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Rög) left the dark (mirk or murk, Dan., mörk) room. Within is the bower or boor (Eng., bed-chamber), in Danish, Buur; as, for instance, in the old Danish word Jomfrubuur (the maiden's chamber), and in the modern word Fadebuur (the pantry).

Outside, in the garth, or yard (Dan., Gaard), stands the roomy lathe, or barn (Dan., Lade), which directly shows how fruitful the soil is that belongs to the garth (Dan., Gaard; Eng., a manor, farm). The shepherd or herdsman, whose nowth (Dan., Nöd; Eng., neat cattle) are restless in the boose (Dan., Baas; Eng., stall) and crib (Dan., Krybbe; Eng., manger), is about to cleanse the stable, and with a greype, or gripe (Dan., Möggreve; Eng., dung-fork), bears out the muck (Dan., Mög; Eng., dung) to the midding (Dan., Mödding; Eng., dunghill). If we accompany him to the fields he tells us in a lively tone about the many threaves of corn (Dan., Traver, bundles of twenty or thirty sheaves), particularly of big (Dan., Byg; Eng. barley) that have been got from the poor ling (Dan., Lyng; Eng., fern) which covers the sides of the haughs or haws (Dan., Höie; Eng., hills); of all the slaa-torns (Dan., Slaatjörn; Eng., sloes), lins (Dan., Lindetræer; Eng., linden trees), roan trees (Dan., Rönnetrær; Eng., Scotch rowan trees), and allars (Dan., Elletræer; Eng., alders), that grow in yonder little shaw (Dan., Skov; Eng., wood), or in that lawnd (Dan., Lund; Eng., grove), which is likewise full of hindberries (Dan., Hindbær; Eng., raspberries), and which is resorted to by many gowks (Dan., Gjöge; Eng., cuckoos). A field farther on, which in its time was acquired by mackshift (Dan., Mageskifte; Eng., deed of exchange), has been allowed to ley-breck (Dan., ligge-brak; Eng., to lie fallow). Through this field winds a beck (Dan., Bæk; Eng., brook), or rivulet well stocked with fish, in which with a liester (Dan., Lyster; Icelandic, Ljöstr, grains, or a sort of barbed iron fork on a long pole) one may be able to make a good capture.

In the river are the trows, or troughs (Jutland, trow;

Old Scan., pró), made use of to cross over to the opposite shore. These trows, or troughs, are two small boats, originally trunks of trees hollowed out, and held together by a cross-pole. He who wishes to pass over places a foot in each trough or boat, and rows himself forward with the help of an oar. It is said that Edmund Ironsides and Canute the Great rowed over to the Isle of Olney (in the river Severn) in such boats at the time when they concluded an agreement to divide England between them. The original inhabitants of Europe undoubtedly passed the great rivers in the same simple manner.

Amongst the words in the popular language that still remind one of ancient Scandinavian customs, those of yuletide, yuling (Christmas), yule-candles (Dan., Julelys), and yule-cakes (Dan., Julekager), deserve particular notice. Christmas was certainly kept as a solemn feast among the Anglo-Saxons, but it does not appear to have had that importance with them which it had with the Scandinavians; of which this is a proof, that the old name of Christmas (Yule) is preserved only in those districts in the north that were more especially colonized by the Northmen. Yule, or the mid-winter feast, was, in the olden times, as it still partly is, the greatest festival in the countries of Scandinavia. Yule bonfires were kindled round about as festival-fires to scare witches and wizards; offerings were made to the gods; the boar dedicated to Freyr (Dan., Sonegalte) was placed on the table, and over it the warriors vowed to perform great deeds. Pork, mead, and ale abounded, and yuletide passed merrily away with games, gymnastics, and mirth of all kinds. It is singular enough that even to the present day it is not only the custom in several parts of England to bring a garnished boar's head to table at Christmas, but that the descendants of the Northmen, in Yorkshire and the ancient Northumberland, do not even now neglect to place a large piece of wood on the fire on Christmas Eve, which is by some called the yule-block, by others yule-clog, or yule-log (per

haps from the old Scandinavian lág, log, a felled tree; Norwegian, laag). Superstitious persons do not, however, allow the whole log to be consumed, but take it out of the fire again in order to preserve it until the following year. Exactly similar observances of Christmas customs still exist in the Scandinavian North. At Smaaland, in Sweden, a boar's-head, called julhös (from hös, the skull), is set on the table at Christmas; and in East Gothland a large loaf, called juhlegalt, is seen on table throughout the festival, of which, however, nothing is eaten. Juhlhös and juhlegalt, as well as the boar's-head in the north of England before alluded to, owe their origin unmistakeably to the expiatory barrow-pig, or "Galt," offered up by the old Northmen to Freyr. The remembrance of the games of the Northmen is also preserved in England in the Scandinavian word lake (to play), which is heard only in the ancient Danish districts.

To enumerate all the Scandinavian words in the English popular tongue would, from their quantity, be both a tedious and a superfluous labour. The following selection of a hundred of the most common of them will surely be regarded as sufficient clearly to prove in what a highly remarkable manner "the Danish tongue" has imprinted itself on the north of England, in comparison with other countries occupied by the Normans, as, for example, Normandy; where the Scandinavian language, notwithstanding the very considerable immigrations from Scandinavia, has disappeared to such a degree that but very few traces of it now remain.

A HUNDRED DANISH WORDS, SELECTED FROM THE VULGAR TONGUE, OR COMMON LANGUAGE, NORTH OF WATLINGA STRET.

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