It will be admitted that this is something more than a merely curious coincidence, and that it leads to an induction of no little value. Now it appears to me that we have reasonable ground to believe our version quite as ancient and quite as heathen as the German one which still retains the heathen names, and that we have good right to suppose that it once referred to the same god. How then was this god named in England? Undoubtedly Pol or Pal[685]. Of such a god we have some obscure traces in England. We may pass over the Appolyn and Apollo, whom many of our early romancers number among the Saxon gods, although the confused remembrance of an ancient and genuine divinity may have lurked under this foreign garb, and confine ourselves to the names of places hearing signs of Pol or Pal. Grimm has shown that the dikes called Phalgraben in Germany are much more likely to have been originally Pfolgraben, and his conclusion applies equally to Palgrave, two parishes in Norfolk and Suffolk:—so Wódnes Díc, and the Devil’s Dike between Cambridge and Newmarket. Polebrooke in Northamptonshire, Polesworth in Warwickshire, Polhampton in Hants[686], Polstead in Suffolk, Polstead close under Wanborough (Wódnesbeorh) in Surrey,—which is remarkable for the exquisite beauty of its springs of water,—Polsden in Hants, Polsdon in Surrey, seem all of the same class. To these we must add Polsley and Polthorn, which last name would seem to connect the god with that particular tree: last, but not least, we have in Poling, in Sussex, the record of a race of Polingas, who may possibly have carried up their genealogy to Bældæg in this form. Footnote 685: Though little fond of modern Anglosaxon verses, of modern Latin hexameters or modern Greek iambics, I shall give a translation of these two spells, for the purpose of comparison: Pol and Wóden tó wuda fóron Bealdres folan wearð fót bewrenced; ða hine Síðgúð begól, Sunne hire sweoster, ðá hine Frýe begól, Folle hire sweoster, ðá hine Wóden begól swá he wel cúðe: swá sý bánwrence, swá sý blodwrence, swá sý liðwrence; bán tó báne, blód tó blóde, lið tó liðe, swá swá gelímede sýn. And thus the English one: Dryhten rád, fola slád; se lihtode and rihtode; sette lið tó liðe eác swá bán to báne, sinewe tó sinewe. Hál wes ðú, on ðæs Hálgan Gástes naman! Footnote 686: Polhǽmatún. Cod. Dipl. Nos. 642, 752, 1136, 1187. Polesleáh in Wilts. Cod. Dipl. No. 641. Polstede in Suffolk. Cod. Dipl. No. 685. Polþorn in Worcester. Cod. Dipl. No. 61. Pollehám, No. 907. -----