Gents Mag 1858 part 1 p.426

---

	introduction
	list, 3rd qtr 19th century
	previous page
	Gentleman's Magazine 1858 part 1 p.426 [An]glo-Saxon. The Angle element in Cumberland was not so very inconsiderable, as the long list of peculiar words of Angle in derivation in Ferguson's "Northmen in Cumberland" shews. To this we might add the name Bootle, from Angle bodl, or botl, a dwelling; also many names of places ending in ton; the verb laik, from lacan. to play (whence a lark;) ment, maengan, mixed; mean, menan, to bemoan; won, wunnian, to dwell, &c. We agree with our author as to the Celtic origin of Nelson, but cannot for a moment allow that Shakspere was Jacques pierre! Idem sonans is a deceitful guide. The Danish word rise is simply great, and not necessarily gigantic. Mr. Sullivan's disclaimer of any reference to Baal in the Beltein is just and important, although we do not preceive why they who erred in company with Calmet should be called "silly," or "benighted idolaters." We should not have heard so much of the connection of the worship of Baal with these northern fires, had it not been for our acquaintance with the word Baal of the sacred Scriptures, - which, however, means simple dominus, sometimes only magister, or maritus. There can be no doubt that our "bale-fires" were the funereal pyres in which, till the close of the ninth century, the heathen Northmen consumed their dead, generally on a raised structure of stones. To this purpose the Yevering Bell, the Bell Hills and Hill Bells of Cumberland, were, we conceive, set apart. We think it impossible that any one who has read Kemble's paper in No.54 of the "Archaeological Journal" can be sceptical on this subject. He points out the Bael, rogus, of the Saxon charters, in one instance on a hill; also the ad the strues rogi, and the brandes-beorh, the hill of burning. The towns or hamlets, Balsham and Belsham, were named as he infers, from the word bael, flamma, names given by the Christian Anglo-Saxons. We think the reviewer in "Blackwood" (No. for March, 1857,) might have spared his banter on Mr. Sullivan as to this and one or two other points, especially as he confesses to ignorance of archaeology and Northern literature. We wonder if he would claim Chaucer's allusion in the following lines for his favourite Baal! - "Thou shalt be burnt in baleful fire, And all they sect I shall destrie." Ploughman's Tale He will find no trace of Baal-worship in Celtic Brittany, no proper name of a place beginning with Bel, although plenty of pens. On the other hand, in the Eastern Pyrenees, whither the Germans repaired when they invaded Spain under Charlemagne, there are several bels and bals. We would refer the second syllable of Beltein to the Anglo-Saxon tynan, claudere. The dragon referred to by Mr. Sullivan which is carried in procession at Burford in Oxfordshire, is supposed to be commemorative of a great victory recorded in the Saxon Chronicle to have been gained there over a Saxon enemy, whose banner was a dragon. We are not sure that Dunmallet, near Ullswater, pronounced Dunmwland, is not from dun and mallum, the commune placitum for the Thing, which we believe its form shews it may have been used for. We agree with Lord Dufferin that to these Things, and to the Norse invasion that implanted them, more than to the Wittanagemotes of the Latinized Saxons, must be referred the origin of those parliaments which are the boast of Englishmen. The finest placitum remaining is at Penrith. The derivations of carrock and Helvellyn were well explained in the September number of the GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE. The Roman invasion of Cumberland is placed a century too late: it was garrisoned under Agricola, a lieutenant of Vespasian; and the objection to Wolf, as the name of a man, cannot have been made seriously. The chapter on Antiquities may be enlarged with advantage: no counties are richer in sepulchral remains of many nations, and in Roman roads and stations, than these. Mr. Sullivan's remarks on the phonetic structure of the language are original and important. We are pleased to see that he has paid attention to the comparison of names of places in different countries. His chapters on Superstitions and Customs are full of amusement, and will amply repay perusal. We learn from the Preface that the work was first written in the shape of detached letters to the "Kendal Mercury," which would account for the want of connection, and occasionally of lucidness; but we have no doubt that these slight imperfections will be corrected in a second edition, which we hope shortly to see. The price of the book, we may mention, is very modest. If we are rightly informed, our author is the head of a small provincial academy; and if so, this work, which embraces so wide a field of philological investigation, does him the more credit, proving that he must have surmounted obstacles which would have deterred not a few similarly situated.
	gazetteer links
	-- Cumberland

Lakes Guides menu.

---