The River-Names of Europe Part 22

The GRETA in the English Lake District has been generally derived from Old Norse _grata_, 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 ill.u.s.tration 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 a.s.sociation for the spot where

"Nature has spread o'er the scene Her purest of crystal, and brightest of green."

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. ???, 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_."

1. _England._ The FROME. Five rivers.

The FRAME. Dorsetshire.

_Germany._ BRAM(AHA) or BREM(AHA), 9th cent., a stream in Odenwald.

PRIMMA, 9th cent. Near Worms.

The PRuM in Prussia.

_Denmark._ The BRAM(AUE) in Holstein.

_Italy._ FORMIO ant. in Venetia.

_Asia Minor._ PYRAMUS ant., now the Jihun.

2. _With the ending t._ _Germany._ The PFREIMT in Bavaria.

3. _With the ending nt._ _Germany._ PREMANTIA, 9th cent., now the PRIMS.

4. _With the ending es._ _Greece._ PERMESSUS ant. Botia.

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.

FOOTNOTES:

[62] Bohn's Translation.

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 Muller,[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.

1. _France._ The OUST. Dep. Cotes-du-Nord.

_Germany._ The TWISTE. Joins the Diemel.

The QUEISS. Pruss. Silesia.

_Russia._ The UIST. Joins the Tobol.

The USTE. Joins the Dwina.

2. _With the ending en._ _Germany._ QUISTINA, 11th cent., now the KoSTEN.

3. _With the ending er._ _France._ The VISTRE. Dep. Gard.

_Belgium._ The VESDRE. Joins the Ourt.

_Germany._ The VEISTR(ITZ). Pruss. Silesia.

4. _With the ending rn._ _Germany._ QUISTIRNA, 8th cent., now the TWISTE, joins the Oste.

5. _With the ending el = O. N. quisl._ _Germany, &c._ VISTULA, 1st cent., Germ. WEICHSEL.

WISL(OKA), joins the Vistula. (_See above._) The WISL(OK). Joins the San.

WISIL(AFFA), 11th cent., now the WISL(AUF).

_France._ The VESLE. Joins the Aisne.

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

1. _Germany._ The ZWITT(AWA) or ZWITT(AU) in Moravia.

2. _With the ending el._ _Germany._ The ZWETTEL in Austria.

I include also here the SCHELDT or SCHELDE, (the SCALDIS of Caesar), 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.

FOOTNOTES:

[63] Die marken des Vaterlandes.

[64] Germanien unter den Romern.

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.