medieval-atlas/events-to-about-850/64

Transcription

Scandinavian place-names and settlements Though the maps of place-names of Scandinavian origin indicate the distribution and density of settlement, they are inevitably incomplete. Many farms with Scandinavian names have long since disappeared or have been renamed. Nor do distribution maps reveal the chronology of settlement, relationships with pre-existing populations or different types of settlement established contemporaneously. Most of the Scandinavian names in Scotland were coined in the ninth to thirteenth centuries, the majority in the first half of that period and three different regions of Scandinavian settlement can be identified: the Northern Isles and north-east Scotland where the majority of names are Norse; the Western Isles and western seaboard of mainland Scotland where Norse names compete with Gaelic names; and the south-east of Scotland where Norse, Gaelic and Anglian names are all represented. There are two categories of place-name to consider. The fust is topographical names such as ON dalr (dale), nes (ness), vagr (voe) and vik (bay). Many central, primary farms bear names either in simplex form (Wick, Dale, Voe) or in compounds (Sandness, Lerwick, Snizort). There are in addition a vast number of topographical names associated with marginal farms which could have been coined at any time when the Norse language was current. The second group of names contain habitative generics such as bolstaar, stailir and setr, saetr. The first two generics are generally rendered simply as "farm" though they probably had implications beyond that for their names. Bolstaar names, for example, tend to be attached to large, fertile farms found in clusters of two, three or more and were probably given to farms resulting from division of an earlier, larger unit, indicated by the frequency with which they are compounded with loeational specifics such as norar (north) and suar (south) in the Northern Isles. Bolstaar takes various forms in Northern and Western Scotland -Urabister, (Shetland); Kirbist, (Orkney); Scrabster, (Caithness); Habost, (Lewis), Carbost, (Skye); Cornabus, (Islay); Eriboll, Skibo, (Sutherland); Ullapool, (W Ross); Crossapoll, (Tiree). Stamr farms are also large but unlike the bolstaar farms they tend to be independent units rather than divisions. Examples are: Oddsta, (Shetland); Costa, Tenston, (Orkney); Tolsta, (Lewis); Scarasta, (Harris); Connista, (Skye); Hosta, (N Uist); Olistadh, (Islay). The third element, setrlsaetr, was applied to more marginal farms established on pasture land, some of which may have originated as shielings. Examples include: Setter, Russetter, (Shetland); Inkster, (Orkney); Wester, Brackside, (Caithness); Grimshader, (Lewis); Drineshader, (Harris); Uigshader, (Skye); Earshader, (North Uist); Ellister, (Islay); Linside, (Sutherland). In south-west Scotland the Scandinavian elements bekkr (stream); byr (farmstead, village); and jJveit (clearing, meadow, paddock); and fell or fjall (hill, mountain) indicate that Scan din avian settlement in this area should be considered along with that of north-west England where these elements are common. Examples include: Allerbeck, Denbie, Cowthat, Crowthwaite and Borgue Fell. The Old Norse kirkja (church) appears in a number of names, for example, Kirkbryde and Kirkgunzeon. These so-called inversion compounds imitate Gaelic words order rather than Scandinavian. Some, like Kirkcudbright and Kirkoswald, demonstrate an Anglian ambience (St Cuthbert, St Oswald).

  Transcribers who have contributed to this page.

None