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Kingfisher - OE fiscere, isern

One of those species you might imagine would turn up more frequently in connection to streams and rivers, especially given the bird’s highly distinctive and immediately recognisable colours. They are, though, not too often seen and their call is perhaps not characteristic enough to merit place-making status. Isern glosses alcyon in early glossaries (the kingfisher’s scientific genus is Alcedo) so on this basis it has been argued that isern is a, presumably humorous’ conflation of is ‘ice’ and earn ‘eagle’, which does correspond with the German word for kingfisher, eisvogel ‘ice-bird’. The other term is more familiar and obvious: fiscere is ‘fisher’.

Despite the disappointing lack of kingfisher place-names, there is one mention of a fiscere in a charter relating to land at Buckland in Berkshire: one fisceres dene ‘fisher’s valley’. This could, of course, refer to human fishing activities, but in the light of the great number of birds and other wild creatures that turn up in the charters, and the fact that you get other species connected with dene (geese, thrushes, eagles, buntings, crows, ravens, swans, owls, birds generally), the possibility is there.

Fisceres dene, landmark described in a 10th cen. charter, Buckland, Berkshire

Sources (see ‘About’ page for the full bibliography): Hooke, ‘Birds, Beasts’; langscape.org.uk.

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