Читать книгу The Danes in Lancashire and Yorkshire - S. W. Partington - Страница 4

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A victorious people have always a wide-spreading influence over the people subdued by them. An inferior race never withstood a superior one. The very fact that the Danes gained not only an ascendancy in many parts of England during the Anglo-Saxon dynasties, but even the government of them all, is a proof that they were at that period a race of individuals superior to the natives of the land. The indigenous Britons felt the ameliorating influence of the Roman superiority and the civilisation which formed an element of the Roman sway. The Danes exercised and maintained an influence equal to the extent of their amalgamation for the general good of the country. The Romans were as much superior to the aboriginal Britons as the English of the present day are to the Africans and Sikhs. The Saxons were an advance on the Romanised Celt, while on the Saxons again, the Danes or Northmen were an advance in superiority and a great element of improvement. Leaving the Danes to tell their own tale and write their own histories in favour of their own fatherland, we undertake to sketch out their connection with our own county of Lancaster, with the permanent, and still existing, effects of that connection. Hitherto history has unfolded nothing as to the date when the "Vikings" first visited the Lancashire coast, plundering the county, and slaughtering the inhabitants. The Danes first visited the eastern coasts about the year A.D. 787, as narrated in the Saxon Chronicle. In the year 894 the city of Chester fell into their hands, under the redoubtable Hastings. This celebrated place the Danes fortified, and henceforward, along with the other cities of Derby, across the island, held at intervals until their power waned by the amalgamation which eventually constituted one people. Local names are the beacon lights of primeval history. The names of places, even at this remote period of time, suffice to prove that the Danes left an impression of superiority by their invasion. At this time the Danes invaded the coast of Lancashire, and formed settlements therein. Cumberland and Westmorland were under the dominion of Cumbrian Britons. At this early period the Danes have so intermingled with the Anglo-Saxons, as to influence the names of the hundreds into which the shire was sub-divided. No chronicle may register this fact, but the words do, and will do, so long as they constitute the signs and symbols of ideas and things. The northern hundred of the shire was named Lonsdale, and extended not only over the district of Lunesdale, but also included the territory north of the sands. The second hundred into which the shire was divided was Amounderness. If we allow "ness" to be of strictly Scandinavian origin, then this hundred has a strictly Danish or Norse name, "Amounder" being the first Viking who settled in the Fylde country. Blackburn, pronounced "Blakeburn," is the third name of a hundred which lies more inland, but having little or no coast line within the shire. Inland the Scandinavian influence diminished. Hence the genuine Anglo-Saxon name of this division; in the early times "Blagburnshire." The fourth hundred is that of Salford, also inland, hence under no Danish influence. The name is genuine Anglo-Saxon and perhaps this hundred includes natives less mixed with Scandinavian population than any other in the north of England. The broad Anglo-Saxon frame is seen to perfection in the country districts, and the light, ruddy complexion. The men were made for endurance and slow in movements. It would be a difficult task to get them to move if they felt disinclined to do so. The last hundred has much sea coast, and came therefore much under Danish influence. Hence the name, West Derby Hundred. No one who knows anything of our early history will hesitate to pronounce this name altogether Danish, so that three out of the five hundreds into which the county was apportioned were under Danish domination. "Bi," Danish, in modern English "by," was the common term given by Danish settlers to their residence. Derby or Deorby means not the residence or home of the deer, but a locality where the animals abounded. The Danes had, more than any other people, a reverence for the dead. Wherever a hero fell, even if but a short time sufficed to cover his remains, this was done; and if nothing better to mark the spot, a boat which brought him hither was placed over him, keel uppermost. Failing a boat, a "Haugr" or mound was raised over his grave. When Christianity upset these "Hofs," or sacred enclosures of Odin and Thor, then crosses were erected over the Christian graves. This accounts for the universal number of "Crosbys" in the Danish district of the kingdom. Conquered Rome converted and conquered its barbarian and heathen masters to the Cross. Anglo-Saxon converted his Danish neighbour, and subdued him to the Cross. The higher the superstitions of the Pagan the greater the devotee when he is converted.

When the Danes were converted to Christianity by their intercourse with the Anglo-Saxons they transferred all their superstitious feeling to the emblems of Christianity. Churches were also built by the naturalised Danes in all places where they settled; and just as easy as it is to recognise their dwellings by their "bys," so it is to know the places where they reared their churches. Their name for a church was "kirkja." Hence in whatever compound name this word enters as a component, there it indicates a Danish origin. Hence Kirkby, Formby, Ormskirk, and Kirkdale are places appertaining to the early Anglo-Danish history. Dale is likewise a genuine appellative, as in Kirkdale as already noticed. Besides, in this hundred we find: Skelmersdale, Ainsdale, Cuerdale, and Birkdale. The only two places which the Danes seem to have noticed in their navigation of the Ribble were Walton-le-dale and the more important Cuerdale, now renowned in archæology for the richest find of ancient coins recorded in history. The Danes brought a treasure of 7,000 pieces to Cuerdale. Mingled with the coins were bars of silver, amulets, broken rings, and ornaments of various kinds, such as are recorded by Scandinavian Sagas. Many countries had been rifled for this treasure. Kufic, Italian, Byzantine, French, and Anglo-Saxon coins were in the booty; besides 3,000 genuine Danish pieces, minted by kings and jarls on the Continent. Another discovery of Danish treasure was made at Harkirke, near Crosby. The coins here found were of a more recent deposit, and contained but one of Canute the Great. From the Mersey to the Ribble was a long, swampy, boggy plain, and was not worth the Romans' while to make roads or to fix stations or tenements. From the Conquest until the beginning of the 18th century this district was almost stagnant, and its surface undisturbed. The Dane kept to the shore, the sea was his farm. He dredged the coast and the estuary, with his innate love of danger, till Liverpool sprang up with the magic of Eastern fable, and turned out many a rover to visit every region of the world. The race of the Viking are, many of them, the richest merchants of the earth's surface.A

About half of England—the so-called "Danelag," or community of Danes, was for centuries subject to Danish laws. These laws existed for 200 years after the Norman Conquest. The Normans long retained a predilection for old Danish institutions and forms of judicature, and their new laws bear the impress and colour of the older time. This is established beyond doubt, in spite of the boast of the famous Sir Robert Peel in Parliament, that he was proud "The Danes tried in vain to overcome the institutions of England instead of securing them."

The English word "by-law" is still used to denote municipal or corporate law, which is derived from the Danish "By-Lov." This shows they must have had some share in developing the system of judicature in English cities. The "Hustings" were well known in the seven cities under Danish rule.

The earliest positive traces of a "jury" in England appear in the "Danelag," among the Danes established there; and that long before the time of William the Conqueror. The present village of Thingwall, in Cheshire, was a place of meeting for the "Thing" or "Trithing," a court held in the open air to settle laws and disputes in the same manner as that existing at Tynwald, Isle of Man. The division of "Ridings" in Yorkshire is also derived from this Danish custom.

The "Trithing" was a Danish institution, so also was the wapentake. What are called "hundreds" in some counties, are called "wapentakes" in others, thus from the Norse "taka," which means a "weapon grasping." Tacitus says the ancients used to "express assent by waving or brandishing their weapons." If the sentence pleased they struck their spears together, "since the most honourable kind of assent is to applaud with arms." From this practice the word came to mean the sentence or decree had been thus authenticated. "Vapantak" in the grafas of Icelandic parliament means the breaking up of the session, when the men resumed their weapons which had been laid aside during the assembly. (Cleasby.)