bury, which were annually made to the huscarls as late as King Edward’s time. The Domesday record also tells us of a place in Dorset named Hafeltone.[1] This is of some weight, for it is difficult to see how such a name arose except from the settlement of a man so named because he was a man of the Wilte tribe, or Men of Havel, mentioned by King Alfred.
The old name Ruanbergh, which occurs in a charter of King Alfred,[2] also refers to an early settlement of Rugians, or people of a Wendish or Slavic descent, in Dorset. The similar name Ruwanbeorg survived in Wiltshire in the later Saxon period, and gave its name to the hundred of Rughe’berg in later centuries.
Among ancient names in Dorset that are probably of Wendish origin are Cranborne, Trent and Tarent, Luseberg and Launston. Crane, the name of a stream, and Cranborne, a boundary place-name, may be compared with the Slavic name Ukraine, from crain, a limit. Trent, a place-name in Rügen Isle, occurs also in the old Slavic part of the Tyrol. Luseberg, an ancient hundred name, reminds us of the Wendish tribe Lusitzes, and Launston may be compared with the Wendish Lauenberg. It is remarkable that in Germany the Trent name is only found where Slavic influence prevailed, and in England where Wendish settlers may be traced. Among names of old places in Wiltshire of similar origin are Semeleah, on the river Sem; Wilgi, a Domesday place; Launton, now Lavington; and the Ruan or Rughen names. There is a river Sem in the Ukraine. Launton was on the border of the hundred called in the Saxon charters Ruwanbeorg, and in later records Rughe’berg, which names correspond closely with those used in the old Germanic records to denote the Wendish people in Rügen.
As already pointed out, the name Wintr in Anglo-Saxon records is used in some instances for persons.[3]
