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The Norse Settlements in the British Islands
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 February 2009
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I Esteem it a very great honour indeed to be allowed to lecture before this learned Society, which among its members numbers so many eminent men.
You will probably think that my subject lies far out of the way and is only of very small importance to the study of English history.—But it is my proud conviction that the Norsemen, my ancestors, also have contributed to the moulding of the English nation and of the British Empire. These times, however, lie far back. It is now nearly 900 years ago since Vikings' fleets used to land on the shores of the British Islands and many centuries since the tongue of the Norsemen was spoken here, except in the far away Orkneys and Shetland. Nearly everything that could remind us of them has disappeared. Those times are long ago forgotten when the Scandinavian peoples were feared by other nations, and were of some consequence in European politics. Since then the British nation has spread its sway all over the world, and its destinies lie not in Europe only, but beyond the seas. It is therefore not to be wondered that the English have forgotten their Norse ancestors. There was, however, a time when the fortunes of the British Islands were closely intertwined with those of Northern Europe, a time when these Islands and Denmark, Norway and Sweden seemed destined to form part of one great empire and had comparatively little to do with the outside world.
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References
page 174 note 1 Gunnlaug's Saga, Ormstungu, udg. ved Finnur Jonsson (Kobenhavn, 1916), ch. 9 (p. 21).
page 174 note 2 Thomas Blount: “Jocular Tenures,” 133. New English Dictionary, under “Hock-day”.
page 175 note 1 The raven was, as you know, the bird of Odin, and many famous Viking chieftains, e.g. the sons of Ragnar Lodbrok, possessed raven banners, which, when the raven unfolded its wings, always brought them victory.
page 175 note 2 Liebermann: Gesetze der Angehachsen, i, 666 (Leges Edwardi Confessbris, 32 E, 3–6).
page 176 note 1 Mannin, publ. by the Manx Language Society, vol. i. 8.
page 176 note 2 Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII., vol. xii., n. 1212. “The Black Fleet of Norway” probably is a reminiscence of the expedition of King Haakon of Norway to Scotland, A.D. 1263.
page 176 note 3 Cf. Marstander: Bidrag til det norske sprogs histoire i Irland (Christiania Vidensk.-selsk. shrifter. II. 1915. No. 5).
page 176 note 4 In the Irish chronicles and tales written in Munster the Vikings are usually called Danair (Danes).
page 176 note 5 Liebermann, in his editions of the Anglo-Saxon Laws, is one of the yery few exceptions.
page 177 note 1 The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, ed. Earle, and Plummer, , vol. i, p. 104 (a° 924)Google Scholar
page 177 note 2 Cf. the translation of the Yorkshire Domesday, “A History of Yorkshire” (Victoria County History, II), 203a.
page 177 note 3 Ibidem, 200a.
page 177 note 4 Ibidem, 268c.
page 177 note 5 Ibidem, 206c, 246c.
page 177 note 6 Domesday Book, II, 312, col. 2.
page 177 note 7 The original meaning of the word lögmaðr is “learned in the law,” juris peritus as lagemannus is rendered by medieval writers.
page 178 note 1 E.g. Helesbe [now Helsby] in Cheshire (Domesday Book, II, 263c). Forms like Derbei [West Derby] and Fornebei [now Formby, West Derby Hundred] also pre-suppose an Old Norse nominative ending in -bær, or rather a casus obliquus ending in -bæiar.
page 179 note 1 Thorp is in Domesday Book only found in Derbyshire, Leicester-shire, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire, Staffordshire and Yorkshire. It is, however, both alone and in compounds also found in Lancashire and Cumberland.
page 179 note 2 Tove [O.N.Tófi] was a very common name in Denmark and came from there to Norway.
page 180 note 1 I am well aware that the word tved, corresponding to Old Norse pveit, is found in Danish. It is, however, very rarely used in place-names, and never in the meaning of “portion, estate.” The Danish word only means: “a field, cleared of wood.” This Danish word occurs in a document printed in the Chartulary of Whitby: in Midethet, i.e. “the tved, which is situated in the midth” (The Chartulary of Whitby, n. DL, xvii., P. 577)
page 180 note 2 Some of the place-names ending in -thwaite date from the Norman period, or perhaps even later. Carlton Husthwaite, a village in Yorkshire, is in Domesday Book called Carlton (“A History of Yorkshire,” II, 212).
page 180 note 3 Cf. below p. 187.
page 181 note 1 I am indebted for this suggestion to Professor W. A. Craigie.
page 181 note 2 The Chartulary of Whitby, p. 577.
page 181 note 3 A Calendar of the Lancashire Assize Rolls, translated and calendared by Colonel John Parker (The Record Society), pp. 34, 39 (a° 30 Henr. III), 186,189, (a° 12 Edw. I).
page 181 note 4 “A Hist, of the County of York” (Viet. County Hist.), II, 285a.
page 181 note 5 Lancashire Inquests, etc., I.
page 181 note 6 In Lancashire as well as in Yorkshire O.N. Olafr is written Anlaf (Andelaveserewe 1202, now Anglezark). In a Yorkshire charter of the end of the eleventh century we find Bareth, which represents BárøÞr, a more ancient (ninth or tenth century) form of Bárðr.—The same name is in Irish sources written Barith, Calendar of Charter Rolls, III, 113 (Confirmation of charters in favour of St. Mary's, York).
page 182 note 1 Pipe Roll, 29 Henry II, p. 6.
page 182 note 2 Lancashire Fines, I, 58.
page 182 note 3 The Pipe Rolls of Cumberland and Westmorland, ed. by F. H. M. Parker, p. 13.
page 183 note 1 “The Anglo-Danish Village-Community of Martham, Norfolk: its pre-Domesday Tenants and their Conversion into the Customary Tenants of a Feudal Manor in 1101.” By Rev. William Hudson, F.S.A., Norfolk and Norwich Archæological Society. Vol. xx, pp. 273–316. Cf. Transactions R. Hist. Soc., 4th Ser. Vol. i, p. 28, seq. and above p. 23, seq.
page 183 note 2 Mr. Hudson kindly lent me a list of the place-names occurring in the survey.
page 184 note 1 See above, p. 37, and below p. 188.
page 184 note 2 Hudson, p. 296.
page 185 note 1 Early Yorkshire Charters, n. 275 (in Lincolnshire).
page 185 note 2 Introduction, p. cxiv.
page 186 note 1 A History of Yorkshire, II, 274c.
page 186 note 2 Langebek: Scriptores rerum Danicarum, III, 288, 299.
page 186 note 3 Danelaw Charters, n. 124.
page 186 note 4 Chartularium Abbatise de Whiteby (Surtees Society, vols. 69, 72), pp. 64, 453, 519. Thomas Danus, Petrus Danus.
page 187 note 1 Chartularium Abbatiaæ de Whiteby (Surtees Society, vol. i, pp. 3, 29, 118.
page 187 note 2 Ibidem, p. 3.
page 187 note 3 The names are enumerated in the Chartulary of Whitby (I, p. 3): Villam et maris portum de Witebi (O.N. Hvítabýr), Overbi et Neηrebí, id est Steinesecher, Thingwala, Leirpel (O.N. Leirpollr “clayey nook”), Helredale (the ending is O.N. dalr, “a valley”), Normanebi (O.N. Norðmannabýr, “the village of the Norsemen”), Fulingam et alteram Fulingam, Berthwait (O.N. Berûpveit?), Sethwait (O.N. Sœvarpveit), Snetune (O.N. Snjótún), Hugelgardebi (Hûglgarðabýr?), Sourebi (Saurbýr), Risewarp (O.N. Hrisvarp), Neuham (an English name), Stachesbi, Baldebi (O.N. Baldabýr), Brecha (O.N. Brekka), Flore, Dunesleia. Of these names Brekka, “a brink, slope,” is probably not Danish, but West-Scandinavian.
page 188 note 1 Danelaw Charters, n. 153: 4 acras terre et dimidium in territoria de Thoresthorpa in loco qui vocatur Fenuanga.
page 188 note 2 Furness Abbey Coucher Book (Chetham Soc), pp. 364, 368, 412 f. 462.
page 188 note 3 P. 526: totum terram meam de Midethet a balco qui est inter vandelas demenii mei et vandelas hominum meorum.
page 188 note 4 Cf. Lindkvist, p. 35 n.
page 189 note 1 Danelaw Charters, pp. xlv.–xlvi., n. 5.
page 189 note 2 The Chartulary of Whitby, 328 f.
page 189 note 3 Records of the Borough of Leicester, I, 392.
page 189 note 4 Ibid., I, 399 (1322): “a tenement in le Skeyth … stretching from the said road to the common footpath.”
page 189 note 5 Borough Customs, I, 163: LEICESTER. Thwerthrounay, Gens només, E pur ceo ke avaunt fu usé ke le defandaunt ne poeit a la pleinte aultre chose respundre for tut granter ou tut dire Twertutnay, e quant il avoit dit le nay deveit estre a sa ley sei sisme meyn (“had to be at his law himself the sixth hand”, i.e. to find five compurgators).
page 190 note 1 Borough Customs, I, 127 f: LEICESTER. Swareles. E pur ceo ke usé fu avaunt ces oures quant les parties deveient pleder e le pleintif aveit dit sa querele, si le defendant cum la parole ly fuist issue de la buche ne deist thwertutnay, il fut tenu cum non defendu e ceo apelerent swareles, ne le fut suffert de en parler ne de cunseil demaunder.
page 190 note 2 The Oxford New English Dictionary.
page 190 note 3 Borough Costumes, I, 152: Forfal. Aceo si le defandaunt eit plegges trové ou mainpernors de estre a la court a certein jor e il ne puisse estre, eyent les plegges ou mainpernors s'il voilent a jor un forfal pur lui en lu de assoyne, cum avaunt fut usé, e le eyent puis avaunt a un altre jor.
page 191 note 1 Diplomatarium Norvegicum, vol. ix., n. 59, etc.
page 191 note 2 In the Pipe Rolls of the reign of Henry II we, among the citizens of Lynn, find the following names: Siwardus de Len (26 and 27 H. II, p. 18), Sunnulfus de Lenna (22 H. II, p. 6, 21 H. II, p. 119), Ansgerus (O.N. Ásgeirr, 19 H. II, p. 122), Wrangetoche (19 H. II, p. 122, 18 H. II, p. 27, etc., i.e. O.N. Vrangi Toki; vrangr means “wrong,” Toki was a common Danish name), Outi (15 H. II, p. 97, O.N. Auti), Hawardus (O.N. Hávaðr, Ibid.), Ranñ fil. Auti (Ibid.), Staingrim Bonpain (Ibid.), Godman fil. Munni, Turchetil fil. Oggi (Ibid.), Bonda and Bondi Hund (12 H. II, p. 21); O.N. bondi means “a peasant.”
page 191 note 3 The Red Register of Lynn, I, 13.
page 191 note 4 The Red Register of Lynn (I, p. 13) mentions Ywardus de Norwegia as houseowner in Lynn. A family Thorndene was descended from Trondhjem in Norway.
page 192 note 1 Heimskringla, II, 16.
page 192 note 2 Ancient Deeds, C. 410 (13 Edw. IV.), cf. for this and most of the further references Henry A. Harben, A Dictionary of London, p. 444.
page 192 note 3 Ecclesia Sancti Olavi de Bradestrat, c. 1247 (MSS. Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's, D.D.A., fo. 78).
page 192 note 4 Dugdale, Monasticon Anglicanum, V, 100: Petrus de Sancto Olapho.
page 192 note 5 A legend, which seems to go back to the middle of the eleventh century, says that St. Olave, in his church in London, healed a man bearing the Norse name Allvaldr (Daae, Norges Helgener, 56; Olaf's Saga, ed. Keyser and Unger. 85).
page 193 note 1 William of Malmesbury, I, 320.
page 193 note 2 There is also on the south side of Lower Thames Street, east of London Bridge, a church dedicated to St. Magnus the Martyr. This church is not, however, as usually supposed, dedicated to St. Magnus, Earl of Orkney, who was killed in 1115. The church is already mentioned in a confirmation of grant by William the Conqueror to Westminster Abbey, dated 1067, “lapidee ecclesie Sancti Magni prope pontem” (Cottonian Charters, VI, 3, B.M. Harben, A Dictionary of London, 375).
page 194 note 1 Munimenta Gildhallæ Londoniensis (Roll's Ser.), Liber Albus, I, 229; De la ferme les Coloniens, cestassavoir de la saille des Deneis, et pris par an 1 soulz.
page 194 note 2 Cal. of Letter Books of the City of London, ed. R. R. Sharpe, C, pp. 162–163; cf. Harben, A Dictionary of London, 193.
page 194 note 3 Munimenta Guildhallae Londoniensis, Liber Custumarum I, 63 f.
page 194 note 4 Björkman, 205.
Hans Ukb. I, n. 474.
page 195 note 1 Liebermann, II, 657.
page 195 note 2 According to Cowell (in the beginning of the seventeenth century), similar Hustings were also held in Winchester, Lincoln, York, Sheppey, and elsewhere. But the passage from “Fleta,” as the New English Dictionary (V, 476 f.) states, does not necessarily imply this.
page 196 note 1 Cf. Lindkvist, p. xlix.
page 197 note 1 Pipe Roll, 31 Henr. II (1184–85): Gospatricius et Britius utlagati.
page 197 note 2 The Norsemen, on the other hand, had probably brought the worship of St. Patrick with them from Ireland. St. Patrick must have been much worshipped in Cumberland and Lancashire. We have e.g. St. Patrick's Lands in Lancaster and St. Patrick's Well in Lancaster and Styne (“A History of Lancashire” [Victoria County Hist.], VIII, pp. 31, 45 n., 157).
page 197 note 3 Lancashire Inquests, Extents and Feudal Aids (The Record Soc, 1903), p. 259.
page 197 note 4 Pipe Roll, 26 Henr. II: Gilbert, son of Fergus.
page 197 note 5 The Great Roll of the Pipe for the Second Year of King Henry the Second (London, 1844), pp. 119 f.
page 197 note 6 Lancashire Fines, pt. I (Lancashire Record Society, 1919), pt. I, 12: Between Sigrid, widow of Gilbert, son of Ketel, plaintiff, and John, son of Finthor (1202). Sigrid and Ketel are Norse names.
page 197 note 7 Burn: The Hist, of Westmorland and Cumberland, p. 25 f.
page 198 note 1 Lancashire Fines, pt. I, p. 15 (1202) mentions Blacstaneclohhum and Lannclochum (in Rainford, parish Prescolt). Llan, Cymr. means “open space, area”; cloch is a compound of many Irish place-names, where it means “a stone”; in Cymric place-names it also probably means “a flat stone”.
page 198 note 2 Near Preston we have Gildhouse (“A History of Lancashire” [Victoria County Hist.], VII, 97 n., 107), and Gildouscroft (Kirkland, Garstang), Ibidem VII, 313 n., 8.
page 198 note 3 The Pipe Rolls of Cumberland and Westmorland, ed. by F. H. M. Parker. P. 193 (43 Henry III): “ Et. viii li. receptas de villa de Greystoke pro evasione Willelmi Leysing.” The context makes it most likely that Leysing here really is used in its original meaning, and not as a nickname.
page 198 note 4 Dugdale's Monasticon Anglicanum (London, 1830), VI, pt. I, 144.
page 199 note 1 The Register of the Priory of Whetherhal, ed. J. E. Prescott, 4 f.
page 199 note 2 The Pipe Rolls of Cumberland, p. 149: William, son of Ormer.
page 199 note 3 Ibidem, p. 91 (1241), Robertus Bagall. O.N. bagall means “an episcopal staff, crozier”.
page 199 note 4 Steenstrup, Normannerne, III, 35.
page 200 note 1 As late as in 1324 we find in Lancashire Henry Laghmon and Adam Laghmon, the latter probably a descendant of Adam Lagheman, c. 1250 (Lancashire Court Rolls, I, 45, 68).
page 200 note 2 Danelaw Charters, n. 535: Guillielmum Staflous, n. 540, Heming et Robertus filii Willielmi Stawelaus.
page 200 note 3 The Coucher Book of Furness Abbey, pp. 392–395.
page 200 note 4 Chartulary of Cockersand, p. 917, n. 1.
page 200 note 5 A Calendar of Lancashire Assize Rolls, translated and calendared by Colonel John Parker (The Record Society, 1904), p. 90 (a° 30 Henr. III), William Bulax; p. 121 (a° 46 Henr. III), Thomas Bolax.
page 200 note 6 Ibidem, p. 99 (a° 30 Henr. III), William Barnefader.
page 201 note 1 Among the tenants of Cockersand Abbey one is in 1461 called Thurstanus Wodwark and another in 1537 Thurstaynus Lee. In 1461 we meet with Johannes Redar (O.N. Reiðarr, a common man's name), and with John and Richard Bonde. In the sixteenth century Bonde was still much used, as it seems, not as a family-name, but in the original meaning of “peasant”. I may also mention Mychell Manskeman, 1461 (Manskeman means “a Manxman”; the first element of the word is, however, O.N. manski, “Manx”; in sixteenth-century English, Maniske). Cf. The Chartulary of Cockersand Abbey, pp. 1236–1237, 1276–1277.
page 201 note 2 Final Concords of the County of Lancaster, pt. I, 2, 104, 106; cf. Wyld, 108.
page 201 note 3 Final Concords of the County of Lancaster, pt. I, 24, 26; cf. Wyld, 97.
page 201 note 4 Wyld, 154.
page 201 note 5 Wyld, 246.
page 202 note 1 Cockersand, p. 539 f.
page 202 note 2 The Coucher Book of Whalley Abbey (Chetham Soc), IV, 1631,95 f., etc.
page 202 note 3 “Owenden Wood,” by Hanson, T. W. (Halifax Antiquarian Society, 1910).Google Scholar Professor W. A. Craigie has kindly drawn my attention to this word.
page 202 note 4 Wyld: The Place-names of Lancashire, 377.
page 202 note 5 This information is among many others due to Professor W. A. Craigie.
page 203 note 1 Saga Book of the Viking Club, III, 139. 2 The inscription has been read: TOLFIHN YRAITA PÆSI RYNR A pISI STAIN (“Dolfin wrote these runes on this stone”). A History of Cumberland (Victoria County History), I, 279f. Forms like yraita show English influence.
page 203 note 2 Bewcastle had both in Roman and in Anglo-Saxon times a garrison.
page 203 note 3 A Hist, of Cumberland, I, 280; the word Þis is written Þl. The h in iwrohte and brohte shows Norse influence.
page 204 note 1 The Anglo-Saxon name of the island is Angles êg.
page 204 note 2 Pipe Roll, 31 Henr. II, p. 6: terra de Guthlev.
page 205 note 1 Cartæ et munimenta de Glamorgan, III, n. DXXX (p. 20). Gustin is Old Danish Justen, which on Old English coins is also written Gustin (Björkman, Nordische Personennanun in England [Studien zur eryl. Philologie, H. xxxviii], p. 74). Ebbe was a very common Danish name.
page 205 note 2 Terra de Guthlev (one of the fiefs); O.N. Guðleifr.
page 205 note 3 E.g. Einulphus mercator, c. 1170 (Cartæ III, pp. 103, 128, 130).
page 205 note 4 Ibidem, III, p. 211, witnesses in Cardiff early thirteenth century are: Herberto filio Turkilli, and Steinero,
page 206 note 1 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, vol. xxiii, Section C, No. 13 (1917). The runes which tell that “Torgrim cut this cross” are probably not Norwegian, but Danish.
page 207 note 1 Cf. A. Bugge, Dit sidste Afsnit af Nordboernes Historie: Ireland (Aarbôger for nordisk Oldkyndighed, 1904).
page 209 note 1 P. Hume Brown: Scotland Before 1700, p. 241.
page 209 note 2 W. Watson: “The Place-names of Sutherland” (The Celtic Review, II).
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