Besides many other names ending in -holm, -garth, -land, -end,-vig, -ho (how), -rigg, &c., c.
Besides many other names ending in -holm, -garth, -land, -end,-vig, -ho (how), -rigg, &c., c.
Besides many other names ending in -holm, -garth, -land, -end,
-vig, -ho (how), -rigg, &c., c.
The same table still further shows that the names ending in by, thorpe, toft, beck, næs, and ey, appear chiefly in the flat midland counties of England; whereas, farther towards the north, in the more mountainous districts, these terminations mostly give place to those in thwaite, and more particularly to those in dale, force, tarn, fell, and haugh. This difference, however, is scarcely founded on the natural character of the country alone; it may also have arisen from the different descent of the inhabitants. For although in ancient times Danish and Norwegian were one language, with unimportant variations, so that it would scarcely be possible to decide with certainty in every single case whether the name of a place be derived from the Danes or from the Norwegians; yet it may reasonably be supposed that part at least of the last-mentioned names are Norwegian; namely, those ending in ——dale (as Kirk-dale, Lang-dale, Wast-dale, Bishops-dale); in ——force (as Aysgarth-force in Yorkshire, High-force, and Low-force, in the river Tees, and in the stream called “Seamer Water”); in ——fell (old Norwegian, fjall; Mickle-fell, Cam-fell, Kirk-fell, Middle-fell, Cross-fell); in ——tarn (Old Nor., tjörn, or tjarn, a small lake); and in ——haugh (as in Northumberland, Red-haugh, Kirk-haugh, Green-haugh, Windy-haugh). Exactly similar names are met with to this day in the mountains of Norway; whilst they are less common, or altogether wanting, in the flat country of Denmark. That Norwegians also immigrated into England, even in considerable numbers, both history and the frequently occurring name of Normanby in the north of England, clearly show; but they appear to have betaken themselves chiefly to the most northern and mountainous districts, which not only lay nearest to them, but which in character most resembled their own country. In this respect it deserves to be noticed, that places whose names end intarn, and are consequently pure Norwegian, are found only in the most northern counties; and that those inhaugh—although there are names of places in Denmark ending inhöi(hill)—must also, from the form, be Norwegian. They are found exclusively in the present Northumberland, and within the Scotch border.
We may, however, venture to set down the greater part of Scandinavian names of places in England as Danish. The terminations inthwaiteandthorpe, indeed, are to be met with in Sweden, Norway, and Iceland, as well as in the Saxon and Frisian districts of North Germany; yet as the corresponding English names are for the most part composed of pure Scandinavian or Danish words, and as they seldom appear either in the tracts conquered by the Norwegians in Scotland and Ireland, or in the southern and south-western, originally Anglo-Saxon, districts of England, but keep strictly within the same boundaries as the rest of the Danish names of places, and particularly of those inby(Danish for town or village), these are valid reasons for regarding them in general as Danish.
The names of places in England ending inbyare only to be found in the districts selected by the Danes for conquest or colonization. With the exception of a single Kirby, or Kirkby, in Kent, not far from London, they are nowhere to be found to the south of Watlinga-stræt (for Tenby, formerly Tenbigh, in Pembrokeshire, is from a different derivation); whilst towards the north, they cease in the most north-eastern county of England, the present Northumberland; in the south-westernmost part of Scotland (Locherby in Dumfries, Sorby in Wigtonshire); and in the Isle of Man (Sulby, Jurby, Dalby). If we except Duncansby in Caithness, and Oreby in the Isle of Lewis, as well as some few villages in Orkney and the Shetland Isles, they do not appear among the many pure Norwegian names of places in the north and west of Scotland, and in Ireland; which, as will be explained in its proper place, have generally quite a different character from the Scandinavian (chiefly Danish) names of places in England. It can hardly be said that this was solely owing to the natural character of the country in England being more favourable for the building of villages than in those districts in Scotland and Ireland which were occupied by the Northmen: first, because the Norwegians seem to have dwelt closely together in many places there, doubtless in order to resist the attacks of the natives; secondly, because the land there, though often separated by nature into many districts, as for instance in Caithness and the Orkneys, by no means prevented them from assembling together in villages; and lastly, becausebyoriginally denoted only a single estate or farm. In Norway, the Faroe Isles, and Iceland, many names of places are to be found, which indicate the existence both of single farm-houses and collections of them, or villages; but they have this peculiarity, that they generally end inbœrorbö, far more rarely inbýrorby; whilst, on the contrary, this last form is essentially Danish. Names of places ending inbyare spread over the peninsula of Jutland quite down to Danevirke and the Eyder; are found in great numbers in the southern boundary of South Jutland, or Sleswick; as well as in the islands and old Danish countries of Skaane, or Scania, Halland, and Bleking; whence they extend themselves over a great part of Sweden, and far into Finland. From the most ancient times down to the present, this difference between the Norwegian formbœr, and the Danishbýrorby, seems on the whole to have clearly prevailed; and thus that, as early as the eleventh century, the English towns and villages are written in William the Conqueror’s “Domesday-book,” with the Danish endingbyorbi, and not with the Norwegian formbœrorbö, is certainly no slight corroboration of their assumed Danish origin. Besides, asbyis not found in the names of places south of the Eyder, in Holstein or North Germany, and as it is wholly unknown in the Saxon or German languages, there is consequently so much the greater probability that in England it was derived from the Danes.
For the same reasons, towns whose names end inbyare most numerous in the counties situated on the coast opposite Jutland; viz., in Leicestershire, 66; Lincolnshire, 212; and the North Riding of Yorkshire, 100. In the two other Ridings, there are altogether about 70 names of places ending inby; in Cumberland, 43; and in Westmoreland, 20. For the rest, this termination occurs so frequently throughout the old Danish part of England, that, of 1370 Scandinavian names of places, above 600 (as the tabular view given at page 71 shows) end inby, whilst no other names exceed 280; and even this number is reached only by the endingthorpe, which also is certainly pure Danish; whilst the most numerous after thorpe fall down to 140. This remarkable preponderance of Danish endings inby, will of itself sufficiently prove the important and wide-extended influence of the Danes in the midland and northern counties of England.
The not inconsiderable number (1370) of Scandinavian names of places collected together in the preceding tabular view, could be much increased if we were to include all the Scandinavian appellations used by the common people in many parts of the north of England. A hill, or small mountain, is there calledhoeorhow(Höi in Jutland: Höw or Hyv); a mountain ridge,rigg; a ford,wath; a spring,kell; a holm or small island,holm; a farm (Dan., Gaard),garth, &c., &c. We might thus, on a very low calculation, compute in round numbers the clearly recognisable Scandinavian names of places in England at one thousand five hundred.
That they should have been preserved in such numbers for more than eight centuries after the fall of the Danish dominion in England, and that they should have retained, as it has been shown, the original Scandinavian forms, and that often in a highly-striking degree, completely disproves the opinion that the old Danish-Norwegian inhabitants of the country north of Watlinga-Stræt were supplanted or expelled after the cessation of the Danish dominion (1042), first by the Anglo-Saxons, and afterwards by the Normans from Normandy; for if such had been the case, the names of places would naturally have become altogether changed and impossible to recognise. As the matter stands it is sufficiently proved that Danes as well as Norwegians must have continued to reside in great numbers in the districts previously conquered by them, and particularly in the north; and consequently that a very considerable part of the present population in the midland and northern counties of England may with certainty trace their origin to the Northmen, and especially to the Danes.
Resemblance of the People to the Danes and Norwegians.—ProperNames.—Popular Language.—Songs and Legends.
Resemblance of the People to the Danes and Norwegians.—ProperNames.—Popular Language.—Songs and Legends.
Resemblance of the People to the Danes and Norwegians.—Proper
Names.—Popular Language.—Songs and Legends.
The present English people is certainly composed, as we have seen, of the most heterogeneous elements. The Englishman reckons among his ancestors Britons, Romans, Anglo-Saxons, and Northmen, especially Danes and Normans. All these people, who successively reigned over England for centuries, must naturally have left numerous descendants behind them. But as in ancient times it was a combat of life and death for dominion, the conquered and their posterity could not immediately amalgamate with the conquerors. Long after the Norman conquest (1066) the Britons, Saxons, Danes, and Normans, were still hostilely opposed to each other. These disputes were brought to a close during the middle ages; prejudices vanished; mixed marriages became more frequent; the different races acquired common interests; and at last, with the exception of those Britons who kept themselves aloof in Wales, passed into one great nation. From this time it was no longer usual in marriages to regard family descent; it was only some of the richer sort, and higher lineage, who considered it an honour to preserve the original blood as pure as possible. There are families still to be found in England who pretend that they descend in a direct line from Saxon or Norman ancestors, and who assert that Saxon or Norman features have been transmitted to them. But even these families have in the course of time been considerably mixed with races of an entirely different extraction; nay, even the Britons in Wales have not been able to prevent some of the hated English blood from gradually supplying and deteriorating that which runs in their own veins. Moreover, if we consider what an immense number of Irishmen, Frenchmen, Germans, Jews, and others, have, particularly during later centuries, immigrated into England, where they have settled, and by degrees married natives; and, lastly, if we remember that most foreigners have settled on the east coast, or in the midland and north-eastern districts; we might almost deem it impossible to point out from the features and bodily frame of the inhabitants of these districts, any preponderating degree of descent from Saxons, Danes, or any one race of people that colonized England in times so long past. In this respect we can of course scarcely think of comparing districts of small extent, such as two neighbouring parishes, or two adjoining counties on the east coast of England. Nevertheless, if by taking a survey of such extensive districts as north and south England, we were able to discover a tolerably decided difference in the general appearance of the inhabitants, this would be a weighty corroboration of the assertions of history, and of the proof derived from names, that these districts were originally peopled by inhabitants of entirely different descent.
The Englishman of London, and the rest of southern England, does not in general betray in his exterior any perceptible resemblance to the Danes and Norwegians. On the contrary, he decidedly differs from them. The black hair, the dark eye, the fine hooked nose, and the long oval countenance, remind one either of relationship with the Romans, whose chief seat in England was in the south, or rather, perhaps, of a strong compound between the ancient Britons and the Anglo-Saxon and Norman races, which afterwards immigrated into England. Many of the Britons seem to have been dark-haired; for among their descendants in Wales, as well as among their near kinsmen, the Highland Scots and the Irish, there are still frequently found—and particularly in remote districts, as, for instance, in the Hebrides—dark-haired and generally small people, having on the whole dark complexions. It was, too, in the south and south-west of England that the greatest mixture took place between the original British tribes and those that afterwards came over.
But as we proceed from the southern towards the middle and northern parts of England, we find that by degrees an entirely different physiognomy, which before we only got a glimpse of now and then, and which could scarcely be remarked in the confusion of people in London, becomes more and more the prevailing one. The farther one proceeds towards Northumberland, the more distinct does it become. The form of the face is broader, the cheek bones project a little, the nose is somewhat flatter, and at times turned a little upwards, the eyes and hair are of a lighter colour, and even deep red hair is far from being uncommon. The people are not very tall in stature, but usually more compact and strongly built than their countrymen towards the south. The Englishman himself seems to acknowledge that a difference is to be found in the appearance of the inhabitants of the northern and southern counties; at least one constantly hears in England, when red-haired compact-built men with broad faces are spoken of; “They must certainly be from Yorkshire:” a sort of admission that light hair, and the broad peculiar form of the face, belong mostly to the north-of-England people. On the other hand, little importance must be attached to the circumstance that Englishmen generally attribute the red hair to the immigration of the Danes; for though it is true that many Danes, and particularly many Norwegians, were red haired, yet some tribes of the original Celtic inhabitants of the British Isles also had red hair; and the same feature may likewise be partly ascribed to the Saxons.
In the midland, and especially in the northern part of England, I saw every moment, and particularly in the rural districts, faces exactly resembling those at home. Had I met the same persons in Denmark or Norway, it would never have entered my mind that they were foreigners. Now and then I also met with some whose taller growth and sharper features reminded me of the inhabitants of South Jutland, or Sleswick, and particularly of Angeln; districts of Denmark which first sent colonists to England. It is not easy to describe peculiarities which can be appreciated in all their details only by the eye; nor dare I implicitly conclude that in the above-named cases I have really met with persons descended in a direct line from the old Northmen. I adduce it only as a striking fact, which will not escape the attention of at least any observant Scandinavian traveller, that the inhabitants of the north of England bear, on the whole, more than those of any other part of that country, an unmistakeable personal resemblance to the Danes and Norwegians.
Old Scandinavian national names, such as Thorkil, Erik, Haldan, Harald, Else, and several others, were formerly, at least, not unfrequently used in these districts. Surnames, such as Adamson, Jackson, Johnson, Nelson (Nielson), Thomson, Stevenson, Swainson, and others, all of which have endings insonorsen, which never appear in Saxon names, still frequently occur. The endingsönorsen(a son) is quite peculiar to the countries of Scandinavia, whence it was brought over to England by the Scandinavian colonists. It is not, however, confined to the north of England, but is spread over all the British Islands where the Northmen settled; for instance, in Scotland we find Anderson, Matheson, &c. It is very remarkable that the name of Johnson, which, as is well known, is one of the commonest in England, is also, perhaps, in the selfsame form, that which most frequently occurs in Iceland.
The still-existing popular dialect affords an excellent proof that the resemblance of the inhabitants of the northern counties of England to the Danes and Norwegians is not confined to a, perhaps accidental, personal likeness. The pure English language itself includes, both with regard to its vocabulary and inflexions, many Scandinavian elements, the result of the Danish immigration. But, in the north of England, many words and phrases are preserved in the popular language, which are neither found nor understood in other parts, although they sound quite familiar to every Northman. These original Scandinavian terms are not only applied, as I have before said, to waterfalls, mountains, rivulets, fords, and islands, but are also in common use in daily life; as, for instance,late(Dan., lede;Eng., to seek),lite(Dan., lide;Eng., to rely),helle(Dan., helde;Eng., to pour out),hit(Dan., hitte;Eng., to find),clip(Dan., klippe;Eng., to cut),forelders(Dan., Forældre, or Forfædre;Eng., ancestors, forefathers),updaals(Dan., opdals;Eng., up the valley),kirk-folk(Dan., Kirkefolk;Eng., people going to church),kirk-garth(Dan., Kirke-gaard;Eng., churchyard), with many others.
These originally Scandinavian words are now chiefly found in the north-west of England, among the remote mountains of Yorkshire, Westmoreland, Cumberland, and Lancashire, where they have withstood the changes of time. On entering a house there one will find the housewife sitting with herrock(Dan., Rok;Eng., a distaff) andspoele(Dan., Spole;Eng., spool, a small wheel on the spindle); or else she has set both herrockand hergarnwindle(Dan., Garnvinde;Eng., reel or yarn-winder) aside, whilst standing by herback-bword(Dan., Bagebord;Eng., baking-board) she is about to knead dough (Dan., Deig), in order to make the oaten bread commonly used in these parts, at times, also, barley-bread; forclap-bread(Dan.Klappebröd, or thin cakes beaten out with the hand) she lays the dough on theclap-board(Dan., Klappebord). One will also find thebord-claithspread (Dan., Bordklæde;Eng., table-cloth); the people of the house then sit on thebankorbink(Dan., Bænk;Eng., bench), and eatAandorn(Eng., afternoon’s repast), or, as it is called in Jutland and Fünen,Onden(dinner). The chimney,lovver, stands in the room; which name may perhaps be connected with the Scandinavianlyre(Icelandic, ljóri);viz., the smoke-hole in the roof or thatch (thack), out of which in olden times, before houses had regular chimneys and “lofts” (Dan., Loft;Eng., roof, an upper room), the smoke (reekorreik,Dan., Rög) left the dark (mirkormurk,Dan., mörk) room. Within is thebowerorboor(Eng., bed-chamber), in Danish,Buur; as, for instance, in the old Danish word Jomfrubuur (the maiden’s chamber), and in the modern word Fadebuur (the pantry).
Outside, in thegarth, or yard (Dan., Gaard), stands the roomylathe, or barn (Dan., Lade), which directly shows how fruitful the soil is that belongs to thegarth(Dan., Gaard;Eng., a manor, farm). The shepherd or herdsman, whosenowth(Dan., Nöd;Eng., neat cattle) are restless in theboose(Dan., Baas;Eng., stall) andcrib(Dan., Krybbe;Eng., manger), is about to cleanse the stable, and with agreype, or gripe (Dan., Möggreve;Eng., dung-fork), bears out themuck(Dan., Mög;Eng., dung) to the midding (Dan., Mödding;Eng., dunghill). If we accompany him to the fields he tells us in a lively tone about the manythreavesof corn (Dan., Traver, bundles of twenty or thirty sheaves), particularly ofbig(Dan., Byg;Eng.barley) that have been got from the poorling(Dan., Lyng;Eng., fern) which covers the sides of thehaughsorhaws(Dan., Höie;Eng., hills); of all theslaa-torns(Dan., Slaatjörn;Eng., sloes),lins(Dan., Lindetræer;Eng., linden trees),roan trees(Dan., Rönnetrær;Eng., Scotch rowan trees), andallars(Dan., Elletræer;Eng., alders), that grow in yonder littleshaw(Dan., Skov;Eng., wood), or in thatlawnd(Dan., Lund;Eng., grove), which is likewise full ofhindberries(Dan., Hindbær;Eng., raspberries), and which is resorted to by manygowks(Dan., Gjöge;Eng., cuckoos). A field farther on, which in its time was acquired bymackshift(Dan., Mageskifte;Eng., deed of exchange), has been allowed toley-breck(Dan., ligge-brak;Eng., to lie fallow). Through this field winds abeck(Dan., Bæk;Eng., brook), or rivulet well stocked with fish, in which with aliester(Dan., Lyster;Icelandic, Ljöstr, grains, or a sort of barbed iron fork on a long pole) one may be able to make a good capture.
In the river are thetrows, or troughs (Jutland, trow;Old Scan., Þró), made use of to cross over to the opposite shore. Thesetrows, or troughs, are two small boats, originally trunks of trees hollowed out, and held together by a cross-pole. He who wishes to pass over places a foot in each trough or boat, and rows himself forward with the help of an oar. It is said that Edmund Ironsides and Canute the Great rowed over to the Isle of Olney (in the river Severn) in such boats at the time when they concluded an agreement to divide England between them. The original inhabitants of Europe undoubtedly passed the great rivers in the same simple manner.
Amongst the words in the popular language that still remind one of ancient Scandinavian customs, those ofyuletide,yuling(Christmas),yule-candles(Dan., Julelys), andyule-cakes(Dan., Julekager), deserve particular notice. Christmas was certainly kept as a solemn feast among the Anglo-Saxons, but it does not appear to have had that importance with them which it had with the Scandinavians; of which this is a proof, that the old name of Christmas (Yule) is preserved only in those districts in the north that were more especially colonized by the Northmen. Yule, or the mid-winter feast, was, in the olden times, as it still partly is, the greatest festival in the countries of Scandinavia. Yule bonfires were kindled round about as festival-fires to scare witches and wizards; offerings were made to the gods; the boar dedicated to Freÿr (Dan., Sonegalte) was placed on the table, and over it the warriors vowed to perform great deeds. Pork, mead, and ale abounded, and yuletide passed merrily away with games, gymnastics, and mirth of all kinds. It is singular enough that even to the present day it is not only the custom in several parts of England to bring a garnished boar’s-head to table at Christmas, but that the descendants of the Northmen, in Yorkshire and the ancient Northumberland, do not even now neglect to place a large piece of wood on the fire on Christmas Eve, which is by some called theyule-block, by othersyule-clog, oryule-log(perhaps from the old Scandinavianlág,log, a felled tree; Norwegian,laag). Superstitious persons do not, however, allow the whole log to be consumed, but take it out of the fire again in order to preserve it until the following year. Exactly similar observances of Christmas customs still exist in the Scandinavian North. At Smaaland, in Sweden, a boar’s-head, calledjulhös(fromhös, the skull), is set on the table at Christmas; and in East Gothland a large loaf, calledjuhlegalt, is seen on table throughout the festival, of which, however, nothing is eaten.Juhlhösandjuhlegalt, as well as the boar’s-head in the north of England before alluded to, owe their origin unmistakeably to the expiatory barrow-pig, or “Galt,” offered up by the old Northmen to Freÿr. The remembrance of the games of the Northmen is also preserved in England in the Scandinavian wordlake(to play), which is heard only in the ancient Danish districts.
To enumerate all the Scandinavian words in the English popular tongue would, from their quantity, be both a tedious and a superfluous labour. The following selection of a hundred of the most common of them will surely be regarded as sufficient clearly to prove in what a highly remarkable manner “the Danish tongue” has imprinted itself on the north of England, in comparison with other countries occupied by the Normans, as, for example, Normandy; where the Scandinavian language, notwithstanding the very considerable immigrations from Scandinavia, has disappeared to such a degree that but very few traces of it now remain.
A Hundred Danish Words, selected from the Vulgar Tongue,or Common Language, North of Watlinga Stræt.
A Hundred Danish Words, selected from the Vulgar Tongue,or Common Language, North of Watlinga Stræt.
A Hundred Danish Words, selected from the Vulgar Tongue,
or Common Language, North of Watlinga Stræt.
8. Many of these words are Scotch.
8. Many of these words are Scotch.
These numerous and striking Danish terms, still existing in the north of England almost a thousand years after the destruction of the Danish power there, and after an almost equally protracted struggle with the constant progress of the English language, show that the Scandinavian tongue must possess no mean degree of durability. These Scandinavian words, moreover, taken in conjunction with the unusually numerous Scandinavian names of places in England, put it beyond all doubt that a Scandinavian population must have been far more diffused, and have taken much deeper root there, than in any other foreign land.
The popular language of the north of England is particularly remarkable for its agreement with the dialects found in the peninsula of Jutland. Several words which are common to the north of England and Jutland, are not to be found elsewhere. For instance, in the north of England, the shafts of the carts used there are calledlimmers, a word clearly of the same origin as the Jutlandishliem, a broom; both being derived from the old Scandinavianlimi, which signifiesboughs,branches. But it is the broad pronunciation in particular that makes the resemblance so surprising. Thus, for instance, we have in the north of England,sty’an(Dan., Steen;Eng., a stone),yen(Dan., een;Eng., one), welt (Dan., vælte;Eng., to upset),swelt(Dan., vansmægte;Eng., overcome with heat and exercise),maw(Dan., Mave;Eng., stomach),lowe(Dan., Lue;Eng., flame),donse(Dan., dandse;Eng., dance),fey(Dan., feie;Eng., to sweep),ouse(Dan., Oxe;Eng., ox),roun(Dan., Rogn;Eng., spawn or roe of fishes),war and war(Dan., værre og værre;Eng., worse and worse); with many others of the same kind, which are pure Jutlandish.
On the whole, of all the Danish dialects the Jutland approaches nearest to the English. The West Jutlander uses the articleæbefore words like the English “the,” although the Danish language in other provinces does not recognise such an article; and the broad openw, which the natives of Funen and Zealand can, after the greatest difficulty, only pronounce with tolerable correctness, is as easy for the Jutlander as for the Englishman. Many Danish words pronounced in Jutlandish become purely English; as, for instance,foul(Eng., fowl;Dan., Fugl),kow(Eng., cow;Dan., Ko),fued(Eng., food;Dan., Fod),stued(Eng., stood;Dan., stod),drown(Eng., drown;Dan., drukne); besides many others. Many words are even quite common to Jutland and England; such as the Jutlandishforenounandatternoun(Eng., forenoon and afternoon;Dan., Formiddag and Eftermiddag),stalker(Eng., stalker;Dan., en Stork),kok(Eng., cock;Dan., en Hane),want(Eng., to want;Dan., mangle, behöve).
This affords a very important proof of the close connection which must have anciently subsisted between Jutland and England. Although it may be doubtful to what extent the Jutes had tracts specially assigned to them for their settlements in the south of England (as in Kent and the Isle of Wight, at the time of the Anglo-Saxon conquest in the fifth century), it is, at all events, quite certain that, both at that time and at a later period, a number of Jutes settled on the east coast of England, and particularly in the more northern districts. Jutland lies nearer to England than any other part of Scandinavia. The Limfjord, which in remote ages was a roadstead for the Vikings’ ships, and afterwards the rendezvous of Saint Canute’s fleet when he intended to reconquer England, certainly dispatched numerous Vikings’ barks to the British coasts. In legends still existing in Jutland, the old connections with England, and the wars there, are not forgotten; nay, in some places the people tell of battles fought with the English in Jutland itself: of which ancient names of places likewise bear witness, as in the neighbourhood of Holstebro, “Angelandsmoor” (Angelandsmosen), with the adjacent “Prince Angel’s barrow” (Prinds Angels Höi), which is surrounded with a number of tumuli. The remembrance of the same old connections with England still resounds in the Jutlandish and other ancient Scandinavian ballads, or heroic songs, in which the scene is frequently laid on the “engelandish strand.”
The near relationship of the north Englishmen with the Danes and their Scandinavian brothers is reflected both in popular songs and in the folk-lore. It is well known that the old Northmen were in a high degree lovers of minstrelsy. The Scandinavian kings were generally accompanied on their Viking expeditions by bards, who encouraged and cheered the champions with songs respecting the exploits of former times, and about every glorious deed that had been performed during the expeditions. These historical epics passed from mouth to mouth, and from generation to generation. Nor did the Scandinavian conqueror in foreign lands disdain to be celebrated by the bards of his native country. Canute the Great, who was himself a poet, placed the Scandinavian bard high in his hall; and numerous lays, which are still partly preserved in the Sagas, sounded his fame over the north. After the warlike life of heathenism had ceased, the poetical and historical talent of the people expressed itself in ballads and heroic songs, which, during the middle ages, succeeded the lays of the ancient bards. The old ballad, in its characteristic form, belongs peculiarly to the countries of Scandinavia; and it is very remarkable that the corresponding English ballads, which often, both in their prevailing tone and in their form—as, for instance, with regard to the burthen—betray a surprising similarity with the Scandinavian, are in England found exclusively in the north. They are, however, heard still more frequently in the Scotch Lowlands, whither great immigrations of Northmen also took place. In the north of England a very peculiar kind of song for two voices was also formerly heard, and which the English themselves ascribed to the Danes.
It is more difficult to adduce pure Scandinavian remains of popular superstitions, as in this respect the Teutonic races have so very much in common; and consequently one is afraid to draw too strong conclusions from the striking agreement usually shown in the phantoms of the imagination among north Englishmen and their Scandinavian kinsmen. Yet it deserves to be mentioned that the Scandinavian nameNök(a river-sprite), is not yet forgotten in Yorkshire; although some by “Nick” or “Oud-Nick” erroneously imagine the devil to be meant, instead of the water-sprite. Many little tricks performed by thenix(Dan., nisse, a brownîe) are known there, as well as in Scandinavia. Once, in England, the conversation happening to turn on these little beings, I related our Scandinavian legend about a peasant who was plagued and teazed in all possible ways by anisseor brownîe, till at last he could bear it no longer, and determined toflit(move house) to another place. When he had conveyed almost all his goods to the new house, and was just driving thither with the last load, he accidently turned round, and whom did he see? Why, the brownîe with his red cap, who sat quietly on the top of the load, and nodded familiarly to him, with the words, “Now we flit.” One of the persons present immediately expressed a lively surprise on hearing a legend related as Danish, and that, too, almost word for word, which he had often heard in Lancashire in his youth. The wordflitwas, and still is, used there by the common people.
A natural result of the long-continued and extensive dominion of the Danes in the north of England is, that they also are classed with the invisible mystical beings, which, in the imagination of the people, haunt that district. In certain places among the remote mountains of the north-west, people still fancy that they hear on the evening breeze tones as of strings played upon, and melancholy lays in a foreign tongue. Often, too, even when nobody hears anything unusual, the animals prick up their ears as if in astonishment. It is “the Danish boy,” who sadly sings the old bardic lays over the barrows of his once mighty forefathers.
The Outrages of the Danes.—The Danes and Normans.—Influenceof the Danes in England.
The Outrages of the Danes.—The Danes and Normans.—Influenceof the Danes in England.
The Outrages of the Danes.—The Danes and Normans.—Influence
of the Danes in England.
It is thus shown, by numerous and incontestable proofs, that the Danes held dominion in England for a short period, and that they also exercised, in conjunction with the Normans, so important and lasting an influence for centuries before and after the time of Canute the Great, at all events in that portion of England lying to the north of Watlinga Stræt, that even a great part of the population there may be safely assumed to be of Danish extraction. Nevertheless, the generally received opinion in England on this subject is expressed in the following passage in a brief History of Denmark lately published in London (“Edda, or the Tales of a Grandmother”), which states that after the suppression of the Danish power in England, “Both nations [the Danes and English] separated soon after, and in a few years the Danish supremacy had vanished like a vision of the night; so little did it leave any traces in England, or produce any important political benefits to Denmark.”
It would, however, have been extremely astonishing, nay, utterly inexplicable, if great effects had not manifested themselves in Denmark from the expeditions towards the west, and from the complete conquest of a country like England, which, in regard both to religious and political development, stood so far above Scandinavia. History, also, sufficiently shows of what great importance the conquest of England was, not only for Denmark, but for the whole Scandinavian North. The Christianity of Scandinavia arose, indeed, out of the smoking ruins of the English churches and convents. Scandinavian kings and warriors were frequently baptized during their Viking expeditions; and it was English priests who proclaimed the doctrines of Christianity on the plains of Denmark and in the rocky valleys of Sweden and Norway. Many of the first bishops in the North were of English extraction, and even the style of the ecclesiastical edifices attested the powerful influence of wealthy England. The more advanced cultivation of science and art in general which prevailed there, communicated itself in many directions to the countries of Scandinavia; where it certainly contributed, just as much as the great emigrations, to weaken heathenism, and thus, both in a religious and political point of view, to found a new and better order of things.
But for whatever benefits Denmark and the North received in this manner from England, they did not fail to yield a full equivalent. It cannot reasonably be reproached to the Danes exclusively that, in order to obtain settlements in England, they made their way with fire and sword, for this was no more than all other conquerors, and particularly the Romans and Anglo-Saxons, had done before them. With regard to bloodshed, and acts of violence and destruction, the Anglo-Saxon conquest of England exceeded rather than fell short of the Danish. It annihilated the civilization which had been so widely disseminated there by the Romans, and subjugated or expelled the older inhabitants in the most frightful manner. It is the circumstance of the Danish expeditions having taken place at a far later time, when the monks wrote chronicles, and when on the whole history was more circumstantial, that has alone contributed to place the Danish expeditions in so prominent and so hateful a light.
But even the present age, with its severe views, is scarcely justified in condemning unconditionally the Scandinavian sea-king, who was not instigated solely, or even chiefly, by a savage desire of plunder or murder, but who valued deeds of arms, a glorious name, and the joys of Valhalla, more than his life, and who therefore “went to death with a laugh.” Even with him religion was a spur to his achievements in Christian lands. He was combating for his own gods, in whom in general he certainly believed as firmly as most of the Christians of that time did in Christ. The ideas, too, which then prevailed respecting conquest, slaughter, and rapine, were altogether different from ours. If the heathen Viking regarded it as an honour to acquire lands and booty by his sword, the same thought was also cherished not only by the early Christians, but throughout the middle ages; when Christian citizens, noblemen, and princes contended in mortal combat, with fire and sword, for the possession of estates and lands. The Christian Anglo-Saxons of those times felt no hesitation in secretly massacring the Danes who had settled in England; and as many of these had been converted, one Christian thus murdered another! To dismember general history into a number of unconnected events, and then to pass judgment upon these separately according to our moral feelings, would be an infamous act, and more difficult to defend before the tribunal of morality than perhaps all the expeditions of the heathen Danish Vikings put together. Such a method of proceeding would lead to the most confined views of history that can possibly be imagined. No correct conception can be formed of any part of the history of the world if it be not examined in its due connection, whereby both causes and effects become perceptible. Many events, which the moralist would otherwise condemn, find in this manner both excuse and defence in the superior historical necessity that produced them. Viewed in this light, violent devastations, which have for a time, perhaps, arrested the progressive development of a people, will appear to have ultimately founded and educed purer and more wholesome manners and customs. Severe shocks are now and then as useful for the general welfare of a nation as a violent fit of sickness for the health of an individual, or storms for the purification of an oppressive atmosphere.
The germ of a higher civilization was first implanted in the rude and warlike tribes, which then predominated throughout Europe, by the Greeks and Romans. The bold expeditions of the latter, in particular, introduced the arts and sciences into the countries north of the Alps; and it was from the south that even the Christian religion began its progress. But before Christianity could take firm root among the European tribes, before a really Christian state could be founded, it was necessary that an immense revolution should take place. Heathenism and barbarism then collected all their strength in order to destroy Roman power and Roman civilization. The Roman Empire, and with it almost all the older states, was overthrown by the vast national migrations; and a new and different population, with which a fresh civilization was to begin, spread itself over Europe. It was these migrations that brought the Anglo-Saxons into England, after they had abandoned their ancient habitations on the south and south-west shores of the Baltic; whence they were expelled by the advancing Slavonic tribes of the Wends, or Vandals.
Contemporaneously with the diffusion of Christianity in the south and west of Europe, larger Christian states gradually arose. Charlemagne had already, about the year 800, founded an immense kingdom; and, in order to strengthen it both against inward disturbances and outward attacks, had established apparently durable institutions. But as it was too often necessary, in those early times, to force Christianity on the people by dint of arms, without seeking any real support for it in their convictions and belief—a circumstance that rendered prevalent a very great moral relaxation, and even wickedness—they were thus induced to regard the political institutions which sprang from it as something foreign, which neither proceeded from themselves, nor possessed any intrinsic strength. Both Church and State tottered. The whole structure of Christian communities was in its weak and early childhood; and it was not till the people had been convinced of its necessity, by their calamities and sufferings, that Christianity was able to gain a really firm footing.
The Christian States were now attacked at once and on all sides by the enemies of Christianity, the Mahometans and heathens. The Saracens, towards the south; the Magyars, or Madjarers, the forefathers of the Hungarians, towards the east; and the Northmen towards the north and west, all invaded the Christian States. Europe long groaned under this terrible scourge. Meanwhile, however, separate States grew stronger in this combat with their exterior enemies; whilst great tribes of the latter settled in the conquered districts, adopted Christianity, and mingled with the natives. The destructive expeditions which for a time indeed retarded, in certain directions, the commencements of civilization, ended by exhausting all the strength of heathenism, in preparing a complete victory for Christianity, and in producing in Church and State a vigour hitherto unknown in those lands which had long embraced the Christian faith. It was now that a period was put to the throes which had given birth to a new and Christian Europe. The descendants of the lawless Vikings became the most zealous champions of Christianity. The Normans, who by degrees had raised themselves to be the ruling people in several of the western and southern States of Europe, and had thus brought a new and wholesome power to the helm, broke many a doughty lance with the Mahometans and heathens. In these crusades the knight was now accompanied by the troubadour, as the Viking formerly had been by the bard or scald. It was among the Normans in particular that the knightly and feudal system developed itself, which was of such decided importance throughout the middle ages, and the forerunner of the freer and more advanced state of society of modern times.
Under the name of “Normans” are included all those swarms of Swedes, Norwegians, and Danes, which, from the close of the eighth until far into the eleventh century, either laid waste or settled on the eastern and southern coasts of the Baltic, as well as the coasts of the west and south of Europe. “Norman” signifies neither more nor less than a man from the north. The Danish conquest of England was therefore just as fully Normanic as the conquest, by the Norwegians and Danes, of a part of France, called, after them, Normandy. Hence there was a natural reason why the Danish conquerors, and Svend Tveskjæg in particular, concluded an alliance with the dukes of Normandy, in order that they might find a reception among these kinsmen in case they should not be able to make themselves masters of England; and hence, in like manner, Canute the Great obtained the more readily the hand of Emma, the daughter of a Norman (and consequently nearly related) duke. But between the above-mentioned conquests there was this difference, that the Danish conquest of England, together with the Norwegian conquests in Scotland and Ireland, was of far greater extent, and of quite a different and more extensive importance for the British Isles, than the Norwegian-Danish conquest of so small a district as Normandy was for France. Whilst the Northmen principally brought thither only a number of powerful chiefs, who, at the expense of the natives, constituted themselves into an imperious feudal nobility, and who afterwards for the most part went over with William the Conqueror into England, in search of still greater feudal possessions, the Danish expeditions to and conquest of England were, on the contrary, the means of bringing an entirely new population into a very considerable portion, perhaps even the half, of that kingdom.
All accounts attest what proud and energetic men the Norwegian-Danish Normans were who settled in Normandy, and who afterwards became the progenitors and founders of the English nobility. The chronicles of that time cannot sufficiently praise their bravery and contempt of death, whilst at the same time they highly extol their chivalric spirit. In but a short time after their settlement in France they had readily acquired its politer manners; and not only these, but that higher mental cultivation which then raised the southern countries above those of the far north. It was a distinguishing trait of the Normans that they very quickly accommodated themselves to the manners and customs of the countries where they settled; nay, even sometimes quite forgot their Scandinavian mother tongue, without, however, losing their original and characteristic Scandinavian stamp. But what the Normans in particular, with all their French refinement, did not lose, was the ancient Scandinavian feeling of freedom and independence. The descendants of those powerful chiefs who had quitted the hearths of their forefathers because they would not suffer themselves to be enslaved by kings—and who on their arrival in Normandy, when the question was put to them, “What title does your chief bear?” are said to have answered, “None, we are all equal”—continued steadily to maintain their freedom against the Norman dukes, and not least so against the despotic William the Conqueror, even after he had distributed among them the rich estates of conquered England. The later English nobility, whose power and influence William’s conquest had thus founded, did not in any way degenerate from their Norman forefathers. From the earliest period of the middle ages the English barons were the stoutest protectors and defenders of freedom against ambitious kings; and it is also their respect for the proper liberties of the people that has alone insured to them the quiet possession of the power which they still continue to retain. The English nobility have in several other ways preserved to the present time traces of their ancient origin. Thus among the English aristocracy we not only find the old Scandinavian title of Jarl, or Earl, which in the North itself has given way to the German one of Graf, or Greve, but a Northman will easily discover many characteristic traits that remind him of his own ancestors. It is truly remarkable that the love of bodily exercises, games, hunting, and horse-racing, not to mention the predilection for daring sea voyages so strongly prevalent amongst them, was likewise manifested, according to the Sagas or legends, by the rich and powerful in Iceland, and the rest of the Scandinavian fatherlands.
Under these circumstances it would, indeed, have been in the highest degree surprising if the Danish-Norwegian Normans, who conquered England at the same period that their near kinsmen, the Norwegian-Danish Normans, conquered Normandy, who had migrated from the north for the selfsame reasons as these kinsmen, and who were subject to the same virtues and vices—if these Normans in England alone, I say, should have been barbarous “robbers and plunderers,” trampling on and destroying all that was “great and good,” whilst their brothers in Normandy distinguished themselves by an early civilization, and particularly by a lively feeling for poetry and for a further development both of social and political life. It must be remembered that the Danish-Norwegian Normans, who made conquests in England, did not go thither in one great body, but in small divisions, which only by degrees, and in the course of about three centuries, settled themselves in the districts inhabited by the Anglo-Saxons; and that, though far less numerous than the latter, they were not only able firmly to maintain their position among them, but at length even to expel them from a great part of the country north-east of Watling-Stræt. For this proves that the new Scandinavian inhabitants of England, along with greater physical strength and more martial prowess than the Anglo-Saxons possessed, must have been soon able to acquire that skill in the employments of peace, as well as that higher polish and refinement, which in the long run could alone insure them the superiority and preponderance which they enjoyed over the Anglo-Saxons, not only in the rural districts, but in many towns of the north of England; and secure for them such an influence as they obtained in England’s best and greatest city, even London itself.
Further, that those Northmen, who by the Danish conquests became the progenitors of a great part, probably as much as half, of the present population of England, were just as brave men, and just as great lovers of liberty, as their Norman brethern, the ancestors of the English nobility; and that they played a part not much inferior to theirs in the development of England’s freedom and greatness, a closer examination will probably place in a clearer light.