The River-Names of Europe Part 16

The KELS, in Bavaria.

_India._ The CAILAS.

I am inclined to bring in here, as a derivative form of _cal_, and perhaps corresponding with the Obs. Gael. _callaidh_, celer, the forms _caled_, _calt_, _gelt_. That the Germ. _kalt_, Eng. _cold_, may intermix, is very probable, but I do not think that all the English rivers at any rate can be placed to it. There is more to be said for it in the case of the Caldew than of the others, for one of the two streams that form it is called the Cald-beck (_i.e._, cold brook), and it seems natural that the whole river should then a.s.sume the name of Caldew (cold river). Yet there may be nothing more in it than that the Saxons or Danes who succeeded to the name, adopted it in their own sense, and _conformed_ to it. It is to be observed that although the form Caldew corresponds with the Germ. Chaldhowa, yet that the local p.r.o.nunciation is invariably Cauda (=Calda), corresponding with the Scandinavian form.

Upon the whole however, there is much doubt about this group; the form _gelt_ Forstemann refers, as I myself had previously done, to Old Norse _gelta_, in the sense of resonare. In the following names I take the Kalit(va) of Russia, and the Celydnus and Celadon of Greece to approach the nearest to the original form.

1. _England._ The GELT. c.u.mberland.

The CHELT by Cheltenham--here?

The CALD(EW). c.u.mberland.

_Germany._ The CALD(HOWA), (_Adam Brem._), now seems to be called the Aue.

_Russia._ The KALIT(VA). Joins the Donetz.

2. _With the ending en._ _Germany._ GELTEN(AHA), 11th cent., now the GELTN(ACH).

_Greece._ CELYDNUS ant. Epirus.

CELADON ant. Elis.

3. _With the ending er._ _England._ The CALDER. Three rivers.

_Scotland._ The CALDER. Joins the Clyde.

_Belgium._ GALTHERA, 9th cent.

I am also inclined to bring in, as another derivative form of _cal_, the word _calip_, _calb_, _kelp_. The only appellatives I find for it are the word _kelp_, sea-weed, and the Scottish _kelpie_, a water-spirit, wherein, as in other words of the same sort, may perhaps lie a word for water. However, this can be considered as nothing more than a conjecture.

1. _Germany._ KALB(AHA), 8th cent., now the Kohlb(ach).

The KULPA. Aust. Croatia.

_Hungary._ COLAPIS ant., affluent of the Drave.

_Spain._ The CHELVA. Prov. Valentia.

_Portugal._ CALLIPUS ant., now the Sadao.

_Asia Minor._ CALBIS ant. Caria.

CALPAS ant. Bithynia.

2. _With the ending en._ _Scotland._ The KELVIN. Stirling.

The Sansc. _car_, to move, Lat. _curro_, like some other words of the same sort, branches out into two different meanings--that of going fast, and that of going round. Hence the river-names from this root have in some cases the sense of rapidity, and in others of tortuousness; and these two senses are somewhat at variance with each other, because tortuousness is more generally connected with slowness. Separating the two meanings as well as I can, I bring in the following here.

1. _Scotland._ The GARRY. Perths.h.i.+re.

The YARROW. Selkirks.h.i.+re.

2. _With the ending en._ _England._ GARRHUENUS ant., now the YARE.

_France._ GARUMNA or GARUNNA ant. The GARONNE.

The GIRON. Joins the Garonne.

_Greece._ GERANIUS ant., and GERON ant., two rivers of Elis, according to Strabo.

3. _With the ending es = Sansc. caras, swift, Lat. cursus, &c._ _France._ The GERS. Joins the Garonne.

CHARES ant., now the CHIERS.

_Germany._ The KERSCH. Joins the Neckar.

_Italy._ The GARZA, by Brescia.

_Hungary._ GERASUS ant., now the KOROS.

_Asia Minor._ The CARESUS of Homer in the plain of Troy.

_Syria._ CERSUS ant., now the Merkez.

There appear to be several words in which the sense of violence or rapidity is brought out by the preposition _pra_, _pro_, _fro_, in composition with a verb. Thus the Welsh _ffre-uo_, to gush, whence _ffrau_, a torrent, seems to correspond with the Sansc. _pra-i_, Lat.

_prae-eo_, &c. Or perhaps we should take a verb with a stronger sense, say _yu_, to gush, and presume a Sansc. _pra-yu_ = Welsh _ffre-uo_. In the Albanian p??, a torrent, corresponding with Welsh _ffrau_, there seems, however, no trace of a verb.

1. _Wales._ The FRAW, by Aberfraw.

2. _With the ending en._ _Scotland._ The FROON. Falls into L. Lomond.

_Russia._ The p.r.o.nIA.

The Welsh _ffrydio_, to stream, to gush, appears to be formed similarly from the preposition _fra_, joined with the verb _eddu_, to press on, to go, corresponding with Sansc. _it_, Latin _ito_, &c. Hence it would correspond with a Sansc. _pra-it_, Lat. _prae-ito_, &c. From the verb comes the appellative _ffrwd_, a torrent, corresponding with the Bohem.

_praud_, of the same meaning.

_Scotland._ The FORTH. Co. Stirling.

_Danub. Prov._ PORATA (Herodotus). The PRUTH.

_Russia._ The PORT(VA). Gov. Kaluga.

I also bring in here, as much suggestively as determinately, the following.

_Sansc. pra-pat, Lat. prae-peto, &c., to rush forth._ _Russ. Pol._ The PRIPET. Joins the Dnieper.

_Bulgaria._ The PRAVADI. Falls into the Black Sea.

_Sansc. pra-cal, to rush forth, pra and cal, p. 112._ _Prussia._ The PREGEL. Enters the Frische-Haff.

_Sansc. pra-li, Lat. pro-luo, &c., to overflow._ _India._ The PURALLY.

According to the opinion of Zeuss and Gluck, the DANUBE, (ant. Danubius and Danuvius, Mod. Germ. Donau,) would come in here. These writers derive it from Gael. _dan_, Ir. _dana_, fortis, audax, in reference to its strong and impetuous current. This is no doubt the most striking characteristic of the river, but it might also not inappropriately be placed to the root _tan_, to extend, whence the names of some other large rivers. Gluck considers the ending _vius_ to be simply derivative, and suggests that the Germans, with a natural striving after a meaning, altered this derivative ending into their word _ava_, _aha_, _ach_, or _au_, signifying river. Though Gluck is a writer for whose opinion I have great respect, and though this is the principle for which I myself have been all along contending, yet I am rather inclined to think that in Danuvius, as in Conovius (the Conway), there is contained a definite appellative, qualified by a prefixed adjective: this seems to me to be brought out more clearly in the Medway, and in the names connected with it.

The word Ister, which, according to Zeuss, is the Thracian name of the Danube, I have elsewhere referred to the Armorican _ster_, a river. Not that I mean to infer therefrom that the name is Celtic, because _ster_ is only a particular form of an Indo-European word _sur_. If we refer the prefix _is_ to the Old Norse _isia_, proruere, then Ister would have the same meaning as that given above to Danubius. But the derivation of Mone, who explains it by _y_, the Welsh definite article, and _ster_, a river, making Ister = "The river," I hold with Gluck to be--like other derivations proceeding on the same principle--opposed to all sound philology.

Among the rivers noted for the slowness of their course, the most conspicuous is the Arar or Saone. Caesar (_de Bell. Gall._) describes it as flowing "with such incredible gentleness that the eye can scarcely judge which way it is going." Seneca adopts it as a type of indecision--"the Arar in doubt which way to flow." Eumenius multiplies his epithets--"segnis et cunctabundus amnis, tardusque." The name Sauconna, Sagonna, Saonna, Saone, does not appear before the 4th cent., yet there does not seem any reason to doubt that it is as old as the other. Zeuss (_Die Deutschen_) and the Editor of "Smith's Ancient Geography" take this as the true Gallic name. And though Armstrong explains both the Arar and the Saone from the Celtic--referring the former to the Obs. Gael. _ar_, slow, and the latter to Gael. _sogh_, tranquil or placid, in which he may probably be correct, yet it by no means follows that the name of the Arar is Celtic, for _ar_ is an ancient root of the Indo-European speech. To the same root as the Saone I also put the Seine (Sequana), and the Segre (Sicoris), comparing them with Lat. _seg-nis_. The former of these rivers is navigable for 350 miles out of 414, and the latter is noted in Lucian as "stagnantem Sicorim." Some other rivers, in which the characteristic is less distinct, I also venture to place here, separating this root as well as I can from another p. 58.

1. _Germany._ SIGA, 10th cent. The SIEG.

_Russia._ The SOJA. Joins the Dnieper.

2. _With the ending en._ _France._ SAUCONNA ant. The SAoNE.

SEQUANA ant. The SEINE.

The SEUGNE. Dep. Charente-Inf.

_Russia._ The SUCHONA. Joins the Dwina.

3. _With the ending er._ _Spain._ SICORIS ant. The SEGRE.

The SEGURA. Enters the Med. Sea.

Perhaps allied in its root to the last is the Gael. _saimh_, quiet, tranquil, to which I put the following.

1. _Belgium._ The SEMOY.

_Russia._ The SEM or SEIM. Joins the Desna.

SAIMA, a lake in Finland.

_Asia Minor._ The SIMOIS of Homer--here?

2. _With the ending en._ _Switzerland._ The SIMMEN, in the Simmen-Thal.