Scandinavian Settlement Research Articles

Scandinavian Settlement in Seattle, "Queen City of the Puget Sound"

by PATSY ADAMS HEGSTAD 2 Scandinavian Settlement in Seattle, "Queen City of the Puget Sound,,iķ Founded shore of Puget in 1851 Sound, on the Seattle wooded was acquiring southeastern by shore of Puget Sound, Seattle was acquiring by the turn of the century the Scandinavian flavor which still remains a feature of the city. Until the latter 1880s Scandinavians had comprised a relatively insignificant proportion of the city's population, but by 1890 they constituted fully one-fourth of Seattle's foreign-born. After that, the number of Seattle residents native to the Nordic countries increased steadily, exceeding 5,000 in 1900 and expanding to nearly four times that by 1910. In the latter year no less than eight percent of the city's inhabitants, or one person in twelve, had been born in Denmark, Finland, Norway, or Sweden. The actual number of first-generation Scandinavians in Seattle reached its zenith in 1920, peaking at 23,856. Throughout the entire period 1890-1960, however, as Table 1 shows, Nordic immigrants comprised a sizeable fraction of Seattle's population and between one-fourth and *This article is based upon the writer's doctoral dissertation, "Naturalization Propensity and Voter Registration of Nordic Immigrants in Seattle, 18921900 ," at the University of Washington. 55 Patsy Adams Hegstad one-third of its foreign-born. The "queen city of the Puget Sound" had become one of the important places of settlement for Scandinavians in the Pacific Northwest and had earned the reputation of being a center of Scandinavian culture in the Far West.1 That the Nordic population moved from relative numerical unimportance among the foreign-born of Seattle before 1890 to such numbers as to become one of the city's distinctive features involves a variety of factors. In addition to geographical and physical characteristics of the Puget Sound area, economic opportunities, and the general movement west, there was also active recruitment of Scandinavian immigrants by the state, by business , and by private individuals. Although the precise relationships among these and other factors have not been documented and perhaps cannot be, their importance is suggested by specific cases and studies.2 Descriptions of Puget Sound written by Scandinavians repeatedly emphasized its similarities to regions in Norway, Sweden, or Finland. Thos. Ostenson Stine's glowing descriptions of Puget Sound and Seattle included the observation that "When you throw your eye upon Puget Sound, and behold the fleet of fish barges, rolling upon her briny breast, a reminiscence of the coast of Norway steals into your soul." Ernst Skarstedt likened the climate and landscape of Washington generally to that of Norrland, noting that they shared "mountains, dark evergreen forests, and rushing rivers." Ingrid Semmingsen quotes an early immigrant 's description of Puget Sound as being "as like Hardanger as any place can be." Semmingsen herself continues in a similar vein, describing the landscape with its "sounds and islands, fjords and mountains" as reminiscent of Vestlandet. The cartographer G. E. Kastengren , who settled in Seattle, went so far as to com56 SCANDINAVIANS IN SEATTLE o Ci I- I¿ oo f-H c o '•w JS "3 a o a o ü o z C/5 "li cd (U in H JD 3 cd H Cfl Mm ctí J ° c -fi O C.5ř£ 05©TfHC0^05t05(N^ g ■fi o ï 2 dai^co^d^oiai^t^ a S u o c o -£ N«C0NC0C0N(MH c ^ lo c ^ 1 C/i X QJ W) W- fi 3 00 -3 Ctí O o ^ ^ fi ü C« td cqr-OOcOOCDTfcOOOíCO g .£ 0) 'S ütS's H (Ü00 5 n 3 >- H Q p" f2 5 n o A) Q Q "£ p" io z A) s. ¡2 Q "£ -e- io -o •S § 'C * •S c CU ^ HOWCCCOCOCßOlßOJ® fi ctí C lfl ^ y wocoootWHcoMßn J2 „ c Ē lfl U ¿fi HCOOÓQOrtrtHh^ 3 o „ ctí o fi c co in af co co" a>" co" ^h" x" £ X ^3 C o X ^3 «S - «« Íh -h" oí 00" o" af i> ao co" ei 'S S "5 -& m ~ I- I¿ . . -& m s I- i -S & >c£ . . C0CÎHO5W(OMCÎH O v¡ g o L ctí n IßfO-HTfcOtOCN O fi o L o -a...

Aspects of Scandinavian Settlement in Northern England: a Review

THELASTTWENTYEARShave seen considerable revision of traditional interpretations of the role of the Vikings in the history of European civilization. Increasingly, it is recognized that they were settlers and traders as well as raiders, and that variety in their local roles is to be expected. That such a change could have come about, is in no small measure due to the work of people who have forced a reassessment of the period. Professor Peter Sawyer's justly-famous heterodox work The Age of the Vikings (Sawyer 1962/1971), perhaps more than most has been instrumental in this from an historical viewpoint (also see Sawyer 1982a & b). Debate has, of course, continued (see Wormald 1982). There is, now, more discussion of the nature of the Viking age, and assessment of the culture of the Scandinavians both in their homelands as in The Viking Achievement (Foote & Wilson 1970/1980) and in the different parts of the known world in which they raided, settled, and traded. Archaeological material has been brought to the fore in asserting a positive role (as well as a negative one) for the Vikings in the history of European civilization. This has, in recent years, been emphasized in both major exhibitions held in Britain, at the British Museum (GrahamCampbell & Kidd 1980; Graham-Campbell 1980) and the Yorkshire Museum (Pearson et al. 1981). It has also been translated into more popular terms in a recent television series and accompanying book (Magnusson 1980). As a practising archaeologist, concerned particularly

Aspects of Scandinavian Settlement in Northern England: a Review

Aspects of Scandinavian Settlement in Northern England: a Review

Viking Age farms: Estimating the number and population size. A case study from Vestvåg⊘y, North Norway

After a brief introduction to Scandinavian settlement archaeology, and that of North Norway in particular, a detailed analysis of the Viking Age settlement situation at the island of Vestvag⊘y is undertaken. An attempt is made to arrive at quantitative figures for both farm number and population size. The methods, or rather the combination of methods, differ somewhat from what is normally met with. There is heavy reliance on the occurrence, of deserted farms and farmyards as well as on pollen‐analysis. A retrospective use of written records and later archaeological evidence is also employed. The results indicate a dense settlement in the Viking Age and a situation not much different from that of the 14th century and that of the 17th century. Finally the Viking Age chiefdom organization is briefly dealt with.

Scandinavian Settlement Names in the East Midlands. Gillian Fellows Jensen

<i>Scandinavian Settlement Names in the East Midlands</i>. Gillian Fellows Jensen

POLLEN DIAGRAMS FROM NORTHUMBERLAND.

Pollen diagrams from four sites in Northumberland have been produced in order to study the impact of prehistoric man on the vegetation of the region since Neolithic times. The major vegetational changes have been radiocarbon dated at Fellend, Steng and Camp Hill Mosses, but not at Broad Moss. There is evidence at all four sites for small temporary clearances in the woodlands during the Bronze Age and also during the pre-Roman Iron Age. These clearances were mainly for grazing and their frequency at a site accords well with the archaeological evidence for settlement. All the diagrams show a major clearance of forest, primarily for pasture, dated at Fellend and Steng Mosses to the time of the Roman occupation of the north-east of England. At Camp Hill this clearance gave a late medieval date, but there is good reason for suspecting the sample may have been contaminated with 14 C-rich carbon. Regeneration of forest occurred some one to two hundred years after the withdrawal of the Romans. This has also been observed on diagrams from neighbouring counties, and indicates a post-Roman period of economic stability. There was a further extensive clearance, dated at Fellend and Steng Mosses to the time of the Scandinavian settlement, and the diagrams show a late medieval recession in farming and a regeneration of woodland before the present landscape was created. Rates of peat accumulation were estimated from the radiocarbon dates at Fellend Moss, where it increased in late medieval times, and at Steng Moss, where it did so in the late Bronze Age.

Scandinavian Settlement in the North and West of the British Isles—an Archaeological Point-of-View

THE Scandinavians came to Britain first as raiders, then as settlers. The length of the periods of raiding, the form of raids, the character and duration of settlement and the speed with which Scandinavian influence was lost, varied considerably in the different regions. In simple terms the Viking Age lasted from 790 to 1070, but within and beyond these dates is infinite variety. In England the first settlements are not recorded before 876, eighty years or more after the first raids; in Scotland, however, there is fairly firm evidence of settlement in the first half of the ninth century, while in some parts of Scotland settlement may not even have been preceded by raids. It is clear too that Guthrum's conquests are of an entirely different character to those of Knut the Great. Guthrum was a petty chief. Knut a great ruler, was accepted as such by his royal contemporaries and his power achieved imperial proportions. In Ireland, where they settled in very limited areas, the Scandinavians lost most of their political power in the late tenth century. Their commercial importance there, however, grew by leaps and bounds, but even in this role they lost all semblance of influence after the Norman conquest of Ireland of 1169. Norse power was broken in western Scotland after the battle of Largs in 1263 (although Norse earls held sway in the Isles until 1331). The Isle of Man was transferred to the Scottish crown in 1266, while Orkney and Shetland remained Norwegian until the impignorations of 1468 and 1469.

The Vikings in England: a review

In the preface to F. M. Stenton's collected papers Lady Stenton notes that the publication ofAnglo-Saxon Englandin 1943 marked the culmination of a life-time spent largely preparing for and writing a book in which ‘place-names, coins and charters, wills and pleas, archaeology and the laws of the Anglo-Saxons were all for the first time adequately used to produce a balanced narrative, supported by Domesday Book and the twelfth-century charters which made it easier to understand the earlier material’. Indeed, with the exception of archaeology, Sir Frank had been actively engaged in all these fields of research, as is revealed by the list of his published works, and it seemed unlikely at the time that it would ever be necessary to make major adjustments to the view of the Scandinavian settlements that he presented. Only twelve years had passed, however, when voices of dissent began to arise and the first of three papers that were to herald two decades of controversy about the Vikings in England was published. The present review examines the most significant contributions to the ensuing debate and considers whether it has, in fact, been necessary to depart substantially from the views held by Stenton.

England before the Conquest: Studies in Primary Sources Presented to Dorothy Whitelock

List of illustrations Acknowledgements Preface List of abbreviations 1. The writings of Dorothy Whitelock 2. The letters of Pope Boniface V and the mission of Paulinus to Northumbria Peter Hunter Blair 3. Bede's text of Libellus Responsionum of Gregory the Great to Augustine of Canterbury Paul Meyvaert 4. A background to St Boniface's mission J. M. Wallace-Hadrill 5. Evidence for contacts between the churches of the Irish and English from the Synod of Whitby to the Viking Age Kathleen Hughes 6. The development of military obligations in eighth- and ninth-century England Nicholas Brooks 7. 'lfric and the Old English version of the Ely privilege John Pope 8. Towns in late Anglo-Saxon England: the evidence and some possible lines of enquiry Henry Loyn 9. Regnum and sacerdotium in the early eleventh century Dorothy Bethurum Loomis 10. Scandinavian settlement in the territory of the Five Boroughs: the place-name evidence in part III, the Grimston-hybrids Kenneth Cameron 11. How long did the Scandinavian language survive in England R. I. Page 12. Personal names on the coinage of Edgar Olof von Feilitzen and Christopher Blunt 13. The narrative mode of The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle before the Conquest Cecily Clark 14. The classic additions in the Old English Orosius Janet Bately 15. The orientation system in the Old English Orosius Rene Derolez 16. The ethic of war in old English J. E. Cross 17. The use in Beowulf of earlier heroic verse Alistair Campbell 18. Cynewulf's image of the Ascension Peter Clemoes 19. The 'Winchester School' before St 'thelwold Francis Wormald 20. The handwriting of Archbishop Wulfstan Neil Ker 21. The nummular brooch from Sulgrave Michael Dolley 22. Repton reconsidered: a study in structural criticism H. M. Taylor 23. Archaeology and the beginnings of English society Martin Biddle Index.

Fredrika Bremer's "Spirit of the New World"

F REDRIKA Bremer was only one many foreign writers who came to America in the nineteenth century to discover -and, course, to publish-the latest truth about the great democracy in the west, but she distinguished herself in this task by the extensiveness her travels and the good-natured candor her report, Hemmen i den Nya Verlden (Stockholm, 1853-1854; Homes the New World, London and New York, 1853).1 Her fame preceded her-the press described her on her arrival in New York in October, 1849, as the author of a new style literature who probably, at the present moment, has more readers than any other female writer on the globe2--and she was made welcome in the literary and social world New York and Boston. As a distinguished (and energetic) visitor from Sweden, she traveled also to the Midwest to visit Scandinavian settlements there, and as an ardent humanitarian, to the South to observe at firsthand the institution slavery. By virtue her conviction that, given opportunities for education and freedom movement, women might do much to relieve human suffering, she took occasion wherever she went to comment on the accomplishments American women in public life and on their position in the home. Through all the exertions these travels, she remained sharp-eyed and sympathetic as she poured her impressions into voluminous letters to her sister in Sweden. These letters, slightly revised, came to comprise the bulk her book on America. She had recognized on her return to Sweden the desirability reworking them, but although she had the example Tocqueville, whose treatise on America in the Swedish version, Om folkviildet i Amerika (Stockholm, 1839-1846)

EARLY NORWEGIAN SETTLEMENT IN THE ROCKIES

EARLY NORWEGIAN SETTLEMENT IN THE ROCKIES BY KENNETH BJORK A.M. Holter had made a fortune in business ventures that touched in one way or another on mining and related activities , but his conscience had always restrained him from urging fellow Norwegians to seek employment in the Montana mines. He had a different attitude, however, toward farming and immigrant land seekers. "When I think back," he wrote in 1878, "and recall the large migration into Iowa and Minnesota during the years 1853 to 1857, then it seems to me that there must still be Scandinavians who would want to grasp the opportunity, if only they knew of it, inherent in the fact that there are millions of acres of government land in Montana that is just as fertile as the land in the Mississippi Valley and can be acquired under the homestead, preemption , or desert laws." He continued: "Under the desert law a person can take up 640 acres at 25c cash per acre and $1.00 more each year for three years. During these three years one is obligated to dig an irrigation ditch and bring in enough water to flood the land. Here I should like to explain that farmers cannot anticipate sufficient rain; therefore they must dig ditches to the nearest streams, in order to inundate their fields as often as necessary ; in this way crops do not fail during drouth." Holter described Montana Territory in detail, explaining that it was larger than Iowa, Wisconsin, and Illinois combined , yet had a population of only about 25,000. According to an official report of 1867, some 30,000,000 acres were suited to agriculture. What remained was partly covered with forest and partly with some of the best grassland in America. Furthermore, the prices of farm produce were high. Wheat, said Holter, brought $2.35 to $2.50, oats, $2.15, and potatoes, 44 NORWEGIANS IN THE ROCKIES 45 $1.50 to $1.75 per hundred pounds; butter 45c to 50c a pound; and eggs 30c a dozen. It was stock raising, however, that earned the largest profits. Some who produced cattle and horses had reported to him that they enjoyed a return of from 24 to 36 per cent annually on their investment in stock. Sheep raising was even more remunerative; Major W. Davenport had informed Holter that his sheep brought him a yearly interest of 60 per cent. While admitting that this last figure might be exaggerated, Holter reminded his readers that horses and cattle foraged for themselves in all seasons . Wool was shipped to New York and meat to Chicago, while some other products went to London. Thus Montana enjoyed a world market. In concluding his letter, Holter said: "I have been living in this territory for almost fifteen years, have operated a sawmill and lumber business, and have always used horses and oxen to haul goods. Thus I speak from experience. A short time ago I acquired a section of land near the large Missouri cataract at the mouth of the Sun River. This place is eighty miles north of Helena and twenty miles east of Fort Shaw. The nearest neighbor is twelve miles away and the land between us is unclaimed, yet is of the finest quality. I consider this valley to be one of the best for a Scandinavian settlement, for all products can be sold to the soldiers at Fort Shaw at good prices. Though I prefer Sun River Valley over any other place, I would direct the reader's attention to the land along the Marias River, in Judith Basin, and along the Musselshell and Yellowstone. In the near future we expect to be linked with the civilized world, for a railroad is now being constructed from Ogden in Utah and about one hundred miles of this line is already completed. Passenger tickets from Omaha to Helena along this route are as follows: first class $105, second class $90, for emigrants $45. We are also hopeful that within a few years the Northern Pacific will come in here. A passenger ticket from St. Paul to Bismarck on this line costs $20; from 46 KENNETH BJORK Bismarck to Fort Benton the...

Presidential Address: The Scandinavian Colonies in England and Normandy

The Scandinavian settlements in England and France naturally invite comparison. In point of time they are little more than a generation apart. The colonies in eastern England were founded between 876 and 879. The beginning of the colony which became the duchy of Normandy cannot be dated so precisely. But there can be no serious doubt that the Scandinavian occupation of Upper Normandy had taken place by the year 918 and there is good reason for believing that it began soon after 911. It is also probable that a considerable number of veterans who had been campaigning in England between 892 and 896 took part in the foundation of Normandy, for there is a definite statement in the Chronicle to the effect that vikings who had made no profit in the recent war crossed to the Seine in the latter year. In any case, the movement from which the duchy of Normandy arose clearly belongs to the same phase of Scandinavian enterprise which had founded the English Danelaw and thrown the kingdom of the West Franks into confusion in the last third of the ninth century.

An Historical Geography of England before A. D. 1800: Fourteen Studies

Introductory background: prehistoric south Britain, by E.G. Bowen.--The human geography of Roman Britain, by E.W. Gilbert.--The Anglo-Saxon settlement, by S.W. Wooldridge.--The Scandinavian settlement, by Eilert Ekwall.--The economic geography of England, A.D. 1000-1250, by H.C. Darby.--Fourteenth-century England, by R.A. Pelham.--Medieval foreign trade: western ports, by D.T. Williams--Medieval foreign trade: eastern ports, by R.A. Pelham.--Leland's England, by E.G.R. Taylor.--Camden's England, by E.G.R. Taylor.--England in the seventeenth century, by J.N.L. Baker.--The draining of the fens, A.D. 1600-1800, by H.C. Darby.--England in the eighteenth century, by W.G. East.--The growth of London, A.D. 1660-1800, by O.H.K. Spate.

SVEIN NILSSON, PIONEER NORWEGIAN-AMERICAN HISTORIAN

SVEIN NILSSON, PIONEER NORWEGIANAMERICAN HISTORIAN BY D. G. RISTAD For qualities of mind and character, for leadership in the furtherance of cultural progress among his countrymen both in Norway and in the United States, and particularly for his pioneering work in Norwegian- American settlement history, Svein Nilsson merits historical recognition.1 Nilsson served as the editor of Billed-magazin , the first illustrated monthly issued in the Norwegian language in America. This periodical was published by B. W. Suckow at Madison, Wisconsin, beginning in the autumn of 1868. For this magazine Nilsson wrote a series of articles that constitute an important landmark in the recording of the pioneer Norwegian settlements of the West and the coming of the early immigrants. These articles bear the general title "De skandinaviske setlementer i Amerika" (The Scandinavian Settlements in America) . A commentary upon Nilsson 's fitness for his task and his conception of the problem involved in it is given in his own " Introductory Statement " in the first issue of Billed-magazin: 2 1 See an article " Svein Nilsson " by the present writer in Trtfndelagets aar bok , 1931, p. 63-70, and also in the same series, 1926, p. 21-38, an article entitled " Utvandring til Amerika fra Overhalla, Namdalen." 2 Billed-magazin, 1:6 (October 3, 1868). Files of this rare magazine are owned by the Minnesota Historical Society and the Luther College Library. The series on the Scandinavian settlements ran in the issues from October 3, 1868, to September 17, 1870. They are to be found in volume 1:6-8, 10-13, 17-20, 30-31, 34-36, 44-46, 62-63, 69-72, 74, 82-84, 93-95, 102-104, 107-108, 154-55, 171-173, 182-183, 186-188, 202-204, 226-227, 234-235, 386-390, 398-399, 412-414; and volume 2:15-16, 23-24, 36-38, 41-44, 50-52, 114, 122-123, 130-132, 150, 154-155, 162-164, 202-204, 210-211, 218-219, 236-238, 242, 276-277, 282-283, 293-294, 300-301. In volume 2, p. 58-60, 66-67, 75-76 (February 19 and 26 and March 5, 1870), Nilsson published a very interesting " Beretning om de norské setlementer i Texas " (Account of the Norwegian Settlements in Texas) by Mrs. Elise Amalie Waerenskjold, one of the most noted of the Norwegian pioneers in Texas. See Theodore C. Biegen, Norwegian Migration to America, 1825-1860, 184 ff. (Northfield, 1931). 29 30 STUDIES AND RECORDS One of the most remarkable phenomena of this century is the emigration that has taken place from Europe to the New World discovered by Columbus. The inhabitants of Ireland together with the Germans have furnished the largest quota to the ranks of the emigrants. To these emigrant hosts, but fewer in number , the French, the Italians, the Swiss, and other national groups have joined themselves. Even the sparsely populated Scandinavian countries have participated actively in this emigration , and their number in America now must be close to three hundred thousand souls. The significance of this movement upon the history of culture in America is strikingly evident to anyone who undertakes a journey over the northern half of this western continent for the purpose of gaining historical information. A comparison between the present time (1868) and a time less than a generation ago reveals the progress. The rapid change from wilderness to fertile fields, the steadily increasing prosperity of the settlers, the rapid development of industry and other sources of subsistence , and an almost unparalleled advance in all directions must of necessity strike the visiting stranger with surprise. From the east westward the stream of immigrants has flowed over the immensely great western plains. The barbaric son of the wilderness has fled before the advancing civilization. The natural resources so generously provided by Providence have become available; an industrious and virile people have become the possessors of the soil; immigration has brought a steady supply of energetic labor power; the use of machinery, to an extent unapproached in other countries, has raised industry and agriculture to a level impossible of realization without these aids; the free institutions and the free choice of occupation have aided in the development...

A Scandinavian Cremation-Ceremony

Many years ago, when searching for accounts of cremations which might illustrate those described by Homer, I came across a paper by the late Dr Joseph Anderson, entitled ‘ Ceremonies at the Incremation of a Norse Chief ’, read to the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland in 1872. A large part of it consists of a translation, apparently the only one in English, of the narrative of an Arab, Ahmad bin Fudhlan, who early in the 10th century visited a Scandinavian settlement on the Volga and there witnessed the cremation of the body of a chief. Though it attracted much attention at the time and is of great intrinsic interest, Anderson’s paper is now virtually unknown, and except for Orientalists the important Arab document is available only in Holmboe’s Danish version, from which Anderson made his translation, and in Fraehn’s German translation of 1823, As Anderson’s translation was not made from the Arabic, was slightly expurgated, and is not very accessible, it seems worth while to publish a new translation made from the original text by Miss Charis Waddy. This was originally intended to form an appendix to an article on cremation in the Aegaean area and in Homer which had appeared in the Journal of Hellenic Studies, but proved to be too long. I am grateful for the opportunity of publishing it, almost simultaneously, in Antiquity, for it supports the point which I sought to establish, viz. : that for all the glamour thrown over it by Homer, cremation of the dead is naturally associated with a somewhat barbaric culture, and in the case of the Greeks was mainly practised at an early date and by the more backward members of the race.

Traces of the Norse Mythology in the Isle of Man

IN this work Mr. Kermode, whose name is well known in connection with Manx archaeology, has printed a lecture delivered to the Antiquarian Society of his native island in December of last year. The Isle of Man contains a large number of cross-bearing gravestones, which, as the inscriptions clearly show, belong to the period when the Scandinavian element was predominant in the island. It is not improbable that in some cases the symbols on these stones may refer to the old Scandinavian mythology rather than to Christian belief and legend, and Mr. Kermode has endeavoured to determine how far this is the case. After a very brief sketch of the Scandinavian settlements in the west, and more especially in Man, a short account is given of some leading details of the old Norse mythology as preserved in the Eddas. Both here and in the following section an interest in the subject is sometimes more evident than familiarity with it in all its bearings. It is, for example, quite {orroneous to state that “of the seven days of the week all but the first two are called after Scandinavian gods.” Even on his own lines, Mr. Kermode cannot thus account for Saturday, and a closer study of the old English forms would have shown him the true origin of the other names. The influence of the Scandinavian tongues on English has been very great, but it requires a close study of philology to decide the particular cases in which it appears. Traces of the Norse Mythology in the Isle of Man. By P. M. C. Kermode. Pp. 30. (London: Bemrose and Sons, Ltd., 1904.) Price 2s. 6d.