Scandinavian-Britain

2l6SCANDINAVIAN BRITAINWythop was formerly Withorppe and Wyth-thorp,the village in the wood ; Harbyrn, the high borran,and Wythburn, the wide borran, or pile of stones, aword borrowed by the Vikings from Ireland andfrequently used in the Lake District for natural rockyplaces and for ancient ruins, like Borrans Ring, theremains of the Roman camp at Ambleside. Wythburn,however, appears in a sixteenth century will asWythbotten, and this word botn t usually Englished"bottom," is often found in Cumbria and Yorkshirefor the head not basin of a valley, as in Iceland.In the northern fringe of the Lake District thereare also many names with Blen, Caer, Pen, etc., whichshow Cymric survivals, proving that the Welsh ofCumberland, as well as the Angles already settledthere, lived side by side .with the Norse immigrants.All the Norse place-names indicate the domestic lifeof a race occupied in farming there is nothing heroic:about them in the way of sites consecrated to thememory of battles though battles were fought, or ofheathen rites though heathen gods were still remembered,if not worshipped. One place in Westmorland,Hoff Lunn (lundr) may signify such practices, but itis the exception. The supposed references to Thor,Odin, and Baldr as gods commemorated in placenamesare illusory ;and yet the Gosforth Cross showsthat about the year 1000 these myths were current,side by side, with Christianity. The survivals of Norsein the dialect point the same way. To berry (berja,thresh) ;the boose (bass, cow-shed) ;the brandrith(brandreffi, tripod for baking) \ elding (as in Icelandic,