Indirectly the Vikings have also left a window open to their language, culture and activities, through many Old Norse place names and words, found in their former sphere of influence. Some of these place names and words are still in direct use today, almost unchanged, and sheds light on where they settled and what specific places meant to them, as seen in place names like Egilsay (from Eigils Ø meaning Eigils Island), Ormskirk (from Ormr kirkja meaning Orms Church or Church of the Worm), Meols (from merl meaning Sand Dunes), Snaefell (Snow Fell), Ravenscar (Ravens Rock), Vinland (Land of Wine or Land of Winberry), Kaupanger (Market Harbour) and Tórshavn (Thors Harbour) or the religious centre of Odense, meaning a place where Odin was worshipped. It is also evident in concepts like the present day Tynwald on the Isle of Man. Common words in everyday English language, like some of the weekdays (Thursday means Thors day), axle, crook, raft, knife, plough, leather, bylaw, thorp, skerry, ombudsman, husband, heathen, Hell, Norman and ransack stem from the Old Norse of the Vikings, and give us an opportunity to understand their interactions with the people and cultures of the British Isles. In the Northern Isles of Shetland and Orkney, Old Norse completely replaced the local languages and over time evolved into the now extinct Norn language. Some modern words and names only emerge and contribute to our understanding after a more intense research of linguistic sources from medieval or later records, such as York (Horse Bay), Swansea (Sveinns Isle) or some of the place names in Northern France like Tocqueville (Tokis farm). Linguistic and etymological studies continue to provide a vital source of information on the Viking culture, their social structure and history and how they interacted with the people and cultures they met, traded, attacked or lived with in overseas settlements. It has been speculated that several place names on the west coast of southern France might also stem from Viking activities. Place names like Taillebourg (Trelleborg, meaning City of Thralls or Castle of Thralls) exist as far south as the Charente River. Gascony and vicinity is an active area of Viking archaeology at present. A lot of Old Norse connections are evident in the modern-day languages of Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Faroese and Icelandic. Old Norse did not exert any great influence on the Slavic languages in the Viking settlements of Eastern Europe. It has been speculated that the reason was the great differences between the two languages, combined with the Rus Vikings more peaceful businesses in these areas and the fact that they were outnumbered. The Norse named some of the rapids on the Dnieper, but this can hardly be seen from the modern names. A consequence of the available written sources, which may have coloured how we perceive the Viking Age as a historical period, is that we know a lot more of the Vikings activities in western Europe than in the East. One reason for this is that the peoples living in north-eastern Europe at the time were non-literate, and did not produce a legacy of literature. Another is that the vast majority of Scandinavian written sources come from Iceland, a nation originally settled by Norwegian colonists. As a result there is much more material from the Viking Age concerning Norway than Sweden, which apart from many runic inscriptions, has almost no written sources from the early Middle Ages.
Posted on: Fri, 31 Oct 2014 19:34:07 +0000
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