348
THE SAXONS IN ENGLAND.
[book i.
Wanborough in Surrey is Thursley, which may have
been a Dunresleah also : it is unlikely that it was
ever Doresleah, from Dorr (the Norse form of Du-
nor), but it might have been Dyrsleah, the meadow
of the giant or monster. Very near Thursley is a
hill called Thunder hill, probably Dunres hyl. A si-
milar uncertainty hangs over Thurleigh in Bedford-
shire, Thurlow in Essex, Thursby in Cumberland,
Thursfield , in Staffordshire, and Thursford in Nor-
folk1. The name of Dunor was, to the best of my
knowledge, never borne by any man among the
Anglosaxons, which is in some degree an evidence
of its high divinity. The only apparent exception
to this assertion is found in an early tale which
bears throughout such strong marks of a mythical
character as to render it probable that some legend
of Dunor was current in England ; especially as its
locality is among the Jutish inhabitants of Kent.
According to this account, Ecgbert the son of Eor-
cenberht, the fourth Christian king of Kent, had
excluded his cousins from the throne, and fearing
their popularity determined on removing them by
violence. The thane Thuner divined and executed
the intentions of his master. Under the king’s own
throne were the bodies concealed ; but a light from
heaven which played about the spot revealed the
crime : the king paid to their sister the wergyld of
l The analogy of Thursday, which was unquestionably Thundersday,
must be allowed its weight in considering these local names. Even
Dyrs itself, at one period of Anglosaxon development, might represent
Dunor, and the resemblance of names thus lead to a little straining of
the true one.
CH. XII∙]
HEATHENDOM. DUNOR.
349
the slain princes : a hind, let loose, defined the boun-
daries of the grant which was to make compensation
for the murder : forty-eight hides of land thus be-
came the property of Domneva, and the repentant
king erected upon them a monastery. The assassin
Thuner1 however, added to his guilt the still higher
atrocity of sneering at the king’s repentance and its
fruits : the earth suddenly opened beneath his feet
and swallowed him; while the church placed the
names of his victims, Æftelred and ÆSelberht, on
the list of its martyrs. Any comment upon this, as
a historical transaction, would be perfectly super-
fluous, ’but it may possibly contain some allusion of
a mythological nature ; for it seems that the very
fact of Dunors not being a god generally worshiped
in England, would render him likely to form the
foundation of heroic stories. I will not absolutely
sây that the dragon-slaughter of Beowulf is a di-
rect reference to the myth of Dunor, though this
is possible. Another hero of Anglosaxon tradition
bears the name of the “Wandering Wolf;” he slew
five-and-twenty dragons at daybreak, “ on dæg-
ræd and fell dead from their poison, as Thorr does
after slaying Midgard’s orm, and Beowulf after his
victory over the firedrake. The wolf however is a
sacred beast of Woden, and these names of Wan-
dering wolf, Mearcwulf, etc. may have some refer-
ence to him, especially as we learn from Grimm
that in some parts of Denmark the wild huntsman,
who is unquestionably Woden, bears the name of
the flying Marcolf1. The heathen character of the
l Deut. Myth. p. 530 (ed. 1836).