WHAT'S IN A NAME? 51 



II. 



THE NORTHMEN. 



Before we proceed to attempt the solution of the problems con- 

 nected with the settlements of the Northmen in the British Isles and 

 France, it will be necessary to exhibit the tools with which the his- 

 torical lock is to be picked. We must analyse and classify some of 

 the characteristic names which the Northmen have left upon the 

 map. The most valuable and important of these test-words is byr 

 or by. This word originally meant an abode, or a single farm, and 

 hence it afterwards came to denote a village. A 53'-law is a local 

 law enacted by the township. In Normandy we find it in the form 

 bceuf; buf, bue{w\i\\ only two By, Hambye and Colomby),Tournebu, 

 Bu sur Rouvres. In England this sufifix is usually contracted into by. 

 Thus we have in England Grimsby, the home of Grim ; Rugby, the 

 red soil ; Whitby, the white cliffs ; Derby, Ashby, etc. Besides byr, 

 by or bccuf, the Northmen have handed down to us the words — 

 thorpe, throp or trop, ville or villiers, toft, beck or bee, force or foss, 

 fleur, gardr, bosc, fell, dale, ford, wick or vie, naze or nez, holm, 6 or 

 ey, hangr, holt. 



There are scores and scores of names ending in by in Jutland 

 and Sleswic, and not half a dozen throughout the whole of Germany; 

 in France, on the other hand, such names as Quillebeuf, Paimboeuf, 

 Marbeuf are extremely common. Thorpe, throp, or trop is an ag- 

 gregation of men or houses, a village. That termination is rather 

 scarce in France, where it is replaced by the ending ville, as Tancar- 

 ville (Tancred's abode), or Haconville (Haakon's home). This 

 suffix is not the Romance word villa, but is identical with the Ger- 

 man weiler = an abode, a single house. Sometimes it assumes the 

 form villiers, e.g., Hardivilliers, Bouchevilliers. In England it is 

 found in the form well or will, e.g., Bradwell ; in Germany Breitwil. 



The word toft, which in Normandy takes the form tot, signi- 

 fies a homestead, and is an indication of permanent colonization. 

 The word beck or bee, denoting a brook, and the suffix force or foss, 

 a waterfall, are seen in Caudebec = cold brook, and Longuefosse = 

 the Grand Falls. The word fell (pronounced fiell in Norway) is 

 a hill, or a place where the ground is on the fall ; a field is where the 

 trees have been felled. The Norse word, dale, is the equivalent of 

 the German Thai = a valley. The Anglo-Saxon form is dell. The 

 word ford is derived from faran = to go, to be found in both Saxon 

 and Norse names. The fords of the Anglo-Saxon husbandmen are 



