Notes and Queries, Number 42, August 17, 1850. Various
There the Wends (pronounce Vends) still maintain a distinct and almost independent community, with peculiar manners, and, it is believed, like the gypsies, an elected or hereditary king; and where, and round Lüchow, in Hanover, the few remnants of this once potent nation are awaiting their final and gradual absorption into the surrounding German nations. Whenever, in the north of Germany, a traveller meets with a place or district ending in wits, itz, pitz, &c., wherever situate, or whatever language the inhabitants speak, he may put it down as originally Wendish; and the multitude of such terminations will show him how extensively this people was spread over those countries. Itzenplitz, the name of a family once of great consequence in the Mark of Brandenburg is ultra-Wendish. It will, therefore, excite no wonder that we find, even in Tacitus, Veneti along their coasts and Ptolemy, who wrote about a century and a half later than Strabo or Livy, seems to have improved the terminology of the ancients in the interval; for, speaking of the Sarmatian tribes, he calls these Veneti [Greek: Ouenedai par holon ton Ouenedikon kolpon]. Here we find the truest guide for the pronunciation, or, rather, for the undigammaising of the Latin V and the Welsh W, as Ouenetoi, which is proved in many distant and varying localities. St. Ouen, the Welsh Owen and Evan, and the patron saint of Rouen, no doubt had his name (if he ever existed at all) coined from the French Veneti of Armorica, amongst which he lived; and when foreigners wish to render the English name Edward as spoken, they write Edouard and Robert the Wizzard, the Norman conqueror of Sicily and Apulia, has his name transformed, to suit Italian ears, into Guiscard, and as William into Gulielmi. Thus, therefore, the whole coast of Prussia, from Pomerania, as far, perhaps, as known, and certainly all the present Prussia Proper, was the Sinus Venedicus, Ptolemy's [Greek: kolpon]; and this was also Alfred's Cwen-Sae, for the north. I admit that when Alfred follows Orosius, he uses Adriatic for the Golfo de Venezia, but when he gives us his independent researches, he uses an indigenous name. Professor Porthan, of Abo in Finland, published a Swedish translation, with notes, of the Voyages of Othere and Wulfstan in the Kongl. Vitterhets Historie och Antiquitet Academiens Handlingar, sjette Delen. Stockholm, 1800, p. 37-106., in which he expressly couples Finland with Cwenland; and, in fact, considering the identity of Cwen and Ven, and the convertibility of the F and V in all languages, Ven and Fen and Cwen will all be identical: but I believe he might have taken a hint from Bussæus, who, in addition to his note at p. 13., gives at p. 22. an extract from the Olaf Tryvassons Saga, where "Finnland edr Quenland" (Finland or Quenland) are found conjoined as synonyms. Professor Rask, who gives the original text, and a Danish translation in the Transactions of the Shandinavish Litteratur Selkskab for 1815, as "Otter og Wulfstans Korte Reideberetninger," &c., though laudatory in the extreme of Porthan, and differing from him on some minor points, yet fully agrees in finding the Cwen-Sea within the Baltic: and he seems to divide this inland sea into two parts by a line drawn north and south through Bornholm, of which the eastern part is called the Cwen or Serminde, or Samatian Sea.
Be that as it may, the above is one of a series of deductions by which I am prepared to prove, that as the land geography of Germany by Alfred is restricted to the valleys of the Weichsel (Wisle), the Oder, the Elbe, and the Weser, so the sea voyages are confined to the debouchures of such of these rivers as flow into the Baltic. This would give a combined action of purpose to both well suited to the genius of the monarch and the necessities of an infant trade, requiring to be made acquainted with coasts and countries accessible to their rude navigation and limited commercial enterprise. So prudent a monarch would never have thought of noting down, for the instruction and guidance of his subjects and posterity, the account of a voyage which even now, after an interval of ten centuries of continued nautical improvements, and since the discovery of the compass, is not unattended with danger, nor accomplished in less than a year's time wasted.
British Archeological Association.
REMARKABLE PROPOSITION CONCERNING IRELAND
The following passage, which contains a curious proposition relating to Ireland, will probably be new and interesting to many readers of "NOTES AND QUERIES," since the book from which I extract it is a scarce one, and not often read. Among the many various schemes that have of late been propounded for the improvement of our sister country, this is perhaps not the least remarkable, and shows that the questio vexata, "What is to be done with Ireland?" is one of two centuries' standing. James Harrington, in his Oceana, the Introduction, (pp. 35, 36., Toland's Edition, 1700), speaking of Ireland under the name of Panopea, says,—
"Panopea, the soft Mother of a slothful and pusillanimous people, is a neighbor Iland, antiently subjected by the Arms of Oceana; since almost depopulated for shaking the Yoke, and at length replanted with a new Race. But (through what virtues of the Soil, or vice of the Air, soever it be), they com still to degenerat. Wherfore seeing it is neither likely to yield men fit for Arms, nor necessary it should; it had bin the Interest of Oceana so to have dispos'd of this Province, being both rich in the nature of the Soil, and full of commodious Ports for Trade, that it might have bin order'd for the best in relation to her Purse, which, in my opinion (if it had been thought upon in time), might have bin best don by planting it with Jews, allowing them their own Rights and Laws; for that would have brought then suddenly from all parts of the World, and in sufficient numbers. And though the Jews be now altogether for merchandize, yet in the Land of Canaan (except since their exile, from whence they have not bin Landlords), they were altogether for Agriculture, and there is no cause why a man should doubt, but having a fruitful Country and excellent Ports too, they would be good at both. Panopea well peopled, would be worth a matter of four millions of dry rents; that is besides the advantage of the Agriculture and Trade, which, with a Nation of that Industry, coms at least to as much more. Wherfore Panopea being farm'd out to the Jews and their Heirs for ever, for the pay of a provincial Army to protect them during the term of seven years, and for two millions annual Revenue from that time forward, besides the customs which would pay the provincial Army, would have bin a bargain of such advantage both to them and this Commonwealth, as is not to be found otherwise by either. To receive the Jews after any other manner into a Commonwealth, were to maim it; for they of all Nations never incorporat, but taking up the room of a Limb, are no use or office to the body, while they suck the nourishment which would sustain a natural and useful member."
Corpus Christi Hall, Maidstone.
NEWS
"Novaum, vulgo Nouvelle. Ugutio: 'Rumor, murmur, quod vulgo dicitur Novum.' Occurit non semel in Epistolis Marini Sanuti. 'Novis de Obitu Papæ auditis,' in Regesta Universitatis Paris, an. 1394, Spicileg. Acher., tom vi. p. 60."
So far Ducange, who also refers to the following:
"Supervenerunt nobis Nova certa de morte, videlicet quorundam Nobilium, nobis adhærentium, captorum per partem dieti Philippi in Britannia, et de speciali Præcepto suo Parisiis ignominiosæ morti traditorum; nec non de Strage, &c. &c."—Charta an. 1346, apud Rymer, t. v. p. 497.
The derivation of this word has been so strenuously and ably discussed by the contending parties in your pages, that I have no intention of interfering (non nostrum tantas componere lites) further than to furnish a few materials bearing on the subject, which may not have come under their notice.
It seems uncertain whether Newes was considered by our ancestors plural or singular. Resolute John Florio is sadly inconsistent in his use of it: in his World of Wordes, ed. 1598, we have:
"Nova, newe, fresh, a noueltie, a newe report.
"Novella, a tale, a nouell, a noueltie, a discourse, a newes a message."
In Queen Anna's World of Wordes, 1611:
"Nova, a noueltie, a new report.
"Novella, a tiding, or newes.
"Novellante, a teller of newes or tidings."
Here we have newes