The Ethnology of the British IslandsLatham, R. G. (Robert Gordon)
History
The Ethnology of the British Islands
Latham, R. G. (Robert Gordon)
Ethnology -- Great Britain
There came a ship by the South Sea,
With three young wooers on the flood;
Who was the first?
That was Peter Rothgrun.
Where set he his tracts?
For Hennerk Jerken's door.
Who came to door?
Mary-kin herself,
With a pitcher (crock) and beaker in the one hand,
A gold ring on the other hand.
She pressed him and his horse (to come) in,
Gave the horse oats and Peter wine.
Thank God for this good day!
All the brides and bridesmen out of the way!
Except Mary and Peter alone.
She locked him up in her box,
And never would miss him more.
This was what became of Peter; who is, perhaps, the most legendary and
heroic of the North-Frisians--so that the development in this line lies
within a small compass.
The Isle of Nordstand is Low German (Platt-Deutsch) in language, but in
blood and pedigree is Frisian; as, indeed, it was in speech up to A.D.
1610. Then came a great inundation, which destroyed half the cattle of
the island, and beggared its inhabitants; who were removed by their
hard-hearted lord the Count of Gottorp to the continent, and replaced by
Low Germans.
The island of Pelvorm is in the same category with Nordstand, the
population being essentially Frisian though the Platt-Deutsch form of
speech has replaced the native dialect; which was spoken in both islands
A.D. 1639.
Amrom partially preserves it; though the Frisian character is less
marked than in--
_Föhr._--Here all the names which in English would end in -_ham_, in
High German in -_heim_, in Low German in -_hem_, and in Danish in -_by_
(as Threking-_ham_, Mann-_heim_, Arn-_hem_, Wis-_by_) take the form in
-_um_, the vowel being changed into _u_-, and the _h_- being omitted, as
Duns-_um_, Utters-_um_, Midl-_um_, &c.--and this is a sure sign of
Frisian occupancy. In Föhr, too, the language is still current.
Of _Sylt_, the southern part has its names in the Frisian form; as
Horn-_um_, Mors-_um_, &c. The northern half, however, is Danish, and the
villages end in -_by_.
Such is the present area of North-Frisians; which we shall see lies
north of that of the Nordalbingians.
Nevertheless, the present writer believes that, either there was no
difference whatever between the Angles and the Saxons, or that the
Saxons were North-Frisians.
Let us, for a while, allow the name _Saxon_ to be so little conclusive
as to the ethnological position of these same Nordalbingians as to leave
the question open.
The first fact that meets us is the existence of the Frisians of Holland
not only south of the Elbe but south of Weser.
East Friesland, as its name shews, is Frisian also; although, with a few
exceptional localities in the very fenny districts, the language has
been replaced by the German.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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