58
THE SAXONS IN ENGLAND.
[book I.
of Scandinavia, not less than the scattered names
which meet us here and there in early German
history, offer hints which can only serve to excite
regret for the mass which has perished. The king-
doms and empires which have exercised the pro-
foundest influence upon the course of modern civi-
lization, have sprung out of obscure communities
whose very names are only known to us through
the traditions of the poet, or the local denomina-
tions which record the sites of their early settle-
ments.
Many hypotheses may be formed to account for
these ancient aggregations, especially on the conti-
nent of Europe. Perhaps not the least plausible
is that of a single family, itself claiming descent,
through some hero, from the gods, and gathering
other scattered families around itself ; thus retain-
ing the administration of the family rites of religion,
and giving its own name to all the rest of the
community. Once established, such distinctive ap-
pellations must wander with the migrations of the
communities themselves, or such portions of them
as want of land and means, and excess of popula-
tion at home, compelled to seek new settlements.
In the midst of restless movements, so general
and extensive as those of our progenitors, it can-
not surprise us, when we find the gentile names
of Germany, Norway, Sweden and Denmark, re-
produced upon our own shores. Even where a
few adventurers—one only—bearing a celebrated
name, took possession of a new home, comrades
would readily be found, glad to constitute themselves
CH. ∏∙]
THE MARK.
59
around him under an appellation long recognized as
heroic : or a leader, distinguished for his skill, his
valour and success, his power or superior wealth,
may have found little difficulty in imposing the
name of his own race upon all who shared in his
adventures. Thus Harlings and Wælsings, names
most intimately connected with the great epos of
the Germanic and Scandinavian races, are repro-
duced in several localities in England : Billing, the
noble progenitor of the royal race of Saxony, has
more than one enduring record: and similarly, I
believe all the local denominations of the early
settlements to have arisen and been perpetuated ɪ.
So much light appears derivable from a proper in-
vestigation of these names, that I have collected
them in an Appendix (A.) at the end of this vo-
lume, to the contents of which the reader’s atten-
tion is invited 2.
1 The Harlings, in Anglosaxon Herelingas (Trav. Song, 1. 224) ;
Harlunge, (W. Grimm, Deut. Heldensage, p. 280, etc.,) are found at
Harling in Norfolk and Kent, and at Harlington (Herelingatun) in
Bedfordshire and Middlesex. The Wælsings, in Old Norse Volsungar,
thefamily of Sigurdr or SiegfriedjTeappearatWalsingham inNorfolk,
Wolsinghamin Northumberland, and Woolsingham in Durham. The
Billings, at Billinge, Billingham, Billinghoe, Billinghurst, Billingden,
Billington, and many other places. See Appendix A.
2 These local denominations are for the most part irregular compo-
sitions, of which the former portion is a patronymic in -ing or -ling,
declined in the genitive plural. The second portion is a mere defini-
tion of the locality, as -geat, -hyrst, -ham, -wic, -tιin, -stede, and the
ɪɪke. In a few cases the patronymic stands alone in the nominative
plural, as Totingas, Tooting, Surrey; Wocingas, Woking, Surrey;
Meallingas, Malling, Kent; WeiSeringas, Wittering, Sussex. In a still
smaller number, the name of the eponymus replaces that of his descend-
ants, as Fmnes burh, Finsbury ; Wælses ham, Walsham, in Norfolk ;
m which last name, as well as in Wælses eafora (Beowιdf, 1. 1787), we