366
THE SAXONS IN ENGLAND.
[book I,
then was this god named in England ? Undoubt-
edly Pol or Pal1. Of such a god we have some
obscure traces in England. We may pass over
the Appolyn and Apollo, whom many of our early
romancers number among the Saxon gods, al-
though the confused remembrance of an ancient
and genuine divinity may have lurked under this
foreign garb, and confine ourselves to the names of
places bearing signs of Pol or Pal. Grimm has
shown that the dikes called Phalgraben in Germany
are much more likely to have been originally Pfol-
1 Though little fond of modern Anglosaxon verses, of modern Latin
hexameters or modern Greek iambics, I shall give a translation of these
two spells, for the purpose of comparison :
Pol and Woden
to wuda f<5ron
Bealdres folan wear®
fot bewrenced :
t>a hine SfSgtWi begðl,
Sunne hire sweoster,
'δii hine Frye begol,
Folle hire sweoster,
<⅛Yι hine Woden begol
swɪi he wel cii'δe :
sv. ti sy bιinwrence, swa sy blodwrence,
swa sÿ IvSwrence ;
ban to bane,
bl<'>d to blode,
IiS to li⅛,e,
swa swti gelinιede syn.
And thus the English one :
Dryhten rad,
fola slâd ;
se Iihtode
and rɪhtode ;
sette li® to Iitie
eae swa ban to bane,
sinewe to sinewe.
Hal wes διi, on ®æs Halgan Gastes nauιan !
CH. x∏∙]
HEATHENDOM. POL.
367
graben, and his conclusion applies equally to Pal-
grave, two parishes in Norfolk and Suffolk:—so
Wodnes Die, and the Devil’s Dike between Cam-
bridge and Newmarket. Polebrooke in North-
amptonshire, Polesworth in Warwickshire, Pol-
hampton in Hants1, Polstead in Suffolk, Polstead
close under Wanborough (Wodnesbeorh) in Surrey,
—which is remarkable for the exquisite beauty of
its springs of water,—Polsden in Hants, Polsdon
in Surrey, seem all of the same class. To these
we must add Polsley and Polthorn, which last
name would seem to connect the god with that par-
ticular tree : last, but not least, we have in Poling,
in Sussex, the record of a race of Polingas, who
may possibly have carried up their genealogy to
Bældæg-in this form.
The myth of Baldr in the North is one of the
most beautiful and striking in the whole compass
of their mythology : it is to be lamented that no
trace of it remains in our own poems. Still Baldr’s
lay may not have been entirely without influence
upon the progress of Christianity among the Saxons,
if, as is probable, it resembled in its main features
the legend of the Scandinavians. For them he was
the god of light and grace, of splendour, manly ex-
cellence and manly beauty. A prophecy that Baldr
would perish afflicted the gods ; Frigga took an
oath from all created nature that no individual
thing would harm the pride of the Æsir, the dar-
1 Polhiematun. Cod. Dipl. Nos. 642, 752, 1136,1187. PolesIeah in
Milts. Cod. Dipl. No. 641. PolstedeinSuffolk. Cod.Dipl. No.685.
Polhorn in Worcester. Cod. Dipl. No. 61. Polleham, No. 907.