Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - Scandinavian Britain - III. The Norse Settlements - 3. Cumberland and Westmorland
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Wythop was formerly Withorppe and Wyth-thorp,
the village in the wood ; Harbyrn, the high borran,
and Wythburn, the wide borran, or pile of stones, a
word borrowed by the Vikings from Ireland and
frequently used in the Lake District for natural rocky
places and for ancient ruins, like Borrans Ring, the
remains of the Roman camp at Ambleside. Wythburn,
however, appears in a sixteenth century will as
Wythbotten, and this word botn, usually Englished
"bottom," is often found in Cumbria and Yorkshire
for the head—not basin—of a valley, as in Iceland.
In the northern fringe of the Lake District there
are also many names with Blen, Caer, Pen, etc., which
show Cymric survivals, proving that the Welsh of
Cumberland, as well as the Angles already settled
there, lived side by side with the Norse immigrants.
All the Norse place-names indicate the domestic life
of a race occupied in farming : there is nothing heroic
about them in the way of sites consecrated to the
memory of battles—though battles were fought,—or of
heathen rites—though heathen gods were still remembered,
if not worshipped. One place in Westmorland,
Hoff Lunn (lundr) may signify such practices, but it
is the exception. The supposed references to Thor,
Odin, and Baldr as gods commemorated in place-names
are illusory ; and yet the Gosforth Cross shows
that about the year 1000 these myths were current,
side by side, with Christianity. The survivals of Norse
in the dialect point the same way. To berry (berja,
thresh) ; the boose (báss, cow-shed) ; the brandrith
(brandreið, tripod for baking) ; elding (as in Icelandic,
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