X-Nico

40 unusual facts about old Norse


Akerselva

The Old Norse name of the river was Frysja, and this old name has been revived as the name of a neighborhood along the river.

Allodial title

The word is a compound of *all "whole, full" and *ōd "estate, property" (cf. Old Saxon ōd, Old English ead, Old Norse auðr).

Ambleside, Edmonton

The origin of the name is Old Norse Á-mel-sǽtr = "river — sandbank — summer pasture".

Andy Orchard

Andrew 'Andy' Orchard, FRSC is a British academic and a leading expert in Old English, Norse and Celtic literature.

Arkiv för nordisk filologi

Arkiv för nordisk filologi, also spelt Arkiv for nordisk filologi, is an annual academic journal of Old Norse and older Scandinavian studies, published by Lund University.

Bec-de-Mortagne

The name comes from ‘’Becr’’, a Norse word for stream, together with the name of the Mortagne family, seigneurs of the village.

Bülach fibula

with only two l runes, translating "you, my lover, embrace me, leek! leek!", interpreting the l runes as abbreviating "leek" (*laukaz), symbolizing fertility or prosperity (leek is strongly associated with nubile women in Old Norse skaldic poetry).

Burrafirth

Burrafirth links (Old Norse: Borgarfjorðr, meaning "the fjord with a castle") is a strip of land with a few houses on the island of Unst, Shetland, Scotland.

Castlethorpe

A settlement of servants and manual workers grew up around the castle and this became the village of Castlethorpe (thorpe is an Old Norse language (particularly Danish) word for homestead, and it is not unreasonable to assume that there may well have been a Danish settlement nearby as the area was, if not part of, certainly close to, the Danelaw).

Christian Hellberg

In the spa/restaurant, which today bears Curman's name, around the Old Norse carvings, chef Hellberg has invites to a private yet refreshing experience.

Christina of Norway

Christina Sverresdatter (Old Norse: Kristín Sverrisdóttir) (died 1213) was a medieval Norwegian princess and titular queen consort, spouse of co-regent King Philip Simonsson.

Demographics of Iceland

Of the North Germanic languages, the Icelandic language is closest to the Old Norse language and has remained relatively unchanged since the 12th century.

Dingwall, Nova Scotia

Old Norse in origin, the name "Dingwall" comes from Ting (parliament) and Voir (valley).

Falkenbach

Three more were released by 1995: Skinn Av Sverði Söl Valtiva (Old Norse, "The Sun Shines on the Swords of Slaughter-Gods"), Læknishendr (Old Norse, "Healing Hands"), and Ásynja (Old Norse, "Goddess").

Fogwatt

Also Fywatt (Old form Fi-wid) from Norse, Scandinavian word meaning 'A wood in which there might have been a church or a cell'

Fulmar

The genus name Fulmarus is derived from the Old Norse word fúll meaning foul, and már meaning gull, in reference to their stomach oil.

Goose

In Germanic languages, the root gave Old English gōs with the plural gēs and gandres (becoming Modern English goose, geese, gander, and gosling respectively), New High German Gans, Gänse, and Ganter, and Old Norse gās.

Howe, Norfolk

Howe, from the Old Norse word haugr, is a Middle English topographic name for someone who lived by a small hill or a man-made mound or barrow.

Human branding

The English verb to burn, attested since the 12th century, is a combination of Old Norse brenna "to burn, light," and two originally distinct Old English verbs: bærnan "to kindle" (transitive) and beornan "to be on fire" (intransitive), both from the Proto-Germanic root bren(wanan), perhaps from a Proto-Indo-European root bhre-n-u, from base root bhereu- "to boil forth, well up."

Ingleby Barwick

Ingleby is derived from Old Norse Englar+by and means 'farmstead or village of the English man', Barwick is Saxon in origin, Bere is Saxon for barley and Wick means farm.

Jesse Sheidlower

Sheidlower received an undergraduate degree in English from the University of Chicago and did graduate work at Cambridge University in the Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse, and Celtic.

Knockentiber

from 'the hillock of the well', and Busbie, 'the town of the bushes', being partly Old Norse in origin.

La Hoguette

The place name La Hoguette is believed to derive from the Old Norse word Haugr meaning a knoll or a hill.

Mickle Fell

The name of Mickle Fell comes from the Old Norse word Mikill meaning Great and Fell (or fjäll) meaning mountain or hill.

Monumension

It is Enslaved's first album feature lyrics sung entirely in English, although some versions of the album include the Old Norse track "Sigmundskvadet" as a bonus.

Nykken

Nykken (Norwegian) or Näcken (Swedish), originating from Old Norse, is a spirit said to exist along the borders of water and land.

Old Scandinavian

Old Norse, a term sometimes used exclusively to refer to Old West Norse (also called Old West Scandinavian) spoken ca.

Onesacre Hall

In the Domesday Book the hamlet is spelt Anesacre meaning “The Field of An” and comes from the Old Norse language.

Paul Bibire

His area is Anglo Saxon and Old Norse and he has written many articles on these and related subjects.

Peter Foote

Peter Godfrey Foote (26 May 1924 – 29 September 2009) was a scholar of Old Norse literature and Scandinavian studies.

Robgill Tower

The village's name is from the Old English personal name Hreodbeorht (modern name Robert) and Old Norse gil "ravine.

Saltangará

The name is derived from three words: angar comes from the Old Norse angr which means a fjord or bay; á means a stream; and salt has the same meaning in Faroese, Icelandic and English.

Scartho

Like 'Grimsby' the etymology of the word Scartho can be traced back to having Old Norse origin, more than likely due to the ancestry of the surrounding area.

Alternatively, but less likely, there is a theory that it comes from the Old Norse skafr and cormorant, roughly translated as 'cormorant mound/hill'.

Sigurd Haakonsson

Sigurd Håkonsson (c. 895–962) (Old Norse: Sigurðr Hákonarson) was a Norwegian nobleman and Jarl of Lade in Trøndelag.

Thorpe Constantine

The first part of the name is believed to be the Old Norse word thorp with the meaning outlying farm, indicative of the village's location within the Danelaw.

Víðópnir

According to Fjölsvinnsmál, Víðópnir or Víðófnir (Old Norse, possibly "wide-open" or "wind-weaver") is a rooster that sits at the top of Mímameiðr, a tree often taken to be identical with the World Tree Yggdrasil.

Vikingligr Veldi

Despite Enslaved's nationality, the lyrics on this album are mainly in Icelandic, perhaps due to its resemblance to Old Norse.

Walker, Newcastle upon Tyne

Walker's name is a hybrid of Old English and Viking Norse, "Wall-kjerr", where "kjerr" is Norse for "marshy woodland".

Waxholme

Despite the place-name ending in "-holme" (which is normally from Old Norse holmr "island, water-meadow"), it is not from this word.


Aaby, Aarhus

Its name derives from the Old Norse for "village on a river" (Old Norse á, river, and býr, village) and is identical in meaning with Aby in Lincolnshire in England.

Aker, Norway

The municipality (originally the parish) is named after the old Aker farms (Store Aker and Lille Aker) (Old Norse: Akr), since the first church was built there (see Gamle Aker kirke).

Anne Holtsmark

Holtsmark published several translations from Old Norse into Norwegian: Heimskringla (with Didrik Arup Seip, two volumes, 1934); the Prose Edda (1950); Helgisaga Óláfs konungs Haraldssonar (1956); Sverris saga (1961), Hákonar saga Hákonarsonar (1964); and Orkneyinga saga (1970).

Charles Fritz Juengling

Other courses of study have included Old, Middle, and Early Modern English, Old and Middle High German, Old Norse (Old Icelandic), Gothic, Old Frisian, Old Saxon, Middle Dutch, history of the English, German, Dutch, and Scandinavian languages, Latin and Greek philology, Latin paleography, and Middle English paleography.

Coney Weston

Coney Weston has a different meaning to other towns with the name Weston: it is not a true Weston (where the origin is from Old English west-tun "western farm, village or estate") but is a hybrid name, from Old Norse konungr "king" (cognate with Old English cyning "king") and Old English tun "farm".

Dyeus

The Latin word is also continued in English divine, "deity", and the original Germanic word remains visible in "Tuesday" ("Day of Tīwaz") and Old Norse tívar, which may be continued in the toponym Tiveden ("Wood of the Gods", or of Týr).

European literature

Important classical and medieval traditions are those in Latin, Ancient Greek, Old Bulgarian, Old Norse, Medieval French and the Italian Tuscan dialect of the renaissance.

Fairburn, North Yorkshire

The word "ing" is of Old Norse origin and means "damp or marshy land", a reference to the area being flooded regularly by the River Aire.

Foula

The island was one of the last places where the Norn language was spoken (although it is claimed that Walter Sutherland of Skaw on Unst was the last speaker), and the local dialect is strongly influenced by Old Norse.

Holme Lacy

Holme Lacy is not from Old Norse holmr "island" like other places of the name Holme, but from the fairly similar Old English hamm "land in a river-bend".

Languages of Denmark

Faroese is similar to Icelandic, and also the Old Norse language spoken in the Scandinavian area more than a millennium ago.

Langwathby

'Langwathby' can be translated as 'long' ('lang'), 'ford' ('wath', Old Norse 'vað'), 'village' (Old English 'bȳ', Old Norse 'býr'), referring to the fording of the River Eden which runs along the edge of the village.

Langwith, Derbyshire

Etymology "Nether" is Saxon/Old German for Lower, "Lang" meaning long, and "with" is Old Norse vīōr wood

Manx language

However, Manx itself, as well as the languages from which it is derived, borrowed words from other languages as well, especially Latin, Old Norse, French (particularly Anglo-Norman), and English (both Middle English and Modern English).

Name of Sweden

The name of Sweden was originally a plural form of Swede and is a so-called "back-formation", from Old English Sweoðeod, which meant "people of the Swedes" (Old Norse Svíþjóð, Latin Suetidi).

Norwegian Sea

It was described in the 13th century in the Old Norse Poetic Edda and remained an attractive subject for painters and writers, including Edgar Allan Poe, Walter Moers and Jules Verne.

Ranrike

The name Ranrikeis sometimes said to have derived its name from Old Norse goddess of the sea, Rán.

Southwick, Sunderland

Southwick in Sunderland has a different origin to other places called Southwick: the name is of Scandinavian origin: and means "clearing by a marsh", from Old Norse sogr "moss, marsh, swamp (cf. modern "soggy")" and þveit/thveit "thwaite, clearing".

Stanghow

How or Howe, deriving from the Old Norse word haugr meaning a hill, is a common element in Yorkshire place name.

Thorgils Skarthi

If so, this Kormak may have had the nickname Fleinn, and if so may have founded Flamborough (from Old Norse Fleinaborg).

York city walls

The name of this four-storey-high gatehouse is from the Old Norse 'mykla gata' or 'great street', and leads onto Micklegate ('gate' is Norwegian for 'street' remaining from Viking influence in York).

Yorkshire Wolds

A large round barrow called Willy Howe (Howe, a topographic name from Middle English, originated with the Old Norse word haugr meaning a small hill or a man-made mound or barrow.