LL-L "History" 2007.05.05 (02) [E]

[Lowlands-L List]

L O W L A N D S - L  -  05 May 2007 - Volume 02

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From: Jonny Meibohm <altkehdinger at freenet.de>
Subject: LL-L "History"

Beste Lowlanners,

some days ago I read a book dealing with the history of the Normans settling
in the French Normandy.

One interesting fact I dealt with since a couple of years I became reminded
at again.

en. wikipedia says it better than I could:

*quote*
After a generation or two, the Normans were generally indistinguishable from
their French neighbours.
*unquote*

From Rollo, the famous Viking (and ancestor of William the Conqueror) who
commanded the last fight against the French in 911 till the Battle of
Hastings- just ca. 150 years!

They also didn't leave much in Normandy's place names, perhaps *Cherbourg*and
*Le Havre* could be of Scandinavian origin.

fr. wikipedia (about *Cherbourg*):

*quote*
*Carusburg* signifierait en scandinave « forteresse des marais », de
*kjars*(marais) et de
*borg* (château, ville fortifiée), issu du latin *burgum*.
*unquote*

(BTW: *burgum *of course is of Germanic origin, not Latin! Perhaps the
prefix *cher *also could be cognate with E: *shore*, G: *Schaere, *and in LS
we still have the word *schaar*, meaning *'close to the shore'*.)

Why did this happen so fast? Was it perhaps caused by the fact that the
Normans/Vikings probably weren't a homogeneous tribe with a common
language/dialect and common culture?
Were they too few people, just a very thin ruling upper class that wasn't
able to keep apart from the indigenous folks? But after 1066 in Britain they
could influence language and culture over there so heavily!

Or was it just the fact that they found a culture/civilisation which was
higher developed than their own? Or a result of their fast christianization?

Or are there much more relics of the 'original' Normans I'm not aware of?

Allerbest!

Jonny Meibohm
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