|
|
 |
Seven wells
This article of mine appeared in Journal of the English Place-Name Society, 39, 7-44 (2007). The abstracts follows:
At least one hundred instances of place-names apparently meaning "seven springs" or "seven streams" are known from England, France, Germany and elsewhere, whereas instances of any other numbers attached to similar water features are far less frequent. All current reference works interpret these names literally, leaving them "explained" but unmotivated. I will give evidence that the names belong to a continuous tradition starting from pre-Christian sacred springs with associated superstitions. Early Christianity first tried to suppress these superstitions, and when this failed, adopted the names with a new interpretation.
A pdf offprint will soon be available here.
The book The Seventh Well by Fred Wander has just been published to coincide with the appearance of my article. (German original: Der Siebente Brunnen, 1971.)
Corrigenda
- Brian Rich has kindly pointed out that a more likely site for the Derbyshire Seuewelledale is at SK 231 579, about 500m north of Aldwark (not near Parwich as I had it). This was established by G. A. Makepeace in Derbyshire Archaeological Journal 121, 162
- In the gazetteer, the section for Somerset is out of alphabetical
order.
- In all displayed quotations, the source should be given before the
translation in square brackets, since the translation is mine, and not from the cited author.
Addenda
- Concerning the frequency of numerals in place-names (pp. 8-9 of my article), Kitson has counted
the occurrences in OE charter bounds in his article Quantifying qualifiers in Anglo-Saxon charter boundaries, Folia Linguistica Historica XIV/1-2, 29-82, (1993). He observes in his Table 4:
ān 185,
þrēo 43,
twēgen/twā 36,
seofon 20,
ænlīpig (`lone, single') 17,
fīf 15,
fēower 10,
twīg- 8,
þrittig 7,
twelf 5.
I think we can conclude that 7 occurs more often than expected.
- Some other classical references are
Septem Aquæ
and
Septem Maria.
(See, for example, W. Hazlitt, Classical Gazetteer (London, 1851)).
- Some say that Saba Biyar, recorded in classical times near the
Bitter Lakes in Egypt, means `seven wells'. See, for example, J. Wilson, The
lands of the Bible (Edinburgh 1847) vol. 1, page 139; and A. Calmet,
Dictionary of the Holy Bible (1832), page 465. This might be the same place as
the modern El Saba Abar in Ismailia.
|
This page was last modified 2008 Apr 16 (Tuesday) 09:52
by 
|
|