Place-Name Evidence for the Coexistence of Viking Settlers and other Groups in Derbyshire
Place-Name Evidence for the Coexistence of Viking Settlers and other Groups in Derbyshire
The analysis of place-names in Derbyshire can provide useful insight into the contact between the Viking settlers colonising the Danelaw and the native Anglo-Saxons. The Danes also encountered many other native groups on their way to the Danelaw and suggestions about the interaction between these various groups can also be made from place-name evidence. In this essay, the popular depiction of the Vikings raiding villages and forcing the natives to flee will be questioned and will instead attempt to demonstrate a state of coexistence between the various groups who inhabited the Danelaw.
According to Hockett (1987: 43), when two different native groups come into contact, they are able to understand each other and communicate through the process of a 'switching-code', where speakers substitute sounds and elements with equivalent ones from their own dialect. Many place-names in Derbyshire demonstrate this Scandinavian adaptation of Anglo-Saxon place-names and provide an indication of the ability of the Scandinavians to comprehend Old English (OE) speech and names.
Scandinavian cognate substitution appears to be evident in many place-names in Derbyshire. For example, the pre-Scandinavian form of Hazelbadge is Haselbech(e) (1251), while its post-Scandinavian form is Heselbache (1367) (Townend, 2002: 77). This provides evidence of the OE word hæsel, meaning 'hazel tree', being replaced by Old Norse (ON) helsi. Similar cognate replacement is seen in Milton, which was recorded as Middeltune (Domesday Book, 1086, cited in Cameron, 1958: 104). The first element appears to be from OE middel, meaning 'middle'. However, a later form of this is Melton(e) (Journal of the Derbyshire Archaeological and Natural History Society, 1227, cited in Cameron, 1958: 104), which seems to indicate a replacement by the ON cognate meðal. A final example is evident in Ashford, the pre-Scandinavian form of which is Æscforda (926) and its post-Scandinavian form is Askeford (1265), (Townend, 2002: 70). Here, the OE æsc ("ash tree") is replaced by ON cognate askr.
These cognate replacements provide evidence of the Scandinavians' ability to use a switching-code to adapt OE place-name elements in order to make them more comprehendible to their group. This is supported by Townend (2002: 60), who suggests that 'When they [Scandinavians] heard English words and names spoken, they recognised and understood them and inwardly transposed them into their own dialect'. Thus, although there was intelligibility between the two groups, these changes in nomenclature suggest that in the early stages of Scandinavian settlement, they did not necessarily try to assimilate into the existing Anglo-Saxon culture.
This separation of the two groups is also illustrated by three further place-names in Derbyshire, the first elements of which refer to various racial names. The first element of Ingleby comes from OE Engle, meaning 'Angle', which indicates that the existence of the Angles here was a significant feature as supposedly, Scandinavians dominated the neighbouring counties. This is supported by Cameron (1987: 116), who suggests that 'Englishmen lived in these villages but Scandinavians lived in the neighbourhood' and this is reinforced by the Scandinavian cemetery that was found nearby. Conversely, the first element of Denby is from OE Dene, meaning 'Dane', which indicates that whilst the Danish settled in this particular village, the English generally populated the region.
As the Vikings who came to Britain were from two Scandinavian countries, where different dialects were spoken, there are differences in the forming of place-names of the Norwegian settlers in the north-west of England and the Danes in the Danelaw (Gelling, 1988: 215). Therefore, Cameron's etymology (1958: 89), which suggests that the first element of Bretby derives from ON Bretar, gen. pl. Breta, meaning 'the Britons' would indicate that these Britons were originally those from the north-west of England and accompanied the Norwegian settlers here. This is also demonstrated in the place-name Griffe Grange, which according to Bagshaw (1846: 361), is also known as Bret-Griffe. The first element also comes from ON Breta (Cameron, 1958: 108) and further indicates the settlement of these Britons, who accompanied the Scandinavians. This suggests that even this group of Britons who had close associations with the Scandinavians lived in separate communities to the greater Scandinavian population in Derbyshire.
Whilst evidence has so far suggested that Scandinavians and native Anglo-Saxons did not have much direct contact with each other, it must be borne in mind that the Scandinavians appeared to respect the Anglo-Saxon nomenclature in Derbyshire, as is evident from their replacement of many Anglo-Saxon elements with Scandinavian cognate terms, discussed above. This demonstrates that they did not attempt to completely re-name the landscape based on their own background and culture. There are also many examples of non-cognate substitution in Derbyshire where new Scandinavian elements relate to the same or similar entities as referred to in the original Anglo-Saxon name. This is shown in Sherbrook Lodge, the pre-Scandinavian form of which is Sirebroch (1101-08), while its post-Scandinavian form is Scirebec (1207) (Townend, 2002: 72). This is evidence of the OE broc, meaning 'stream', being replaced by the topographically corresponding ON term bekkr, also meaning 'stream'. Thus, although the words non-cognate, this is nonetheless evidence of the Scandinavians' appreciation of the semantic content in the original Anglo-Saxon name.
A similar case is in Dalbury Lees, the Anglo-Saxon form of which is Dellingeberie (Domesday Book), while the Scandinavian form is Delbebi (Townend, 2002: 74). This shows evidence of OE byrig, meaning 'stronghold or city', being replaced by ON by, meaning 'settlement' (Kent, 1888: 351). Both the Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian forms denote settlements and this is further evidence of the Scandinavians' compliance with the natives' nomenclatural practices.
In these examples, the retention of the original OE first elements by the Scandinavians supports Fellows-Jensen (1972: 140) in her claim that due to the first elements in place-names ...
This is a preview of the whole essay
A similar case is in Dalbury Lees, the Anglo-Saxon form of which is Dellingeberie (Domesday Book), while the Scandinavian form is Delbebi (Townend, 2002: 74). This shows evidence of OE byrig, meaning 'stronghold or city', being replaced by ON by, meaning 'settlement' (Kent, 1888: 351). Both the Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian forms denote settlements and this is further evidence of the Scandinavians' compliance with the natives' nomenclatural practices.
In these examples, the retention of the original OE first elements by the Scandinavians supports Fellows-Jensen (1972: 140) in her claim that due to the first elements in place-names receiving the main stress, they were easier to comprehend and recognise for the Scandinavians. This is because, as Townend (2002: 65) explains 'By the Viking Age, unstressed syllables in OE were in the process of being centralised to schwa' and it would therefore be harder for Scandinavians to recognise the second elements. This suggests that the Scandinavians' reasons for changing the original place-names were not to try and impose their culture onto the Anglo-Saxons but merely to aid the Norse speakers' ability to understand and recognise the existing place-names.
A similar conclusion can be drawn from the analysis of phonemic changes that the Scandinavians made to Anglo-Saxon place-names. It would appear as though they tried to adapt the names to use corresponding phonemes from their own language to aid their pronunciation of these names. As well as demonstrating a cognate substitution, the earlier forms of Ashford, as given above, show evidence of the sound change from OE /?/ to ON /sk/. This led to the consonant cluster /sk/ regularly undergoing palatalisation and assibilation in OE, whilst its velar sound was retained in ON (Townend, 2002: 61).
Similarly, the field-name Church Bridge appears as Kyrchebruge (1252 RadCh) and Kirkbridge (Survey, 1662 cited in Cameron, 1958: 107). Thus, a sound change from OE /t?/ to ON /k/ is apparent and this led to /k/ in OE regularly undergoing 'palatalisation and assibilation in positions where ON retained the Germanic velar stop' (Townend, 2002: 61.). The replacement of OE cirice by the ON cognate kirkja is also evident here, although the final spelling of the name as Church Bridge would indicate that perhaps both the OE and ON forms coexisted as in this later form, the OE spelling seems to have been restored.
These examples of phonemic correspondences suggest that the Scandinavians avoided changing the semantic content of Anglo-Saxon place-names and instead resorted to less drastic methods of change that would enhance their understanding and pronunciation of them. This provides further evidence of the degree of intelligibility between the two groups as the Scandinavians seemed to analyse the original Anglo-Saxon names in terms of their semantics and phonology in order to come up with corresponding forms that Norse speakers could understand. This is supported by Milliken and Milliken (1988: 1), cited in Townend (2002: 45), who suggest that 'the degree of intelligibility between any two dialects correlates with the system of phonological correspondences that exists between cognate lexical items in those dialects'.
However, this sensitivity to Anglo-Saxon place-names by the Scandinavians is only true to a limited extent, as illustrated by Grimston hybrids, where a Scandinavian personal name is followed by the generic OE element tun, meaning 'settlement'. These places represent early English villages, as evidenced from the fact that in Derbyshire, the majority of them are situated on high-quality agricultural land, 'north of the River Trent and to the west of the River Derwent' (Cameron, 1958: 92). The idealness of this area for settlement and cultivation suggests that it was likely to have been inhabited first. This is supported by Fellows-Jensen (1978: 368), who suggests that the 'the majority of the hybrid and scandinavianised names are borne by English vills whose names were partly altered by the invading Scandinavians.' Thus, the name of the new Scandinavian owner replaced the original Anglo-Saxon name in the initial element of a place-name. An example of this is Kedleston, previous forms of which include Chetelestune (Domesday Book 1086) and Ketleston (Curia Regis Rolls, 1206, cited in Ekwall, 1989: 269). The first element denotes the ON personal name Ketill, who presumably took over the village.
However, some hybrid names contain non-Scandinavian initial elements and can provide insight into the relationship between various groups. For example, the first element of Mercaston comes from the Old Welsh personal name Merchion, which is 'also found among Britons in Cumberland' (Cameron, 1958: 93). This suggests that Merchoin, presumably the lord of this village, was originally from the north-west of England and accompanied the Scandinavians to Derbyshire. Thus, it was not only the dominating Scandinavian groups who took over Anglo-Saxon villages but also the foreign travelers who accompanied them, and a similar case can be seen in Bretby, discussed above. This demonstrates harmony between the north-westerners and Scandinavians as they travelled, although it would appear as though once they arrived in the Danelaw, each group chose to settle in separate villages.
Cameron (1958: 93) compares the case of Mercaston to Mammerton, the first element of which, he suggests comes from the Old West Scandinavian name Melmor, which is a form of the Old Irish name Maelmuire, meaning 'servant of Mary'. According to Cameron, this place-name is further evidence of the settlement of travelers from the north-west of England who accompanied the Vikings. Mercaston to Mammerton are also very close by, which would indicate a large population in this area of settlers from non-Scandinavian countries. This is further demonstrated by the nearby towns Kirk Ireton and Ireton Farm, where in both cases, the first element comes from ON Íri, which besides meaning Irishman, also denoted an Irishman who accompanied the Scandinavians to England (Cameron, 1958: 115). Thus, whilst it may be expected that such minority groups as Irishmen and north-westerners would live in small, isolated communities, rather than dominating particular areas, Cameron's suggestions seem to indicate the latter.
However, Watts (2004: 395) argues that the 'persistent a spellings in the various forms of Mammerton point to ON malmar, genitive sing. malmr 'sand, gravel' + tun'. Therefore, rather than the first element denoting a north-western settler, it in fact relates to a topographical feature and the place-name is therefore an example of a 'Carlton hybrid' (Fellows-Jensen, 1972: 109), rather than a Grimston hybrid. This suggests that Cameron's view of non-Scandinavian groups dominating this area within Derbyshire is slightly exaggerated and is supported by the fact that near Mercaston, there are many archetypal Grimston hybrid names which contain Scandinavian personal names. Examples include Kedleston (from the ON personal name Ketill), Roston (from the ON personal name Hrosskell) and Foston (from the Old Scandinavian nick-name Fotr).
These changes the Scandinavians made to Grimston hybrid place-names would suggest that they attempted to 'Scandinavianise' their new settlements, paying loyalty to the new Danish lords who took over Anglo-Saxon villages. However, this is not to suggest that the Anglo-Saxons were driven out of their villages. Instead, there was a peaceful coexistence between the two groups and this is supported by Morris (1982) cited in www.yorksj.ac.uk, who suggests that the retention of the OE element -tun in Grimston hybrid names indicates that the existing Anglo-Saxon inhabitants 'lived on undisturbed'. This is further evidence of the Scandinavians' reluctance to completely rename their settlements and instead mingle new Scandinavian elements with those from the coexisting Anglo-Saxon culture.
However, the Scandinavians' retention of -tun could be explained by alternative means. The element also occurs in place-names in Norway (Townend, 2002: 55), so would have perhaps been familiar to the Danish settlers. Thus, they may have retained the element because it was already widely understood amongst them, as opposed to in an attempt to maintain a sense of harmony with the Anglo-Saxons.
Although it has been suggested that the Danes and Norwegians settled in different areas in Britain, place-name evidence would indicate that the split between the groups was not so heavy. This is demonstrated by the place-names Normanton, South Normanton and Temple Normanton. Normanton means 'farmstead of the Norwegians', the first element of which is from OE Norðman, meaning 'a Norwegian' (Cameron, 1959: 649). This suggests that like the various groups discussed above, these Norwegians also accompanied the Danes to the Danelaw. Due to Norwegians' heavy settlement in the north-west of England, it is possible that they initially settled there before joining the Danes to the Danelaw. This further demonstrates that the Danes did not exclusively take over English settlements and instead merged with other groups they met on their way to settle in the Danelaw together.
The coexistence of Danish and non-Danish groups is also illustrated by burial evidence, which appears to support the conclusions drawn so far from place-names.
Richards (2003: 5) suggests that while Viking burials at Repton may have contained some 'pagan' features such as grave goods including the Hammer of Thor, the burials were located immediately adjacent to the shrine of St. Wystan and the orientation of the bodies was in the typical Christian fashion. Such Viking burials next to Christian saintly relics provide evidence of a form of burial practice, which blends together old and new traditions.
However, this harmony between the Scandinavians and Anglo-Saxons is briefly questioned by Townend (2002: 49), who suggests the possibility that Scandinavian settlers 'may have ignored the English names entirely and independently coined their own' due to 'lack of contact with the English'. This would have led to Norse forms of English place-names being established among the Norse speech community before the original native forms had been learned. However, there only appears to be a single example of such a phenomenon in Derbyshire, which exists in Derby, the OE form of which was Norðworþig. The elements in the OE form are neither cognate nor phonetically similar to the modern Scandinavianised form. This would suggest that in certain areas of Derbyshire, there was in fact little contact and intelligibility between the English and Scandinavians. However, this might have been because Derby held a major military base for the Danish army, so to assert its significance, the Danes changed its name to make it wholly Scandinavian.
This OE form of Derby contradicts Fellows-Jensen (1972: 119), who suggests that 'Where a cognate OE word exists... it is reasonable to assume that it was this word the Scandinavian element replaced and not some entirely unrelated word'. Thus, although the phenomenon of changing place-names with elements unrelated to its original form is rare, it is certainly apparent, and might indeed have been more common in Derbyshire if more pre-Conquest forms of place-names were available. However, due to the scarcity of pre-Conquest documents in the North, the majority of names survive only in their Scandinavianised forms (Townend, 2002: 53).
Place-name evidence has been significant in providing information about the interaction between the various native groups that settled in Derbyshire. It would seem plausible with the possible exceptions of Grimston hybrid names and Derby, that the Danes generally did not attempt to completely alter the semantics of English place-names but merely made them more congruent with their own forms of speech, using corresponding phonemes and cognates. A peaceful coexistence is generally demonstrated between the Danes and Anglo-Saxons, as well as the other groups encountered by the Danes, such as Irishmen, Norwegians and travelers from the north-west of England, who accompanied them to the Danelaw.
Bibliography
Books
Bagshaw, S. 1846. History, gazetteer and directory of Derbyshire, with the town of Burton-upon-Trent. Sheffield.
Cameron, K. 1958. "The Scandinavians in Derbyshire" in Thorpe, L. (ed.) Nottingham Medieval Studies, Vol. 2. Cambridge: W. Heffer & Sons Ltd.
Cameron, K. 1959. "The Place-Names of Derbyshire", English Place-Name Society Vols. 27-9, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Cameron, K. 1987. "Scandinavian Settlement in the Territory of the Five Boroughs: The Place-Name Evidence" in Cameron, K. (ed.) Place-Name Evidence for the Anglo-Saxon Invasion and Scandinavian Settlements. Nottingham: English Place-Name Society.
Ekwall, E. 1960. Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-Names. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Fellows Jensen, G. 1972. "Scandinavian Settlement Names in Yorkshire", Navnestudier 11, Copenhagen.
Fellows Jensen, G. 1978. "Scandinavian Settlement Names in the East Midlands", Navnestudier 16, Copenhagen.
Gelling, M. 1988. Signposts to the Past. Sussex: Phillimore & Co. Ltd.
Hockett, C. F. 1987. "Refurbishing Our Foundations", Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 56, Amsterdam: Benjamins.
Kent, C. 1888. "The Anglo-Saxon burh and byrig", Modern Language Notes, Vol. 3. Maryland: The Johns Hopkins University Press.
Richards, J. 2003. "Pagans and Christians at the frontier: Viking burial in the Danelaw" in: Carver, M. (ed) The Cross Goes North: Processes of Conversion in Northern Europe, AD 300-1300. York Medieval Press in association with Boydell & Brewer, York/Woodbridge.
Townend, M. 2002. Language and History in Viking Age England. Turnhout: Brepols
Watts, V. (ed.) 2004. The Cambridge Dictionary of English Place-Names. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Websites:
Scandinavian Settlement
Website: http://www.yorksj.ac.uk/dialect/Scanset.htm
Accessed on 30 April 2008
Conc:
Peaceful coexistence between Sax and Scands
Scands generally appeared resistant towards completely renaming their settlements and instead tried to understand the existing names and revise them slightly only in order for their group to be able to pronounce and comprehend them.
Not only Danes who took over settlements: also north-westerners and Irish and Norwegians - who also peacefully coexisted with Scands
This cultural continuation - so also evidence of MIXING of two cultures.
A peaceful coexistence has been demonstrated between the Scandinavians and the Anglo-Saxons in Derbyshire. Rather than changing the semantics of Anglo-Saxon place-names, it would seem as though they attempted to recognise interpret them
English element in the population must have been considerable. At the same time, the Danes must have been powerful enough to impose their authority completely on the exiting native population. Wainwright (108) suggested that linguistically, they were sufficiently powerful to influence but not dominate the English speakers in the district.
It is likely that the Danes in Appletree took over establish (OE) villages. The evidence of the groups of names above supports a theory of later extension of settlements with OE words (ge)hæg and OE leah meaning "enclosure" and "clearing" respectively appearing as second elements of hybrids.
So suggests dialect intelligibility rather than bilingualism.
P50
A more likely possibility was for Scand settlers to adapt English names to make them more congenial to their own speech habits.
Place-name adapting can happen in two ways: 'speakers may make the foreign name approximate phonetically to sounds in their own'. W. F. H. Nicolaisen (1975: 170) describes this process: 'The name in one lang is a phonological adaptation of the name in the other lang; by definition such a name becomes instantly meaningless in the receiving lang. Phonological adaptation may be called the prototype of onomastic transfer; is clearly the most common toponymic phenomenon in linguistic contact.' I.e. new names wont have meaning cause the sounds of them have changed so that the incomers can pronounce them. E.g. Scotland: Beinn Liath > Ben Lee
Second process (still Townend: 50)... 'or they may translate the foreign name sound-by-sound or element-by-element into their own lang by substituting cognate forms.' W. F. H. Nicolaisen (1975: 169) describes this 'The name in one lang is a translation of part-translation of the name in another lang; this appears to be the result of the closest contact between speakers of the two langs concerned, with the incoming lang usually being required to do the translating.' E.g. Scotland: An t-Eilean Dubh > Black Isle. NOTE: THIS SEEMS MORE COMMON IN DERBS AS LOTS OF SCAND COGNATES USED TO REPLACE OE ONES - so strong contact between the speakers as Nicolaisen suggests.
ME: THERE IS EVIDENCE OF BOTH THESE PLACE-NAME ADAPTING IN DERBS
P51
...a study of the Scandinavianisation of OE place-names represents... how well Viking settlers were able to understand the Eng words and speech they heard from the lips of the native Anglo-Saxons.
The coexistence of the Saxons and Vikings evident by certain -by names:
END OF ESSAY
The study of place-names in Derbyshire can provide evidence about the contact and interaction between the Anglo-Saxons and Vikings.
http://www.yorksj.ac.uk/dialect/Scanset.htm - Morris quote
