OF THE DANES AND NORWEGIANS IN ENGLAND, SCOTLAND, AND IRELAND. BY J. J. A. WORSAAE, FOR. F.S.A. LONDON; A ROYAL COMMISSIONER FOR THE PRESERVATION OF THE NATIONAL MONUMENTS WITH NUMEROUS WOOD-CUTS. LONDON: JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET. 1852. (246. l. 61. PREFACE. MR. WORSAAE informs us in his Introduction that the following pages were not written solely for the learned. They were designed as a popular contribution to a branch of historical and antiquarian knowledge, which, though highly interesting both to Scandinavians and Englishmen, has been hitherto very imperfectly investigated. The English reader will find in Mr. Worsaae's work not only many facts concerning the early history of this country that are either entirely new to him, or placed at least in a wholly novel light, but he will also meet with many names whose form may appear foreign and unfamiliar. It may, therefore, be desirable that on the English reader's introduction to a more intimate acquaintance with that Scandinavian race which has more claims than he had, perhaps, imagined, not only to be regarded as the founders of some of his native customs and institutions, but even to be reckoned among his forefathers, he should be enabled to pronounce their principal names correctly. With this view the following. brief remarks are subjoined ; The double a (aa), frequently occurring in proper names, must be sounded like the English diphthong aw, as in Blaatand, Haarfager. The ö, or oe, is pronounced like the French diphthong eu. The u, as in German and Italian, is equivalent to oo in the English words cool, troop, &c.; as in Ulf, Huskarl, &c. |