An Account of the Danes and Norwegians in England, Scotland, and Ireland — John Shaqi
An Account of the Danes and Norwegians in England, Scotland, and IrelandWorsaae, Jens Jacob Asmussen
History
An Account of the Danes and Norwegians in England, Scotland, and Ireland
Worsaae, Jens Jacob Asmussen
Great Britain -- Civilization -- Scandinavian influences; Northmen -- Great Britain; Northmen -- Ireland
Not even the remote and poorer districts of Wales were spared. It is
true that it was extremely difficult for the Danes to force an entrance
on the land side, and, in order to do so by sea, it was necessary to
make a troublesome and dangerous voyage round the long-extended
peninsula formed by the modern Cornwall and Devonshire. In general its
rivers were not large or navigable, and the number of good harbours was
but small. Nevertheless, the Northmen seem to have known Wales well, as
the old land of the Britons; since it was always called “Bretland,” to
distinguish it from England. Palnatoke, the celebrated chief of the
Jomsvikings, is said to have married there, during one of his warlike
expeditions, Olöf, a daughter of the Bretland jarl, Stefner, whose
Jarledömme (earldom) Palnatoke afterwards possessed. The Sagas often
make mention of _Björn hin Bretske_ (Bear the Briton) as being among his
men; and it is said that when he assisted at the funeral solemnities
which his foster son, King Svend Tveskjæg[3], held in honour of his
father, King Harald Blaatand[4], the half of his suite were Britons.
Svend himself had ravaged Bretland; and it was there, as is well known,
that the Icelander, Thorvald Kodransön, surnamed Vidförle (the
far-travelled), delivered him by his noble disinterestedness from a
perilous imprisonment.
Footnote 3:
Split-beard.
Footnote 4:
Blue-tooth.
The expeditions of the Danes to Bretland seem, however, to have been
confined to the tracts bordering on the north bank of the Severn, and to
the Isle of Anglesey; which latter was not unfrequently visited by the
Norwegians in their piratical voyages to the Hebrides and Ireland. At
least the Sagas mention it as “the southernmost region, of which former
Norwegian kings had made themselves masters;” and it was probably here
that Palnatoke had his kingdom. The very name of the island recalls a
close connection with the inhabitants of the north. Anciently it was
called “Maenige;” but the Danes and Norwegians, with regard, clearly, to
its situation by the land of the Angles (England), gave it the name of
“Öngulsey,” or Angelsöen, whence the present form Anglesey may,
doubtless, be said to have been derived.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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