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Viking
Place Names
Place
names in England
There
are four main categories of Viking place names in England.
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Place
names ending in -by, such as Selby or Whitby. These
-by endings are generally places where the Vikings settled
first. In Yorkshire there are 210 -by place names. The
-by has passed into English as 'by-law' meaning the
local law of the town or village.
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Place
names ending in -thorpe, such as Scunthorpe. The -thorpe
names are connected with secondary settlement, where
the settlements were on the margins or on poor lands.
There are 155 place names ending in -thorpe in Yorkshire.
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Place
names as a mixture of Anglo-Saxon
and Viking words. These are known as 'Grimston hybrids',
because -ton is an Anglo-Saxon word meaning town or
village, and Grim is a Viking name. The idea is that
a Viking took over an Anglo-Saxon place and called it
after himself. (Women's names are very rare in place
names). There are 50 'Grimston hybrid' names in Yorkshire.
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Changes
in pronunciation. The Anglo-Saxon place name Shipton
was difficult for the Vikings to say, so it became Skipton.
There
are several arguments connected with these place names.
Some historians have argued that the Viking invasions involved
very large numbers of people because there are so many Viking
place names. Other experts have argued that once the Viking
language became the main language of the region, place names
would naturally be named using Viking words. Another factor
is that few large Viking settlements were on entirely new
sites: many Viking settlements continued on the traditional
Anglo-Saxon sites.
Language has also become part of the debate. Some Scandinavian
words have become part of the English language, such as
'husband', 'knife' or 'window'. There are a large number
of Scandinavian words in English connected with farming
or boats, such as the 'keel' of a boat, which indicate the
importance of farming and sailing. However, most evidence
suggests that the Vikings began to speak English quite quickly,
and also stopped writing in runes.
Viking
Place Names in Ireland
Most
of the Viking placenames in Ireland are on the east or south
coasts. This is because the Vikings came from the east and
sailed down through the Irish Sea and along the south coast.
They established ports and towns along these coasts.
- The
Skellig Islands off the coast of Kerry.
- Wicklow
on the east coast of Ireland.
- Howth
on the north side of Dublin Bay.
- Dalkey
on the south side of Dublin, on the coast.
- Leixlip
on the river Liffey, west of Dublin.
- Lambay
a small island off the coast of Dublin.
- The
Saltee Islands, on the south coast of Wexford.
- Smerwick
at the Dingle peninsula in west Kerry.
- Dursey
Island off the coast of Cork.
- Strangford
on the north/east coast near Belfast .
- Carlingford
on the Irish Sea north of Dun dalk.
- Wexford
at the south/east corner of Ireland.
- Waterford
on the south coast of Ireland.
Place
Names in Russia
Names
on Rapids along the river Dnjepr
|
Name
|
Old
Norse
|
Scandinavian
|
English
|
| Essupi |
(Ves
uppi) |
sov
ikke |
Stay
up and Watch Out! |
| Ulvorsi |
(Hólmfors) |
fossen
med holmen |
Islet
Falls |
| Gelandri |
(Gellandi) |
den
sterkt larmende |
The
noisy one |
| Aifor |
(ei
- forr) |
alltid
voldsom |
The
violent one |
| Barufors |
(bra
- fors) |
bølgefossen |
The
rapids with the big whirlpool |
| Strukun |
(v.
stryka) |
den
med strykene |
The
one with the Violent Rapids |
from:
The Viking
Network, for more info please visit this site
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