Xjmcs rotating to Religious Worship. 



95 



local names we do find it so used: thus " iEftelwulfing lond" (Cod. 

 Dipl., 179) is exactly equivalent to " iESelwulfes lond," the land of a 

 duke ^ESelwulf, not of a family called ^^elwulfings." So again 

 " Set Folcwining loud," and " fet Wynhearding lond " (Cod. Dipl., 

 195), imply the land of Folcwine and of Wyneheard, not of marks 

 or families called Folcwiuings and Wyneheardings. Woolbedington, 

 Woolluvington, Barlavington, are respectively Wulfbseding-tun, 

 Wulrlafing-tun, Beorlafmg-tiin, that is, the tun or dwelling of 

 Wulflif, Wulflbsed, and Beorlaf. Between such words and genuine 

 patronymics the line must be carefully drawn, a task which requires 

 both skill and experience. The best security is where we find the 

 patronymic in, the genitive plural — (with the termination, that is, of 

 inga, as in examples just given) — but one can very generally judge 

 whether the name is such as to have arisen in the way described 

 above, from a genitive singular. Changes for the sake of euphony 

 must also be guarded against, as sources of error : thus Abingdon 

 (in Berks) might impel us strongly to assume a family of ( Abingas ; 3 

 the Saxon name iEbban-dun convinces that it was named from an 

 jEbba (m.), or fflbbe (f.). So Dunnington is not Duninga-tun but 

 Dunnan-tun that is Dunna's (=Dunn's?) tun, or dwelling." 



IV. — Names which have reference to the Religious Worship of 

 those who from time to time settled in this part of the country. 



Under this head will be included those which illustrate alike the 

 heathendom and the early Christianity of our Teutonic forefathers. 



60. (a) Of the former perhaps the best known is the name which 

 now appears as Wansdyke, the largest of the ancient Wiltshire Dykes, 

 and which is found in the charters invariably as Wodnes-dic, that 

 is, Woden 3 s-dy he. Again, in the land-limits of Alton Priors we have 

 the name Wodnes-beorg, which is the original form of what we know 

 as Woodborough, meaning Woden 3 s Rill (Cod. Dipl., 1035). Then 

 we have Wodnes-den in the land-limits of Overton (Cod. Dipl., 1120) . 

 " So common in every part of England/'' says Kemble, " are names of 

 places compounded with this name, that we must admit the worship of 

 Woden to have been current throughout the island: it seems impossible 

 to doubt that in every quarter there were localities 1 (usually rising 

 Faxons in England, i., 343. 



