost

unconsciously, he has attained the goal of his desire. He is familiar

with the straight lines and angles that surround him, he measures his

position and stands upright, mistaking, if indeed he think at all, the

inconceivably rapid calculations of the understanding for acts of his

own spontaneous volition. The unaccustomed eye of the child cannot do

this; and he wavers in his steps and stumbles from point to point,

helpless, but charming in his helplessness, till practice brings him

power, and he too walks and stands upright among men. So is it with the

minds of men in early and uninstructed periods, stumbling from belief to

belief, resting for support upon every circumstance of surrounding life,

and unfurnished with the elements of scientific reasoning, which, by

assuring certainty, destroy the vague, indefinite basis of faith, or

bring within a narrow and constantly decreasing circle, its vague and

indefinite object. We believe the results of Geometry, the theorems of

analytic mathematics, because we cannot help ourselves, cannot escape

from the inevitable conclusion involved in the premises; but we cannot

call this acquiescence faith, or establish upon it a moral claim before

our own conscience and our God. And as there can be no reason save in

the unintelligible, no faith save in the impossible, all that is brought

within the realm of the intellect, or the sphere of the possible, is

just so much withdrawn from the circle of religion.

The basis of the religious state in man is the sensation of

weakness,—whether that weakness be or be not distinctly traced in the

consciousness to the ignorance which is its cause, or to the ultimate,

more abstract and more philosophical conviction of sinfulness, in the

conscience. Man cannot rest for his anxious desire to know the why and

how of every phænomenon he observes: this restlessness is the law of his

intellect, that is, the condition of his humanity: he interrogates the

phænomena themselves, but if they will give no answer to his question,

he will seek it without them. In himself he will seek it in vain. At no

time, at no stage of his development can he understand the relation of

the subject and the object, or comprehend the copula that unites them.

The philosopher the most deeply trained in watching abstract forms of

thought, acknowledges with a sigh that even the intuitions of the reason

halt in the fetters of the understanding, and that to give objective

reality to what can be known only in the forms and through the powers of

the subjective, is at best to be guilty of a noble treason to the laws

of pure reasoning. And what shall he do, who is not trained in watching

abstract forms of thought? Is he more likely to find the answer in

himself? Alas, no! he feels only too surely that his nature can give no

satisfying response; that his confined and bounded being is itself full

of problems which remain unsolved.

And now let this state be considered with reference to the early

inhabitant of a world, whose secrets are yet undiscovered, and on whom

no light of heavenly radiance has fallen. For him, as for us, there is

no answer either in the phænomenon or in the observer: but he has no

reason to reject the supposition of a supernatural influence: everything

that surrounds him is filled with evidence of supernatural power. He

lives in nearer communion than we do with the world about him: his

frame, not yet clogged and vitiated by the habits of an advanced

cultivation, is more alive than ours to the external effects of natural

causes: the world itself, existing under different conditions of

climate, different electrical combinations, not yet subdued by the

plough, or the axe of the forester, not yet bridled and trained by the

canal, the manufactory or the railroad, has effluences which act upon

the nerves and fluids of the man, and which seem to him divine

emanations, revelations of the divinity within the lake, the mountain

and the tree: the lake, the mountain and the tree he peoples then with

gods,—with Nymphs and Nereids, with Oreads and Hamadryads—to whose

inward and spiritual action the outward owes its power and its form. But

the outward and visible is not a sign only, of the inward and spiritual;

it is a symbol, a part of that which it denotes; it is at once the sower

and the seed.

In no age can man be without the great ideas of God, of right, of power,

of love, of wisdom; but an age that has not learnt to feed upon

abstractions, must find the realization of those ideas in the outward

world, and in a few familiar facts of human nature. It strives to give

itself an account of itself, and the result of its efforts is a

paganism, always earnest and imaginative, often cruel and capricious, as

often gentle, affectionate and trusting—for even in spite of cruelty and

caprice, the affections will have their way, and trust will find a home.

Its inconsistence is the offspring not of guilt, but of imperfect

knowledge: it seeks the great solution of all religious problems, a

mediator between God and man: it is its error, but not necessarily its

crime, that it finds that mediator in the complex of the world itself:

no other has been revealed to it; and the reveries of philosophy that

haunt the sounding Portico or the flowery swathes of Hymettus, cannot

tell of the “Unknown God” to the agriculturist, the huntsman or the

pirate.

I believe in two religions for my forefathers: one that deals with the

domestic life, and normal state of peace; that sanctifies the family

duties, prescribes the relations of father, wife and child, divides the

land, and presides over its boundaries; that tells of gods, the givers

of fertility and increase, the protectors of the husbandman and the

herdsman; that guards the ritual and preserves the liturgy; that

pervades the social state and gives permanence to the natural, original

political institutions. I call this the sacerdotal faith, and I will

admit that to its teachers and professors we may owe the frequent

attempt of later periods to give an abstract, philosophic meaning to

mythus and tradition, and to make dawning science halt after religion.

The second creed I will call the heroic; in this I recognize the same

gods, transformed into powers of war and victory, crowners of the brave

in fight, coercers of the wild might of nature, conquerors of the

giants, the fiends and dragons; founders of royal families, around whom

cluster warlike comrades, exulting in the thought that their deities

stand in immediate genealogical relation to themselves, and share in the

pursuits and occupations which furnish themselves with wealth and

dignity and power. Let it be admitted that a complete separation never

takes place between these different forms of religion; that a wavering

is perceptible from one to the other; that the warrior believes his

warrior god will bless the produce of his pastures; that the cultivator

rejoices in the heroic legend of Wóden and of Baldr, because the

cultivator is himself a warrior, when the occasion demands his services:

still, in the ultimate development and result of the systems, the

original distinction may be traced, and to it some of the conclusions we

observe must necessarily be referred: it is thus that spells of healing

and fruitfulness survive when the great gods have vanished, and that the

earth, the hills, the trees and waters retain a portion of dimmed and

bated divinity long after the godlike has sunk into the heroic legend,

or been lost for ever.

I can readily believe that the warrior and the noble were less deeply

impressed with the religious idea than the simple cultivator. In the

first place, the disturbed life and active habits of military

adventurers are not favourable to the growth of religious convictions:

again, there is no tie more potent than that which links sacred

associations to particular localities, and acts, unconsciously perhaps

but pervasively, upon all the dwellers near the holy spots: the tribe

may wander with all its wealth of thought and feeling; even its gods may

accompany it to a new settlement; but the _religio loci_, the

indefinable influence of the local association, cannot be transported.

Habits of self-reliance, of a proud and scornful independence, are not

consistent with the conviction of weakness, which is necessary to our

full admission of the divine pre-eminence; and the self-confident

soldier often felt that he could cope with gods such as his had been

described to be. In the Greek heroic lay Tydides could attack, defeat,

and even wound Ares: I do not know that the Teutonic mythology ever went

so far as this; but we have abundant record of a contemptuous disregard

with which particular heroes of tradition treated the popular religion.

Some selected indeed one god in whom they placed especial trust, and

whom they worshipped (as far as they worshipped at all) to the exclusion

of the rest; but more must have participated in that feeling which is

expressed in a Danish song,

“I trust my sword, I trust my steed,

But most I trust myself at need[830]!”

while to many we may safely apply what is said of a Swedish prince, “han

var mikit blandinn i trunni,” he was mightily confused in his belief.

Still it is certain that a personal character was attributed to the

gods, as well as an immediate intervention in the affairs of life. The

actual presence of Oþinn from time to time on the battle-field, in the

storm, in the domestic privacy of the household, was firmly believed, in

Scandinavia; and it is reasonable to assume that Wóden would have been

found as active among our German progenitors, had not the earlier

introduction of Christianity into Teutonic Europe deprived us of the

mythological records which the North supplies. Beda tells us that

Eádwini of Northumberland sacrificed and offered thanks to his gods upon

the birth of a daughter. Rǽdwald of Eastanglia, even after his nominal

conversion, continued to pay his offerings to idols, and the people of

Essex, when labouring under the ravages of a pestilence, abjured the

faith of Christ and returned to the service of the ancient gods. But in

the personality of God alone resides the possibility of realizing the

religious idea.

Footnote 830:

“Först troer jeg mit gode svärd,

og saa min gode hest,

dernäst troer jeg mine dannesvenne,

jeg troer mig self allerbedst.”

Many examples are given in Grimm, Mythol. p. 7.

We possess no means of showing how the religion of our own progenitors

or their brethren of the continent, had been modified, purified, and

adapted in the course of centuries to a more advanced state of

civilization, or the altered demands of a higher moral nature; but, at

the commencement of the sixth century we do find the pregnant fact, that

Christianity met but little resistance among them, and enjoyed an easy

triumph, or at the worst a careless acquiescence, even among those whose

pagan sympathies could not be totally overcome. Two suppositions,

indeed, can alone explain the facile apostasy to or from Christianity,

which marked the career of the earliest converts. Either from a

conviction of the inefficacy of heathendom had proceeded a general

indifference to religious sanctions, which does not appear to answer

other conditions of the problem, or the moral demands of the new faith

did not seem to the Saxons more onerous than those to which they were

accustomed; for it is the amount of self-sacrifice which a religion

successfully imposes upon its votaries, which can alone form a measure

of its influence. The fact that a god had perished, could sound

strangely in the ears of no worshipper of Baldr; the great message of

consolation,—that he had perished to save sinful, suffering

man,—justified the ways of God, and added an awful meaning to the old

mythus. An earnest, thinking pagan, would, I must believe, joyfully

accept a version of his own creed, which offered so inestimable a boon,

in addition to what he had heretofore possessed. The final destruction

of the earth by fire could present no difficulties to those who had

heard of Surtr and the Twilight of the Gods, or of Allfather’s glorious

kingdom, raised on the ruin of the intermediate divinities. A state of

happiness or punishment in a life to come was no novelty to him who had

shuddered at the idea of Nástrond: Loki or Grendel had smoothed the way

for Satan. Those who had believed in runes and incantations were

satisfied with the efficacy of the mass; a crowd of saints might be

invoked in place of a crowd of subordinate divinities; the holy places

had lost none of their sanctity; the holy buildings had not been

levelled with the ground, but dedicated in another name; the pagan

sacrifices had not been totally abolished, but only converted into

festal occasions, where the new Christians might eat and drink, and

continue to praise God: Hréðe and Eóstre, Wóden, Tiw and Fricge, Ðunor

and Sætere retained their places in the calendar of months and days:

Erce was still invoked in spells, Wyrd still wove the web of destiny;

and while Wóden retained his place at the head of the royal genealogies,

the highest offices of the Christian church were offered to compensate

the noble class for the loss of their old sacerdotal functions. How

should Christianity fail to obtain access where Paganism stepped half

way to meet it, and it could hold out so many outward points of union to

paganism?

We dare not question the decrees of omnipotence, or enquire into the

mysterious operations of omniscient God; it is not for us to measure his

infinite wisdom by the rules of our finite intelligence, or to assume

that his goodness and mercy can be appreciated and comprehended by the

dim, wavering light of our reason; but man feels that in every age man

has had a common nature, a common hope and a common end of being; and we

shall do no wrong either to philosophy or to religion, if we believe

that even in the errors of paganism there lay the germs of truth; and

that the light which lighteth every one that cometh into the world, was

vouchsafed in such form and measure as best to subserve the all-wise,

all-holy, and all-merciful objects of creation!

APPENDIX.

APPENDIX A.

MARKS.

The following patronymical names I believe to be those of ancient Marks.

The first portion of them is derived from the Codex Diplomatics and

other original authorities: the second portion contains names inferred

from the actual local names in England at the present day.

Æslingas. Kent. Cod. Dipl. No. 111.

Æscingas. Surrey. 314.

Anningas. Northamptonshire. 445.

Antingas. Norfolk. 785.

Æfeningas. 1073.

Berecingas. Essex. 38.

Besingas. 994.

Banesingas. Oxfordshire. 81.

Boerlingas. Kent. 152.

Beardingas. Kent. 207.

Beadingas. Sussex. 314.

Billingas. 1000.

Bruningas. 374, 1113.

Brahcingas. Hertfordshire. 410.

Brytfordingas. Hampshire. 421, 985, 1108.

Brydingas. Wiltshire. 436.

Brydingas. Dorsetshire. 447.

Bydelingas. Northamptonshire. 445.

Beaddingas. Isle of Wight. 475.

Beorhfeldingas. 1175.

Beringas. Kent. 518.

Buccingas. Chron. Sax. 918.

Bulungas. Somersetshire. Cod. Dipl. No. 569.

Birlingas. Worcestershire. 570.

Brómleágingas. Kent. 657.

Beorganstedingas. Sussex. 663.

Boccingas. Essex. 698.

Beorhtingas. Sussex. 782.

Bercingas. Suffolk. 907.

Byrtingas. Warwickshire. 916.

Culingas. Kent. 132.

Centingas. Chron. Sax. 999.

Crangas. Kent. Cod. Dipl. No. 179.

Ceanningas. 1193.

Colingas. Wiltshire. 336.

Cearningas. 1212.

Ciwingas. Hertfordshire. 410.

Cytringas. Northamptonshire. 443.

Cnyllingas. Northamptonshire. 480.

Cystáningas. Kent. 657.

Cateringas. 722.

Coringas. Lincolnshire. 953.

Cyceringas. 957.

Dicelingas. Sussex. 314.

Dentúningas. Northamptonshire. 445.

Doccingas. Norfolk. 759.

Eohingas. Kent. 121.

Englungas. 123.

Eástringas. Northamptonshire. 480.

Earmingas. Cambridgeshire. 563.

Earningas. 1320.

Embasingas. Hampshire. 673.

Eastúningas. 1023.

Eofordúningas. Northamptonshire. 736.

Erpingas. Norfolk. 785.

Effingas. Surrey. 812.

Erningas. Cambridgeshire. 907.

Ferlingas. Somersetshire. 73.

Fullingas. 987.

Focingas. Kent. 207.

Fasingas. 1083.

Fearningas. Hampshire. 450.

Fearnbeorgingas. Kent. 657.

Fingringas. Essex. 685.

Fearningas. Somersetshire. 723.

Frinningas. Kent. 896.

Glæstingas. Somersetshire. 49.

Geddingas. Middlesex. 101.

Gumeningas. Middlesex. 116.

Gustingas. Wiltshire. 174.

Getingas. Surrey. 318.

Garungas. Kent. 364.

Grundlingas. Worcestershire. 548.

Gildingas. Kent. 790.

Gillingas. 809. Chron. Sax.

1010.

Gyrstlingas. 967.

Hallingas. Kent. 160.

Hæstingas. Chron. Sax.

1050.

Heallingas. Worcestershire. Cod. Dipl. No. 209.

Heretúningas. Dorsetshire. 412.

Hrepingas. 990.

Hoppingas. Surrey. 537.

Hæglingas. 1193.

Heántuningas. 1212.

Heartingas. Cambridgeshire. 533.

Hwæssingas. Sussex. 591.

Hohtúningas. Hampshire. 633.

Hnutscillingas. Hampshire. 642.

Holingas. Kent. 722.

Heningas. Northamptonshire. 733.

Herelingas. Norfolk. 782.

Hodingas. Hampshire. 783.

Hanningas. Norfolk. 785.

Hellingas. Norfolk. 809.

Horningas. Hampshire. 556.

Horningas. Norfolk. 740.

Horningas. Oxfordshire. 775.

Horningas. Somersetshire. 816.

Horningas. Cambridgeshire. 907.

Hicelingas. 971.

Hæcingas. Kent. 364.

Ircingas. Chron. Sax. 918.

Lingas. Middlesex. Cod. Dipl. No. 159.

Lællingas. Essex. 715.

Lamburningas. Berkshire. 792.

Linfrodingas. 1133.

Lacingas. 1153.

Merlingas. Somersetshire. 73.

Mundlingas. Kent. 107.

Mallingas. Kent. 240.

Módingas. Kent. 287.

Michǽmingas. Surrey. 537.

Meringas. 809.

Mæssingas. 953.

Nessingas. 813.

Neddingas. Suffolk. 907.

Oddingas. Worcestershire. 209.

Pegingas. 257.

Pæccingas. Sussex. 414.

Purbicingas. Dorsetshire. 418.

Palingas. Sussex. 432.

Puningas. Sussex. 481.

Piccingas. 812.

Piperingas. 1001.

Peartingas. 1016.

Rícingas. Essex. 35.

Roegingas. Kent. 196.

Reádingas. Berkshire. 685.

Rodingas. 907.

Rocingas. 1014.

Ruwanoringas. 1163.

Stoppingas. Warwickshire. 83.

Sunningas. Berkshire. 214.

Sempingas. Lincolnshire. 267.

Stǽningas. Sussex. 314.

Scearingas. Berkshire. 357.

Suntingas. Northamptonshire. 445.

Snotingas. Chron. Sax. 922.

Súðtúningas. Hampshire. Cod. Dipl. No. 578.

Stameringas. Berkshire. 762.

Seaxlingas. Norfolk. 782.

Scealdedeningas. Hampshire. 783.

Stutingas. Kent. 773.

Scitingas. 1042.

Terringas. Sussex. 1138.

Terringas. Kent. 405.

Tótingas. Surrey. 363.

Tótingas. Norfolk. 785.

Teofuntingas. Wiltshire. 379.

Tudingas. Sussex. 593.

Terlingas. Essex. 907.

Ticcingas. 928.

Uggafordingas. Wiltshire. 778.

Wócingas. Surrey. 168.

Wígingas. Kent. 225.

Wígingas. Hertfordshire. Chron. Sax. 921.

Wealthǽmingas. Hampshire. Cod. Dipl. No. 342.

Weodúningas. Northamptonshire. 399.

Wrætlingas. 399.

Wellingas. Hertfordshire. 410.

Wealingas. 716.

Wealingas { 1016; 1061.

{ Chron. Sax.

1013.

Wealingas. Hampshire. Cod. Dipl. No. 442.

Welingas. Wiltshire. 462.

Welingas. 1069; 1154.

Witringas. Sussex. 464.

Wyrtingas. Hampshire. 481.

Woðringas. Kent. 492.

Wudutúningas. Hampshire. 638.

Wealdingas. Suffolk. 685.

Wanetingas. Berkshire. 698.

Witeringas. 992.

Weopingas. 721.

Westmoringas. Chron. Sax. 966.

Wilringas. Suffolk. Cod. Dipl. No. 759.

Wælsingas. Norfolk. 759.

Wylfingas. 1135.

Wratingas. 907.

Wanhæmingas. 1135.

Winlingas. 907.

Wasingas. 1159; 1173.

Wedringas. 907.

Watingas. 907.

Wintringas. 953.

Weargeburningas. Hampshire. 783.

Wimbedúningas. Surrey. 537.

Ytingas. 1228. Chron.

Sax. 906.

Ðutingas. Hampshire. Cod. Dipl. No. 752.

Ðorningas. Kent. 207.

Ðristlingas. Worcestershire. 570.

Writolas. Essex. 35.

Hogebúra. Hampshire. 589.

Holigan. 952.

Momelas. 952.

Wægelas. Somersetshire. 774.

Beohhǽme. Kent. 657.

Burhhǽme. Kent. 688.

Cethǽme. Kent. 688.

Cynghǽme. 1212.

Crohhǽme. Worcestershire. 507.

Díchǽme. Wiltshire. 778.

Hinhǽme. Worcestershire. 764.

Middelhǽme. Hampshire. 648.

Monninghǽme. Worcestershire. 645

Leófeshǽme. Kent. 657.

Micghǽme. Hampshire. 638.

Polhǽme. Hampshire. 642; 1136.

Secghǽme. Worcestershire. 764.

Uppinghǽme. Hampshire. 590.

Wíchǽme. Kent. 657; 1038.

Ðornhǽme. Worcestershire. 511.

Beonotsetan. Worcestershire. Cod. Dipl. No. 266.

Brádsetan. Worcestershire. 289.

Brádsetan. Gloucestershire. 274.

Crægsetan. Kent. 287.

Crudsetan. Wiltshire. 460.

Grimsetan. Worcestershire. 561.

Incsetan. Worcestershire. 511.

Mósetan. Worcestershire. 266.

Wreocensetan. Worcestershire. 277.

------------------

MARKS INFERRED FROM LOCAL NAMES IN ENGLAND.

Æbingas. Abinger, _Surr._; Abinghall, _Glouc._; Abington,

_Camb._

Æblingas. Ablington, _Glouc._; Ablington, _Wilts._

Æcingas. Oakington, _Camb._

Æceringas. Accrington, _Lanc._; Eakring, _Notts._

Æclingas. Acklington, _Nthld._

Aldingas. Aldingbourn, _Sussx._; Aldingham, _Lanc._;

Aldington, _Kent_ and _Worc._

Aldringas. Aldringham, _Suff._; Aldrington, _Sussx._

Ælcingas. Alkington, _Glouc._ and _Salop._

Ælcringas. Alkrington, _Lanc._

Ælingas. Allington, _Devon_, _Dors._, _Hants_, _Kent_,

_Linc._, _Wilts._

Ælmingas. Almington, _Staff._ and _Warw._

Ælmodíngas. Almodington, _Sussx._

Ælfingas. Alphington, _Devon_; Alvington, _Glouc._,

_Somers._ and _Devon_; Alvingham, _Linc._

Ælpingas. Alpington, _Norf._

Ælwingas. Alwington, _Devon_.

Angmeringas. Angmering, _Sussx._

Antingas. Antingham, _Norf._

Ardingas. Ardingly, _Sussx._; Ardington, _Berks._

Arlingas. Arlingham, _Glouc._; Arlington, _Devon_, _Glouc._

and _Sussx._

Armingas. Armingford, _Camb._; Arminghall, _Norf._

Arringas. Arrington, _Camb._

Arðingas. Arthington, _York._; Arthingworth, _Nhamp._

Artingas. Artington, _Sussx._

Æscingas. Ashingdon, _Essex_; Ashington, _Sussx._, _Somers._

and _Nthld._; Ashendon, _Bucks_.

Æsclingas. Ashling, _Sussx._

Æðeringas. Athrington, _Devon_ and _Sussx._

Ætingas. Attington, _Oxf._

Æfingas. Avington, _Berks._ and _Hants_.

Bæbingas. Babbingley, _Norf._; Babington, _Somers._

Bædingas. Baddington, _Chesh._; Badingham, _Suff._

Bæcgingas. Badgington, _Glouc._; Baginton, _Warw._

Bædlingas. Badlingham, _Camb._

Balcingas. Balking, _Essex_.

Bælingas. Ballingdon, _Essex_; Ballingham, _Heref._

Baningas. Banningham, _Norf._

Beorcingas. Barking, _Essex_, _Suff._ and _Mddx._

Beorlingas. Barling, _Essex_; Barlings, _Linc._

Beormingas. Barming, _Kent_; Birmingham, _Warw._

Beorningas. Barningham, _Suff._, _York._ and _Norf._

Beorringas. Barrington, _Camb._, _Somers._, _Berks._, _Glouc._

Beortingas. Bartington, _Chesh._

Basingas. Basing, _Hants_; Basingstoke, _ibid._

Bassingas. Bassingbourn, _Camb._; Bassingfield, _Notts_;

Bassingham, _Linc._; Bassingthorpe, _Linc._;

Bassington, _Nthld._

Bafingas. Bavington, _Nthld._

Bealingas. Bealings, _Suff._

Bebingas. Bebington, _Chesh._

Beceringas. Beckering, _Linc._

Beccingas. Beckingham, _Essex_, _Linc._, _Notts_; Beckington,

_Somers._

Beadingas. Beddingham, _Sussx._; Beddington, _Surr._;

Bedingfield, _Suff._; Bedingham, _Norf._

Bædlingas. Bedlington, _Drhm._

Bécingas. Beeching Stoke, _Wilts._

Bédingas. Beeding, _Sussx._

Bellingas. Bellingdon, _Bucks_; Bellinger, _Hants_;

Bellingham, _Nthld._

Beltingas. Belting, _Kent_.

Benningas. Benningbrough, _York._; Benningholme, _York._;

Bennington, _Herts_, _Linc._; Benningworth,

_Linc._

Bensingas. Bensington, _Oxf._

Berringas. Berrington, _Drhm._, _Glouc._, _Salop_, _Worc._

Bessingas. Bessingby, _York._; Bessingham, _Norf._

Beofingas. Bevington, _Warw._

Biccingas. Bickington, _Devon_.

Billingas. Billing, _Nhamp._; Billinge, _Lanc._; Billingford,

_Norf._; Billingham, _Drhm._; Billinghay,

_Linc._; Billingley, _York._; Billingsgate,

_Mddx._; Billingshurst, _Sussx._; Billingside,

_Drhm._; Billingsley, _Salop_; Billington,

_Bedf._, _Staff._, _Lanc._

Bilsingas. Bilsington, _Kent_.

Bingas. Bing, _Suff._; Bingfield, _Nthld._; Bingham,

_Nhamp._, _Somers._; Bingley, _York._

Binningas. Binnington, _York._

Bircingas. Birchington, _Kent_.

Bridingas. Birdingbury, _Warw._

Birlingas. Birling, _Kent_, _Nthld._; Birlingham, _Worc._

Biteringas. Bittering, _Norf._

Blæcingas. Blatchington, _Sussx._; Blatchinworth, _Lanc._

Blædingas. Bleddington, _Glouc._

Bleccingas. Bletchingley, _Surr._; Bletchington, _Oxf._

Bliclingas. Blickling, _Norf._

Bobbingas. Bobbing, _Kent_; Bobbington, _Salop_, _Staff._;

Bobbingworth, _Essex_; Bobinger, _Essex_.

Bocingas, Bocking, _Essex_, _Suff._

Boddingas. Boddington, _Glouc._, _Nhamp._

Bolingas. Bolingbroke, _Linc._

Bollingas. Bollington, _Chesh._

Bondingas. Bondington, _Somers._

Bonningas. Bonnington, _Kent_ and _Notts._; Boningale,

_Salop_; Boninghall, _Salop_.

Bosingas. Bossingham, _Kent_; Bossington, _Hants._,

_Somers._

Bofingas. Bovingdon, _Herts._

Bradingas. Brading, _Hants._

Brentingas. Brantingham, _York._; Brentingley, _Leic._

Brahcingas. Braughin, _Herts._

Bressingas. Bressingham, _Norf._

Bridlingas. Bridlington, _York._

Brihtlingas. Brightling, _Sussx._; Brightlingsea, _Essex_.

Brimingas. Brimington, _Derby._

Bringas. Brington, _Hunt._ and _Nhamp._; Bringhurst,

_Leic._

Bríningas. Briningham, _Norf._

Brinningas. Brinnington, _Chesh._

Brislingas. Brislington, _Somers._

Britingas. Brittenton, _Oxf._

Bucingas. Buckingham, _Bucks_.

Budingas. Buddington, _Sussx._

Bulcingas. Bulkington, _Warw._, _Wilts._

Bullingas. Bullingdon, _Oxf._; Bullingham, _Heref._;

Bullington, _Hants_ and _Linc._

Buntingas. Buntingford, _Herts_.

Burlingas. Burlingham, _Norf._; Burlington, _York._

Burmingas. Burmington, _Warw._

Burringas. Burringham, _Linc._; Burrington, _Devon_,

_Heref._, _Somers._

Buslingas. Buslingthorpe, _Linc._

Byttingas. Butting Hill, _Sussx._

Cædingas. Caddington, _Bedf._, _Herts_; Keddington, _Linc._

Kedington, _Essex_, _Suff._

Callingas. Callington, _Cornw._

Cægingas. Keyingham, _York._

Cameringas. Cameringham, _Linc._; Cammerton, _Cumb._

Canningas. Cannings, _Wilts_; Cannington, _Somers._;

Kenninghall, _Norf._; Kennington, _Berks._,

_Kent_, _Surr._

Ceardingas }

(? Heardingas) } Cardington, _Bedf._, _Salop_; Cardinham, _Cornw._

Cearlingas. Carlingcot, _Somers._; Carlinghow, _York._

Cerringas. Carrington, _Chesh._, _Linc._, _Notts_; Charing,

_Kent_; Cherrington, _Salop_, _Wilts._

Cersington. Carsington, _Derby._

Cæssingas. Cassington, _Oxf._

Ceadlingas. Chaddlington, _Oxf._

Cealfingas. Chalvington, _Sussx._; Kilvington, _York._

Ceandlingas. Chandlings, _Berks._

Ceadingas. Cheddington, _Bucks_, _Dors._

Cyllingas. Chellington, _Bedf._; Chillingford, _Staff._;

Chillingham, _Nthld._; Chillington, _Devon_,

_Somers._; Kelling, _Norf._; Kellingley,

_York._; Kellington, _York._

Ceassingas. Chessington, _Surr._; Kessingland, _Suff._

Cifingas. Chevington, _Suff._, _Nthld._

Cyrclingas. Kirklington, _Notts._, _York._

Cidingas. Chiddingfold, _Surr._; Chiddingly, _Sussx._;

Chiddingstone, _Kent_, Kiddington, _Oxf._

Cirmingas. Kirmington, _Linc._

Ciltingas. Chiltington, _Sussx._

Cemesingas. Kemsing, _Kent_.

Cypingas. Chipping, _Herts_, _Lanc._, _Glouc._, _Berks._,

_Oxf._, _Essex_, _Nhamp._, _Bucks_.

Cenesingas. Kensington, _Mddx._

Ceopingas. Choppington, _Drhm._

Cetringas. Kettering, _Nhamp._; Ketteringham, _Norf._

Clæfringas. Clavering, _Essex_, _Norf._

Cyrtlingas. Kirtling, _Camb._; Kirtlington, _Oxf._

Climpingas. Climping, _Sussx._

Cýslingas. Kislingbury, _Nhamp._

Coceringas. Cockerington, _Linc._

Cnudlingas. Knedlington, _York._

Cocingas. Cocking, _Sussx._; Cockington, _Devon_.

Codingas. Coddington, _Chesh._, _Heref._, _Notts_;

Coddenham, _Suff._

Codringas. Codrington, _Glouc._

Collingas. Collingbourne, _Wilts_; Collingham, _Notts_,

_York._; Collington, _Heref._; Collingtree,

_Nhamp._

Cnossingas. Knossington, _Leic._

Cnottingas. Knotting, _Bedf._; Knottingley, _York._

Culingas. Cooling, _Kent_; Cowling, _Suff._, _York._

Copingas. Copping-Syke, _Linc._; Coppingford, _Hunt._

Coringas. Corringham, _Essex_, _Linc._

Cosingas. Cossington, _Leic._, _Somers._

Cotingas. Cottingham, _Nhamp._, _York._; Cottingley,

_York._; Cottingwith, _York._

Cofingas. Covington, _Hunt._

Cramlingas. Cramlington, _Nthld._

Creótingas. Creeting, _Suff._

Cressingas. Cressing, _Essex_; Cressingham, _Norf._

Cridlingas. Cridling-Stubbs, _York._

Crucgingas. Crudgington, _Salop_.

Cubingas. Cubbington, _Warw._

Cublingas. Cublington, _Bucks_.

Cwædringas. Quadring, _Linc._

Cycelingas. Cucklington, _Somers._

Cwæringas. Quarrington, _Drhm._, _Linc._

Cydingas. Cuddington, _Bucks_, _Chesh._, _Surr._

Cydlingas. Kidlington, _Oxf._

Cullingas. Cullingworth, _York._

Cweningas. Quenington, _Glouc._

Culmingas. Culmington, _Salop_; Kilmington, _Devon_,

_Somers._

Cylingas. Killingbeck, _York._; Killinghall, _York._;

Killingholm, _Linc._; Killingworth, _Nthld._

Dædlingas. Dadlington, _Leic._

Dæglingas. Daglingworth, _Glouc._

Dællingas. Dalling, _Norf._; Dallinghoo, _Suff._; Dallington,

_Nhamp._, _Sussx._

Deorlingas. Darlingscott, _Worc._; Darlington, _Drhm._

Deorringas. Darrington, _York._

Dartingas. Dartington, _Devon_.

Dæfingas. Davington, _Kent_.

Deoplingas. Debtling, _Kent_.

Deddingas. Deddington, _Oxf._

Denningas. Dennington, _Suff._

Deorsingas. Dersingham, _Norf._; Dorsington, _Glouc._, _Warw._

Dicringas. Dickering, _York._

Diddingas. Diddington, _Hunt._

Didlingas. Didling, _Sussx._; Didlington, _Dors._, _Norf._

Dillingas. Dillington, _Norf._

Dimlingas. Dimlington, _York._

Dinningas. Dinnington, _Nthld._, _Somers._, _York._

Dintingas. Dinting, _Derby._

Dissingas. Dissington, _Nthld._

Distingas. Distington, _Cumb._

Dicelingas. Ditchling, _Sussx._

Docingas. Docking, _Norf._

Dodingas. Doddinghurst, _Essex_; Doddington, _Camb._,

_Chesh._, _Kent_, Linc., _Nthld._, _Nhamp._;

Doddingtree, _Worc._; Dodington, _Glouc._,

_Salop_, _Somers._

Doningas. Donington, _Linc._, _Leic._, _Salop_; Donnington,

_Berks._, _Glouc._, _Heref._, _Leic._, _Salop_,

_Sussx._

Deorcingas. Dorking, _Surr._

Dormingas. Dormington, _Heref._

Dorringas. Dorrington, _Linc._, _Salop._

Drihlingas. Drighlington, _York._

Dycingas. Duckington, _Chesh._; Dykings, _Linc._

Dyclingas. Ducklington, _Oxf._

Dylingas. Dullingham, _Camb._

Dyningas. Dunningley, _York._; Dunnington, _Warw._, _York._;

Dunningwith, _Suff._

Dyringas. Durrington, _Sussx._, _Wilts._

Ealingas. Ealing, _Mddx._; Eling, _Hants_.

Eardingas. Eardington, _Salop_; Erdington, _Warw._

Esingas. Eashing, _Surr._; Easington, _Bucks_, _Drhm._,

_Glouc._,

_Nthld._, _Oxf._, _York._; Easingwold, _York._

Eastingas. Eastington, _Dors._, _Glouc._, _Worc._

Eastlingas. Eastling, _Kent_.

Eastringas. Eastrington, _York._

Eberingas. Ebrington, _Glouc._

Ecgingas. Eckington, _Derby._, _Worc._; Eggington, _Bedf._;

Etchingham, _Sussx._

Edingas. Edingale, _Staff._; Edingley, _Notts._;

Edingthorpe, _Norf._; Edington, _Berks._,

_Nthld._, _Somers._, _Wilts._; Edingworth,

_Somers._

Eadlingas. Edlingham, _Nthld._; Edlington, _Linc._, _York._

Eafingas. Effingham, _Surr._

Ecglingas. Eglingham, _Nthld._

Elcingas. Elkington, _Nhamp._, _Linc._

Elringas. Ellerington, _Nthld._

Ellingas. Ellingham, _Hants_, _Norf._, _Nthld._;

Ellingstring,

_York._; Ellington, _Hunt._, _Kent_, _Nthld._, _York._

Elmingas. Elmington, _Nhamp._

Elsingas. Elsing, _Norf._

Eltringas. Eltringham, _Nthld._

Elfingas. Elvington, _York._

Empingas. Empingham, _Rutl._

Eppingas. Epping, _Essex_.

Earmingas. Ermington, _Devon_.

Eorpingas. Erpingham, _Norf._

Eorringas. Erringden, _York._

Essingas. Essington, _Staff._

Ettingas. Ettinghall, _Staff._

Eoferingas. Everingham, _York._

Efingas. Evingar, _Hants_; Evington, _Glouc._, _Leic._

Escningas. Exning, _Suff._

Fealcingas. Falkingham, _Linc._; Felkington, _Drhm._

Fealdingas. Faldingworth, _Linc._; Fawdington, _York._

Fearingas. Faringdon, _Devon_; Farringdon, _Dors._, _Hants_,

_Berks._, _Somers._; Farrington, _Lanc._,

_Somers._

Feorlingas. Farlington, _Hants_, _York._

Feormingas. Farmington, _Glouc._

Fearningas. Farningham, _Kent_.

Felmingas. Felmingham, _Norf._

Ferringas. Ferring, _Sussx._

Fiddingas. Fiddington, _Glouc._, _Somers._, _Wilts_.

Fillingas. Fillingham, _Linc._

Fincingas. Finchingfield, _Essex_.

Fingringas. Fingringhoe, _Essex_.

Finningas. Finningham, _Suff_.; Finningley, _Notts_, _York._;

Vennington, _Salop_.

Fitlingas. Fitting, _York._

Fleccingas. Fletching, _Sussx._

Fobingas. Fobbing, _Essex_.

Folcingas. Folkingham, _Linc._; Folkington, _Sussx._

Fordingas. Fordingbridge, _Hants_; Fordington, _Dors._,

_Linc._

Foðeringas. Fotheringay, _Nhamp._

Framingas. Framingham, _Norf._; Fremington, _Devon_, _York._

Framlingas. Framlingham, _Suff._; Framlington, _Nthld._

Frescingas. Fressingfield, _Suff._

Fringas. Fring, _Norf._; Fringford, _Oxf._

Frodingas. Frodingham, _Linc._, _York._

Funtingas. Funtington, _Sussx._

Fylingas. Fylingdales, _York._; Fylingthorpe, _York._

Gægingas. Gagingwell, _Oxf._; Ginge, _Berks._

Galmingas. Galmington, _Somers._

Gamelingas. Gamlingay, _Camb_.; Gembling, _York._

Gárlingas. Garlinge, _Kent_.

Gærsingas. Garsington, _Oxf._; Grassington, _York._;

Gressingham, _Lanc._; Gressenhall, _Norf._

Gealdingas. Yalding, _Kent_; Yielding, _Bedf._

Geddingas. Gedding, _Suff._; Geddington, _Nhamp._; Yeading,

_Mddx._; Yeddingham, _York._

Gearlingas. Yarlington, _Somers._

Gædlingas. Gedling, _Notts_.

Gearingas. Yarrington, _Oxf._

Gestingas. Gestingthorpe, _Essex_.

Geofoningas. Yeavening, _Nthld._

Giddingas. Gidding, _Hunt._

Geátingas. Yettington, _Devon_.

Gildingas. Gildingwells, _York._

Gillingas. Gilling, _York._; Gillingham, _Dors._, _Kent_,

_Norf._; Yelling, _Hunt._

Gimingas. Gimingham, _Norf._; Gimmingbrook, _Kent_.

Gipingas. Gipping, _Suff._

Gislingas. Gislingham, _Suff._

Gitlingas. Yetlington, _Nthld._

Glæstingas. Glastonbury, _Somers._

Glæferingas. Glevering, _Suff._

Goddingas. Goddington, _Oxf._

Goldingas. Golding Stoke, _Leic._; Goldings, _Surr._;

Goldington, _Bedf._, _Bucks_.

Gáringas. Goring, _Oxf._, _Suff._

Goðringas. Gotherington, _Glouc._

Grǽgingas. Grayingham, _Linc._

Gystlingas. Guestling, _Sussx._

Gytingas. Guyting, _Glouc._

Hæcingas. Hackington, _Kent_.

Hædingas. Haddington, _Linc._

Hallingas. Hallingbury, _Essex_; Hallington, _Linc._,

_Nthld._

Haningas. Hanningfield, _Essex_; Hannington, _Hants_,

_Nhamp._, _Wilts._

Hæpingas. Happing, _Norf._

Heardingas. Hardingham, _Norf._; Hardington, _Somers._;

Hardingstone, _Nhamp._; Harden, _York._;

Hardendale, _Wmld._; Hardenhuish, _Wilts._

Herelingas. Harling, _Norf._; Harlington, _Bedf._, _Mddx._,

_York._

Hearingas. Harrington, _Cumb._, _Linc._, _Nhamp._;

Harringworth, _Nhamp._

Heortingas. Harting, _Sussx._; Hartington, _Derby._, _Nthld._;

Hertingfordbury, _Herts_.

Heortlingas. Hartlington, _York._

Heorfingas. Harvington, _Worc._

Hæslingas. Haslingden, _Lanc._; Haslingfield, _Camb._;

Haslington, _Chesh._; Heslington, _York._

Hæsssingas. Hassingham, _Norf._

Hæstingas. Hastings, _Sussx._, _Berks._, _Warw._, _Nhamp._;

Hastingleyt, _Kent_; Hastingwood, _Essex_.

Hæferingas. Havering, _Essex_; Haveringham, _Suff._;

Haveringland, _Norf._

Hafocingas. Hawkinge, _Kent_.

Hæglingas. Hawling, _Glouc._; Hayling, _Hants._

Heáfodingas. Headingley, _York_; Headington, _Oxf._;

Heddington, _Wilts_; Hedingham, _Essex_.

Healingas. Healing, _Linc._

Hæcingas. Heckingham, _Norf._; Heckington, _Linc._;

Heighington, _Drhm._, _Linc._

Hellingas. Hellinghill, _Nthld._; Hellingly, _Sussx._

Helmingas. Helmingham, _Suff._; Helmington, _Drhm._

Helpringas. Helprington, _Linc._

Helsingas. Helsington, _Wmld._

Hemlingas. Hemblington, _Norf._; Hemlingford, _Warw._;

Hemlington, _York._, _Drhm._

Hemingas. Hemingbrough, _York._; Heminghy, _Linc._;

Hemingfield, _York._; Hemingford, _Hunt._;

Hemingstone, _Suff._; Hemington, _Nhamp._,

_Somers._

Hanesingas. Hensingham, _Cumb._; Hensington, _Oxf._

Heorringas. Herring, _Dors._; Herringby, _Norf._;

Herringfleet, _Suff._; Herringstone, _Dors._;

Herringswell, _Suff._; Herringthorpe, _York._;

Herrington, _Drhm._

Heofingas. Hevingham, _Norf._

Hicelingas. Hickling, _Norf._, _Notts_.

Hillingas. Hillingdon, _Mddx._; Hillington, _Norf._

Hindringas. Hindringham, _Norf._

Hócringas. Hockering, _Norf._

Hodingas. Hoddington, _Hants_.

Holdingas. Holdingham, _Linc._

Holingas. Hollingbourn, _Kent_; Hollingdon, _Bucks_;

Hollinghill, _Nthld._; Hollington, _Derb._,

_Staff._, _Sussx._; Hollingworth, _Chesh._

Homingas. Homington, _Wilts_.

Honingas. Honing, _Norf._; Honingham, _Norf._; Honington,

_Linc._, _Suff._, _Warw._

Horblingas. Horbling, _Linc._

Horningas. Horning, _Norf._; Horninghold, _Leic._;

Horninglow, _Staff._; Horningsea, _Camb._;

Horningsham, _Wilts_; Horningsheath, _Suff._;

Horningtoft, _Norf._

Horingas. Horrington, _Somers._

Horsingas. Horsington, _Linc._, _Somers._

Hoferingas. Hoveringham, _Notts_.

Hofingas. Hovingham, _York._

Hucingas, or } Hucking, _Kent_.

Hocingas. }

Hudingas. Huddington, _Worc._

Huningas, or } Hunningham, _Warw._; Hunnington, _Salop_.

Hundingas. }

Hunsingas. Hunsingore, _York._

Hyrstingas. Hurstingstone, _Hunt._

Icelingas. Icklingham, _Suff._

Illingas. Illington, _Norf._; Illingworth, _York._

Ilmingas. Ilmimgton, Glouc., _Warw._

Ilsingas. Ilsington, Devon., _Dors._

Immingas. Immingham, _Linc._

Impingas. Impington, _Camb._

Ipingas. Iping, _Sussx._

Irmingas. Irmingland, _Norf._

Irðingas. Irthington, _Cumb._

Irðlingas. Irthlingborough, _Nhamp._

Islingas. Islington, _Norf._, _Mddx._

Issingas. Issington, _Hants_.

Iccingas. Itchingswell, _Hants_; Itchington, _Glouc._,

_Warw._

Iteringas. Itteringham, _Norf._

Ifingas. Ivinghoe, _Bucks_; Ivington, _Heref._; Jevington,

_Sussx._

Læcingas. Lackington, _Somers._; Latchingdon, _Essex_.

Larlingas. Larling, _Norf._

Leortingas. Lartington, _York._

Leamingas. Leamington, _Warw._; Leeming, _York._; Lemington,

_Glouc._, _Nthld._

Leasingas. Leasingham, _Linc._; Lissington, _Linc._

Leafeningas. Leavening, _York._

Leafingas. Leavington, _York._; Levington, _Suff._

Læpingas. Leppington, _York._

Leðringas. Letheringham, _Suff._; Letheringsett, _Norf._

Læferingas. Leverington, _Camb._

Lexingas. Lexington, _Notts._

Lidingas. Liddington, _Rutl._, _Wilts_.

Lidlingas. Lidlington, _Bedf._

Lidesingas. Lidsing, _Kent_.

Lillingas. Lillings, _York._; Lillingstone, _Bucks_;

Lillington, _Dors._, Oxf., _Warw._

Limingas. Limington, _Somers._; Lyminge, _Kent_; Lymington,

_Hants_.

Lingas. Lings, _York._; Lingbob, _York._; Lingen,

_Heref._; Lingfield, _Surr._; Lingham, _Chesh._;

Lingwell Gate, _York._; Lingwood, _Norf._; Lyng,

_Norf._

Lytlingas. Littlington, _Camb._, _Sussx._

Locingas. Locking, _Somers._; Lockinge, _Berks._;

Lockington, _Leic._, _York._

Lodingas. Loddington, _Kent_, _Leic._, _Nhamp._

Loningas. Loningborough, _Kent_.

Lopingas. Loppington, _Salop_.

Lofingas. Lovington, _Somers._

Lucingas. Luckington, _Somers._, _Wilts_.

Ludingas. Luddington, _Linc._, _Warw._, _Hunt._, _Nhamp._

Lullingas. Lullingfield, _Salop._; Lullingstane, _Kent_;

Lullingstone, _Kent_; Lullington, _Derb._,

_Somers._, _Sussx._

Mædingas. Maddington, _Wilts_; Madingley, _Camb._

Mallingas. Malling, _Kent_, _Sussx._

Manningas. Manningford, _Wilts_; Manningham, _York._;

Mannington, _Dors._, _Norf._; Manningtree,

_Essex_; Monnington, _Heref._

Myrcingas. Marckington, _Staff._; Markington, _York._;

Markingfield, _York._

Mærlingas. Marlingford, _Norf._

Mæringas, or } Marrington, _Salop._; Mering, _Notts._;

Myrgings? Merrington, _Drhm._, _Salop_.

Mæssingas. Massingham, _Norf._; Messing, _Essex_; Messingham,

_Linc._

Mæccingas. Matching, _Essex_.

Mætingas. Mattingley, _Hants_; Mettingham, _Suff._

Mægdlingas. Maudling, _Sussx._

Mécingas. Meeching, _Sussx._

Mellingas. Melling, _Lanc._

Meðringas. Metheringham, _Linc._

Millingas. Millington, _Chesh._, _York._

Mintingas. Minting, _Linc._

Mollingas. Mollington, _Chesh._, _Oxf._, _Warw._

Mottingas. Mottingham, _Kent_.

Mycgingas. Mucking, _Essex_.

Næcingas[831]. Nackington, _Kent_; Nedging _Suff._

Næssingas. Nassington, _Nhamp._; Nazeing, _Essex_.

Nydingas. Needingworth, _Hunt._

Níwingas. Newington, _Kent_, _Notts_, _Oxf._, _York._,

_Glouc._, _Surr._, _Mddx._

Norðingas. Northington, _Hants_.

Nottingas[832]. Notting, _Bedf._; Nottington, _Dors._; Nottingham,

_Notts_, _Berks._

Oddingas. Oddingley, _Worc._; Oddington, _Glouc._, _Oxf._

Oldingas. Oldington, _Salop_.

Orlingas. Orlingbury, _Nhamp._

Orpedingas. Orpington, _Kent_.

Osmingas. Osmington, _Dors._

Ossingas. Ossington, _Notts_.

Oteringas. Otterington, _York._; Ottringham, _York._

Ofingas. Oving, _Bucks_, _Sussx._; Ovingdean, _Sussx._;

Ovingham, _York._, _Nthld._; Ovington, _Essex_,

_Hants_, _Norf._, _Nthld._, _York._

Pæccingas. Packington, _Derb._, _Leic._, _Staff._, _Warw._;

Patching, _Sussx._

Pædingas. Paddington, _Mddx._ (? Padan tún.)

Pællingas. Palling, _Norf._; Pallingham, _Sussx._;

Pallington, _Dors._

Pæmingas. Pamington, _Glouc._

Peartingas. Partington, _Chesh._

Pætringas. Patrington, _York._

Pætingas. Pattingham, _Salop_, _Staff._

Pæfingas. Pavingham, _Bedf._; Pevington, _Kent_.

Petlingas. Peatling, _Leic._

Pædlingas. Pedling, _Kent_.

Penningas. Pennington, _Hants, Lanc._

Piceringas. Pickering, _York._

Pidingas. Piddinghoe, _Sussx._; Piddington, _Nhamp._, _Oxf._

Pilcingas. Pilkington, _Lanc._

Pillingas. Pilling, _Lanc._

Pitingas. Pittington, _Drhm._

Poclingas. Pocklington, _York._

Podingas. Poddington, _Bedf._; Podington, _Dors._

Puntingas. Pointington, _Somers._

Polingas. Poling, _Sussx._; Pollington, _York._

Poringas. Poringland, _Norf._

Porcingas. Porkington, _Salop_.

Portingas. Portington, _York_.

Postlingas. Postling, _Kent_.

Potingas. Poting, _York._

Pucingas. Puckington, _Somers._

Púningas. Poynings, _Sussx._

Pydingas. Puddington, _Bedf._, _Chesh._, _Devon_.

Rædingas. Raddington, _Somers._; Reading, _Berks_;

Reading-street, _Kent_.

Rætlingas. Ratlinghope, _Salop_.

Ræfningas[833]. Raveningham, _Norf._

Rædlingas[833]. Redlingfield, _Suff._

Renningas. Rennington, _Nthld._

Ricingas. Rickinghall, _Suff._

Riclingas[833]. Rickling, _Essex_.

Ridingas. Riddinge, _Derb._; Riding, _Nthld._

Ridlingas. Ridlington, _Norf._, _Rutl._

Rillingas. Rillington, _York._

Rimmingas. Rimmington, _York._

Riplingas[833]. Riplingham, _York._; Riplington, _Hants_, _Nthld._

Ripingas[833]. Rippingale, _Linc._

Risingas[833]. Rising, _Norf._; Rissington, _Glouc._

Rifingas. Rivington, _Lanc._

Rocingas[833]. Rockingham, _Nhamp._

Rodingas. Roddington, _Salop._; Roding, _Essex_.

Rollingas. Rollington, _Dors._

Roringas. Rorrington, _Salop._

Rossingas. Rossington, _York._

Rotingas. Rottingdean, _Sussx._; Rottington, _Cumb._

Rowingas[834]. Rowington, _Warw._

Rucingas[834]. Ruckinge, _Kent_.

Rudingas[834]. Ruddington, _Notts_.

Runingas. Runnington, _Somers._

Ruscingas[834]. Ruskington, _Linc._

Rustingas. Rustington, _Sussx._