Wensdon Hill
Early-attested site in the Parish of Aspley Guise
Historical Forms
- Wendlesdun, Wændlesdun 969 BCS1229
Etymology
No personal name Wændel is found in the Onomasticon , but there can be no doubt of its existence in OE. Mr Bruce Dickins has kindly furnished us with the following parallels: Wendlebury (C, O), Wellingborough (Nth), Wendling (Nf), Wandsworth (Sr), Wansley (Nt), all of which go back to an OE Wændel . In addition to these he notes the unidentified Uuendlesclif in Gloucestershire (BCS 246) and Wændlescumb (KCD 1283) in Berkshire, Wendlesbiri (KCD 826) in Hertfordshire and, we may add, Winslow (Berks), formerly Wendlescliue .There are also OE compound pers. names Wendelbeorht , Wendelburh and (possibly) Wendelgær containing the same element.The name is common in OGer as Wandil or Wendil and is found in Norse mythology as Vandill , the name of a sea-king and of a giant (cf. Lind, Dopnamn s.n.). It is also found as the second element in ON Qrvandill , the name of a giant in Norse mythology whose toe was transformed into the star known as 'Orvandill's toe.' This name is found in OGer as Aurivandala and is clearly the same as OE ēarendel , a word for the dawn.These names and the occurrence of the word Vandilsvé , 'Vandill's shrine,' in Helgakviða Hundingsbana (ii, 34) unite in suggesting the possibility that Germanic Vandilo was originally the name of some mythological person, and that his name, like other names of divine beings, came to be used freely in the formation of personal-name compounds, which themselves could in turn undergo the usual shortening to pet-forms and give rise to such an OE pers. name as Wændel . The same element is probably to be found in OE Wendelsæ , OHG Wentilseo , both used of the Mediterranean, the latter being used also as a gloss for oceanus . Wentilmeri is a similar gloss for oceanus , and there is also an OHG Wentilstein . In this last group of names Mr Bruce Dickins suggests with much probability that we have this mythological name used with intensive force to denote something great, and compares the history of the element eormen in OE eormengrund , 'mighty deep,' originally the name of a divine being. The Vandals (Lat. Vandali , Vandili ) must ultimately have derived their name from this word, but exactly in what sense is not clear.