Chapter CLXXVII: Section XVI: Erce

The Anglo-Saxons were accustomed to perform an incantation to restore the fruitfulness of their fields. It began by the cry _Erce_, _Erce_, _Erce_, _Eordhan Môder_, as if it were not earth itself, but her mother that was called upon.

The same word _erce_ is used for ark, chest, or ship, in the Anglo-Saxon New Testament. And Erce does not seem to have been entirely forgotten; for Erche, or Herkja, is a famous lady in old German hero songs.

From thence, too, may have sprung the Old German adjective _ërchan_, meaning holy, genuine, or simple, which is thought to have named the famous Hercynian forest of ancient Germany, which would thus be the sacred wood.

The founder of the East Saxon kingdom in England is called both Escwine and Ercenwine, the darling of Ese, or of Erce. In the Kentish genealogy we find Eorconberht, sacred brightness, answering to the Lombardo-Italic Erchimperto; and also Eorcongot, sacred divinity.

St. Eorconwald, holy power, was a bishop of London, about 678, and may almost be reckoned as the second founder of St. Paul’s, where his shrine was greatly revered; and about the same time Erkenoald was a _maire du palais_ in France; and Erchenold, or Herchenhold, was an old German name, meaning probably firm in truth.

In old knightly times, we find the German Erchanbald, meaning a sacred prince, from which the French took many a Sire Archambault, and the Italians Arcibaldo.

The Scots, by some strange fancy, adopted Archibald as the Lowland equivalent of Gillespie, the bishop’s servant. So frequent was it in the houses of Campbell and Douglas, that, with its contractions of Archie and Baldie, it has become one of the most commonly used in Scotland, recalling many a fierce worthy, from old Archibald Bell-the-Cat downwards, and always translating the Gillespie of the Campbells to Lowland ears.[119]

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Footnote 119:

Grimm, &c.