connected with it in Rügen and in Pomerania at the present day is important, in reference to the survival of the name in Wiltshire at the present time, and its wider existence in that county in the Anglo-Saxon period. Such a survival strongly supports the other evidence relating to Wiltshire settlers of Wendish descent. The original Wilsæte or Wilte settlers, being at least partly made up of Wends, would naturally bring with them to Wiltshire some of the mythology of Rügen. Adam of Bremen tells us that this island was opposite to part of the country of the Wilte. The names Hertha’ and Heortha’ are found in Domesday Book in three places in Wiltshire, and in one of these, Hertham near Chippenham, it still survives.
The Anglo-Saxon name Jerchesfont in Wiltshire is also found in Domesday Book, and leads us to the folk-lore of Hertha still surviving in the island of Rügen and in Pomerania. It brings us to one of the most ancient of legends, the Lady of the Lake. The lady was the goddess Hertha, who, it is believed, had her dwelling in the hill in Rügen still known as Herthaberg, where often yet, as people of that island believe, a fair lady comes out of the hill surrounded by her maidens to bathe in the lake at its foot.[1] Similarly, in a wood in Pomerania stands a round hill called Castle Hill, and at its foot is a small lake, called Hertha’s Lake. Here, too, the mysterious lady is said to bathe. The home of the Hertha legends, consequently, must be allowed to be Rügen and Pomerania, where her worship has been described by historians and her legends survive more than elsewhere. The old Saxon name Jerchesfont connects her with a legendary bathing-place in one of our Wessex counties. Its modern name is Urchfont, and it is situated in the middle of Wiltshire, near the border of the old hundred of Rughe’berg, the Anglo-Saxon Ruwanbeorg. At this old settlement, named after Hertha, there are copious springs, where much water rises, and hence the termination -font
- ↑ Hartland, E. S., ‘The Science of Fairy Tales,’ p. 71.
