| Viking
Origins |
| The
Scales surname is of Scandinavian
origin. The most likely original form in the Old
Norse language is skáli, meaning a shelter or
dwelling. There are places called Skáli in Iceland and the Faroe
Islands and the word forms part of many place
names throughout the Nordic countries. In turf
houses constructed by Viking settlers in Iceland,
the main room was known as the skáli. Scapa
and Skaill in Orkney have the
same origins. |
| Norse
expeditions had started by the beginning of the
8th century, but they really gathered pace after
the so-called unification of Norway in 872 under
King Harald I. Many wealthy and respected
chieftains posed a threat to Harald, who harassed
them until they left Norway. A large number
settled peacefully in the newly founded Viking
kingdom of Dublin and some became Christianised
by the native Irish. However they were expelled
from Ireland beginning in 902 by Cearbhall, King
of Leinster, and continuing until 1014 with the
Battle of Clontarf, near Dublin, under forces led
by Brian Boru, known as the High King of Ireland. |
| The Viking Diaspora in
North-West England |
| Many of the
Vikings from Ireland settled finally on the
Wirral peninsula (having being granted permission
to do so by Edelfrida, daughter of Alfred the
Great) and in the coastal regions of Cumbria and
especially Lancashire (less
well documented but clear from place names), on
poor quality land largely uninhabited, and hence
undisputed by, the locals. There were many Danish Vikings in
the area as well, especially in Wirral, as
attested by place names ending in -by. |
| The
Danes originally settled in East Anglia from 865
but soon moved north to Northumbria. Analysis of
place names suggests a further migration to
Cumbria and south-west Scotland and from there to
join the Norwegians on the Isle of Man. It is
thought that the Wirral Danes arrived in quantity
from there. |
| The
existence of two places called Thingwall
(Old Norse for assembly field), one in
central Wirral and one on the outskirts of what
is now Liverpool, points to these being major
meeting points or parliaments for the entire
region and suggests a particular concentration of
Scandinavian people in these areas. |
| There are
two hamlets in Cumbria called Scales. The one
lying 8 miles north-east of Keswick is the best
known as it lies in popular fell walking country
(nearby are Scales Fell and Scales Tarn).
The other is 6 miles south of Ulverston (with a
farm nearby called Scales Park).
North-east of Penrith near Kirkoswald are Scales
Moor and a cluster of farms: Scales,
Scales Hall, Scale Ho and Howscales.
There is also a hamlet called High Scales
near Bromfield in north Cumbia. A number of other
places in the far north of England have Scale
as part of their name and there are many farms so
named. Most of these place names will have Danish
Viking origins. |
| Documentary
sources list many places with related names in
existence in south-west Lancashire in the 12th
and 13th centuries that are no more. Among these
are Eschales, Le Scholes, Scales (in West Derby,
Liverpool, very near Thingwall), Scoles and
Scalecroft. These place names are probably the
result primarily of ex-Norwegian Viking
settlement. |
| The Viking Diaspora in Northern
France |
| The
Vikings, both Danish and Norwegian, began to
invade northern France in the early ninth century
and were officially granted the land that now
corresponds to the eastern part of Normandy in a
treaty of 911.
Normand is the word for northman in
several Scandinavian languages. By 933 they had grabbed
land to the west making up an area that more or
less corresponds to the present geographical
region of Normandy. The Northmen became
the frenchified Normans through the
merging of their language and culture. |
| The
Duchy of Normandy emerged around 1000. William
II, Duke of Normandy, laid claim to the English
throne when his cousin Edward the Confessor died
without heir. The claim was disputed by Harold,
leading to the Norman Conquest of England.
English nobles were initially permitted to keep
their land, but rebellions over the next four
years led William to grant much of it to his own
followers, and the native English aristocracy was
essentially wiped out. One of the Norman nobles
who had come over with William was a certain Hardouin
d’Escaliers, who became Hardwin de
Scalers when he settled in England. He and his descendants, mostly
associated with the counties of Hertfordshire,
Cambridgeshire and Norfolk, constituted the
Scales nobility of the first 450 years following
the Norman Conquest. It is with them that most of this
site is concerned. |
| Possible Origins of the Present
Scales Name |
| It
is highly significant that the UK censuses of the
19th century show a particular concentration of
the Scales name in Lancashire,
Hertfordshire, Norfolk and Suffolk. Thus it seems
that those now in possession of this name owe its
origins to Norman, Irish or Danish Vikings, with
noble or plebeian roots depending upon the part
of the country to which they can trace their
ancestry. |
| The Viking Diaspora in Northern
Italy |
| The
Italian surname della Scala has the same
Scandinavian origin as Scales. The della
Scala family became the historically important
Lords of Verona from 1263 to 1387 and were also
known by the more Germanic version Scaliger.
This family were indeed of German origin, derived
from Lombard stock. A related German name, common
today, is Schaller. The Lombards
originated in southern Scandinavia and already
occupied parts of northern Germany in the early
Christian era. By the 6th century, they had
migrated to much of northern Italy. |
