THORNS HAMMER. 237 



send sickness and calamities, and whose influence may 

 be averted by possession of an object which once 

 belonged to them. They are believed, in particular, to 

 assist the birth of children a function with which fairies 

 are always closely connected and to increase the milk 

 of cows, which fairies are often known spitefully to dry 

 up. But then they are also regarded by these very 

 people as thunderbolts, and supposed to protect the 

 houses in which they are kept against lightning. It is 

 an interesting fact that such heathen superstitions still 

 exist in Presbyterian Scotland more perhaps than in any 

 other part of the British Isles. 



Finally, I should much like to know whether stone 

 hatchets have anything to do with those places in 

 England which are still called after Thunor. There is a 

 Thundersfield in Surrey, a Thundersley in Essex, a 

 Thursfield in Staffordshire, a Thursby in Cumberland, 

 and a Thursford in Norfolk, all of which take their titles 

 from the Anglo-Saxon Thunor or the Danish Thor. 

 Near Thursley, in Surrey, is a Thunder Hill. Now, as 

 we see that the names of the fairies cling about those 

 places where stone arrows or elf-bolts are abundant, it 

 would be interesting to learn whether any large find of 

 stone hatchets has ever been discovered at any of these 

 towns or hills, or whether any long barrows occur in 

 their neighbourhood. Of course it is possible that the 

 names may only be due to some old heathen temple or 

 meeting-place ; but it is also possible that they may be 

 due to ajctual visible tokens of Thunor's presence found 

 upon the spots in question. 



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