The Danes in Lancashire
[Illustration: Canute.]
The Danes in Lancashire
and Yorkshire
BY
S. W. PARTINGTON
_ILLUSTRATED_
SHERRATT & HUGHES
London: 33 Soho Square, W.
Manchester: 34 Cross Street
1909
PREFACE.
The story of the 'childhood of our race' who inhabited the counties
of Lancashire and Yorkshire before the Norman Conquest, is an almost
blank page to the popular reader of to-day. The last invaders of our
shores, whom we designate as the Danes and Norsemen, were not the least
important of our ancestors. The History of their daring adventures,
crafts and customs, beliefs and character, with the surviving traces in
our language and laws, form the subject of this book.
From the evidence of relics, and of existing customs and traditions,
we trace their thought and actions, their first steps in speech and
handicraft, and the development of their religious conceptions. Our
education authorities have realized the fact that "Local Names" contain
a fund of history and meaning which appeals to the young as well as
to the adults; and the county committees have been well advised to
recommend the teaching of History and Geography from local features and
events.
Some articles written by the late Mr. John Just, M.A., of Bury, on
our early races, and elements of our language and dialect, formed the
incentive to the writer to continue the story of our Danish ancestors.
To the following writers we are indebted for many facts and quotations:
H. Colley March, Esq., M.D.; W. G. Collingwood, "Scandinavian Britain";
W. S. Calverley, "Stone Crosses and Monuments of Westmorland and
Cumberland"; Dr. W. Wagner's "Tales and Traditions of our Northern
Ancestors"; Mr. Boyle, "Danes in the East Riding of Yorkshire"; Mr.
J. W. Bradley, B.A., of the Salt Museum, Stafford, "Runic Calendars
and Clog-Almanacs"; Rev. J. Hay Colligan, Liverpool; Professor W. A.
Herdman, Liverpool; Mr. Jas. T. Marquis, of the Battle of "Brunanburh";
Dr. Worsäac, "Danes in England."
Messrs. Titus Wilson & Son, Kendal, Plates, "Map of Races," etc.; Swan,
Sonnenschein & Co., London; Williams, Norgate & Co., London.
To Charles W. Sutton, Esq., Free Reference Library, Manchester, for
valuable advice and assistance grateful thanks are now tendered.
S. W. PARTINGTON.
BURY, _October 4, 1909_.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
Invasion and Conquest 1
Settlements 11
Place-Names 45
Patronymics 59
Physical Types still existing 77
Political Freemen 87
Husbandry 109
Stone Crosses 117
Runes 135
Memorials 161
Literature 167
Mythology 187
Superstitions 203
Agriculture 213
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
Canute _Frontispiece_
PAGE
Viking Settlements 13
Extwistle Hall 34
Brunanburh Map 36
Old Dane's House 40
Ancient Danish Loom 80
Heysham Hogback 120
Danish Ornaments, Claughton-on-brock 124
Halton Cross 125
Ormside Cup 131
Clog Almanac Symbols 144
Runic Calendar 155
Carved Wood, with Runes 170
Bractaetes 174
Halton Cup 176
Calderstones, No. I. 184
Calderstones, No. II. 185
Invasion and Conquest
CHAPTER I.
INVASION AND CONQUEST.
A victorious people have always a wide-spreading influence over the
people subdued by them. An inferior race never withstood a superior
one. The very fact that the Danes gained not only an ascendancy in
many parts of England during the Anglo-Saxon dynasties, but even the
government of them all, is a proof that they were at that period a race
of individuals superior to the natives of the land. The indigenous
Britons felt the ameliorating influence of the Roman superiority and
the civilisation which formed an element of the Roman sway. The Danes
exercised and maintained an influence equal to the extent of their
amalgamation for the general good of the country. The Romans were as
much superior to the aboriginal Britons as the English of the present
day are to the Africans and Sikhs. The Saxons were an advance on the
Romanised Celt, while on the Saxons again, the Danes or Northmen
were an advance in superiority and a great element of improvement.
Leaving the Danes to tell their own tale and write their own histories
in favour of their own fatherland, we undertake to sketch out their
connection with our own county of Lancaster, with the permanent,
and still existing, effects of that connection. Hitherto history
has unfolded nothing as to the date when the "Vikings" first visited
the Lancashire coast, plundering the county, and slaughtering the
inhabitants. The Danes first visited the eastern coasts about the year
A.D. 787, as narrated in the Saxon Chronicle. In the year 894 the city
of Chester fell into their hands, under the redoubtable Hastings. This
celebrated place the Danes fortified, and henceforward, along with
the other cities of Derby, across the island, held at intervals until
their power waned by the amalgamation which eventually constituted
one people. Local names are the beacon lights of primeval history.
The names of places, even at this remote period of time, suffice
to prove that the Danes left an impression of superiority by their
invasion. At this time the Danes invaded the coast of Lancashire, and
formed settlements therein. Cumberland and Westmorland were under the
dominion of Cumbrian Britons. At this early period the Danes have
so intermingled with the Anglo-Saxons, as to influence the names of
the hundreds into which the shire was sub-divided. No chronicle may
register this fact, but the words do, and will do, so long as they
constitute the signs and symbols of ideas and things. The northern
hundred of the shire was named Lonsdale, and extended not only over
the district of Lunesdale, but also included the territory north of
the sands. The second hundred into which the shire was divided was
Amounderness. If we allow "ness" to be of strictly Scandinavian origin,
then this hundred has a strictly Danish or Norse name, "Amounder"
being the first Viking who settled in the Fylde country. Blackburn,
pronounced "Blakeburn," is the third name of a hundred which lies more
inland, but having little or no coast line within the shire. Inland
the Scandinavian influence diminished. Hence the genuine Anglo-Saxon
name of this division; in the early times "Blagburnshire." The fourth
hundred is that of Salford, also inland, hence under no Danish
influence. The name is genuine Anglo-Saxon and perhaps this hundred
includes natives less mixed with Scandinavian population than any
other in the north of England. The broad Anglo-Saxon frame is seen to
perfection in the country districts, and the light, ruddy complexion.
The men were made for endurance and slow in movements. It would be a
difficult task to get them to move if they felt disinclined to do so.
The last hundred has much sea coast, and came therefore much under
Danish influence. Hence the name, West Derby Hundred. No one who knows
anything of our early history will hesitate to pronounce this name
altogether Danish, so that three out of the five hundreds into which
the county was apportioned were under Danish domination. "Bi," Danish,
in modern English "by," was the common term given by Danish settlers to
their residence. Derby or Deorby means not the residence or home of the
deer, but a locality where the animals abounded. The Danes had, more
than any other people, a reverence for the dead. Wherever a hero fell,
even if but a short time sufficed to cover his remains, this was done;
and if nothing better to mark the spot, a boat which brought him hither
was placed over him, keel uppermost. Failing a boat, a "Haugr" or mound
was raised over his grave. When Christianity upset these "Hofs," or
sacred enclosures of Odin and Thor, then crosses were erected over the
Christian graves. This accounts for the universal number of "Crosbys"
in the Danish district of the kingdom. Conquered Rome converted and
conquered its barbarian and heathen masters to the Cross. Anglo-Saxon
converted his Danish neighbour, and subdued him to the Cross. The
higher the superstitions of the Pagan the greater the devotee when he
is converted.
When the Danes were converted to Christianity by their intercourse
with the Anglo-Saxons they transferred all their superstitious
feeling to the emblems of Christianity. Churches were also built by
the naturalised Danes in all places where they settled; and just as
easy as it is to recognise their dwellings by their "bys," so it is
to know the places where they reared their churches. Their name for
a church was "kirkja." Hence in whatever compound name this word
enters as a component, there it indicates a Danish origin. Hence
Kirkby, Formby, Ormskirk, and Kirkdale are places appertaining to the
early Anglo-Danish history. Dale is likewise a genuine appellative,
as in Kirkdale as already noticed. Besides, in this hundred we find:
Skelmersdale, Ainsdale, Cuerdale, and Birkdale. The only two places
which the Danes seem to have noticed in their navigation of the Ribble
were Walton-le-dale and the more important Cuerdale, now renowned in
archæology for the richest find of ancient coins recorded in history.
The Danes brought a treasure of 7,000 pieces to Cuerdale. Mingled with
the coins were bars of silver, amulets, broken rings, and ornaments
of various kinds, such as are recorded by Scandinavian Sagas. Many
countries had been rifled for this treasure. Kufic, Italian, Byzantine,
French, and Anglo-Saxon coins were in the booty; besides 3,000 genuine
Danish pieces, minted by kings and jarls on the Continent. Another
discovery of Danish treasure was made at Harkirke, near Crosby. The
coins here found were of a more recent deposit, and contained but one
of Canute the Great. From the Mersey to the Ribble was a long, swampy,
boggy plain, and was not worth the Romans' while to make roads or to
fix stations or tenements. From the Conquest until the beginning of
the 18th century this district was almost stagnant, and its surface
undisturbed. The Dane kept to the shore, the sea was his farm. He
dredged the coast and the estuary, with his innate love of danger,
till Liverpool sprang up with the magic of Eastern fable, and turned
out many a rover to visit every region of the world. The race of
the Viking are, many of them, the richest merchants of the earth's
surface.[A]
About half of England--the so-called "Danelag," or community of
Danes, was for centuries subject to Danish laws. These laws existed
for 200 years after the Norman Conquest. The Normans long retained a
predilection for old Danish institutions and forms of judicature, and
their new laws bear the impress and colour of the older time. This
is established beyond doubt, in spite of the boast of the famous Sir
Robert Peel in Parliament, that he was proud "The Danes tried in vain
to overcome the institutions of England instead of securing them."
The English word "by-law" is still used to denote municipal or
corporate law, which is derived from the Danish "By-Lov." This shows
they must have had some share in developing the system of judicature
in English cities. The "Hustings" were well known in the seven cities
under Danish rule.
The earliest positive traces of a "jury" in England appear in the
"Danelag," among the Danes established there; and that long before the
time of William the Conqueror. The present village of Thingwall, in
Cheshire, was a place of meeting for the "Thing" or "Trithing," a court
held in the open air to settle laws and disputes in the same manner as
that existing at Tynwald, Isle of Man. The division of "Ridings" in
Yorkshire is also derived from this Danish custom.
The "Trithing" was a Danish institution, so also was the wapentake.
What are called "hundreds" in some counties, are called "wapentakes" in
others, thus from the Norse "taka," which means a "weapon grasping."
Tacitus says the ancients used to "express assent by waving or
brandishing their weapons." If the sentence pleased they struck
their spears together, "since the most honourable kind of assent is
to applaud with arms." From this practice the word came to mean the
sentence or decree had been thus authenticated. "Vapantak" in the
grafas of Icelandic parliament means the breaking up of the session,
when the men resumed their weapons which had been laid aside during the
assembly. (Cleasby.)
LOCAL NAMES.
As a maritime race the Danes brought to our county not only a knowledge
of the sea, how to navigate its perils, and the secret of successful
trading, but also possessed the art and craft of shipbuilding to a
higher degree than any then known. We still have the old Danish name
in Liverpool of David Rollo and Sons, shipbuilders and engineers. The
following Danish maritime terms have become part of our language: Vrag,
a wreck; flaade, fleet; vinde, windlass; skibsborde, shipboard; mast,
mast; seile, sails; styrmand, steersman.
From the fact that "Thingwall" in Cheshire and "Tynwald" in the Isle
of Man afford the memorial of the assizes, and that "wald" or "vold"
signifies a "bank" or "rampart," where these courts were held in order
to be safe from surprise, may we not presume the local name "The
Wylde," in Bury, to be derived from the same source, as the "bank" or
"rampart" would be used previous to the building of the old castle? The
Danish "byr," or "by," means a settlement, town, or village, and as the
word "berg" means a hill, and "borough," "bury," "brow," and "burgh"
are similar terms for a fortified hill, we may suppose "Bury" to be
taken from this source, instead of from the Saxon "byrig," a bridge,
when no bridge existed.
Settlements