Napoleon's Piles

[Mick F]

Being a Lancastrian by ancestry, we are no doubt Norse. The eastern side and middle of England was Anglo Saxon, and the Far West was Celtic.
Southern Scotland was Scots from Ireland, but the north was Norse and much of the northwest of what is now UK was Norse.

............... I think I'm correct, but please put me right if I'm not.

If I'm Lancastrian - and Norse - it might explain why I have a Viking problem.

[Mike Sales]

Being a Lancastrian by ancestry, we are no doubt Norse. The eastern side and middle of England was Anglo Saxon, and the Far West was Celtic.
Southern Scotland was Scots from Ireland, but the north was Norse and much of the northwest of what is now UK was Norse.

............... I think I'm correct, but please put me right if I'm not.

If I'm Lancastrian - and Norse - it might explain why I have a Viking problem.

Find a map of the Danelaw. Lincolnshire and Yorkshire are stiff with -thorpes and -bys, which are endings from Scandinavia.

[pete75]

Being a Lancastrian by ancestry, we are no doubt Norse. The eastern side and middle of England was Anglo Saxon, and the Far West was Celtic.
Southern Scotland was Scots from Ireland, but the north was Norse and much of the northwest of what is now UK was Norse.

............... I think I'm correct, but please put me right if I'm not.

If I'm Lancastrian - and Norse - it might explain why I have a Viking problem.

The eastern side of the country was the main area for Norse and Danish settlement. York(Jorvic) was the main Viking capital and Northumbria their largest and most powerful kingdom. It did extend into what is now Lancashire so back then Lancs was ruled by York .
The Danelaw was another area with large Nordic settlement. It was in the east and the Midlands - the five boroughs of the Danelaw being Lincoln, Stamford, Leicester , Nottingham and Derby. The Danelaw was the Norse/Danish held part of Mercia. East Anglia was also a Danish Kingdom.

[Tangled Metal]

What about the north men? As in Norman. Didn't they originate from northern Europe as in viking areas? They had the fighting skills of the vikings and that was how they got a foothold in France as mercenaries first then becoming landowners, nobles and fully embedded into French life and power. Or something like that as I only half watched the BBC documentary about it a good few years ago.

There's areas of western Cumbria that has very strong viking ancestry. Barrow residents are a particularly strong residual of the viking genes that cause this condition. Little Langdales had its own viking parliament. There's a stone outcrop / boulder that marks it. The little church in wasdale apparently had a beam made out of a part of a viking boat.

Of course I did once get told from an amateur historian of all things Welsh and celtic tell me that there was a celtic tribe living in parts of Lancashire, what is more southern parts of Cumbria and into North Wales. They were forced out and fled into Wales. Their language became old cymru and ultimately modern cymru and part of Wales. IIRC they were the Omric peoples. How true that is I don't know but a part of me likes that story. Not least because a part of my known ancestry involves a Welsh great grandparents moving into the old county palatine of Lancashire. Rounding the circle of migration for my ancestors, perhaps.

Anyway, I digress. My main point is that I find the migration of people into and around our great islands a fascinating and amazing thing that links us all whether English, Welsh, Scottish or Irish. The viking finger is just part of that.

PS I have known Swedish ancestry. Just where did the vikings end? Danish bit Norwegian too? What about Swedish? I never really understood whether the vikings were really from one modern day nation or just a single name for a whole range of peoples from Scandinavia.

[Audax67]

I have mild Dupuytren's Contracture in one hand, on the ring finger as illustrated. It seems to be receding, though.

We're in good company:

[Mick F]

The Norsemen came round the top of Scotland to the west of northern England.
The Danes came straight across the North Sea to colonise the East and middle of England.

........... or that's the way we were told at school.

[Audax67]

...bringing their tendency to high cholesterol with them.

[PDQ Mobile]

I hope I am correct in saying the Tudors came from Angelsey. A Norse name!

I have visited the church in Penmynydd, Ynys Mon and seen the alabaster effigy and tomb of Goronwy ap Tudur Hen, a tudor ancestor.
Viking? I don't know about that. The Vikings and Saxons called the island Anglesey.

The "sey" or"say"suffix is of Norse origin.
Colonsay, Bardsey(don't get me started!), Ramsey, etc etc.
Lots in the Western Isles.
Anglesey perhaps something of a misnomer - the Island of the Angles ( or English)- or was a misnomer centuries ago anyway!

[Mike Sales]

The "sey" or"say"suffix is of Norse origin.
Colonsay, Bardsey(don't get me started!), Ramsey, etc etc.
Lots in the Western Isles.
Anglesey perhaps something of a misnomer - the Island of the Angles ( or English)- or was a misnomer centuries ago anyway!

I have anchored at Bardsey (Ynys Enlli) and moored in Ramsey. I have sailed in the seas of -ays , the Hebrides and Orkney , and also in the Swedish Skargard, which is full of islands whose names end in the same sound, spelt differently, often ending in "o". Please excuse my lack of Swedish marks.
I would love to get you started about Bardsey, have you landed?

[Tangled Metal]

Bardsey off Barrow way? Sailed that way for an overnight trip on a scary force 7 or was it 8 wind. The boat owner had almost all the sails sheeted in. Only the second time he'd sailed in that strength of wind. We sailed to the safe anchorage inside it rather quickly

Then overnight the storm died and we sailed back in blue skies and good winds. First and only yacht trip. Couldn't get used to the way the yacht leant on its side. Not a seafarer in small boats. Too serious.

Just who were vikings? Danish or Norwegians or Swedish or all of them? Are some norsemen and others vikings? I really not clear on it all. Then Norman is a corruption of north men or norsemen. Vikings?

[Mike Sales]

Bardsey off Barrow way? Sailed that way for an overnight trip on a scary force 7 or was it 8 wind. The boat owner had almost all the sails sheeted in. Only the second time he'd sailed in that strength of wind. We sailed to the safe anchorage inside it rather quickly

Then overnight the storm died and we sailed back in blue skies and good winds. First and only yacht trip. Couldn't get used to the way the yacht leant on its side. Not a seafarer in small boats. Too serious.

Just who were vikings? Danish or Norwegians or Swedish or all of them? Are some norsemen and others vikings? I really not clear on it all. Then Norman is a corruption of north men or norsemen. Vikings?

Bardsey is off North Wales, off the end of the Lleyn. You may be thinking of Walney.
As I understand it Vikings were not a people, but those sea pirates who went a-Viking, making a raiding voyage between spring planting and autumn harvest.

[Slowroad]

Slightly surprised that no-one has mentioned that Margaret Thatcher had Dupuytren's Contracture. There was a mild media fuss about the PM going into hospital to have it sorted.

[PDQ Mobile]

I would love to get you started about Bardsey, have you landed?

Firstly mickf I apologise fir drifting your thread again.

Yes I have landed, more than once.
Waved at the seals.
And have climbed the top of the mountain more than once.
Looked at the ruins of past lives,seen the birthplace of friends, looked at the Abbey graveyard and even have Afal Enlli in my garden.

But it's the name(s) that I thought could lead us astray!
Ynys Enlli is a nice name and perfectly describes one aspect of the place.
The Island in the Flood (or current but I prefer flood!).
As a sailor you will know this!
The tide surges around Enlli four times a day as if it stood in a powerful river breaking into foam over the Skerries and emitting an audible roar - beware owners of small yachts!!


But Bardsey?
I wondered about it long; puzzled over the map yet could find no definite explanation.

A bardic fellow strumming his stuff in an attempt to lure mermaids to his isolation?

Bardsey?

Then I climbed the mountain and I saw in a blinding flash of intuition what I think the name represents.
The Bearded Isle!
From the Germanic, Bart = a beard.
The lighthouse Peninsula is the beard jutting Aladdin like out to the SW. An appendage!

It is but a personal theory, mind, and discounted by some, though I am convinced.
And I have not heard a better explanation....yet?

[Tangled Metal]

Bardsey off Barrow way? Sailed that way for an overnight trip on a scary force 7 or was it 8 wind. The boat owner had almost all the sails sheeted in. Only the second time he'd sailed in that strength of wind. We sailed to the safe anchorage inside it rather quickly

Then overnight the storm died and we sailed back in blue skies and good winds. First and only yacht trip. Couldn't get used to the way the yacht leant on its side. Not a seafarer in small boats. Too serious.

Just who were vikings? Danish or Norwegians or Swedish or all of them? Are some norsemen and others vikings? I really not clear on it all. Then Norman is a corruption of north men or norsemen. Vikings?

Bardsey is off North Wales, off the end of the Lleyn. You may be thinking of Walney.
As I understand it Vikings were not a people, but those sea pirates who went a-Viking, making a raiding voyage between spring planting and autumn harvest.

On I've got my places mixed up. I'm thinking of Piel Island for the mooring and bardsea the place near Ulverston in n Cumbria.

[Mike Sales]

On I've got my places mixed up. I'm thinking of Piel Island for the mooring and bardsea the place near Ulverston in n Cumbria.

Yes, Piel Island is sheltered from the Irish Sea by Walney. Near it is Foulney.
Did you have a drink in the Piel Island pub, and sit in the King of Piel's throne?