"GRINDLE."
(Vol. vii., p. 107.)
The question of C. G. supplies a new instance of an ancient and heroic word still surviving in a local name. The only other places in England that I have as yet heard of are, Grindleton in the West Riding of Yorkshire, and a Gryndall in the East Riding. The authority for this latter is Mr. Williams' Translation of Leo's Anglo-Saxon Names, p. 7., note 3.
In old England, the name was probably not uncommon: it occurs in a description of landmarks in Kemble's Codex Dipl., vol. ii. p. 172.: "on grendles mere."
There is a peculiar interest attaching to this word; or, I might say, it is invested with a peculiar horror, as being the name of the malicious fiend, the man-enemy whom Beowulf subdues in our eldest national Epic:
"Wǣs se grimma gæst Grendel háten,
Mǣre mearc-stapa, se þe móras heóld,
Fen and fæsten—fífel-cynnes eard
Won-sæli wer...."
Beowulf, l. 203. seqq.—Ed. Kemble.
So he is introduced in the poem, when, in the dead of night, he comes to the hall where the warriors are asleep, ravining for the human prey. The following is something like the meaning of the lines:—
"Grendel hight the grisly guest,
Dread master he of waste and moor,
The fen his fastness—fiends among,
Bliss-bereft...."
This awful being was no doubt in the mind of those who originated the name grendles mere, before quoted from Kemble. The name is applied to a locality quite in keeping with the ancient mythological character of Grendel, who held the moor and the fen. Most strikingly does the same sentiment appear in the name of that strange and wildering valley of the Bernese Oberland, in Switzerland:—I mean the valley of Grindelwald, with its two awful glaciers.
But when we come to consider the etymology of the name, we are led to an object which seems inadequate, and incapable of acting as the vehicle for these deep and natural sentiments of the inhuman and the horrible.
Grendel means, originally, no more than a bar or rod, or a palisade or lattice-work made of such bars or rods. Also a bar or bolt for fastening a door, or for closing a harbour. Middle-aged people at Zurich recollect when the old "Grindel" was still standing at the mouth of their river. This was a tremendous bar, by which the water-approach to their town could be closed against an enemy; who might otherwise pass from the Lake of Zurich down the river Limmat, into the heart of the town of Zurich.
It was in Germany that this word lived longest as a common substantive. There is no known instance of it in Anglo-Saxon, other than in proper names, and of these I know no more than are already enumerated above; whereas, in the Middle High German, it is by no means uncommon. It occurs in a mystery on the resurrection preserved in this dialect, and edited by Ettmüller, 1851 (Dat Spil fan der Upstandinge). I cannot now find the line, but it is used there for "the gates of hell." Cf. also Ziemann's Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, voc. Grindel.
Grimm, in his Mythology, establishes a connexion between Grendel and Loki, the northern half-deity half-demon, the origin of evil. He was always believed to have cunningly guided the shaft of Flöder the Blind, who, in loving sport, shot his brother Balder the Gay, the beloved of gods and men. So entered sorrow into the hitherto unclouded Asaland.
Grimm draws attention to the circumstance that Loki is apparently connected with the widespread root which appears in English in the forms lock and latch. Here is a very striking analogy,
and it is supported by an instance from the present German: Höllriegel = vectis infernalis, brand of hell, is still recognised as = teufel; or for an old witch = devil's dam.
And even in Latin documents we find the same idea represented. Thus, in a charter of King Edgar (Cod. Dipl., No. 487.), which begins with a recital of the fall of man, and the need of escaping the consequent misery, we have the following:
"Quamobrem ego Eadgar, totius Britanniæ gubernator et rector, ut hujus miseriæ repagulum quam protoplastus inretitus promeruit ... evadere queam, quandam ruris particulam ... largitus sum," &c. &c.
As to the application of this name to localities, it seems to represent the same sentiment as the prefix of Giant, Grim, or Devil: and this sentiment would be that of the grand or awful in Nature, and mysterious or unaccountable in artificial works. I think we may then safely conclude, that all dikes, ditches, camps, cromlechs, &c., which have such titles attached to them, date from an age previous to the Saxons being in England. For example, if we did not know from other sources the high antiquity of Wayland Smith's Cave in Berkshire, we might argue that it was at least pre-Saxon; from the fact that the Saxons called it by the name of their Vulcan, and therefore that it appeared to them so mysterious as to be dignus vindice nodus.
If your correspondent C. G., or any of your readers, can, either from their reading or from local knowledge, add any further illustrations or examples of this ancient heathen word, I, for one, shall receive them gratefully.
I. E.
Oxford.