Part 9

Outside, in the _garth_, or yard (_Dan._, Gaard), stands the roomy _lathe_, or barn (_Dan._, Lade), which directly shows how fruitful the soil is that belongs to the _garth_ (_Dan._, Gaard; _Eng._, a manor, farm). The shepherd or herdsman, whose _nowth_ (_Dan._, Nöd; _Eng._, neat cattle) are restless in the _boose_ (_Dan._, Baas; _Eng._, stall) and _crib_ (_Dan._, Krybbe; _Eng._, manger), is about to cleanse the stable, and with a _greype_, or gripe (_Dan._, Möggreve; _Eng._, dung-fork), bears out the _muck_ (_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 many _threaves_ of corn (_Dan._, Traver, bundles of twenty or thirty sheaves), particularly of _big_ (_Dan._, Byg; _Eng._ barley) that have been got from the poor _ling_ (_Dan._, Lyng; _Eng._, fern) which covers the sides of the _haughs_ or _haws_ (_Dan._, Höie; _Eng._, hills); of all the _slaa-torns_ (_Dan._, Slaatjörn; _Eng._, sloes), _lins_ (_Dan._, Lindetræer; _Eng._, linden trees), _roan trees_ (_Dan._, Rönnetrær; _Eng._, Scotch rowan trees), and _allars_ (_Dan._, Elletræer; _Eng._, alders), that grow in yonder little _shaw_ (_Dan._, Skov; _Eng._, wood), or in that _lawnd_ (_Dan._, Lund; _Eng._, grove), which is likewise full of _hindberries_ (_Dan._, Hindbær; _Eng._, raspberries), and which is resorted to by many _gowks_ (_Dan._, Gjöge; _Eng._, cuckoos). A field farther on, which in its time was acquired by _mackshift_ (_Dan._, Mageskifte; _Eng._, deed of exchange), has been allowed to _ley-breck_ (_Dan._, ligge-brak; _Eng._, to lie fallow). Through this field winds a _beck_ (_Dan._, Bæk; _Eng._, brook), or rivulet well stocked with fish, in which with a _liester_ (_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 the _trows_, or troughs (_Jutland_, trow; _Old Scan._, Þró), made use of to cross over to the opposite shore. These _trows_, 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 of _yuletide_, _yuling_ (Christmas), _yule-candles_ (_Dan._, Julelys), and _yule-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 the _yule-block_, by others _yule-clog_, or _yule-log_ (perhaps from the old Scandinavian _lág_, _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, called _julhös_ (from _hös_, the skull), is set on the table at Christmas; and in East Gothland a large loaf, called _juhlegalt_, is seen on table throughout the festival, of which, however, nothing is eaten. _Juhlhös_ and _juhlegalt_, 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 word _lake_ (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.

───────────────┬───────────────┬─────────────── Provincial │ English. │ Danish. English[8]. │ │ ───────────────┼───────────────┼─────────────── arr │scar │Ar attercop │spider │Edderkop awns │beads of corn │Avner bank │to beat │banke bairn, bearn │child │Barn bede │to pray │bede bid │to invite │byde, indbyde bide │to stay │bie big, biggin │to build, │bygge, Bygning │ building │ blend │to mix │blande boll, or bole │trunk of a tree│Bul (Træ) brosten │burst │brusten clammer │to quarrel, │klamres, │ grasp │ fast-klamre claver │to climb │klavre cluve │hoof │Klov, Hov dyke, dike │ditch │Dige elt │to knead │ælte festing-penny │earnest-money │Fæstepenge fra │from │fra frem folks │strangers │Fremmede Folk full │drunk │fuld, drukken gainest way │nearest way │Gjenvei gammon │merriment │Gammen gants, ganty │to be merry │gantes gar │to make │gjöre gar │to hedge │gjerde glowing │staring │gloende (glouring) │ │ greit, greets │to weep, tears │grœde, Graad grepen │clasped │greben grise │young pig │Griis groats │husked corn │grudtet Korn hack │to stammer │hakke, stamme halikeld │holy-well │Helligkilde hand clout │towel │Haandklæde handsel │earnest │Handsel harns, │brain, brain │Hjerne, harns-pan │ pan │ Hjerne-skal heck │hay-rack │Hække (til Hö) hesp │latch │Haspe (Dör) hose │stocking │hose kaam, kem │comb, to comb │Kam, kæmme kail, kale │cabbage │Kaal kern-milk │churn-milk │Kjernemelk kern │to churn │kjerne kilt │to tuck up │kilte (op) kitling │young cat │Killing laid │just froze │logt (Iis) mauf, meaugh │brother-in-law │Maag, Svoger mind │to remember │mindes nab │to catch │nappe neaf (or neif) │fist, handful │Næve, Nævefuld neaf-full │ │ neb │bill, beak │Næb nipping │to sip │nippe pot-scar │pot-sherd │Potteskaar quern │hand-mill │Qværn querken’d │suffocated │qværket raise │a heap of │Rös, Steendysse │ stones, cairn│ read (or rede) │to guess, know │raade, udtyde │ fully │ read │to comb │rede (Haar) reasty │toasted │ristet rid │to remove │rydde rig, riggin │back, ridge of │Ryg, Rygning │ a house │ rip up │to revive │rippe op │ (injuries) │ rise │underwood │Riis │ │ (Underskov) rive │to split, │rive (splitte) │ divide │ sackless │without suit │sageslös sark │shirt │Særk scarn │dung │Skarn (Smuds) schrike (or │to cry, shriek │skrige skrike) │ │ scoll │toast (health) │Skaal │ │ (Drikkelag) sele │to bind, fasten│bind i Sele skift │to change │skifte (Klæder) │ (clothes) │ slade │sledge │Slæde sleck │to put out │slukke │ (quench) │ smiddy │blacksmith’s │Smedie │ shop │ smooth-hole │hiding-place │Smuthul smouch │kiss │Smadsk (Kys) snirp │to pine │snirpe speer (or spar)│to ask │spörge spire │young tree │Spire stee (or stey) │ladder │Stige steert │point │Stjert stew │dust │Stöv stive │to raise dust │stöve stumpy │short, thick │stumpet stot │young horse, or│Stod (Hest) │ bullock │ swale │shade │Svale (Skygge) sype (or sipe) │to drop gently │sive │ (ooze) │ tang │sea-weed │Tang theaker │thatcher │Tækker toom (or tuam) │empty │tom twine │to murmur, weep│tvine unrid │disorderly, │uredt, urede │ filthy │ uphold │to maintain │holde oppe wadmal, woadmel│coarse woollen │Vadmel │ cloth │ wan │rod │Vaand wark │ache, pain │Værk (Smerte) way zalt │to weigh salt, │veie Salt │ a game │ (Leeg) wong │a field │Vænge

Footnote 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 called _limmers_, a word clearly of the same origin as the Jutlandish _liem_, a broom; both being derived from the old Scandinavian _limi_, which signifies _boughs_, _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 article _æ_ before words like the English “the,” although the Danish language in other provinces does not recognise such an article; and the broad open _w_, 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 Jutlandish _forenoun_ and _atternoun_ (_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 name _Nök_ (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 the _nix_ (_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 a _nisse_ or brownîe, till at last he could bear it no longer, and determined to _flit_ (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 word _flit_ was, 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.

SECTION IX.

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.