449 
In 1016, “King Olaf was still in England and came into 
these parts, as we read Ethelred’s sons came to Olaf and 
promised him North Humber-land (that is, the land north of 
the Humber) if they drove the Danes out of England. Olaf 
comes to North Humber-land to Euro-vald, and in a battle 
with the townspeople and merchants gains great booty and 
victory.” 
In short, as the Saga informs us, thus corroborating the 
Chronicles, “ he appears to have sailed about defeating the 
Danes and plundering the people — 
“ Money, if money could be got ; 
Goods, cattle, household gear, if not.” 
Now these later Northmen called their court or place of 
assembly “ Thing,” or M ore Thing, and themselves not 
Mearcs-men but “ Thing-men.” Now note how satisfactorily 
we trace their occupation of this district. Laughton-le- 
Morthen, law town, where they met to make their laws. 
More Thing, the place of meeting. The Normans, into whose 
hands these districts passed, in giving the name of Law-toun, 
added the le, and gave also the word M or -Thing, used by the 
Northmen to describe their place of assemblage in their own 
country, and so we arrive at the name of Laughton- en-le~ 
Morthen, and also almost to a certainty of the rule and 
location of a race different from the older Saxon occupants of 
these lands.* 
Now the principal places where “ Things ” were held in 
Norway, were one at Moere or More, and one at Lade, in 
Drontheim district, where they transacted the business of the 
people. At Upsal also there is a mound called the “ Thing’s 
Mound,” flat at the top and steep slopes for the people to sit 
upon. The “Lagman” or “Lawman” presided at these 
* In Inq. 13 Ed. 1st, by John Kirkby, Treasurer of Fees in county of York, 
the name of Laughton is correctly spelt; under the head of “ Morething,” — - 
“John de Morething holds of John Count Warren.” — See Dodsicorth MSS. 
