(Vol. vii., p. 536.)
I have been travelling so much about in the country since I left England,
that I have not always the opportunity of seeing your "N. & Q." until long
after the publication of the different Numbers. I have in this way seen
some Queries put to me about matters connected with the history of the
Danish settlements in England. But as I have had no particular information
to give, I have not thought it worth while to write to say that I know
nothing of any great consequence.
Just when I left Copenhagen, some days ago, a friend of mine showed me that
MR. TAYLOR, of Ormesby in Norfolk, asked some questions regarding the
Danish names of places in Norfolk.
In answer to them I beg to state, that all the names terminating in _-by_
unquestionably are of Danish origin. MR. TAYLOR is perfectly right in
supposing that several of these names of places contain the names of the
old Danish conquerors. But I do not think that Ormesby originally has been
Gormsby. Gorm certainly is the same as Guthrum; but both of these names are
distinctly different from the name "Orme" or "Orm," which, in our old
language, signifies a serpent, and also a worm. (The famous ship, on board
of which King Olaf Tryggveson was killed in the year 1000, was called
"Ormen hin lange," _i.e._ the long serpent.) I have observed that several
English families (undoubtedly of old Scandinavian descent) at this day have
the family-name "Orm" or "Orme."
Among the other names of places quoted by MR. TAYLOR, Rollesby most
probably must be derived from the name "Rollo" or "Rolf;" but I regard the
origin of the other names as being much more doubtful. If we had the
original forms of these names, it might have been easier to decide upon it.
As the names are now, I do not see anything purely Scandinavian in them,
except the termination _-by_. It is not at all unlikely that the name Ashby
or Askeby might have been called so from "Ash-trees" (Danish "Ask eller
Esk"), but I dare not venture into conjectures of this kind.
I should be very happy if I in any other way could be of any service to MR.
TAYLOR in his researches about the Danish settlements in East Anglia. His
remarks upon the situation of the villages with Danish names are most
interesting and instructive. I always sincerely wish that inhabitants of
the different old Danish districts in the North and East of England would,
in the same way, take up the question about the Danish influence, as I feel
fully convinced that very remarkable and important elucidations might be
gained to the history of England during a long and hitherto very little
known period.