FOOTNOTES:[13]This word survives in another form in more than one Thingwall among place-names.[14]The word is familiar to us in the form -tinginhus-ting, house assembly (originallyhús-Þing), a council held by a king or earl and attended by his immediate followers, in contrast to the ordinaryÞingor general assembly of the people.
[13]This word survives in another form in more than one Thingwall among place-names.
[13]This word survives in another form in more than one Thingwall among place-names.
[14]The word is familiar to us in the form -tinginhus-ting, house assembly (originallyhús-Þing), a council held by a king or earl and attended by his immediate followers, in contrast to the ordinaryÞingor general assembly of the people.
[14]The word is familiar to us in the form -tinginhus-ting, house assembly (originallyhús-Þing), a council held by a king or earl and attended by his immediate followers, in contrast to the ordinaryÞingor general assembly of the people.
At the time of the Viking invasion of Ireland the various provincial kingdoms were held in loose confederation under the authority of theardríor high king, but these kingdoms stood in constantlyshifting relations of friendship and hostility towards one another, and were themselves often split into factions under rival chieftains. There was no national army like the Englishfyrd. Rather it consisted of a number of tribes, each commanded by its own chief, and though the chief owed allegiance to the king, the bond was a frail one. The tribe was further divided intoseptsand the army was utterly lacking in any cohesive principle. It is no wonder that for many years the Irish showed themselves quite unable to cope with the attacks of forces so well organised as those of the Norse and Danish Vikings.
In vivid contrast to the chaos in political and military organisation stand the missionary enthusiasm of the Irish church and the high level of education and culture which prevailed among her clergy andliterati. In the Orkneys and the Shetlands such names as Papa Westray or Papa Stronsay bear witness to the presence of Irish priests orpapaeas the Norsemen called them. Irish anchorites had at one time settled in the Faroes (v. supra, p.6), and when the Norsemen first settled in Iceland (c. 870) they found Irish monks already there. The monastic schools of Ireland were centres of learning and religious instruction for the whole of Western Europe, while Irish missionaries had founded monasteries in Italy, Switzerland, Germany and France.
Unfortunately religion and culture seem to have been almost entirely without influence on the body politic, and as the Vikings had at least in the early days no respect for the religion or the learning of the Irish nation there was nothing to prevent them from devastating Irish monasteries and carrying off the stores of treasured wealth which they contained. No plunder was more easily won, and it was only when they themselves had fallen under Christian influences and had come to appreciate Irish literary and artistic skill that they showed themselves more kindly disposed towards these homes of learning.
One feature must at once strike the observer who compares the Viking settlements in Ireland with those in England, viz. that Viking influence in Ireland is definitely concentrated in the great coast towns—Dublin, Wexford, Waterford, Cork and Limerick—and the districts immediately around them. Irish place-nomenclature bears very definite witness to this fact.Fordin Strangford and Carlingford Loughs, Waterford and Wexford is O.N.fjǫrðr, a fjord, -lowin Arklow and Wicklow is O.N.ló, 'low-lying, flat-grassland, lying by the water's edge.' The O.N.ey, an island, is found in Lambey, Dalkey, Dursey Head, Ireland's Eye (for Ireland's Ey), Howth is O.N.höfuð, 'a head,' Carnsore and Greenore Point contain O.N.eyrr, 'a sandy point pushing outinto the sea.' Smerwick contains the familiar O.N.víka bay or creek, while the Copeland Islands off Belfast lough are the O.N.kaupmannaeyjar, 'the merchants' islands.' All these are found on or off the coast, while the number of Scandinavian names found inland is extremely limited. The most interesting perhaps is Leixlip on the Liffey, a name derived from O.N.laxahlaup, 'salmon-leap.' Donegal, Fingall and Gaultiere are Celtic names, but they mark the presence of the northernGallor foreigners, while the -sterin Ulster, Leinster and Munster is O.N. -staðir(pl. of -staðr, place, abode) suffixed to the old Gaelic names of these provinces.
There was free intermarriage between Norse and Irish (v. supra, p.56), but the strength of the clan-system kept the races distinct and there was no such infiltration of the whole population as took place in the English Danelagh. This system prevented any such settlement of Norsemen upon their own farms as took place in England, and the invaders lived almost entirely in the coast towns and the districts in their immediate neighbourhood, busying themselves with trade and shipping.
Though the settlements were limited in their extent, we must not underrate their influence on Irish history generally. They gave the impetus there, as elsewhere, to the growth of town life, and from the period of Viking rule dates the origin of thechief Irish towns. To them also was due the great expansion, if not the birth, of Irish trade. Mention has been made of the wealth of Limerick (v. supra, p.97), drawn chiefly from trade with France and Spain, and the other towns were not behind Limerick. The naval power of Dublin stretched from Waterford to Dundalk, the Irish channel swarmed with Viking fleets, and many of the shipping terms in use in Gaelic are loan-words from the Norse.
It is probably to the trading activities of Vikings from the chiefs ports of Ireland that we owe the sprinkling of names of Norse origin which we find along the Welsh coast from the Dee to the Severn—Great Orm's Head, Anglesey, Ramsey I, Skokholm Island, Flat Holme and Steep Holme, and to them may be due the establishment of Swansea, earlierSweinesea, Haverfordwest and possibly Bideford, as Norse colonies in the Bristol channel. We know in later times of several Norsemen who were living in Cardiff, Bristol, Swansea and Haverfordwest.
Norse influence in Ireland probably reached its climax in the 10th century. The battle of Clontarf offered a serious check and though there was still a succession of Norse kings and earls in Dublin they had to acknowledge the authority of theardrí. The line of Sigtryggr of the Silken Beard came to an end by the middle of the 11th century, and the rulership of Dublin fell into the hands of various Norse familiesfrom other Irish settlements and from Man and the Isles. From 1078-94 it was under the rule of the great conqueror Godred Crovan from Man, and its connexion with that kingdom was only severed finally when Magnus Barefoot came on his great Western expedition in 1103, and brought Man into direct allegiance to the kings of Norway. Celtic influence must have been strong in the Norse families themselves. Several of the kings bear Gaelic names, and it is probably from this period that such familiar names as MacLamont or MacCalmont, MacIver, and MacQuistan date, where the Gaelic patronymic prefix has been added to the Norse names Lagmaðr, Ívarr and Eysteinn. While Norse power in Dublin was on the decline as a political force it is curious to note that the vigorous town-life and the active commerce instituted by the Norse settlers made that city of ever-increasing importance as a centre of Irish life and Irish interests generally, and there can be no question that it was the Norsemen who really made Dublin the capital city of Ireland.
The Norse element remained absolutely distinct, not only in Dublin but also in the other cities in which they had settled, right down to the time of the English invasion in the 12th century. Frequent mention is made of them in the records of the great towns, and they often both claimed and received privileges quite different from those accorded to thenative Irish or to the English settlers. They were known to the latter as 'Ostmen' or 'Easterlings,' a term which in this connexion seems to have ousted the earlierNorvagiensesorles Norreys,les Norwicheis. The term 'Ostman' doubtless represents O.N.Austmaðr, a man dwelling to the east. Exactly how or where it first came to be applied to Norsemen it is difficult to say. The word has left its mark in Oxmanstown, earlier Ostmanstown, the district of the city of Dublin assigned to the Ostmen by the English invaders.
Learning and religion in Ireland suffered grievously from Norse attack but not so sorely as in England. There was never a time when so dark a picture could have been drawn of Irish learning as Alfred gives of the state of English learning when he translated thePastoral Care, and when once the Vikings began to form settlements they were themselves strongly affected by the wealth of literary and artistic skill with which they found themselves brought into contact. The question of Irish influence on Norse mythology and literature is a much vexed one. At present we are suffering from a reaction against exaggerated claims made on its behalf some thirty years ago, but while refusing to accept the view that Norse legends, divine and heroic alike, are based on a wholesale refashioning and recreating of stories from Celtic saga-lore, it would be idle to deny thatthe contact between the two nations must have been fertile of result and that Norse literature in form, style and subject-matter alike, bears many marks of Gaelic influence.
Of the districts occupied by Scandinavian settlers in England the ones which show their presence most strongly are Cumberland, Westmorland, North Lancashire and Yorkshire in the old kingdom of Northumbria and the district of the Five Boroughs in the midlands. East Anglia was not so deeply affected by the Danish occupation.
Before dealing with one of the chief sources of our knowledge of the presence of Norse and Danish settlers in various parts of England, viz. the evidence derived from place-nomenclature, a few words must be said as to the chief Scandinavian elements which can be recognised in English place-names.
Of elements other than personal names the commonest are as follows, several of them being used as independent words to this day in English dialects which have been affected by Scandinavian influence:—
-BECK.O.N.bekkr, brook, small stream of water.
-BIGGIN(G).O.N.bygging, building.
-BY.O.N.bør, Dan. Swed.by, town or village. This word indicates a Danish rather than a Norse settlement.
-CAR(R), -ker. O.N.kjarr,kjörr, brushwood, especially on swampy ground.
-DALE.O.N.dalr, valley. Etymologically this word might be of native English origin but its distribution points to Norse influence.
-FELL.O.N.fjall, mountain.
-FORCE.O.N.fors, waterfall.
-FORTH.O.N.fjǫrðr, fjord. English -ford and Scandinavian -forth often interchange in the old documents.
-GARTH.O.N.garðr, enclosure, the Scandinavian equivalent of English 'yard.'
-GILL.O.N.gil, deep narrow glen with a stream at the bottom.
-HOLM.O.N.holmr, small island especially in a bay, creek, or river. In England its meaning was further developed and it often means 'low-lying level ground on the borders of a river or stream.' Now often concealed in the suffix -ham.
-KELD.O.N.kelda, well, spring.
-LUND, -lound. O.N.lundr, grove. Now often corrupted to -land in English place-names.
-MIRE.O.N.myrr, moor, bog, swamp.
-RAISE.O.N.hreysi, cairn.
-SCALE.O.N.skali, house. This word is Norse rather than Danish.
-SCAR, -skear, -skerry. O.N.sker, isolated rock in the sea.
-SCOUT.O.N.skúti, cave formed by jutting rocks.
-SCOUGH, -scow. O.N.skógr, wood.
-SLACK.O.N.slakki, slope on a mountain edge. Often used in English place-names of a hollow or boggy place[15].
-TARN.O.N.tjörn, small lake.
-THORP(E).O.N.þorp, hamlet, village. This word is also found in O.E. and in some place-names is undoubtedly of native origin, but its general distribution points fairly conclusively to Norse influence.
-THWAITE.O.N.þveit, parcel of land, paddock.
-TOFT.O.N.topt, piece of ground, messuage, homestead.
-WITH.O.N.viðr, a wood.
-WATH.O.N.vað, a ford.
Place-names with the prefixNorman- mark the settlement not of Normans but of Norsemen (or Northmen as the English called them), as in Normanton and Normanby, while the settlement of Danes is marked by the prefixDena- orDen- as in Denaby and Denby. This latter prefix however has other sources as well.
Scandinavian personal names are very common in place-names but their presence can as a rule only be detected with any degree of certainty by reference to the forms found in early documents. Among the more easily recognised areGrímr, as in Grimsargh (Lancs.) and Grimsby (Lincs.),Gunnarr, as in Gunnerside (Yorks.),Ketill, as in Kettlewell (Yorks.),Klakkr, as in Claxton (Norf.),Ormr, as in Ormskirk (Lancs.). Others, to be found by reference to earlier forms, areFráni, as in Franesfeld (=Farnsfield, Notts.),Gamall, as in Gamelestune (=Gamston, Notts.),Gunnúlfr, as in Gunnulveston (=Gonalston, Notts.),Knútr, as in Cnutestone (=Knuston, Northants.),Leifr, as in Levesbi (=Laceby, Lincs.),Sumarliði, as in Sumarlidebi (=Somerby, Lincs.),Skúli, as in Sculetuna (=Scoulton, Norf.),Tóli, as in Toleslund (=Toseland, Hunts.),Víkingr, as in Wichingestone (=Wigston, Leic.),Úlfr, as in Ulvesbi (=Ulceby, Lincs.).
Examining the distribution of Scandinavian place-names determined by the above tests and others which can be applied with great accuracy, if we study not the modern but the old forms of the place-names, we find that the place-nomenclature of Cumberland and Westmorland is almost entirely either Scandinavian or Celtic. Indeed it would seem that the Anglian settlement had hardly affected these districts at all, and it was reserved for theScandinavian settlers to Teutonise them. The same is true of Furness and Lancashire, north of the Ribble, whose old names Stercaland and Agmundernesse are of Norse origin, but south of that river there is a great diminution of Norse place-names except along the coast and a little way inland, where we have several -bysand -dales. In Cheshire the evidence of Scandinavian settlement is confined almost entirely to the Wirral, but there the large number of -bysand place-names like Thingwall (v. supra, p.115, note 1) point to a strong Viking colony, and the distribution of place-names in South Lancashire and Cheshire bears witness to active intercourse between the settlers in Ireland and England.
On the other side of the Pennine chain, though Northumberland was several times ravaged by the Norsemen and was probably well populated at least in the fertile river-valleys, there is practically no evidence of their presence to be found in place-names. There are several Biggins, Carrs, and Holms, a few Tofts and Dales, but these are common dialect words and usually found in uncompounded forms. They are practically never found in names of towns or villages, and may well have been introduced from districts further south. In the extreme west and south-west of the county there are 'fells' and 'dales' but these are on the borders of Cumberland, Westmorland and Durham. The small streams are'burns' and not 'becks,' the Wansbeck being a corruption of an earlierWanespike.
When we cross into co. Durham the tributaries of the Wear vary between 'burn' and 'beck,' but by the time we reach the Tees these have all become becks. Beechburn Beck, a tributary of the Wear, shows how a Scandinavian term could be attached to an English name, when its own meaning was neglected or forgotten. Other Scandinavian names are common, but as in Northumberland they belong to the dialect generally and are seldom found in names of towns or villages. Viking settlers must have been few in numbers and widely scattered throughout these two counties. One great exception must be named among the towns, viz. Durham itself. The city was namedDún-holmr, 'the hill-island,' by the Vikings, and its present name is only the Norman corruption of that form.
South of the Tees we find ourselves in a district whose place-names are to a very large extent Scandinavian, and Norse settlements are thickly and evenly distributed from the North Sea to the Pennine chain.
Passing from Northumbria to the Danelagh, Lincolnshire is perhaps more purely Scandinavian in its place-names than any other English county. In Derbyshire Viking influence is not so strong but the county was probably very thinly inhabited at leastin the north and west and did not offer attractive settling ground. Derby itself was rechristened by the Northmen, its earlier name being 'Norðweorðig.' The rich fields and pastures of Leicestershire attracted a great many settlers and Nottinghamshire is also strongly Scandinavian. Rutland and Northamptonshire are strongly Danish except that there is some shading off towards the S.W. corner of the latter county. In the country bordering the Danelagh on the south and west, Staffordshire has a few Scandinavian place-names on its Derbyshire and Leicestershire borders, while Warwickshire has several on its Leicestershire and Northamptonshire borders.
In East Anglia Danish settlements must have been numerous in the north and east especially towards the coast, but their presence is less strongly marked in the S.W. portion of the county. In Suffolk they are confined still more definitely to the coast-districts and the Danes do not seem to have settled in the south of the county at all. Three Kirbys near the Essex coast mark settlements in that county. Of the other border-counties Huntingdonshire, Cambridgeshire and Bedfordshire show only the slightest traces of Scandinavian influence in their place-nomenclature, though we know from other evidence that there must have been many Danish settlers in these counties.
Closely allied to the evidence of place-names isthat of dialect. A very large number of words definitely of Scandinavian origin are found in the dialects of N.E. and N.W. England, in the N. Midlands and East Anglia, but they do not furnish so sensitive a test as do place-names for the extent of the Scandinavian settlements and they need not be discussed here.
More interesting as evidence of the deep influence of the Viking settlers on our language is the large number of Scandinavian loan-words which have become part of our standard speech, many of them being words essential to our every-day talk. To Scandinavian influence we owe the pronounsthey,themandtheir, the adjectivessameandboth, thefrointoandfroand possibly the auxiliaryareand the prepositiontill. These last are found in the Northumbrian dialect of Old English but their widespread use is probably due to Scandinavian influence. In addition to these we may note the following:
Verbs:bait,bask,batten,call,cast,dawn,droop,drown,gain,gabble,ransack,scare,scour,scrape,skim,skip,squeal,stint,take,
Nouns:anger,billow,boon,dusk,fellow,gait,grime,haven,husband,husk,husting,scull,scurf,skill,skin,skirt,sky,window,
Adjectives:awkward,ill,odd,rotten,scant,sly,ugly,weak,and a good many words in which Scandinavian forms have replaced the cognate English ones, e.g.aloft,athwart,awe,birth,egg,get,gift,give,guest,raid,sister,swain,Thursday.
These words are for the most part of the very stuff and substance of our language, giving vivid expression to clear-cut ideas, and though numerically they are outnumbered by the loan-words from French, they are in themselves more essential to our speech than the rich vocabulary derived from that language.
For the extent and character of the Viking settlements in England we have however a far more delicate and accurate index than that to be found in the evidence of place-names and dialects. When we study the pages of Domesday, the great record of English social organisation in the 11th century, we find that in the counties which came under Viking influence there are many details of land-division, tenure, assessment and social organisation generally wherein those counties differ from the rest of England, and some of these differences can still be traced.
The 'ridings' of Yorkshire and the Lindsey division of Lincolnshire were originally 'thrithings' (O.N.þriþjungr, a third part), the initialthbeing later absorbed by the final consonant of the preceding 'East,' 'West,' 'North' and 'South' (in Lincs.).
The chief tests of Scandinavian influence, drawnfrom Domesday and allied sources, are however as follows:
(1) The use of the Danish 'wapentake' as the chief division of the county in contrast to the English 'hundred.' This is found in Lincolnshire, Derbyshire (with one exception on its southern border), Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire, Rutland, and one district of Northamptonshire, now included in Rutland. We have wapentakes in Yorkshire, except in certain districts along the sea-coast, while in Lancashire the term was applied to the court of the hundred or shire long after the Conquest. There is some evidence also for the belief that the use of the hundred (or wapentake) as an administrative unit is in itself due to Scandinavian influence. The proportion of names of hundreds (or wapentakes) which are definitely of Danish origin is very high and, unless we assume wholesale renaming, this points to their having been first named at a period subsequent to the Danish conquest.
(2) The assessment by carucates in multiples and submultiples of 12 is characteristic of the Danelagh, as opposed to that by hides, arranged on a decimal system in the strictly English districts. This is found in Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire, Leicestershire and Rutland, with the exception of the above mentioned district. There are traces of a duodecimal assessment in the two N.E. hundreds ofNorthamptonshire, while in Lancashire a hidal assessment has been superimposed upon an original carucal one. Carucal assessment is found also in Yorkshire, Norfolk and Suffolk.
(3) In Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire and Yorkshire we have traces of the use of the Danish 'long' hundred (= 120), e.g. the fine for breaking the king's peace is £8, i.e. 120 ores[16]of 16 pence.
Using the various tests we find that the Scandinavian kingdom of Northumbria was considerably smaller than the earlier realm of that name, Northumberland and Durham being but sparsely settled, while South Lancashire and Cheshire were occupied chiefly along the coast. The kingdom would seem to fall into two isolated halves, Cumberland and Westmorland and North Lancashire in the north-west and Yorkshire in the south-east. The district of the Five Boroughs covered Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire (Lincoln and Stamford), Leicestershire, and probably the whole of Rutland (Stamford). The case of Northamptonshire is difficult. The carucal assessment fails except in the extreme N.E. of the county, but Danish place-nomenclature is strongly evident, though it shades off somewhat towards the S.W. It resembles Danish East Anglia rather than the district of the Five Boroughs and it is possible that the boundary of Guthrum's East Anglian kingdom, which is only carried as far as Stony Stratford in the peace of Alfred and Guthrum, really ran along Watling Street for a few miles, giving two-thirds of that county to the East Anglian realm.
Northumbria was governed by a succession of kings. The Five Boroughs formed a loose confederation, and there can be no question that the districts which 'obeyed' (v. supra, p.31) the boroughs of Derby, Leicester, Nottingham, Lincoln (and Stamford) and Northampton form the modern counties named from these towns. It is also to Danish influence direct or indirect that we owe the similar organisation of the counties of Huntingdonshire, Cambridgeshire, Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire in the old East Anglian kingdom. Each of these counties had ajarlor earl, whose headquarters were at the 'borough.' He summoned thehere, whether for political or military purposes, and when these counties passed once more under English rule he fulfilled the functions of the olderealdorman.
In East Anglia, apart from place-names (v. supra, p.129) and carucal assessment in Norfolk and Suffolk, we are left with the boundaries of Guthrum's kingdom and with various miscellaneous evidence for estimating the extent of Scandinavian influence. There is a curious 'hundredus Dacorum' (cf.supra, p. 10) inHertfordshire, while theHistoria Eliensisand other documents tend to show the presence of a strong Danish element in the population and social organisation of the districts around Cambridge. The kingship of East Anglia came to an end early in the 10th century, and it is probable that its organisation was then changed to one resembling that of the Five Boroughs, viz. a number of districts grouped around central 'boroughs,' which afterwards became counties, except in the older divisions of Norfolk and Suffolk.
A careful study of Domesday and other authorities reveals many other features of interest in our social system which were due to Viking influence. Certain types of manorial structure are specially common in the Danelagh. Manor and vill are by no means identical, indeed several manors are included under one vill. Very frequent is the type which consists in a central manor with sokeland appurtenant. In the Danelagh there was a large number of small freeholders and the free peasant class was much more numerous than in Anglo-Saxon England. These districts stand in clear contrast to the strongly manorialised southern counties and they were not feudalised to any appreciable extent before the Norman conquest. When that system was imposed we often find single knight's fees having to be taken over by entire communities of sokemen. The 'holds' of Northumbria, who rank next after the earls,and the 'drengs' of Cumberland, Westmorland, Lancashire, Northumberland and Durham, are also of Scandinavian origin. The 'dreng' was 'a free servant of the king endowed with lands' and the name still survives in the Yorkshire place-name Dringhouses.
The legal instinct was strong in the Scandinavian mind and English law bears deep marks of its influence. The very word 'law' itself is of Scandinavian origin and has replaced the English 'doom.' The chief judicial authority in Lincoln, Stamford, Cambridge, Chester and York was in the hands of twelvelagmenorjudices. These 'lawmen' (v. supra, p.103) though they had judicial authority were not chosen by the king or by popular election. Their position was hereditary. Of special interest are the '12 senior thanes' of Aethelred's laws for the Five Boroughs enacted at Wantage in 997. They have to come forward in the court of every wapentake and to swear that they will not accuse wrongly any innocent man or conceal any guilty one. The exact force of this enactment has been a matter of dispute—whether the thanes simply bore witness to the personal status of the accused, thus enabling the court to determine the ordeal through which he should be put, or whether we have an anticipation of the system of presentment by jury. Whatever may be the exact truth there can be little doubt, says Dr Vinogradoff, thatsuch a custom prepared the way for the indictment jury of the 12th century. The same author attributes to Danish influence a new conception of crime. It is no longer merely a breach of the peace or the result of a feud, to be settled by monetary compensation, it is a breach of that conception of honour which binds together military societies. The criminal is now branded asnithing, a man unworthy of comradeship with his fellow-warriors.
Unfortunately it is only within the last few years that the question of Danish influence on our social, political and legal systems has been treated at all seriously and much work still remains to be done, but we can already see that the Danes affected English life far more deeply than a superficial glance might suggest. Doubtless the Danish invasions struck a heavy blow at learning and literature, a blow from the effects of which not even the heroic activities of an Alfred could save them, but there can be no question that in the development of town life, in the promotion of trade, in the improvement of organisation and administration, in the modification of legal procedure the invaders conferred great benefits on the country as a whole.
FOOTNOTES:[15]In Scotland it is used of a hollow pass in a ridge.[16]Theoreas a unit of weight for silver is of Scandinavian origin. In some districts it was of the value of 16 pence, in others of 20 pence, and eightoreswent to themark.
[15]In Scotland it is used of a hollow pass in a ridge.
[15]In Scotland it is used of a hollow pass in a ridge.
[16]Theoreas a unit of weight for silver is of Scandinavian origin. In some districts it was of the value of 16 pence, in others of 20 pence, and eightoreswent to themark.
[16]Theoreas a unit of weight for silver is of Scandinavian origin. In some districts it was of the value of 16 pence, in others of 20 pence, and eightoreswent to themark.
Considering the long and devastating campaign of the Vikings within the Frankish empire and more especially within its western portion, it is surprising that they only formed permanent settlements in one small area, leaving practically no marks of their presence elsewhere. Great portions of the Low Countries were in almost continuous occupation by them during the 9th century, but the opportunity was lost, and beyond an important share in the development of the trade of Duurstede, the Vikings hardly left a sign of their influence behind them.
The case of Normandy is different. Here we have a definite district assigned to the invaders, just as the Danelagh was given to them in England, and the whole of that territory is deeply impregnated with their influence. Many of the Norman towns in -villecontain as the first element in their name a Norse personal name, e.g. Catteville, Cauverville, Colleville, Fouqueville, Hacqueville containing the namesKáte,Kálfr,Kolr,Fólki,Hákon, while the suffixes -bec, -beuf, -dale, -ey, -gard, -londe, -torp, -tot, -tuit,-vicas in Bolbec, Elbeuf, Saussedalle, Jersey, Eppegard, Mandelonde, Torgistorp, Abbetot, Bracquetuit, Barvic go back to O.N.bekkr,búð(booth),dalr,ey(island),garðr,lundr,þorp,topt,þveit,vík(v. supra, pp.124-5). The dialect of Normandy to this day contains a good number of Scandinavian words, and others have been introduced into the standard language. Some of these have also found their way into English through our Norman conquerors, e.g.abet,baggage,elope,equip,jolly,rubbish,scoop,strifejust as theBulbeckin Swaffham Bulbeck (Cambs.) and Bulbeck Common above Blanchland in Northumberland is from the great Norman barony of Bulbeck, so named after Bolbec in Normandy, of which they once formed part. Norman law and customs also show many traces of Scandinavian influence and so does Norman folk-lore.
The Normans still looked to Denmark as their home-land down to the end of the 10th century, and at least twice during the reign of Harold Bluetooth their Dukes received help from that country. The nobles soon ceased to speak their old northern language, but it is probable that it remained current on the lips of the people for some considerable time longer.
The Vikings always showed themselves keenly sensitive to the influence of a civilisation higher or more developed than their own, and this is nowhere more apparent than in Normandy. Heathenismfound a champion as late as 943 when, on the death of William Longsword, a rising of heathen Normans was crushed with the aid of the Frankish king, but for the most part the Normans soon showed themselves devout sons of the Church and were destined in the 11th century to be numbered among the most ardent supporters of the Crusades. With the adoption of Christianity they learned to respect and honour those homes of learning which they had once devastated for their wealth of hoarded treasure, and the famous school at Bec, whence came Lanfranc and Anselm, was only one among many which they richly endowed and supported.
Their religious and artistic feeling found expression in that development of Romanesque architecture which we know as Norman and which has given so many famous buildings not only to Normandy but to England, to Sicily and to Southern Italy generally. In literature the Norman-Frenchtrouvèresdid much towards popularising the romances of war and adventure which play so important a part in medieval literature, and when they settled in England it was largely due to Anglo-Norman poets that 'the matter of Britain' became one of the great subjects of romance for all time.
In its social organisation Normandy seems speedily to have been feudalised. Rollo divided the land among a comparatively small number of largelandholders and the system of land tenure was quite different from that in the English Danelagh with its large number of small freeholders. On the other hand it was probably due to Norse traditions of personal freedom that serfdom disappeared earlier in Normandy than in any other of the French provinces.
Trade and commerce were fostered here as everywhere by the Vikings. It was the Normans who first taught the French to become a power at sea, many French naval terms are of Norman origin and from the Norman province have come some of France's greatest sea-captains.
The Vikings like the Franks before them threw off their old speech and submitted to the all-embracing power of Latin civilisation, and the result was a race endowed with vigorous personality, untiring activity, and the instinct for ruling men. The Normans may have become largely French but they lost none of their old enterprise and spirit of adventure. In the 11th century they conquered England and founded great kingdoms for themselves in Sicily and South Italy. No Viking stock was more vigorous than that which resulted from the grafting of Gallo-Latin culture on the ruder civilisation of the Teutonic north.
Their influence on France as a whole is not nearly as great as the influence of their kinsmen in England, probably because English government was centralised(under Norman rule) much sooner than French government, and their influence was thus able to make itself felt outside the actual districts in which they settled. The settlement of Normandy helped however towards the consolidation of power in the hands of Charles the Bald and his successors, much as the settlement of the Danelagh helped in establishing the final supremacy of Wessex.
It remains to speak of one great home of Viking civilisation to which more than one reference has been made in previous chapters, viz. Iceland. The story of its settlement is a very simple one. It commenced about 870, when many great Norwegian noblemen sought there for themselves and their followers a freer life than they could obtain under the growing power of Harold Fairhair. It was greatly strengthened by settlers both from Norway and from Ireland and the Western Islands when that power was firmly established by the battle of Hafrsfjord, and by the year 930 the settlement was practically complete. Iceland was more purely Scandinavian than any other settlement made during the Viking age. Here we have not the case of one civilisation grafted on another and earlier one as in England, Ireland or the Frankish empire, but the transference of the best and finest elements in a nation to new and virgin soil where, for good or ill, they were free to develop their civilisation on almostentirely independent lines. Settlers from the Western Islands and from Ireland may have brought Celtic elements, and Christianity was not without influence, when it was introduced from Norway at the close of the 10th century, but on the whole we see in Iceland just what Viking civilisation was capable of when left to itself.
At first the settlers lived in almost complete isolation, political and religious, from one another, but they soon found that some form of organisation was necessary and groups of settlers began by choosing from among their number agoði, or chieftain, half-priest, half-leader, who was the speaker at their moot and their representative in negotiation with neighbouring groups. Then, continued disputes and the lack of a common law led to the establishment of a central moot oralþing, with a speaker to speak one single law for all. But the Norsemen were much better at making constitutions and enacting laws than they were at observing them when instituted, and the condition of Iceland has been vividly if roughly summarised as one of 'all law and no government.' The localþingsor the nationalalþingmight enact perfect laws, but there was no compelling force, except public opinion, to make them be obeyed. Even the introduction of Christianity made no difference: the Icelanders quarrelled as bitterly over questions of ecclesiasticalas of civil law and the authorities of the medieval Church were scandalised by their anarchic love of freedom. In the words of Professor Ker 'the settlers made a commonwealth of their own, which was in contradiction to all the prejudices of the middle ages and of all ancient and modern political philosophy; a commonwealth which was not a state, which had no government, no sovereignty.' 'It was anarchy without a police-constable.' The result was that the rich men grew richer, the poor became poorer, the smaller gentry died out and the large estates fell into fewer and fewer hands. The great men quarrelled among themselves, intrigued against one another and played into the hands of the Norwegian kings who were only waiting their opportunity. It came in the days of Hákon the Old. 'Land and thanes' were sworn into subjection to that king at the Althing in 1262, and in 1271 the old Icelandic common law was superseded by a new Norse code.
The failure of the Icelandic commonwealth is amply compensated for by the rich intellectual development of Icelandic literature, which owed many of its most characteristic features to the fact that it was written in a land almost completely isolated and detached from the main currents of Western medieval thought and the general trend of European history, but in itself that failure is full of deepest import for a right understanding of the part playedby Viking civilisation in Europe. Powerful and highly developed as that civilisation was in many ways, it only reached its highest and best expression when brought into fruitful contact with other and older civilisations. There it found the corrective for certain inherent weaknesses, more especially for certain tendencies of too strongly individualistic character leading to political and intellectual anarchy, while at the same time by its own energy and vigour it quickened the life of the older civilisations where they were tending to become effete or outworn. The Germanic peoples had done much for the development of European civilisation in the time of the wanderings of the nations, but by the end of the 8th century they had lost much of their pristine vigour through contact with the richer and more luxurious civilisation of the Roman world. It was reserved for the North Germanic peoples, or the Northmen as we can more fitly describe them, in the 9th and 10th centuries to give a yet more powerful stimulus to European life, if not to European thought, a stimulus which perhaps found its highest expression in the great creations of the Norman race in the world of politics, the world of commerce, the world of architecture and the world of letters.
[The appended bibliography does not attempt to deal with primary authorities, with the large mass of valuable periodical literature which has been published within the last thirty years, or with books only incidentally concerned with the movement. It is much to be regretted that so few of the important Scandinavian books on the subject have been translated into English.]
Björkman, E.Scandinavian Loan-words in Middle English. Halle. 1906.Bugge, A.Vikingerne. 2 series. Christiania. 1904-6. (German trans. of 1st series. Leipzig. 1896.)—— Vesterlandenes Inflydelse paa Nordboernes i Vikingetiden. Christiania. 1905.—— Norges Historie. Vol.I, Pt.II. Christiania. 1910.Collingwood, W. G.Scandinavian Britain. London. 1908.Craigie, W. A.The Religion of Ancient Scandinavia. London. 1906.Dietrichson, L.andMeyer, S.Monumenta Orcadica. Christiania. 1906. (Abridged English edition.)Du Chaillu, P. B.The Viking Age. 2 vols. London. 1889.Gustafson, G.Norges Oldtid. Christiania. 1906.Henderson, G.The Norse Influence on Celtic Scotland. Glasgow. 1910.Keary, C. F.The Vikings in Western Christendom. London. 1891.Kermode, P. M. C.Manx Crosses. London. 1907.Maurer, K.Die Bekehrung des Norwegischen Stammes. 2 vols. Munich. 1855-9.Montelius, O.Sveriges Historia. Vol.I. Stockholm. 1903. (German tr. Kulturgeschichte Schwedens. Leipzig. 1906.)Müller, S.Vor Oldtid. Copenhagen. 1897. (German tr. Nordische Altertümskunde. 2 vols. Strasburg. 1897-8.)Olrik, A.Nordisk Aaandsliv i Vikingetid. Copenhagen. 1907. (German tr. Nordisches Geistesleben. Heidelberg. 1908.)Steenstrup, J. C. H. R.Normannerne. 4 vols. Copenhagen. 1876-82.—— Danmarks Riges Historie. Vol.I. Copenhagen. 1876-82.Thomsen, V.The Relations between Ancient Russia and Scandinavia. Oxford. 1877.Vogel, W.Die Normannen und das Fränkische Reich. Heidelberg. 1906.Vogt, L. J.Dublin som Norsk By. Christiania. 1906.
Björkman, E.Scandinavian Loan-words in Middle English. Halle. 1906.
Bugge, A.Vikingerne. 2 series. Christiania. 1904-6. (German trans. of 1st series. Leipzig. 1896.)
—— Vesterlandenes Inflydelse paa Nordboernes i Vikingetiden. Christiania. 1905.
—— Norges Historie. Vol.I, Pt.II. Christiania. 1910.
Collingwood, W. G.Scandinavian Britain. London. 1908.
Craigie, W. A.The Religion of Ancient Scandinavia. London. 1906.
Dietrichson, L.andMeyer, S.Monumenta Orcadica. Christiania. 1906. (Abridged English edition.)
Du Chaillu, P. B.The Viking Age. 2 vols. London. 1889.
Gustafson, G.Norges Oldtid. Christiania. 1906.
Henderson, G.The Norse Influence on Celtic Scotland. Glasgow. 1910.
Keary, C. F.The Vikings in Western Christendom. London. 1891.
Kermode, P. M. C.Manx Crosses. London. 1907.
Maurer, K.Die Bekehrung des Norwegischen Stammes. 2 vols. Munich. 1855-9.
Montelius, O.Sveriges Historia. Vol.I. Stockholm. 1903. (German tr. Kulturgeschichte Schwedens. Leipzig. 1906.)
Müller, S.Vor Oldtid. Copenhagen. 1897. (German tr. Nordische Altertümskunde. 2 vols. Strasburg. 1897-8.)
Olrik, A.Nordisk Aaandsliv i Vikingetid. Copenhagen. 1907. (German tr. Nordisches Geistesleben. Heidelberg. 1908.)
Steenstrup, J. C. H. R.Normannerne. 4 vols. Copenhagen. 1876-82.
—— Danmarks Riges Historie. Vol.I. Copenhagen. 1876-82.
Thomsen, V.The Relations between Ancient Russia and Scandinavia. Oxford. 1877.
Vogel, W.Die Normannen und das Fränkische Reich. Heidelberg. 1906.
Vogt, L. J.Dublin som Norsk By. Christiania. 1906.
The Publications of the Viking Club (Saga-Book and Year Book) include papers on various aspects of the movement and notices of the literature of the subject as well as descriptions of various archaeological discoveries.