"Denu/dene" was in fact the normal OE word
for 'valley', replaced by "dale" in the toponyms of the Danelaw area ... under
Danish influence. Here I'm playing Torsten's advocate. What worries me about the
derivation of "Dane" from *danja- is that although the word is very well
attested in older English, Dutch and German (i.e., in West Germanic), I haven't
been able so far to find it in Scandinavian, where dalr and its relatives are
ordinary terms for 'valley'.
Piotr
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Tuesday, January 16, 2001 1:52 PM
Subject: [tied] Re: *dan-
English "dene" is
today used more in the sense of a "deep, narrow, wooded vale of a rivulet". In
the very early texts "dene" is often used in conjunction with "tears" ("in dene
of teres").