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Geography, Toponymy and Political Organisation Geography, Toponymy and Political Organisation in Early Scandinavia by Stefan Brink

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Geography, Toponymy and Political Organisation Geography, Toponymy and Political Organisation in Early Scandinavia by Stefan Brink Geography, toponymy and political organisation Geography, toponymy and political organisation in early Scandinavia by Stefan Brink Th e accounts of the voyages of Ohthere and Later, the name occurs in a runic inscription Wulfstan are, together with Rimbert’s Vita from Jelling (ca 980) in the form Nuruiak. Anskarii, the oldest written descriptions of Th e form of this name on one of the two Jell- Scandinavia that we have, although Jorda- ing stones has caused problems to philolo- nes’ listing of several ethnic groups in Ultima gists, who would have expected the dental Th ule around the year 500 is more than three (ð) in the name. Adolf Noreen therefore as- centuries earlier. We are here for the fi rst time sumed that the fi rst element was nór ‘short in writing introduced to a number of place river, narrow bay’ and that the name was to names and historical matters. Although these be interpreted as ‘the narrow way’.4 Th is is travel accounts contain few descriptions and not necessary, since we have the dental in the provide little information about Scandinavia, oldest surviving forms of the name, Nortua- the sources are of extreme importance for the gia and also Norðweg in the Old English Oro- understanding, or rather interpretation, of sius. Most certainly Norway goes back to a the geography and political structure of the Proto-Nordic *Norð(r)vegr, where the frica- early Viking Age. tive dental must have been lost early, reduced To begin with the geography: in the ac- between two other consonants, in the same count of Ohthere’s report to King Alfred, way as in the Old Norse adjective norrœnn it is stated that it took more than a month ‘northerly’ (< norðrœnn). We may compare for Ohthere to travel by ship from his home Old Norse vestrvegr ‘land to the west’, aus- in Hálogaland (mod. form Hålogaland) in trvegr ‘land to the east’ and suðrvegr ‘land to northern Norway down to Kaupang (Sciringes the south’ (used in particular of Germany, healh) in Vestfold, following the coast with a Italy etc.).5 favourable wind and camping at night.1 Th is Initially Norway must have been the account seems fair enough if one compares it name of the sailing route along the Nor- with the information Rimbert gives for Ans- wegian coast, from Viken and Agder up to gar’s second journey to Birka around 850;2 Hálogaland, most certainly a very important here it says that this trip from Schleswig to trade route with the kaupangr at Skiringssalr Birka took twenty days. as the - or, at least, a - hub, where luxury com- Th is often used sailing route along the modities from the arctic regions were stored Norwegian coast, from Hálogaland in the and traded with Danish, German, English north down to Viken, which Ohthere de- and Frisian merchants. It is generally ac- scribes from his home down to Kaupang, cepted that the name of this well-known sail- became so identifi ed with the land along the ing route must, through metonymic transfer, route that it gave its name to the country, subsequently have been extended to the ac- namely Norway, and the second oldest ref- tual land mass along the northerly route. We 1. Cf. Sawyer 2002: 87. erence to this is to be found in the account may compare the transfer of the name Red- 2. Vita Anskarii 26. of Ohthere’s report (Norðweg, ‘North way’); väg ‘the riding path or route’, used of a land 3. Seip 1923: 9–19; Stem- shaug 1976: 129. in a Latin source from ca 840 we have the route from the sea to Falbygden in the prov- 4. Noreen 1897: 22. 3 th Latinized form Nortuagia. Hence, by the 9 ince of Västergötland, to a ‘hundred’ district 5. Cf. Stemshaug 1976: 130; century the name Norway was already in use. (härad). I would suggest that the transfer of Andersson 2000c: 558. 66 II. Geography the name Norway very probably originated seems to be no doubt that the older name with Danish travellers and merchants sailing for Huseby in Tjølling was Skíringssalr (or in these waters and visiting Kaupang. maybe Skírings-al, though, if so, to be seen in A name that is related both geographi- the same semantic fi eld as a name in -salr).10 cally and toponymically to Norway is Jæren, Th e fi rst element in this name is unclear, it the name of the large settlement district has been variously suggested that it is to be south of Stavanger. It is derived from ON interpreted as a by-name for a god, Freyr or jaðarr ‘edge’, an appropriate description for Ullr, as a name *Skíringr ‘the clear one’ for the sharp coast line between Eigersund and the inlet to Skíringssalr and Kaupang, and as Stavanger,6 and its name, the ‘edgy’ part, was a name of the actual salr ‘hall’, ‘the glorious, most certainly given to it by people sailing on “shining” hall building’.11 the ‘North way’, hence given from the per- Janet Bately, taking as her starting point spective of the sea. the Old English term healh, notes amongst Central to Ohthere’s description and the wide range of meanings found for this most certainly very central for early Viking place-name generic that of ‘slightly raised or Age Norway is Sciringes healh. Th is place low-lying land in close association with wa- name is in my opinion a corrupt form of ter’ (possibly ‘land beside an inlet or bay’),12 Skíringssalr, the second element -salr having and suggests that ‘Sciring’s haugh’ seems an been wrongly identifi ed with OE healh (cor- appropriate description of the site of the responding to modern Scottish and North- trading place and harbour now under exca- ern English ‘haugh’, southern ‘hale’) by an vation at Kaupang. However, she emphasises Anglo-Saxon note-taker or interpreter. Since that we can only conjecture as to what Norse the archaeological discoveries at Kaupang, word or phrase may have lain behind the 6. Sandnes & Stemshaug the Sciringes healh of the report of Ohthere’s choice of the topographical term Sciringes (eds) 1980: 177; Andersson voyages has been identifi ed with that place. healh, which the Old English text gives as the 2000a: 1. However, this is only partly correct. To un- name of the port (‘port’, ‘harbour’, ‘trading 7. For the occurrence of 13 Skíringssalr in early docu- derstand the names ON Skíringssalr and ON centre’) on Ohthere’s route to Hedeby. ments, cf. NG 6: 304 and Kaupangr one has to look at the actual settle- Th is is a possibility to be considered, but Skre this volume. ment historical situation here and the topo- it rests upon the assumption that this area 8. Brink 2000a. nymical milieu. had a name such as *Skíringr, *Skíringsangr or 9. Brink 1999; Brink 2000b. Th e site now known as Kaupang is situ- something like that. Unfortunately no such 10. Hoel 1986: 132 – For names ending in al in Scan- ated in a small settlement district (bygd), name is recorded. What we do know is that dinavian place names, see which in some early documents is identifi ed in medieval times a place called Skíringssalr Brink 1992. with the name Skíringssalr (an areal denota- was located in this area. Hence I fi nd as the 11. For interpretations of the tion which is probably secondary).7 Th e bygd most plausible interpretation that Old Norse element Skíring- in the name, see NG 6: 304-306, Fries contains only a handful of settlements. At its Skíringssalr and Old English Sciringes healh 1980, Sandnes & Stemshaug centre is a farm by the name of Huseby. Th is are to be seen in context, and I assume that 1980: 281, Hoel 1986, name goes back to an administrative term, the latter is a misunderstanding and an Old Nordberg 2003; cf. Brink the appellative husaby(r), which, at least in English adaptation of a misheard or misinter- 1996: 271-273; Andersson central Sweden, referred to a royal farm or preted Old Norse name, so that the Anglo- 2000b: 340. hamlet, probably part of the bona regalia, Saxon writer used the, to him well known, 12. See above, page 000 and 8 the bibliography there cited. the Uppsala ødh. As can be demonstrated, word OE healh, ‘bend (perhaps also bay)’, 13. See above, pages 000 and these administrative terms have replaced an hence Sciringes healh. Th is is the common 000. older name for the settlement.9 Very often interpretation of toponymic scholars who 14. NG 4: 304–6; Fries 14 1980: 94; Sandnes & Stem- these older names were of a special kind, have looked into the matter. Presumably shaug 1980: 281; Andersson theophoric or denoting a centre of power, Ohthere used this place name because it was 2000b: 339. such as Óðinssalr, Tésalr, Ærnavi etc. Th ere the ‘place of domination’, which the harbour Geography, toponymy and political organisation 67 and trading place (the kaupangr) were under king or chieftain’. Maybe it is possible to re- the control of and to which they belonged. late the two sites to each other, by interpret- It is important to understand the fi rst el- ing them as belonging to the same historical ement, but for a cultural historical interpre- period, but to two diff erent socio-political tation of the settlement the second element ‘layers’ in society, where þjóða(r)lyng was the is vital. It is the word salr (or al, with prob- ‘stable’ geographical focus over time, the site ably similar meaning), an element found in where to meet, and Husaby(r)/Skíringssalr the some other prominent place names, such as site of a chieftain or a king, whose political (Gamla) Uppsala (< Upsalir), Óðinssalr, Tésalr power could grow or diminish, so that the etc., a word that can be demonstrated to have site could lose or gain ‘importance’, perhaps, denoted a major banqueting hall, a king’s or in some cases, to the degree that it could a chieftain’s hall;15 the old Scandinavian word ‘vanish’ from the socio-political scene, and for a ‘hall’ was salr, cf.
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