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The aim of my thesis is to provide accounts concerning the language contact occurring
between Old Norse and Old English speakers. The main focus will fall on British place-names
that are of Scandinavian origin. I have chosen the following topic, because of my passion for
Scandinavian cultures and their history, more precisely the Viking Age. I found it interesting
that a settlement of 200 years left such traces that are discoverable even in the present.

In order to give clear evidence concerning the origin of place-names that derive from Old
Norse, I have structured my thesis in the following way:

1. Historical background- The following chapter will give accounts about the
Northmen, who were known throughout history as the Vikings; their homeland; and
lastly the aim of their raids, that was of a long extension. The focus will fall on the
British Isles, namely on England, Scotland and Ireland. The chapter divides the Viking
invasions into two important waves of raiding. It will provide information concerning
the major characters of this period, places occupied and so on and so forth.
2. The second chapter will make a shift to the social interaction occurring between Old
Norse and Old English speakers. The following chapter will present two theories
concerning the way language contact was established. Such theories supporting the
social interaction would be mutual intelligibility and bilingualism. Concluding these
remarks, a chapter will be given containing literary texts that support these theories.
3. The third chapter will give accounts on the language spoken in the British Isles during
the Viking Age. The language will be presented at its phonological, morphological,
lexical and semantic level. During the existence of Old English or Anglo-Saxon the
language underwent various changes; one important influence would be the Old Norse
influence. Shift will fall on the Norse linguistic influences concerning the Old English
language. Such features will be given regarding the language’s phonology, lexicon,
morphology and semantics.
4. The information given in the previous chapters will provide clear and strong evidence
concerning the contact between Norse and English. The last chapter will evidentiate
the existence of such interaction, namely through the presentation of a few affixes
connected to British toponymy. Affixes will be shortly but briefly presented, examples
will be provided to preserve clear evidence.

Starting with the first chapter, namely with the historical background of the British Isles
during the Viking Age. Vikings were described as irritant, negative and destructive people,
just like the Magyars or the Moors. Vikings began raiding during the coronation of King
Charlemagne, in 800. After the death of the Frankish ruler, the Western Empire crashed,
Viking invasions extended themselves on several kingdoms, just as Frankish territories, Irish
and Anglo-Saxon regions. The Viking raids left a strong imprint on various European
kingdoms. Vikings originate from today’s Scandinavian Peninsula, territory that encompasses
countries as Norway, Denmark and Sweden. Inhabitants of these countries focused on
different territories. For instance, the Norwegian Vikings colonized regions as Iceland, the
Faroes, the Scottish Islands, parts of Ireland, but even North American regions. Danish
Vikings focused more on countries as England and France, whereas Swedish Vikings turned
their attention on East Europe, namely Russia, the Byzantine world, but also the Islamic one.

Another aspect that raises questions, would be, why exactly Scandinavians were mentioned in
history as Vikings. Why they were called Vikings throughout history? The common term was
associated with raiding or trading Northmen, though their reference varied from place to
place. (Ireland, England) The Old Scandinavian name vikingr had two form, a masculine one
meaning ‘sea warrior’ and a feminine one pointing to ‘a journey on a sea with military
purposes’.

Such names were given to the Northern raiders. But what exactly pushed the Vikings to begin
their attacks on foreign territories? Monastic writers considered that these raids were the
punishment of God. The cleric Adam of Bremen considered that the reason for which raids
were progressed by the Scandinavians, was because their homeland was to overcrowded with
people, because of the size of their land. Another suggestion would be the creation of ships,
which defined the Viking Age. A different suggestion would be trade, Scandinavians traveled
in order to exchange their goods. The most evident cause would be land acquirement, but also
political power and commerce.

The British Isles underwent various attacks throughout history. In the second half of the eight
century and first half of the ninth century marks the Viking Age concerning the British Isles.
The first invaders of the British Isles were the Norwegian Vikings. The first raids were minor
attacks, and they were made on monastic institutions. The first minor attack recorded was on
the monastery of Dorset. The second attack, which marks the beginning of Viking Age of
England, was the monastery of Lindisfarne. The incidence was considered to be the real mark
of Viking Age, because of the occurrences. Northmen destroyed everything; they murdered
priests and nuns, took the treasures of the Church but took also nuns and priests as slaves. The
third incident was made on Jarrow, though in this place the invincible Northmen failed the
invasion.

The first Viking wave recorded important character names as Alfred of Wessex, Guthrum,
Athelstan, but also significant place-names as Edington, Maldon and York. The year of 865 is
of great significance in history, because Northmen settled in East Anglia, later on occupying
other regions as well. England was under Danish control for over 200 years, during which the
country underwent various changes. The amalgamation of Danes and Anglo-Saxons led to the
union of the two kingdoms, except the kingdom of Wessex that was ruled by King Alfred.
King Alfred was declared the savior of England, he ruled for over 28 years. He managed to
triumph against the Danes, through a battle occurring in Edington. The fight led to the
establishment of a treaty between Alfred, the king of Wessex and Guthrum, the king of the
Danes. The so-called Treaty of Wedmore consisted in the establishment of the Danelaw that
drew a boundary between the Kingdom of Wessex and the other kingdoms. Up until the
900’s, England was under the Danelaw, the land inhabited by Northmen was divided into
several Viking kingdoms.
The second Viking wave started with 980 and lasted until 1035. Characters that define the
second wave of invasions include names as Olaf Tryggvason, Svein I, Cnut and Svein II, and
on the English half, was the long-reigning Ethelred, who was also mentioned as Ethelred the
Unready.

A specific term defining the second wave of invasions would be the introducing of the so-
called Danegeld. The word had the meaning of payment of a large sum of money in order to
get back the lost lands.

The first remarkable success during the second wave of Viking Age was led by Svein and
Olaf Tryygvason. Olaf’s presence in England led him to convert to Christianity at the court of
Ethelred. In the year of 1002, King Ethelred ordered a bloodbath of the Danes. Thousands of
Danish Vikings were slaughtered by the English, act that stirred Svein to take vengeance.
Though some Vikings departed after ordering the Danegeld, in 1016 Cnut returned to
England, though he was not a permanent ruler, because he stood most of his time in his
Northern kingdoms. As a result, the death of Cnut represents the end of Viking Age England.

In what concerns the Viking Age in Scotland, Northern inhabitants were recorded in the
eighth century, on territories as the Orkneys and Shetland. Viking settlers were of Norwegian
origin. The reason for chosing Scotland was because the land was of great use in military
tactics. Major characters describing Viking Age Scotland would be the legendary Ragnar and
his sons, who chose Scotland for security.

Regarding the Viking Age occurring in Ireland, raids began at the end of the eighth century.
The first attack was made in 795, on Rathlin Island, where Viking warriors burnt to ground
the church. The great majority of Viking attacks were rather made on coastal regions than on
inner lands. Throughout the ninth century, Vikings founded important towns as Dublin,
Wexford, Cork and Limerick. An interesting fact to be mentioned would the name Ireland,
the word being compounded from the Gaelic eire and the Scandinavian element land.

The second chapter of the thesis focuses on theories of social interaction concerning Old
Norse and English speakers. Many linguistist and historians consider that the relationship
between these two cultures was of mutual intelligibility. The process of mutual intelligibility
includes the whole linguistic contact. The main argument supporting mutual intelligibility
would be their pertinence to the Germanic family, both languages having a common ancestor.
Matthew Townend, considers that the main feature supporting intelligibility would be their
system of phonology, considering that phonological structure survived.

The second theory connected to social interaction would be the introduction of

bilingualism. The theory of bilingualism was introduced in cases when mutual intelligibility
did not function, and the act of communication was a necessity in everyday life. Introducing
bilingualism would mean that one of the two languages undergoes a reconstruction, being the
result of day-by-day living besides a foreign culture. The concept of bilingualism was
introduced during the Danelaw, and it has been demonstrated that Old Norse influences were
made mainly on the sound and spelling of Old English. Anglo-Saxons who had chosen
bilingualism added foreign utterances to the mother tongue for the sake of everyday
communication.

In order to conclude and to clarify the two theories, a final chapter was added to the two
theories, containing literary texts, that either support the theory of mutual intelligibility or
bilingualism. Such literary models are given in Magnus Fjalldal’s book entitled “Anglo-
Saxon England in Icelandic Medieval texts” which provides examples from different texts as
the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Heimskringla, Gunnlaugs Saga etc. Fjalldal in his book brought
up different theories from different authors. One suggestion claims that the two languages had
enough similarities to comprehend each other. Another suggestion would be the creation of a
common language, called lingua franca. A different argument claims that Norse and English
speakers communicated by means of ribald gestures and uncouth noises; and another
supposition claims that the Anglo-Saxon communities applied bilingualism in their social
interactions. In order to support these ideas, different text models are provided to clarify the
situation. Fjalldal’s book concludes that the fitting word for the relationship between Norse
and English speakers would be the concept of mutual intelligibility.

Chapter three shifts to the linguistic contact occurring between Norse and English speakers.
Firstly, a short description of the language spoken in the British Isles is given. The language
spoken during this period was Old English or Anglo-Saxon. It was spoken with the beginning
of 449 and it ended with the Norman invasions from 1100, year since the language underwent
changes and it shifted to Middle English. The language spoken in Anglo-Saxon England was
divided into several dialects, namely the Kentish (Jutes language), West Saxon (south of
England), Northumbrian (north of Humber) and the Anglian dialect (a combination of
Mercian and Northumbrian dialects). This chapter will give accounts on the West Saxon
dialect, which was used in written language in those days. It was the dialect spoken during the
reign of King Alfred of Wessex.

Further on I’ve made a short presentation of Old English spoken during this period. I have
made a short description of every field of language, namely phonology, lexicon, morphology
and semantics.

The second half of the third chapter presents Old Norse features that were introduced in Old
English, though some of them did also survive in Modern English. The Old English
vocabulary was enriched with several loan-words, out of which 1000 survived in Modern
English. The first borrowed words were introduced in the Treaty of Wedmore, though later on
their made their existence in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.

Examples of Old Norse borrowings would be words as: again, anger, awkward, bag, band,
bank, birth, brink, bull, cake, call, clip, crawl, crook, die, dirt, dregs, egg, flag, fog, freckle,
gasp, get, guess, happy, husband, ill, keel, kid, knife, law, leg, loan, muggy, neck, odd,
outlaw, race, raise, ransack, rid, root, rugged, scant, scare, scowl, scrap, seat, seem, silver,
sister, skill, skirt, sly, smile, snub, thrift, Thursday, tight, trust, want and weak.

In David Crystal’s view there are three hypotheses that state the development of the language:
 1. In the first hypothesis it is supposed that the surviving word was the Scandinavian one,
as in the following examples the word egg, which in ON was egg and sister that in ON
was systir. These examples are remains of Old Norse.
2. The second hypothesis claims the survival of the Old English word. Words of Old
Norse origin did not enter the language, as the following examples: path that in ON
was reike; or sorrow that in ON was site.
3. The third hypothesis claims that both the Old English and the Old Norse terms
remained in use. In this case, words should be differentiated in meaning. Examples
that support this theory would be words as: ON dike and OE ditch, ON hale and OE
whole, ON raise and OE rise. There are cases, when one of the words was
standardized and the other one was used in a dialect. Such examples would be: garth
and yard, kirk and church, laup and leap, nay and no, trigg and true.

In what concerns the phonological influences, some words had common root both in
Old English and Old Norse. For instance, lexical items containing the cluster –sk underwent a
process of palatalization, thus the Old English word changed into the sound [s] and
orthographically appeared as –sc. In Old Norse the cluster remained the same. Words that
kept the Old Norse root would be: sky, skin and whisk.

Words that followed the Old English would be fish, which in OE was sceal and in ON skal.

Other phonological aspects taken from Old Norse would be in the case of the consonant [k]
and [g] , as in words as egg, kid, get and give. Vowels did also suffer changes, and there are
some cases when the vowel [e] marks that the word is of Scandinavian origin, undergoing an
unexpected vocalism.

There are instances when the Scandinavian root can be observed in the word, as in the
following example: Old Norse hælig meaning holy in English.

Other progressions originating from Old Norse would be the shift from a synthetic
language to an analytical language. Even if the two languages pertain to the Germanic
languages, they differed. For instance, English added suffixes, preffixes to words. When the
language contact occured between Old English and Old Norse such addditives were separated,
in order to understand each other. As a result, the Old English language became an analytical
language. This process refered namely to the detachment of noun case endings.

In the case of the personal pronoun, the Old English language adopted the third person forms
from Old Norse, as they, them and their.

The verb ’to be’ was also replaced, namely sindon that was substituted with are. A different
modification was the attachment of the ending –s to present tense 3rd person singular.

Scandinavian prepositions were also added as both, same, fro (as in the expression to and fro),
though, hence and at.

Morpho-syntax was also influenced by Old Norse. Old English had many endings and
inflections. The presence of Norse simplified the system of endings. Many Old English noun
plurals were lost or regularized as nama/namen, scip/scipu. Strong verbs were also dropped
out or were regularized as help/helped.

Semantic developments were also introduced, for instance the word bloom (flower) in
Old English was bloma and in Old Norse blom, though the Old English meaning refered to
’ingot of iron’, as a result the Old Norse bloom was in use.

The final chapter is the part of analysis, the topic that is to be analyzed is place-names
deriving from Old Norse. Scandinavian place-names can be found in the north western area of
Scotland, in the Isle of Man, in the north west of Englan; in the northern and southern region
of Wales and in the eastern part of Ireland.

 The exact date on which these names were given cannot be precised, though it can be
estimated that they were given during the Viking Age
 First evidences were found in regions that were under the Danelaw
 It is estimated that more than 1400 place-names are of Scandinavian origin
 Toponymy stands as a clear evidence supporting the language contact between Old
Norse and Old English speakers.
 Place-names translation is impossible, its formation is a cultural resource coming
from the Anglo-Norse contact
 Norwegian Vikings inhabited areas as: the Orkneys, the Western Isles of Scotland, the
Isle of Man, and north western part of England
 Danish Vikings were settlers of the north eastern region, area that was under the
Danelaw as : 1. Northumbria 2. the Five Boroughs of Lincoln, Nottingham, Derby,
Leicester, and Stanford 3. East Anglia 4. south eastern area of the Midlands

Place-names are classified as the following:

Habitative place-names:

 Frequently used habitative place-names

 Reffered to habitative places
 Had in composition words as homesteads, farms, village, hamlets, strongholds,
cottages, buildings= words refering to settlement

1. –by

 Most frequently used habitative element

 Can be found in northern areas of England
 The original meaning of –by was lodging
 The other compound of the names was either of Scandinavian or of Anglo-Saxon
origin
 Second compounds would include terms of anthroponymics, adjectives and
appelatives
  Such examples would be: Appleby (OE æpple and the Scandinavian –by); Wetherby
(containing the appelative –vedr, meaning whether and the –by ending)
 There are cases when a personal name was attached to the composition of name,
example Thormanby (thormodr and by)
 Gillian Fellows Jensen pointed out that there are 151 place-names containing –by

2. –thorp

 Another frequently met habitative place-name

 Not so used in regions that were under the Danelaw
 It was used to designate either a village or a farmstead
 There are 155 place-names compounded with –thorpe
 Place-names containing –thorpe would be:

Milnthorpe – miln(OE) meaning ’mill’- the place-name has the meaning of ”Village with
a mill”

Crackenthorpe – where cracken originates from OE cracian, meaning to crack

Copmanthorpe – copmman refers to the Scandinavian appelative kaupmann, meaning

buyer or merchant

 The word-thorp was usually used to refer to poorer and not so profitable lands
 In most of the compositions the specific of the name denoted features of nature or of
land, or personal names
 Place-names containing Scandinavian personal names would be:

Asgautr as in Osgathorpe

Grimketill as in Grimble thorpe

Ragnhildr as in Ravensthorpe

Thoraldr as in Tharlesthorpe

In other instances the word followed the pattern on –by, as in

Bonthorpe – compounded of the word brunnr, meaning spring

Bowthorpe – compounded of the word bogi meaning bow

Londonthorpe – compounded of the word lundr meaning grove

Gristhorpe – compounded of the word gris meaning a young pig

3. –toft
  Habitative place-name found in England and Scotland
 -toft denotes village, or small community with farms or tofts
 The ON word topt would mean site of a house
 Examples would be: Langtoft, Newtoft, Wibbtoft, Habbertoft

Grimston Hybrids

 Can be found in the north and east of England

 Many place-names are hybrid compositions
 Pattern of Grimston hybrids: a Scandinavian constituent and and Anglo-Saxon
constituent
 Concept named after the place-name Grimston, where Grim is a Scandinavian name
and –tun is an English term, meaning village

1. –kirk

 Can be found in the south west of Scotland and the Isle of Man
 Traces back to the Norse kirkja
 In the northwest there are 14 place-names having in composition kirk
 The composition of such names exposes Celtic influence, the composition includes
Irish saint names, following the Celtic pattern as in : Kirkpatrick, Kirkbride
 There are instances where the composition follows the inversion pattern, as Kirkbride
meaning the Church of St. Bride

2. –ærgi

 Considered as an exceedingly problematic affix, due to its correct from, meaning and
original source
 The word was coined during the Scandinavian migrations on the British Isles
 -ærgi place-names were given for lands that were lower than 600 feet and were of
good soil
 Such place-names can be found in Yorkshire

3. –tun

 Place-names containing –tun are also considered as Grimston hybrids

 The word would denote village or town
 ‘tun’ place-names have a manorial significance, recounting the eleventh century’s
events, when Cnut and his son passed over their lands
 Usually –tun place-names have a second compound personal names of Northmen as
Flik, Flixton; Nattfari, Nafferton; Frithi, Fryton

Other examples:
 1. –borough

 During England’s division after the establishment from the Treaty of Wedmore,
fortifications were built in Wessex, in order to defend themselves from the Vikings, as
a result the word –borough was used to denote fortified place. Vikings did also use
this element to denote the same thing.
2. –ey

 the coast of Wales was also inhabited by Vikings in the ninth century
 such traces are to be found in place-names containing –ey meaning island
 examples containg –ey:

Anglesey – that in would mean Ongull’s Island

Caldy – meaning cold island

 though there are also other place-names that have elements denoting sea elements

Fishguard meaning ‘fish yard’

Milford Haven meaning ‘harbour at the sandy inlet’

Swansea meaning ‘Sveinn’s island’

3. –dale

 Such place-names containing –dal(e) were used to refer to valleys

 These type of place-names are frequent in the North, namely in regions from Mersey
to Humber
 Examples containing –dale looked as the following:

Grisedale – meaning ‘valley of pigs’

Codale – meaning ‘valley of cows’

Rosedale – meaning ‘valley of stallions’

Birkdale – meaning ‘birch valley’

Dalby – meaning ‘valley village’

Dalton – meaning ‘valley town’

Place-names undergoing only phonological changes:

 There are cases when only the English place-name was influenced by Scandinavian
pronounciation
 Such example would be Shipton that became Skipton; or Fisherton substituted with
Fiskerton
 Such place-names show that the northwest was an untouched region by the
Scandinavians

Conclusions

-scholar Gillian Fellows Jensen expert in the study of place-names stated that Scandinavian
internal migrations led to the division of land to several other partitions

- these partitions played an important role in the coinage of place-names

- as a result, the Anglo-Norse contact preserves clear evidence in the coinage of place-names
that the British Isles were once inhabited by Scandinavians.