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domestic life and in farming. Two ancient Norse
customs are preserved in the word "arvals," the food
of a funeral feast, and "dordum" expressing the uproar
of the door-doom (dura-dómr) or court of law held at
the door of the offender’s house ; for a description of
which, in curious circumstances, see Eyrbyggja Saga
(chap. 55).
There is no central place named Thingwall in
Cumberland, as there is in Wirral, in Lancashire, and
in Dumfriesshire (Tinwald). Thiefstead, near Shap,
in Westmorland, was formerly Thengheved, and may be
the site of a Thingstead. On the Roman road through
the heart of the Lake District, at a point where crossways
are thought to have run north and south, is
the curious terraced mound of Fell Foot, in Little
Langdale, resembling the Tynwald Hill in the Isle of
Man and the similar Thingmote formerly existing in
Dublin. The custom of holding an assembly at a hill
was perhaps copied by the Vikings from Ireland : see
Prof. A. Bugge’s Caithreim Ceallachain Caisil, p. 123,
where an instance is given of the Irish practice.
There are, however, no towns in this area, like the
Five Boroughs—Carlisle being ruinous from Halfdan
to William Rufus—in which we might have found
traces of Scandinavian life, and documentary evidence
fails us, except in the Gospatric charter, for Domesday
Book touches only the southern border of the district.
Roger of Wendover’s mention of a king Jukil or
Inkil of Westmorland (974) is in too corrupt a passage
to trust ; or a Norse king Jökull or perhaps Ingjalld
might be imagined, for the identification of this king
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