B
188 CRANIA BRITANNICA. [CHAP. VI .
wasting banner of the Reafen. Soon after this period, the most patriotic of England's kings,
Alfred, was constrauiod for a time to bend before the northern foe—to bend but to regain fresh
strength with which to overthrow his barbarous enemies—at Ethandune.
I t is deserving of remark that hitherto, except in Devon or Cornwall, although "Bretland "
or Wales did not escape then- avidious search, the Danes saw little of the British aborigines,
save in the subdued character of Anglo-Saxon serfs. It was against the Saxons, at least in the
southern division of the island, that they made predatory attacks and more formidable wars—a
race with which there was no impediment to then- mingling and even perfectly amalgamating, if
we omit the animosities arising from ferocious cruelties on the one hand and deep-rooted revenge
on the other. This proximity of blood is of weighty import in estimating the permanency of each
in the fiiture course and history of the two races on the British soil.
The British islands were far from being the only scenes devastated by the Northmen *. They
ascended many of the continental rivers, attacked the Pranks, -ndntered near Paris, invaded
Brittany, Aquitain, the country of the Batavians, and Spain. Before the death of Charlemagne,
in 814, they even reached the Mediterranean. It is related that he was at dinner in the city of
Narbonne, when their ships came in sight. He rose from the table and went to the eastern
window to behold them. He wept when he recognized them, and said, " I fear not that they can
injure me. * * * I foresee the misery they wiU bring on my descendants " t . Ragnar Lodbrog,
the famous Northman hero, belongs to this era. He ascended the Seine and took Paris, within
thirty years of the prophetic declaration of Charlemagne. His various exploits on the British
and Hibernian shores are enumerated in his celebrated " Quida," or Death-song. At length,
the renowned RoUo, in 876, ascended the Seine again and established the Duchy of Normandy,
which, two centuries later, sent forth its fleets for the conquest of England.
Of the various districts of the British islands oft visited by the Northmen during and
after the times we have referred to, it wiU be desirable to point out those in which they most
influenced the population, from their numbers or from their abiding residence. On the southern
coast of England, although their inimical presence was acknowledged almost everywhere, and in
the extreme west, Cornwall, their ravages almost depopulated the county, they do not appear to
have left many enduring traces. East AngUa was overcome by Hynguar in 870, and its king,
the peaceful Edmund, cruelly miirdered. Danes settled in Norfolk and Suffolk, especially near
the coast; and the further aggressions of the Northmen were aided and succoured by these
settlers. In the Middle Anglian regions the Danes were strong and established for ages. It was
in this part of England that the five Danish Burghs, " Eemborgene," or fortified towns, were
situated—Stamford, Leicester, Derby, Nottingham, and Lincoln, in which a large portion of the
population was of Scandinavian extraction.
I n Suffolk, names with Anglo-Saxon endings superabound ; but there are besides 5 in the
Danish -bt/, 3 in -thorpe, 5 in -et/, 1 in -ioft, and 1 in -beck i ; and one of the Hundreds is named
Thingoe. In Norfolk there are 18 places with the name ending in -by; and it is remarkable
that 13 of them are situated in the smafl Hundred of East and West Elegg, immediately
to the north of Yarmouth, denoting a numerous Danish settlement. There are 26 places into
the names of which -thorpe enters, and 10 terminated by On advancing into the more
Gos, a goose, and iecc, a brook. Our enumeration is taken
from the maps in Gough's " Camden." Worsaae reverses the
first numbers : p. 71.
* Palgrave, " History of Normandy and of England," 1851,
vol. i. p. 418.
t Turner, " History of the Anglo-Saxons," otb edit. vol. i.
p. 472.
I Tiie latter, Gosbeck, is most likely Anglo-Saxon, from
Worsaae reports 1 7 in -by and 24 in -thorpe.
CHAP. VI.] ETHNOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF SUCCESSIVE POPULATIONS. 189
northern provinces of the Angles we meet with more numerous indications of Scandinavian
presence. In Lincolnshire, the Lindisey of the Northmen, names with terminations derived from
their languages prevaU greatly. Worsaae has counted very nearly 300. Among these occurs
Norman-by in three separate places, and two Nor-thorpes, which latter may be merely topographic
distinctions. There is also Thur-by and two Thores, probably primarUy derived from the
Norse form of the name of the god of thunder. In the great county of York the same prevalence
of Scandinavian terminations exists. Worsaae has counted above 400 in the three Ridings,
chiefly the North. They are less frequent in Lancashire, but again become very numerous in
Westooreland and Cumberland. When we pass into Northumberland, the Merse, and Lothian,
we discover a great paucity of Scandinavian names (the distinction of the Scottish Lowlands);
but in Dumfriesshire they are prevalent, and, according to the opinion of Worsaae, are immediately
derived from Cumberland.
If we take into account the long period, of some centuries, during which the Northmen,
chiefly Danes, exercised sway in the coast regions of Northumbria and in Middle and East
Anglia, their permanent settlement in these districts in large numbers for trade and other
peaceful purposes, where they became thoroughly incorporated with the population, whether of
British or Anglo-Saxon descent, we shall have every reason to anticipate a considerable influence
in the modification, if not in the displacement of the Anglo-Saxon population. In the great
slaughter of the Danes, A.D. 1002, which can only have been very partial, it is related that the
English women who were attached to these adventurers were mingled in the common massacre.
The Domesday survey after the Norman Conquest, taken during the latter half of the
eleventh century, affords some indications of the extent of the Danish population at that time.
Mr. Tm-ner, as before mentioned, deduces from this record that the five counties he calls Danish,
which were on the coasts and contained the chief settlements of this people in England, viz. Essex,
Sufi'olk, Norfolk, Lincoln, and York, the latter after the Conqueror's devastation, contained onethird
of the population entered in Domesday-a convincing proof of the populousness of these
settlements*. Their poUtical state also stands out pre-eminently, from the much larger proportion
of their freemen. In Lincolnshire, amongst the 25,817 enumerated, no less than 11,322 are ^oob.-
manm-, m Norfolk, out of 28,365 enumerated, there are 5,521 Sochmomm, and 4,981 lAberi homines
or 10,502 freemen; in Suffolk, out of 22,093, the number of freemen is nearly equal to those in
Norfolk. In some of the strictly Anglo-Saxon counties neither of these classes is mentioned •
and m others their tale is very low, as in Stafl-ordshire, where, the whole enmneration amountinc^
to 3,498, t h e i i i e r i homines are set down as 20 only. It has been before explamed that Domesday
Book IS not to be taken as anything like a census of the population, or as including the whole
body of freemen. StiU the facts thus derived from it show how greatly the independent state
of the people was mcreased by the Danish settlers, and likewise indicate how much they have
contributed to the free institutions of England.
The enterprises of the Northmen were far from being confined to the southern portions of
the island. In the forepart of the ninth century they made themselves heavily felt on the shores
of Caledoma and of Hibernia. Indeed this century was the first great epoch of their darin- ex
peditions. The Orkney and Shetland islands were familiar with the presence of the Norsemen
before they subjected the outer Hebrides and the Isles of Ar-ran and Man, and before they
made descents on the shores of Hibernia. In the case of the numerous northern and western
» It has hem before explained that Cumberland and Westmoreland, although they contain a much greater proportion of names
derrved from a Scandn,avian souree, not being separated from Yorkshire in the enumeration, are not available for L s oomparL™
2 c