beck a stream. by a farmstead. fell a hillside. force or foss a waterfall. garth an enclosure. gill a ravine. holm } an island, or a piece of firm land rising holme } out of the surrounding marsh. how a hill. lund a sacred grove. ness a headland. scar a cliff. tarn a small mountain lake. thorp or thorpe a village. thwaite a forest clearing. toft an enclosure. wick or wyke a bay or creek. Examples of all these can be found on the map of Yorkshire, and most of them occur in the East Riding. But it must be remembered that the modern place name is not always a sure guide in this direction. Names have in many cases changed during the course of centuries. For example, the name ‘Nunburnholme,’ which looks Danish in origin, was originally _Brunham_; while, on the other hand, ‘Kilnsea’ and ‘Withernsea’ have replaced the older Danish names _Hornes_ and _Witfornes_. The two name-endings which conclude the list given above are very interesting, because it was the Danish word _vīk_[15] that gave rise to the name by which the sea-rovers became generally known in our country. _Vikings_, or men of the creeks—so they were called; and so may we call them, if we remember that their letter _v_ stood for the sound of our _w_, and that their name is to be pronounced _Wik-ings_ and not, as it is so commonly mispronounced, _Vi-kings_. Footnote 15: Pronounced exactly like the Anglian word _wīc_. * * * * * A hardy and a daring race were these old Vikings. There were no ‘wasters’ and few ‘slackers’ among them. When a Viking’s son was born, the babe was shown to its father for his approval or disapproval. If the father liked the look of his babe, and thought that it showed signs of growing up into a manly and sturdy boy, it was taken back to its mother to be ‘raised.’ But woe betide the babe that looked puny and sickly, or that showed signs of deformity! The father’s orders were that it should be taken outside his dwelling and exposed to the cold so that it died. ‘What a cruel custom!’ you will think. Yes, so it was. But the Vikings lived in an age when men looked upon things very differently from the way in which we look upon them. In a cruel age the Northmen were so cruel, and the fear that they inspired in the hearts of the people whose lands they plundered was so great, that the monks inserted in their Litany the prayer:— A FURORE NORMANNORUM, LIBERA NOS, DOMINE! (From the fury of the Northmen, O Lord, deliver us!)