The River-Names of Europe

From the Sansc. bhuj, Goth. bjugan, Welsh bwäu, Gael. bogh, Eng. bow, &c., in the sense of tortuousness, we may take the following.

From the Gael. and Welsh cam, to bend, Sansc. kamp, Gr. καμπω, are the following.

The Sansc. root car, to move, branches out into two different meanings, that of rapidity and that of circuitousness, the former of which I have included in the previous chapter. In the latter sense we have the Gael. car or char, tortuous, the Ang.-Sax. cêrran, to turn or bend, &c., to which I place the following.

From the Old High Germ. crumb, Mod. German krumm, Danish krumme, Gael. and Welsh crom, curving or bending, we may take the following. The root seems to be found in the Sansc. kram, to move, to go, which, as in other similar cases, may also diverge into the meaning of rapidity.

For the root sid we have the Welsh sid, winding, and the Anglo-Saxon sîd, broad, spreading. The former is, I think, the sense contained in the following, though both words may be from the same root.

Baxter's derivation of the Derwent from Welsh derwyn, to wind, appears to me the most suitable. That of Zeuss (taking the form Druentia), from dru, oak, seems insufficient; because the number of names, all in the same form, seem to indicate that the word contained must be something more than dru. That of Armstrong, from dear, great, amhain, river, is founded upon a careless hypothesis that the Derwent of Cumberland is the largest river in the North of England, which is not by any means the case.

In the sense of tortuousness I am inclined to bring in the following, referring them to Old Norse meis, curvatura, Eng. maze, &c. This seems most suitable to the character of the rivers, as the Maese or Meuse, and the Moselle. The word seems wanting in the Celtic, unless we think of the Welsh mydu, to arch, to vault. The other word which might put in a claim is mos, which, in the sense of marsh, is to be traced both in the Celtic and German speech, and whence, as supposed, the name of the ancient Mysia or Mœsia.

The only names which appear to contain an opposite sense to the foregoing are the Beina of Norway, and the Bane of Lincolnshire, which seem to be from Old Norse beinn, North Eng. bain, straight, direct.

CHAPTER VII.

QUALITY OF WATERS.

There are a number of river-names in which the sense of clearness, brightness, or transparency is to be traced. From the Sansc. cand, to shine, Lat. candeo, Welsh, Ir. Arm., and Obs. Gael. can, white, clear, pure, we get the following. But the Gael. and Ir., caoin, soft, gentle, is a word liable to intermix.

The Old Celtic word vind, found in many ancient names of persons and places, as Vindo, Vindus, Vindanus,[59] Vindobona, Vindobala, &c., represents the present Welsh gwyn (=gwynd), and the Ir. finn (=find), white. "The Celt. vind," observes Gluck, "comes from the same root as the Goth. hveit; it stands for cvind with an intrusive n; the root is cvid = the Germ. root hvit." The meaning in river-names is bright, clear, pure.

From the Welsh llwys, clear, pure, Gael. las, to shine, Gael. and Ir. leus, light, cognate with Old Norse lios, clear, pure, Lat. luceo, &c., I derive the following. The Gael. lâ, lo, day, must, I think, contain the root.

From the root of the above, by the prefix g, is formed Gael. and Welsh glas, blue or green, (perhaps originally rather transparent), and the Old Norse gladr, Old High Germ. glatt, shining.

Also from the same root come Gael., Ir., and Arm. glan, Welsh glain, pure, clear, Eng. clean.

From the Old High Germ. hlutar, Mod. Germ. lauter, pure, Förstemann derives the following rivers of Germany. Hence also the name of Lauterbrunnen (brunnen, fountain), in Switzerland.

The following names I think can hardly be referred to the same origin as the above, though according to Lhuyd, who derives them from Welsh gloew, clear, and dwr, water, they would have the same meaning.

In the Gael. and Ir. ban, white, we may probably find the meaning of the following.

Of the two following names the former may be referred to the Welsh claer, and the latter to the Swed. klar, both same as Eng. clear.

From the Welsh têr, pure, clear, we may get the following. The root is found in Sansc. tar, to penetrate, whence taras, transparent.

The following two rivers of Germany may, as suggested by Förstemann, be referred to Old High Germ. flât, pure, bright.

The root bil I have, in river-names generally, referred at p. 84 to the Celtic biol, water. But in the Slavonic districts we may also think of the Slav. biala, white, though we cannot say but that even there the Celtic word may intermix.

From the Old High Germ. swarz, Mod. Germ. schwarz, black, are the names of several rivers of Germany, as the Schwarza, the Schwarzau, the Schwarzbach, &c. Also in Norway we have two rivers called Svart Elv, and in Sweden the Svart An, which falls into the Mälar Lake. From the Old Norse doeckr, dark, may be the Dokka in Norway, but for the Docker of Lancashire the Gael. doich, swift, may be more suitable.

The Welsh du, Gael. dubh, black, probably occurs in river-names, but I have taken, p. 36, the meaning of water, as found in Obs. Gael. dob, to be the general one. The Welsh dulas, dark or blackish blue, is found in the Dowles of Shropshire, and in several streams of Wales. The Douglas of Lanarkshire shews the original form of the word, from du, black, and glas, blue.

The root sal I have taken at p. 76 to have in some cases the simple meaning of water. But in the following the quality of saltness comes before us as a known characteristic.

Of an opposite character are the following, which we may refer to Welsh melus, Gael. and Ir. milis, sweet, millse, sweetness. Some other rivers, as the ancient Melas in Asia Minor, now the Kara-su (Black river), and three rivers of the same name in Greece, must be referred to Gr. μελας, black.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE SOUND OF THE WATERS.

The Greta in the English Lake District has been generally derived from Old Norse grâta, Scotch greet, to weep or mourn, in allusion to the wailing sound made by its waters. There is also a Greta in Westmoreland and a Greta beck in Yorkshire. In the Obs. Gael. and Ir., greath also signifies a noise or cry, so that it is quite possible that the original Celtic name may have been retained in the same sense.

Of an opposite meaning to the above is the name Blythe of several small rivers in England. I do not see how this can be otherwise derived than from the Ang.-Sax. blithe, merry. And how appropriate this is to many of our English streams we hardly need poetic illustration to tell us.

Of a corresponding meaning with the Saxon name Blythe may be the Avoca or Ovoca of Wicklow, the Oboka of Ptolemy. Baxter refers it to Welsh awchus, acer, a word of no very cheerful association for the spot where

The Gael. abhach, blithe, sportive, would seem to give a better etymon for the bright waters of Avoca. Whether the Ocker of Germany (ant. Obocra, Ovocra, Ovokare), may be derived from the same word I do not know sufficient to judge.

From the Gr. βρέμω, Lat. fremo, Ang.-Sax. bremman, to roar, Old Norse brim, roaring or foaming of the sea, Welsh ffrom, fuming, Gael. faram, din, I take the following. The following description given by Strabo[62] of the Pyramus shews the appropriateness of the derivation. "There is also an extraordinary fissure in the mountain, (Taurus), through which the stream is carried.... On account of the winding of its course, the great contraction of the stream, and the depth of the ravine, a noise, like that of thunder, strikes at a distance on the ears of those who approach it."

In the Gael. fuair, sound, faoi, a noisy stream, we may perhaps find the origin of the Fowey in Cornwall, and of the Foyers in Inverness, the latter of which is noted as forming one of the finest falls in Britain. From the Gael. gaoir, din, we may derive the Gauir in Perthshire; and from toirm of the same meaning, perhaps the Termon in Ulster. Hence might also be the Trome and the Truim, elsewhere derived at p. 70.

From the Gael. durd, durdan, Welsh dwrdd, humming or murmur, Lhuyd derives the name Dourdwy, of some brawling streams in Wales; but quoting the derivations of some other writers, he adds, with more humility than authors generally possess—"Eligat Lector quod maxime placet." To the same origin may probably also be referred the Dourdon in France, Dep. Seine-Inf.

CHAPTER IX.

JUNCTION OR SEPARATION OF STREAMS.

There are several river-names which contain the idea, either of the junction of two streams, or of the separation of a river into two branches. The Vistula, Visula, or Wysla, (for in these various forms it appears in ancient records), is referred by Müller,[63] rightly as I think, to Old Norse quisl, Germ. zwiesel, branch, as of a river. A simpler form of quisl is contained in Old Norse quistr, ramus, and the root is to be found in Sansc. dwis, to separate, Gael. and Ir. dis, two. The Old Norse name of the Tanais or Don, according to Grimm (Deutsch. Gramm. 3, 385), was Vana-quisl. The word whistle, found as the ending of some of our local names, as Haltwhistle in Northumberland, and Osbaldwhistle in Lancashire, I take to be = the Old Norse quisl: the sense might be that of the branching off of two roads or two streams. In an account of the hydrography of Lanarkshire, for which I am indebted to the kindness of a Friend, there is a burn called Galawhistle, which compares with the above Old Norse Vana-quisl. In connection with the Vistula Jornandes introduces a river Viscla, which has been generally considered to be merely another form of the same word—Reichard[64] being, as I believe, the only writer who considers it to be a different river. It seems to me a curious thing that it has never occurred to any one to identify it with the Wisloka, which joins the Vistula near Baranov. The modern name must contain the correct form, for Wisloka = an Old High Germ. Wisilacha, from acha or aha, river, and is the same as the Wisilaffa or Wislauf, from afa or apa, river. The following names I take to be all variations of the same word.

The following seem also to contain the Germ. zwei, Eng. two, and to have something of a similar meaning to the foregoing.

I include also here the Scheldt or Schelde, (the Scaldis of Cæsar), which I think is to be explained by the Old Norse skildr, Dan. skilt, separated, in allusion to the two mouths by which it enters the North Sea. And to the same origin may be also placed the Schilt(ach) of Baden, which falls into the Kinzig.

From the Gael. caraid, duplex, may probably be the two Carts in the County of Renfrew, the united stream of which enters the Firth of Clyde near Glasgow.

CHAPTER X.

BOUNDARY OR PROTECTION.

The idea of a river as a protection or as a boundary seems to indicate a more settled state of society, and therefore not to belong to the earliest order of nomenclature. And consequently, though this chapter is not quite so bad as the well-known one "Concerning Owls," in Horrebow's Natural History of Iceland, the sum and substance of which is that "There are no owls of any kind in the whole Island"—it will be seen that the number of names is very small in which such a meaning is to be traced.

The word gard, which in the Celtic, Teutonic, Slavonic, and other tongues has the meaning of protection or defence, must, I think, have something of the same meaning in river-names. Or it may perhaps rather be that of boundary, for the two senses run very much into each other.