Grim etymology

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David Raven D
David Raven Nov 22, 2005 23:14:23
Replying to PeterH

Talking of Odinn and the Wansdyke, you just reminded me...

I was up in Wensleydale at the weekend. It's odd in that most Yorkshire Dales are named after their rivers, but this is named after a little village; Wensley. Wensley, so I read somewhere, comes from Woden's Ley. So, instead of this wide pastoral valley being called Uredale, it's named after this little itty-bitty village!
Makes me wonder what made the village so important?

P PeterH
PeterH Nov 23, 2005 08:51:48
Replying to David Raven

Yep - the Hooded One must have been around those parts too.

Ekwall gives Wensley in Derbyshire as a leah dedicated to Woden (a leah was a meadow that later became a ley and got mixed up erroneously with all the leyline nonsense). In Domesday Book it is very clearly named as Wodnesleie

The Yorkshire Wensley is very similar. It was Wendreslaga in Domesday Book meaning Wendel's leah again.

The old fellow turns up elsewhere in Wandlebury, Wendlebury and Wednesbury - Woden's burg