Considering the close proximity of the principal Danish settlement in England, that of Yorkshire, it would not be surprising if an inquiry into local names of places revealed the fact that the followers of Odin’s prophetic raven had left a footprint of some value in the Durham dales. The most remarkable, if not unique, footprint of the adventurous Northmen is preserved in the word _thing_, pronounced _ting_, which in names of parishes and places points out the localities where the Vikings, in their days of rule, held their outdoor national assemblies, and promulgated their national laws. When the daring Northmen touched the shores of England, subdued in the year 867 Northumbria, and set up Inguar, the first Danish King, as ruler, they brought with them, and implanted, their traditions and customs. In Weardale there is a Thimbleby Hill, on the south side of the Wear, opposite Stanhope, and if the Danes were in this dale for the purpose of assembling a _thing_ or council, this hill is the one above all others which they would have chosen. It has on the top a considerable flat, and it overlooks Stanhope Town on the north, commands a most excellent view down the valley eastward, and up the valley westward, whilst to the south lies a rising heath-covered ridge. The position of the hill would at once recommend itself to the Danes, who always took care to have their national courts held in places which would be free from surprise; and it is possible that Shield Ash represents the shealings of ash bows, erected for the accommodation of those attending the court. Stanhope is in Darlington _Wapentake_, which word is Danish, and each wapentake had its court or _thing_. Presuming that the Danes held a council at Stanhope, they do not appear to have established themselves to any extent; but, as we find the Danish _toft_, as in Toft Well, and a place in Bolihope, named in Hatfield’s Survey Turpenstanes, the boundary stones of _Thorfinn_, a Danish personal name, and that in A.D. 1183 persons holding the Scandinavian names of Russell, Thore, Arkil, and a son of Turkill, held lands at Stanhope, it would not be a matter of surprise if a Danish council did take place in Weardale, which is situated so close to the Danish district, and which was under the rule of the first Danish King in England. One of the most striking instances of the Norwegian element in Weardale, is what was fifty or sixty years ago the "national" winter sport of the dale. This was _skeeing_, the national sport of Norway. Within the memory of a few of the oldest inhabitants no snowy winter passed in Weardale without this sport being practised to its full extent.