Yet we have no details about the military structures under the first dukes. Did Rollo
have his own hirð ‘bodyguard’? Possibly, but reference to this appears nowhere: the only
hint is the surname Huscaille, attested in 1263 , derived from Norse húskarl ‘housecarl’.
Likewise, some sort of leiðangr must have existed, allowing the duke to levy an army
(such as William the Conqueror did in 1066 ): but no document ever states it (Musset
1997 [ 1976 ]: 245 – 61 ).
A SUCCESSFUL INTEGRATIONOne of the main features of the Viking settlement in Normandy is the rapid and
successful mixing of Franks and Scandinavians, which created the Norman people in
only a few generations’ time. The eleventh-century author of the Miracles of Saint Vulfran
understood it perfectly when he wrote: ‘Rollo was not long in bringing together men of
various extractions and crafts, shaping all races into one single people.’
While the Vikings integrated into the local community, their language declined
fairly quickly. But many Norse words remained, some about everyday life, others for
which there existed no precise equivalent. The Norman dialect has kept a few hundred
of them, out of which modern French has borrowed a good number (de Gorog 1958 ).
Among these are homard (< humarr ‘lobster’), vague (< vágr ‘wave’), crique (< kriki ‘nook’),
duvet (< dúnn ‘down’), girouette (< veðrviti ‘vane’), débiter (< bita ‘to cut into bits’). And
still today a French sailor currently uses some fifty Norse loan words without thinking of
it, such as quille (kjölr ‘keel’), tolet (þollr ‘thole pin’), hauban (höfuðbenda ‘stays’), cingler
(sigla ‘to sail’), haler (hala ‘to haul’) or gréer (greiða ‘to rig’).
Such words were actually used very early in Normandy in order to name places, such
as La Dalle (< dalr ‘valley’), La Londe (< lundr ‘wood, grove’), Le Torp (< þorp ‘isolated
farm’), Le Thuit (< þveit ‘clearing’).
Indeed, although the country was already inhabited, the Scandinavian settlers named
many topographical features and their new dwellings. All these place names allow us to
mark the boundaries of the settled areas; they show a substantial and lasting influence,
but by no means a deep upheaval (Fellows-Jensen 1988 : 113 – 37 ; Renaud 1989 :
153 – 98 ). Over a hundred names end in bec, like Bricquebec (< brekka ‘slope’ + bekkr
‘brook’), and just as many in tot, like Appetot (< epli ‘apple’ + toft ‘piece of land, often with
a farm on it’) or Tourmetot (< the man’s name Þormóðr + toft). One finds many other
different kinds, such as Carquebut (< kirkja ‘church’ + býr ‘village’), Lindebeuf (< lind
‘lime-tree’ + búð ‘shanty’), Houlgate (< holr ‘hollow’ + gata ‘path’), Sanvic (< sandr ‘sand’ +
vík ‘inlet’), Touffrécale (< the man’s name Þorfrøðr + skáli ‘shed’), Quettehou (< the man’s
name Ketill + hólmr ‘islet’). It is also possible that the Vikings who first received exten-
sive landed estates kept the local element villa ‘farm’ and associated their own personal
name to it: a very distinctive way which was imitated many times afterwards, like
Gonneville (< Gunni), Éculleville (< Skúli), Trouville (< Þorólfr), Barneville (< Barni),
Hatainville (< Hásteinn), Colleville (< Koli).
Integration has also meant the use of many Scandinavian personal names in
Normandy, attested not only in place-names but also in many ancient documents.
They became surnames when those were forged in the fifteenth century, and are still
very common Norman family names: Toutain (< Þorsteinn), Turgis (< Þorgils), Auzouf
(< Ásúlfr), Osmond (< Ásmundr) etc.
–– Jean Renaud––