Does your town or village name have its origins in Old Norse?
The British Museum in 2014 held an exhibition entitled Vikings life and legend, although, we are now two years on from then the, online information is still accessible.
The original exhibition and the existing information was gathered and organised by the British Museum, the National Museum of Denmark, and the Museum für Vor- und Frühgeschichte, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin and sponsored by BP.
Discover Norse placenames near you
Find out whether the name of your village, town or city has its origins in Old Norse.
This map shows all English, Welsh, Irish and a selection of Scottish placenames with Old Norse origins. In England, these are more prevalent north of the line marked in black which represents the border described in a treaty between King Alfred and the Viking leader, Guthrum, made between AD 876 and 890.
This description – up the Thames, and then up the Lea, and along the Lea unto its source, then in a straight line to Bedford, then up on the Ouse to Watling Street – is traditionally thought to demarcate the southern boundary of the ‘Danelaw’ – the region where ‘Danish’ law was recognised. In reality it may have been more of a ‘legal fiction’ than a real border, but it does seem to roughly mark the southern limits of significant Scandinavian settlement in Britain.
extracted from the British Museum
Norse place name map via British Museum
The link to the British Museum online resource has a fascinating interactive map of the UK including the Scilly Isles. Enlarge the map, home in on your part of the country and see how many places have a Norse link.
The British Museum online map gives basic information – the place name.
Nottingham University interactive map
There is however, a more up to date map that has been made possible by the University of Nottingham and is more informative – Key to English Place-Names. The Nottingham map has a search facility, an information window, plus a list of nearby places with Norse connections. The Key to English Place-Names is well worth a visit.
Local historians, as well as visiting the previous websites, you may also be interested in a University of Leicester project – The Impact of Diasporas.