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12 - Vikings by Allen Mawer · Vikings

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  Speaker 1: Chapter eleven of the Vikings by Allen Mauer. This Liberyvox
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  Speaker 1: recording is in the public domain recording by Kevin Johnson,
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  Speaker 1: Chapter eleven, Scandinavian Influence in England. Of the districts occupied
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  Speaker 1: by Scandinavian settlers in England, the ones which show their
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  Speaker 1: presence most strongly are Cumberland, Westmorland, North Lancashire and Yorkshire
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  Speaker 1: in the old Kingdom of Northumbria, and the district of
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  Speaker 1: the Five Boroughs in the Midlands. East Anglia was not
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  Speaker 1: so deeply affected by the Danish occupation. Before dealing with
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  Speaker 1: one of the chief sources of our knowledge of the
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  Speaker 1: presence of Norse and Danish settlers in various parts of England, viz.
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  Speaker 1: The evidence derived from place nomenclature, A few words must
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  Speaker 1: be said as to the chief Scandinavian elements which can
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  Speaker 1: be recognized in English place names. Of elements other than
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  Speaker 1: personal names. The commonest are as follows, several of them
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  Speaker 1: being used as independent words to this day in English
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  Speaker 1: dialects which have been affected by Scandinavian influence. Beck Old Norse,
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  Speaker 1: becker brook small stream of water, Biggin, bracket, g ended bracket,
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  Speaker 1: old Norse, bigging building by Old Norse boor Danish Swedish
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  Speaker 1: by town or village. This word indicates a Danish rather
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  Speaker 1: than a Norse settlement. Carr kerr old Norse cure cure brushwood,
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  Speaker 1: especially on swampy ground. Dale Old Norse dhalar valley. Etymologically,
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  Speaker 1: this word might be of Native English origin, but as
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  Speaker 1: distributed points to Norse influence. Fell old Norse fiatla mountains, force,
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  Speaker 1: Old Norse force waterfall, fourth, old north fjorthr fjord, English
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  Speaker 1: ford and Scandinavian forth often interchange in the Old documents.
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  Speaker 1: Garth Old Norse garther enclosure, the Scandinavian equivalent of English
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  Speaker 1: yard gill Old Norse gill deep narrow glen with the
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  Speaker 1: stream at the bottom. Holme old nourse holmer small island,
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  Speaker 1: especially in a bay, creek or river. In England, its
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  Speaker 1: meaning was further developed, and it often means low lying
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  Speaker 1: level ground on the borders of a river or stream,
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  Speaker 1: now often concealed in the suffix. Ham keld old Norse
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  Speaker 1: kelda where spring lund lound, old nurse lunder grove, now
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  Speaker 1: often corrupted to land in English place names Meyer, old
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  Speaker 1: nurse mere, more, bog swamp, ray's old nurse, freci cairn scale,
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  Speaker 1: old nurse, scotly house. This word is Norse rather than
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  Speaker 1: Danish scar skier, scary, old nurse, scare, isolated rock in
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  Speaker 1: the sea, scout old Norse, scuti cave formed by jutting rocks,
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  Speaker 1: scoug scow, old nurse, skoger wood slock old Norse, slacky
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  Speaker 1: slope on a mountain edge, often used in English place
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  Speaker 1: names of a hollow or boggy place, tarn old Norse, chorden,
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  Speaker 1: small lake, Thorpe, old night Thorpe, hamlet, village. This word
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  Speaker 1: is also found in Old English and in some place names.
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  Speaker 1: Is undoubtedly of native origin, but its general distribution points
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  Speaker 1: fairly conclusively to Norse influence. Thwaite, old nourse, theate parcel
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  Speaker 1: of land, paddock toft, old Norse toft, piece of ground, messuage,
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  Speaker 1: homestead with old Norse, thither a wood, wothe old Norse
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  Speaker 1: wathe a ford. Place names with the prefix Norman mark
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  Speaker 1: the settlement not of Normans but of norse Men Bracket
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  Speaker 1: or Northmen as the English call them, and of Bracket
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  Speaker 1: as in Normanton and Norman By, while the settlement of
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  Speaker 1: Danes is marked by the prefix dena or den as
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  Speaker 1: in Dennaby and den By. This latter prefix, however, has
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  Speaker 1: other sources as well. Scandinavian personal names are very common
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  Speaker 1: in place names, but their presence can, as a rule,
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  Speaker 1: only be detected with any degree of certainty by reference
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  Speaker 1: to the forms found in early documents. Among the more
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  Speaker 1: easily recognized are greenber as Grimsarg bracket lanx and a
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  Speaker 1: bracket and Grimsby bracket lynx and a bracket Gunnar as
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  Speaker 1: in Gunnerside, bracket Yorks, and a bracket Kettil as in
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  Speaker 1: Kettelwell bracket Yorks, and a bracket Clacker as in Clachston,
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  Speaker 1: bracket norf, and a bracket Ormer as an Ormskirk bracket
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  Speaker 1: lanx and a bracket. Others to be found by reference
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  Speaker 1: to earlier forms are Frahani as in Frainsfeld bracket equals
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  Speaker 1: franzfield knots, and a bracket gummal as in gamelstone bracket
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  Speaker 1: equals gamsten knots, and a bracket gunulfer as in Gunovesten
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  Speaker 1: bracket equal gonalsten knots, and a bracket cnnuter as in
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  Speaker 1: connuter Stone bracket equal Knutston Northance and a bracket Layfer
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  Speaker 1: as in Levisby bracket equals laser b Lynx, and a
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  Speaker 1: bracket sumar Liithi as in Sumarlidbi bracket equals sommerbe Lynx,
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  Speaker 1: and a bracket Scouli as in Skuleituna bracket equals Skelton
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  Speaker 1: North and a bracket Torlli as in Torlesland bracket equals
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  Speaker 1: toast Land Hunts and a bracket Vickinger as in Witchingestone
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  Speaker 1: bracket equals Wigsten, bracket lace and a bracket Wulver as
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  Speaker 1: in Ulvesby, bracket equals ulseb Lynx and a bracket. Examine
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  Speaker 1: under the distribution of Scandinavian place names determined by the
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  Speaker 1: above tests and others, which can be applied with great accuracy.
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  Speaker 1: If we study not the modern but the old forms
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  Speaker 1: of the place names, we find that the place nomenclature
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  Speaker 1: of Cumberland and Westmoreland is almost entirely either Scandinavian or Celtic. Indeed,
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  Speaker 1: it would seem that the Anglian settlement had hardly affected
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  Speaker 1: these districts at all, and it was reserved for the
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  Speaker 1: Scandinavian settlers to teutonize them. The same is true of
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  Speaker 1: Furness and Lancashire north of the Ribel, whose old names
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  Speaker 1: Sturcoland and Agmundones are of Norse origin. But south of
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  Speaker 1: that river there is a great diminution of Norse place names,
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  Speaker 1: except along the coast and a little way inland, where
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  Speaker 1: we have several bys and dales. In Cheshire, the evidence
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  Speaker 1: of Scandinavians settlement is confined almost entirely to the Wurrel,
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  Speaker 1: but there the large number of buys and place names
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  Speaker 1: like Thingwall point to a strong Viking colony, and the
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  Speaker 1: distribution of place names in South Lancashire and Cheshire bears
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  Speaker 1: witness to active intercourse between the settlers in Ireland and
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  Speaker 1: England on the other side of the Pennine Chain. Though
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  Speaker 1: Northumberland was several times ravaged by the Norsemen and was
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  Speaker 1: probably well populated at least in the fertile river valleys,
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  Speaker 1: there is practically no evidence of their presence to be
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  Speaker 1: found in place names. There are several biggins, cars and homes,
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  Speaker 1: a few tofts and dales, but these are common dialect
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  Speaker 1: words and usually found in uncompounded forms. They are practically
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  Speaker 1: never found in names of towns or villages, and may
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  Speaker 1: well have been introduced from districts further south. In the
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  Speaker 1: extreme west and southwest of the county, there are fells
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  Speaker 1: and dales, but these are on the borders of Cumberland,
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  Speaker 1: Westmerland and Durham. The small streams are Burns and not Bech's,
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  Speaker 1: the wands Beck being a corruption of an earlier Wannispike.
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  Speaker 1: When we cross into County Durham, the tributaries of the
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  Speaker 1: weare vary between Burne and Beck, but by the time
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  Speaker 1: we reach the Tees these have all become Beck's Beech
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  Speaker 1: burn Beck, a tributary of the Ware. Shows how a
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  Speaker 1: Scandinavian term could be attached to an English name when
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  Speaker 1: its own meaning was neglected or forgotten. Other Scandinavian names
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  Speaker 1: are common, but as in Northumberland, they belong to the
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  Speaker 1: dialect generally and are seldom found in names of towns
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  Speaker 1: or villages. Viking settlers must have been few in number
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  Speaker 1: and widely scattered throughout these two counties. Great exception must
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  Speaker 1: be named among the towns, viz Durham itself. The city
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  Speaker 1: was named Dunholmer the hill Island by the Vikings, and
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  Speaker 1: its present name is only the Norman corruption of that form.
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  Speaker 1: South of the Tees, we find ourselves in a district
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  Speaker 1: whose place names are to a very large extent Scandinavian
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  Speaker 1: and Norse. Settlements are thickly and evenly distributed from the
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  Speaker 1: North Sea to the Pennine Chain passing from Northumbria to
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  Speaker 1: the Dane Log. Lincolnshire is perhaps more purely Scandinavian in
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  Speaker 1: its place names than any other English county. In Derbyshire,
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  Speaker 1: Viking influence is not so strong, but the county was
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  Speaker 1: probably very thinly inhabited, at least in the north and west,
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  Speaker 1: and did not offer attractive settling ground. Derby itself was
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  Speaker 1: rechristened by the Northmen, its earlier name being north Weierthig.
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  Speaker 1: The rich fields and pastures of Leicestershire attracted a great
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  Speaker 1: many settlers, and Nottinghamshire is also strongly Scandinavian. Rutland and
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  Speaker 1: Northamptonshire are strongly Danish, except that there is some shading
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  Speaker 1: off towards the southwest corner of the latter county in
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  Speaker 1: the country bordering the Dane Log on the south and west.
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  Speaker 1: Staffordshire has a few Scandinavian place names on its Derbyshire
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  Speaker 1: and Leicestershire borders, but Warwickshire has several on its Leicestershire
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  Speaker 1: and Northamptonshire borders. In East Anglia, Danish settlements must have
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  Speaker 1: been numerous in the north and east, especially towards the coast,
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  Speaker 1: but their presence is less strongly marked in the southwest
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  Speaker 1: portion of the county. In Suffolk they are confined still
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  Speaker 1: more definitely to the coast districts, and the Danes do
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  Speaker 1: not seem to have settled in the south of the county.
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  Speaker 1: At all, three kirbys near the Essex coast mark settled
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  Speaker 1: in that county. Of the other border counties, Huntingdonshire, Cambridgeshire
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  Speaker 1: and Bedfordshire show only the slightest traces of Scandinavian influence
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  Speaker 1: in their place nomenclature, though we know from other evidence
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  Speaker 1: that there must have been many Danish settlers in these counties.
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  Speaker 1: Closely allied to the evidence of place names is that
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  Speaker 1: of dialect. A very large number of words definitely of
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  Speaker 1: Scandinavian origin are found in the dialects of Northeast and
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  Speaker 1: Northwest England, in the North Midlands and East Anglia, but
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  Speaker 1: they do not furnish so sensitive a test as do
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  Speaker 1: place names. For the extent of the Scandinavian settlements, and
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  Speaker 1: they need not be discussed here. More interesting is evidence
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  Speaker 1: of the deep influence of the Viking settlers on our
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  Speaker 1: language is the large number of Scandinavian loanwords which have
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  Speaker 1: become part of our stand and speech, many of them
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  Speaker 1: being words essential to our everyday talk. To Scandinavian influence,
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  Speaker 1: we owe the pronouns they, them, and there, the adjectives
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  Speaker 1: same and both the fro in to and fro and
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  Speaker 1: possibly the auxiliary are and the preposition till. These last
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  Speaker 1: are found in the Northumbrian dialect of Old English, but
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  Speaker 1: their widespread juice is probably due to Scandinavian influence. In
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  Speaker 1: addition to these, we may note the following verbs bait, basque, batten, call, cast, dawn, droop, drown, gain, gabble, ransack, scare, scour, scrape, skim, skip, squeal, stint, take,
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  Speaker 1: nouns anger, billow, boone, dusk, fellow, gait, grime, haven, husband, husk, husting, skull, scurf, skill, skin, skirt, sky, window,
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  Speaker 1: adjectives awkward, ill, awed, rotten, scant, sly, ugly, weak, and
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  Speaker 1: a good many words in which Scandinavian forms have replaced
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  Speaker 1: the cognate English ones e g aloft a, thwart, awe
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  Speaker 1: berth egg, get, gift, give, guest, raid, sister, swain, thursday.
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  Speaker 1: These words are for the most part of the very
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  Speaker 1: stuff and substance of our language, giving vivid expression to
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  Speaker 1: clear cut ideas, And though numerically they are outnumbered by
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  Speaker 1: the loanwords from French, they are in themselves more essential
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  Speaker 1: to our speech than the rich vocabulary derived from that language.
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  Speaker 1: For the extent and character of the Viking settlements in England,
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  Speaker 1: we have, however, a far more delicate and accurate index
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  Speaker 1: than that to be found in the evidence of place
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  Speaker 1: names and dialects. When we study the pages of Domesday,
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  Speaker 1: the great record of English social organization in the eleventh century,
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  Speaker 1: we find that in the counties which came under Viking influence,
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  Speaker 1: there are many details of land division, tenure assessment, and
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  Speaker 1: social organization. Generally wherein these counties differ from the rest
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  Speaker 1: of England, and some of these differences can still be traced.
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  Speaker 1: The ridings of Yorkshire and the Lindsay Division of Lincolnshire
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  Speaker 1: were originally thrithings bracket Old Norse thrithjunger a third part
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  Speaker 1: and a bracket the initial thh being later absorbed by
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  Speaker 1: the final consonant of the preceding east, West, north and
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  Speaker 1: south bracket in links and a bracket. The chief tests
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  Speaker 1: of Scandinavian influence, drawn from Domesday and allied sources are, however,
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  Speaker 1: as follows number one, the use of the Danish wapentake
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  Speaker 1: as the chief division of the county in contrast to
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  Speaker 1: the English hundred. This is found in Lincolnshire, Derbyshire bracket
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  Speaker 1: with one exception on its southern border, and a bracket Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire,
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  Speaker 1: Rutland and one district of Northamptonshire now included in Rutland.
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  Speaker 1: We of wapentakes in Yorkshire except in certain districts along
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  Speaker 1: the sea coast, while in Lancashire the term was applied
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  Speaker 1: to the court of the hundred or shire long after
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  Speaker 1: the conquest. There is some evidence also for the belief
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  Speaker 1: that the use of the hundred, bracket or wapentake and
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  Speaker 1: a bracket as an administrative unit is in itself due
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  Speaker 1: to Scandinavian influence. The proportion of names of hundreds, bracket
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  Speaker 1: or wapentakes and a bracket which are definitely of Danish
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  Speaker 1: origin is very high, and unless we assume wholesale renaming,
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  Speaker 1: this points to their having been first named at a
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  Speaker 1: period subsequent to the Danish conquest. Number two. The assessment
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  Speaker 1: by carucates in multiples and sub multiples of twelve is
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  Speaker 1: characteristic of the Dane log as opposed to that by
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  Speaker 1: hydes arranged on a decimal system. In the strictly English districts,
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  Speaker 1: this is found in Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire, Leicestershire and Rutland.
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  Speaker 1: With the exception of the above mentioned district, there are
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  Speaker 1: traces of a duodecimal assessment in the two northeast hundreds
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  Speaker 1: of Northamptonshire, while in Lancashire a idal assessment has been
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  Speaker 1: superimposed upon an original caryoco one carriacual assessment is found
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  Speaker 1: also in Yorkshire, Norfolk and Suffolk. Number three. In Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire,
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  Speaker 1: Derbyshire and Yorkshire we have traces of the use of
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  Speaker 1: the Danish long hundred bracket equal one hundred and twenty
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  Speaker 1: and to bracket e g. The fine for breaking the
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  Speaker 1: king's peace is eight pounds i e. One hundred and
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  Speaker 1: twenty rays of sixteen pence. Using the various tests, we
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  Speaker 1: find that the Scandinavian Kingdom of Northumbria was considerably smaller
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  Speaker 1: than the earlier realm of that name, Northumberland and Durham
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  Speaker 1: being but sparsely settled, while South Lancashire and Cheshire were
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  Speaker 1: occupied chiefly along the coast. The kingdom would seem to
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  Speaker 1: fall into two isolated halves, Cumberland and Westmorland and North
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  Speaker 1: Lancashire in the northwest, and Yorkshire in the southeast. The
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  Speaker 1: district of the Five Boroughs covered Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire, Bracket,
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  Speaker 1: Lincoln and Stamford, Leicestershire, and probably the whole of Rutland, Brackett,
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  Speaker 1: Stamford and Bracket. The case of Northamptonshire is difficult. The
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  Speaker 1: Carriacal assessment fails except in the extreme northeast of the county,
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  Speaker 1: but Danish place nomenclature is strongly evident, though it shades
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  Speaker 1: off somewhat towards the southwest. It resembles Danish East Anglia
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  Speaker 1: rather than the district of the Five Boroughs, and it
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  Speaker 1: is possible that the boundary of Guthram's East Anglian Kingdom,
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  Speaker 1: which is only carried as far as Stoney Stratford in
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  Speaker 1: the Peace of Alfred and Guthram really ran along Watling
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  Speaker 1: Street for a few miles, giving two thirds of that
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  Speaker 1: county to the East Anglian realm. Northumbria was governed by
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  Speaker 1: a succession of kings. The five boroughs formed a loose confederation,
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  Speaker 1: and there can be no question that the districts which
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  Speaker 1: obeyed the boroughs of Derby, Leicester, Nottingham, Lincoln, Bracket and
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  Speaker 1: Stamford into Bracket and Northampton form the modern counties named
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  Speaker 1: from these towns. It is also to Danish influence, direct
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  Speaker 1: or indirect, that we owe the similar organization of the
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  Speaker 1: counties of Huntingdonshire, Cambridgeshire, Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire. In the old
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  Speaker 1: East Anglian Kingdom, each of these counties had a yarrel
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  Speaker 1: or earl, whose headquarters were at the borough. He summoned
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: the here, whether for political or military purposes, and when
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: these counties passed once more under English rule, he fulfilled
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: the functions of the older Aldorman in East Anglia. Apart
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: from place names and carriakel assessment in Norfolk and Suffolk,
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: we are left with the boundaries of Guthrum's Kingdom, and
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: with various miscellaneous evidence for estimating the UK extent of
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: Scandinavian influence. There is a curious Hundredis Dacorum in Hertfordshire,
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: whilst the Historia Eliensis and other documents tend to show
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: the presence of a strong Danish element in the population
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: and social organization of the districts around Cambridge. The kingship
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  Speaker 1: of East Anglia came to an end early in the
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  Speaker 1: tenth century, and it is probable that its organization was
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: then changed to one resembling that of the Five Boroughs viz.
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: A number of districts grouped around central boroughs, which afterwards
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  Speaker 1: became counties, except in the older division of Norfolk and Suffolk.
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: A careful study of Domesday and other authorities reveals many
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: other features of interest in our social system which were
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  Speaker 1: due to Viking influence. Certain types of manorial structure are
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  Speaker 1: specially common in the Danelog. Manor and ville are by
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  Speaker 1: no means identical. Indeed, several manners are included under one ville.
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  Speaker 1: Very frequent is the type which consists in a central manner,
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: with soakland a pertinent in the Danelog. There was a
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: large number of small freeholders, and the free peasant class
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: was much more numerous in the Anglo Saxon England. These
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: districts stand in clear contrast to the strongly manorialized southern counties,
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: and they were not feudalized to any appreciable extent before
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: the Norman conquest. When that system was imposed, we often
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: find single knights fees having to be taken over by
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  Speaker 1: entire communities of soakmen. The holds of Northumbria, who rank
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: next after the Earls, and the Drengs of Cumberland, Westmerland, Lancashire,
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  Speaker 1: Northumberland and Durham, are also of Scandinavian origin. The drang
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: was a free servant of the king, endowed with lands,
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  Speaker 1: and the name still survives in the Yorkshire place name Dringhouses.
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: The legal instinct was strong in the Scandinavian mind, and
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: English law bears deep marks of its influence. The very
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: word law itself is of Scandinavian origin and has replaced
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: the English doom. The chief judicial authority in Lincoln, Stamford, Cambridge,
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: Chester and York was in the hands of twelve logmen
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  Speaker 1: or judaicays. These law men, though they had judicial authority,
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: were not chosen by the king, or but popular election
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: their position was hereditary. Of special interest are the twelve
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  Speaker 1: senior Thanes of Ethelred's Laws for the five Boroughs, enacted
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  Speaker 1: at Wontage in nine nine seven. They have to come
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  Speaker 1: forward in the court of every wapentake and to swear
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  Speaker 1: that they will not accuse wrongly any innocent man, or
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: conceal any guilty. One exact force of this enactment has
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: been a matter of dispute, whether the thane simply bore
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  Speaker 1: witness to the personal status of the accused, thus enabling
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: the court to determine the ordeal through which he should
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: be put, or whether we have an anticipation of the
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: system of presentment by jury. Whatever may be the exact truth,
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: there can be little doubt, says doctor Vinogradoff, that such
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: a custom prepared the way for the indictment jury of
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: the twelfth century. The same author attributes to Danish influence
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: a new conception of crime. It is no longer merely
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: a breach of the peace or the result of a
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: feud to be settled by monetary compensation. It is a
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: breach of that conception of honor which binds together military societies.
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  Speaker 1: The criminal is now branded as nithing, a man unworthy
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  Speaker 1: of comradeship with his fellow warriors. Unfortunately, it is only
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: within the last few years that the question of Danish
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: influence on our social, political, and legal systems has been
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: treated at all seriously, and much work still remains to
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: be done. But we can already see that the Danes
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: affected English life far more deeply than a superficial glance
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: might suggest. Doubtless, the Danish invasions struck a heavy blow
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: at learning and literature, a blow from the effects of
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: which not even the heroic activities of an Alfred could
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: save them. But there can be no question that in
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: the development of town life, in the promotion of trade,
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: in the improvement of organization and administration, in the modification
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: of legal procedure, the invaders conferred great benefits on the
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: country as a whole. End of Chapter eleven.