Grim's Ditch, Grim's Dyke (also Grimsdyke or Grimes Dike in derivative names) or Grim's Bank is a name shared by a number of prehistoric bank and ditch linear earthworks across England. They are of different dates and may have had different functions.
Purpose
The purpose of these earthworks remains a mystery, but as they are too small for military use they may have served to demarcate territory. Some of the Grims Ditches may have had multiple functions.
Etymology
The name "Grim's Ditch" is Old English in origin. The Anglo-Saxon word dīc was pronounced "deek" in northern England and "deetch" in the south. The method of building this type of earthwork involved digging a trench and forming the upcast soil into a bank alongside it. This practice has resulted in the name dīc being given to either the trench or the bank, and this evolved into two words, ditch and dyke in modern British English.
The origin of the name Grim is shrouded in mystery, but there are several theories as to its origin. Many ancient earthworks of this name exist across England and Wales, pre-dating the Anglo Saxon settlement of Britain. It was common for the Anglo Saxons to name features of unexplained or mysterious origin Grim.
Danish Vikings
The name Grim was a common Old Danish personal-name during the Viking Age.
Many English place names are derived from the name, especially in those areas where people of Scandinavian origin settled.
The place name Grimston is particularly common.
The name was associated with the Norse god Óðinn, known as Wōden to the Anglo Saxons. The name was also associated with the attribute of being fierce or "fierce faced". { { efn| Old Norse < grimmr > ” fierce ” }}
The name may have been used as a metaphor for a person of Danish Viking origin, and hence the Devil.
Association with Woden
The name of Wōden is thought by some historians to be evident in Wansdyke, an ancient earthwork of uncertain origin which runs from Wiltshire to Somerset. The historian W. H. Stevenson draws a link between Grim, the Saxon alias for Wōden, and the name of Grim's Dyke:
Frank Stenton notes that there is no direct evidence that Wōden was known in England as Grim, but (citing supporting claims by Professor Eilert Ekwall) states that it was very probable. He mentions three sites named Grimes Wrosen: one outside Colchester in Essex; another in Warwickshire on the route of the Roman road Watling Street; and Credenhill in Herefordshire. These earthworks, Stenton asserts, were either considered to have been the supernatural work of Wōden himself, or sites connected strongly with the cult of Wōden where the Anglo-Saxons worshipped the god. Among Woden's many roles is that of a god of war, and it may be that the Anglo-Saxons perceived the earthworks as military in function and therefore ascribed them to him.
Another suggested origin of Grim may be in the Celtic name Grin or Gryn (Gryan in Irish, a putative origin of the name Ryan), a signifier of the Sun as a divinity.
Association with the Devil
The identities of Wōden and the Devil have also become conflated, as evidenced in the number of earthworks named after the Devil. As the Anglo-Saxon population converted to the new religion of Christianity, baptised converts renounced the old Saxon Gods along with the works of the Devil. It is thought that, as a result of this Christianisation, place names and features once associated with pre-Christian deities then came to be associated with the Devil. The names Grim, Graeme and Graham are closely connected and many British family and place names have been linked with the etymology of Wōden/Grim/Devil: Grimsby (residence of the Devil), Grimsthorpe (Village of the Devil), Grimshaw (the Devil's Wood), reflected in the use of dragon emblems in heraldry associated with Grim- names. Earthworks bearing names related to Grim or the Devil proliferate around Britain: Grim's Ditches exist in Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Hampshire, Hertfordshire, Oxfordshire and West Yorkshire, and Devil's Dykes exist in Sussex, Cambridgeshire, Norfolk (near Weeting) and Hertfordshire. The Antonine Wall which once separated Scotland from Roman Britain is also sometimes known as Graham's Dyke. In Suffolk, a large Neolithic flint mine is known by the name of Grimes Graves.
Beyond Britain, a set of Roman Limes on the borders of Hungary, Romania and Serbia are sometimes known as the Devil's Dykes in Hungarian.