River Tove

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The River Tove is a river in England, a tributary of the River Great Ouse. Rising in Northamptonshire about a mile north of Greatworth, it flows for about Template:Convert north and east of the town of Towcester (meaning 'camp on the Tove') near Bury Mount before meeting the Ouse south-east of Cosgrove just north of Milton Keynes. Its final Template:Convert form part of the border between Northamptonshire and Buckinghamshire, running alongside the Grand Union Canal. The river ultimately flows into the North Sea.

Etymology

The Old English name of Towcester, which is named for the River Tove,<ref>Flavell Edmunds. "Towcester." Traces of History in the Names of Places. London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1869. 272.</ref> is Tófe-ceaster,<ref name="Bosworth-Toller">Joseph Bosworth and T. Northcote Toller, "Tófe-ceaster." An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1882. 997. (Online version)</ref> suggesting (since ceaster comes from the Latin castra, meaning "camp"<ref>"Chester." Oxford English Dictionary. oed.com</ref>) that the Old English name for the Tove was some form of Tófe. Bosworth and Toller give the "Scandinavian proper names" Tófi and Tófa for comparison.<ref name="Bosworth-Toller" />

It is thought Tófa is a shortened form of Thorfrithr, meaning "beautiful Thor" or "peace of Thor."<ref>names-meanings.net: Tofa</ref><ref>behindthename.com: Tove, Thorfrithr</ref><ref>Teresa Norman, "Tova." A World of Baby Names. New York: Penguin, 2003. 504.</ref>

However, the clearest link for an older origin of the Tove name can be found in the dedication on the Sønder Vissing Runestone. The 10th century carvings describe the stone as having been raised by Tófa, in memory of her mother. The first character of her name is ᛏ, the Rune for Týr, a Northern European deity thought to be of early origins in an Indo-European Pantheon. He was a sky god, god of justice, sacrifice and war.