The God Wada, is known to us as the father of Weland the Smith, and perhaps gave his name to Watling Street. The Anglo-Saxon poem Widsiþ describes him as lord of the Hælsingas and is often linked to water or the sea. His fame lasted in England for many centuries, and he was mentioned in Chaucer’s Troilus as a giant, as well as his boat featuring in The Merchant’s Tale. He appears in other works too, but never with much detail, presumably because he was too well-known to need any introduction.
In Yorkshire he is remembered at Wade’s Grave near Whitby, a 2m high stone on the North Yorks Moors. Wade and his wife Bell were said to live in a castle in Lythe and kept cattle on the moors. Wade’s Causeway, which crosses Wheeldale Moor in the National Park, was built by the giant so that Bell could milk her cows and the Hole of Horcum was apparently formed during an argument between the two, when Wade scooped up a handful of earth to throw at Bell, creating Blakey Topping – a nearby hill – in the process.
Image: Blakey Topping by Steve Partridge CC BY-SA 2.0
