To Dr. John Bowring.
58 Jermyn Street, St. James, April 14, 1841.
My dear Sir,—I have sent you a copy of my work by the mail. If you could contrive to notice it some way or other I should feel much obliged. Murray has already sent copies to all the journals. It is needless to tell you that despatch in these matters is very important, the first blow is everything. Lord Clarendon is out of town. So I must send him his presentation copy through Murray, and then write to him. I am very unwell, and must go home. My address is George Borrow, Oulton Hall, Oulton, Lowestoft, Suffolk. Your obedient servant,
George Borrow.
Two years later we find Borrow writing to an unknown correspondent upon a phase of folk-lore:
Oulton, Lowestoft, Suffolk, August 11, 1843.
My dear Sir,—Many thanks for your interesting and kind letter in which you do me the honour to ask my opinion respecting the pedigree of your island goblin, le feu follet Belenger; that opinion I cheerfully give with a premise that it is only an opinion; in hunting for the etymons of these fairy names we can scarcely expect to arrive at anything like certainty.
I suppose you are aware that the name of Bilenger or Billinger is of occasional though by no means of frequent occurrence both in England and France. I have seen it; you have heard of Billings-gate and of Billingham, the unfortunate assassin of poor Percival,—all modifications of the same root; Belingart, Bilings home or Billing ston. But what is Billin-ger? Clearly that which is connected in some way or other with Billing. You will find ger, or something like it, in most European-tongues—Boulanger, horologer, talker, walker, baker, brewer, beggar. In Welsh it is of frequent occurrence in the shape of ur or gwr—henur (an elder), herwr (a prowler); in Russian the ger, gwr, ur, er, appears in the shape of ik or k—sapojgnik, a shoemaker, Chinobuik, a man possessed of rank. The root of all these, as well as of or in senator, victor, etc., is the Sanscrit ker or kir, which means lord, master, maker, doer, possessor of something or connected with something.
We want now to come at the meaning of Beling or Billing, which probably means some action, or some moral or personal attribute; Bolvile in Anglo-Saxon means honest, Danish Bollig; Wallen, in German, to wanken or move restlessly about; Baylan, in Spanish, to dance (Ball? Ballet?), connected with which are to whirl, to fling, and possibly Belinger therefore may mean a Billiger or honest fellow, or it may mean a Walterger, a whirlenger, a flinger, or something connected with restless motion.
Allow me to draw your attention to the word 'Will' in the English word will-o-the-wisp; it must not be supposed that this Will is the abbreviation of William; it is pure Danish, 'Vild'—pronounced will,—and signifies wild; Vilden Visk, the wild or moving wisp. I can adduce another instance of the corruption of the Danish vild into will: the rustics of this part of England are in the habit of saying 'they are led will' (vild or wild) when from intoxication or some other cause they are bewildered at night and cannot find their way home. This expression is clearly from the old Norse or Danish. I am not at all certain that 'Bil' in Bilinger may not be this same will or vild, and that the word may not be a corruption of vilden, old or elder, wild or flying fire. It has likewise occurred to me that Bilinger may be derived from 'Volundr,' the worship of the blacksmith or Northern Vulcan. Your obedient servant,
George Borrow.