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
It has, indeed, been supposed by some that this church was called after
the Danes only because so many Danes have been buried in it; but as it
is situated close by the Thames, and must have originally lain outside
the city walls, in the western suburbs, and consequently outside of
London proper, it is certainly put beyond all doubt, that the Danish
merchants and mariners who, for the sake of trade, were at that time
established in or near London, had here a place of their own, in which
they dwelt together as fellow-countrymen. Here it should also be
remarked, that this church, like others in commercial towns, as, for
instance, at Aarhuus in Jutland, at Trondhjem in Norway, and even in the
city of London (in East Cheap), was consecrated to St. Clement, who was
especially the seaman’s patron saint. The Danes naturally preferred to
bury their dead in this church, which was their proper parish church.
The Danes and Norwegians also possessed an important place of trade on
the southern shore of the Thames, opposite the city—in Southwark, as it
is called, which was first incorporated with London, as part of the
city, in the middle ages. The very name of _Southwark_, which is
unmistakably of Danish or Norwegian origin, is evidence of this. The
Sagas relate that, in the time of King Svend Tveskjæg, the Danes
fortified this trading place; which, evidently on account of its
situation to the south of the Thames and London, was called “Sydvirke”
(Sudrvirki), or the southern fortification. From Sudrvirki, which in
Anglo-Saxon was called Suð-geweorc, but which in the middle ages
obtained the name of Suthwerk or Suwerk, arose the present form,
Southwark, through small and gradual changes in the pronunciation. The
Northmen had a church in Sydvirke dedicated to the Norwegian king, Olaf
the Saint. Olaf, who fell in the battle of Stiklestad, in 1030, was so
celebrated a saint that churches were built in his honour, not only in
Norway, where he became the patron saint of the kingdom, and in the rest
of Scandinavia, but also in almost every place where the Northmen
established themselves; nay, even in distant Constantinople the
Varangians had a church called after him. There is still a street in
Southwark, close by London Bridge and the Thames, which bears the
significant name of Tooley Street, a corruption of St. Olave’s Street.
On the northern side stands a church, called St. Olave’s Church, and
which is found mentioned by that name as early as the close of the
thirteenth century.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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