Lecture 8 Scandinavian invasions and their effect

Since the 8^th c. the British Isles were ravaged by sea rovers from Scandinavia ( the “Danes”-датчане) The English had to struggle against them. Wessex stood at the head of the resistance. Under King Alfred of Wessex by the peace treaty of 878 England was divided into two halves: the north-eastern half under Danish control called Danelaw (область датского права) and the south-western under the leadership of Wessex. The Scandinavians admitted the supreme power of England. However in the 10^th c. the Danish raids were renewed again and in 1013 all England submitted to the conquerors. The English king Ethelred (Этельред) fled to Normandy. In 1017 Canute (Канут), the son of the Danish king Sweyn, officially became the king of England, and England became part of a great northern empire, comprising Denmark and Norway. Canute died in 1035, his kingdom broke up, however the power of Danes in England went on till 1042. After Canute the rulers of England from Danish line were Harold I (1035-1040) and Hardicanute (1040-1042). And only in 1042 the regime of Danes was thrown down and Anglo-Saxon rule was reestablished with Edward the Confessor (Эдуард Исповедник) at the head.

As for the effect and Scandinavian influence on the English vocabulary, it should be said that the new settlers and the English intermarried, they did not differ in social rank or in the level of culture or customs. There was no linguistic barrier between them as both OE and OScandinavian belonged to the Germanic group. The total number of Scandinavian borrowings is about 900 words, 700 of them belong to Standard English. Assimilation of loan-words was easy. The linguistic consequences of the Scandinavian invasions became more apparent in ME.

The substantial part of the vocabulary was common both for OE and OScandinavian. In most part of the words the root was common, endings were different:

OE fisc OScand fiskr (fish)

OE trēo OScand trē (tree)

OE rīpan OScand grīpa (grip)

OE wīs OScand viss (wise)

The other part of the vocabulary of OE and OScandinavian did not coincide. And here we deal with Scandinavian borrowings.They pertain to military and legal matters: cnīf ( NE knife), liþ (fleet), orrest (battle), lau (law), hūsbonda (husband), feolaa (fellow. OE pronoun hīe was replaced by Scandinavian þeir (NE they), as well as Scandinavian þeirra and þeim replaced OE hira (NE their) and him (NE them).

The presence of the Scandinavians in the English population is indicated by a large number of place-names of Scandinavian origin (with the element: