Public-domain ebook
by Jens Jacob Asmussen Worsaae
Language: en1,184 downloads on Project Gutenberg
Subjects
In: History - British·History - European
Public-domain ebook sourced from Project Gutenberg #55409.
Jens Jacob Asmussen Worsaae’s work is a scholarly survey of Scandinavian influence on the British Isles, written to reach both specialists and interested lay readers. The opening pages explain that the author intends to present “a popular contribution to a branch of historical and antiquarian knowledge” that has been “very imperfectly investigated,” offering English readers many new facts and unfamiliar names, together with a guide to their correct pronunciation. The book proceeds from a royal commission in 1846, describing a year‑long field investigation in Scotland, Ireland and England, and promises a “juster and less prejudiced notion” of the Danish and Norwegian conquests, drawing on correspondence with British scholars and on‑site observations of monuments, place‑names, and cultural remnants.
The narrative combines the measured, descriptive tone of mid‑nineteenth‑century antiquarian literature with a clear, didactic style that often pauses to explain linguistic details and geographic contexts. Its extensive footnotes and exhaustive tables of names, coins and stone inscriptions will appeal to readers who enjoy meticulous historical geography, early‑medieval archaeology, or the cultural interplay between Scandinavia and the British Isles. Those with a taste for detailed primary‑source synthesis rather than romanticized saga retellings will find Worsaae’s methodical approach rewarding.
The opening · free to read
Lastly, the Vikings (Isl., Vikingr, a sea-rover, pirate), who played so great a part during the Danish conquests, were not Ví-kings, but Vik-ings (Veék-ings); so called either from the Icelandic Vik (Dan., Vig), a bay of the sea, or from Vig, battle, slaughter.
London, Dec. 15th, 1851.
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AUTHOR’S PREFACE.
In the spring of 1846, his late Majesty Christian VIII. of Denmark determined that an inquiry should be made respecting the monuments and memorials of the Danes and Norwegians which might be still extant in Scotland and the British Islands. His Majesty was the more confirmed in this design as two distinguished British noblemen, his Grace the Duke of Sutherland, and his brother Lord Francis Egerton (now Earl of Ellesmere), had repeatedly stated in their letters to the Royal Society of Northern Antiquaries that, if a Danish archæologist visited Scotland, he should receive all possible assistance, especially in Sutherland, a district so rich in Scandinavian antiquities.
His Majesty did me the honour to intrust this task to me: and the President of the Royal Society of Northern Antiquaries, and of the Royal Committee for the preservation of the national monuments—our present most gracious sovereign Frederick VII.—having, with a lively zeal for the promotion of the inquiry, furnished me with several letters of introduction, I travelled during a twelvemonth (1846-1847) in Scotland, Ireland, and England; where, partly through the personal kindness of the Duke of Sutherland and of the Earl of Ellesmere, and partly by means of their influential names, I invariably met with the best reception and the most valuable assistance in my researches.
The present work contains part of the results of that journey. My aim in it has been to convey a juster and less prejudiced notion than prevails at present respecting the Danish and Norwegian conquests; which, though of such special importance to England, Scotland, and Ireland, have hitherto been constantly viewed in an utterly false and partial light. Whilst writing the work in Denmark, I have but too frequently felt the want of constant access to the well-stored libraries of England; although those literary gentlemen in Great Britain to whom I have written for information, have received my applications with their usual readiness and friendship[2].
Amongst the many gentlemen to whom I owe my thanks, I must particularly name: Sir H. Dryden, Bart., of Canons Ashby; C. Roach Smith, Esq., F.S.A., London; E. Hawkins, Esq., British Museum; J. M. Kemble, Esq.; Professor Cosmo Innes, Edinburgh; Dr. Traill, ibid.; C. Neaves, Esq., ibid.; R. Chalmers, Esq., of Auldbar Castle; Rev. J. H. Todd, D.D., Trinity College, Dublin; Professor C. Graves; and Dr. G. Petrie, likewise of Dublin.
However, as my work contains the first fully detailed examination of the subject from the Danish side, I hope that, notwithstanding all its deficiencies and faults, it may prove of some interest in England, and serve to excite further investigation, which would doubtless throw a clearer light upon a very remote, but not on that account less remarkable, period in the history of England and the North.
J. J. A. WORSAAE.
Copenhagen, April, 1851.
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CONTENTS.
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