Page:English Historical Review Volume 37.djvu/613

 1922 REVIEWS OF BOOKS 605 history. In their struggle for independence the Norwegians have turned for inspiration to works which showed their country as independent both on the eve of the Danish and of the Swedish dominations. Now, Dr. Koht suggests, they should look to history to nourish the self-con- sciousness of the various classes of society in their mutual struggle. Dr. Worm-Muller emphasizes the importance of the fundamental question, ' Shall Norway be an independent realm or merely a link in a Scandinavian union ? ' This question appears in the immigration hypothesis of Gerhard Sch0ming and his conception of Norway as vagina gentium ; in the bitter view of N. Wergeland, J. C. Berg, and Lange that Denmark's crimes caused Norway's collapse ; in the new immigration theory of Keyser and Munch and their struggle to make the literature of the Eddas and Sagas Norse ; in H. Wergeland's famous discourse of the two sundered semicircles, and his later attempt to find the connexion in Norwegian history. We meet it again in Birkeland's and Aschehoug's Scandinavian-coloured conception of Norway's relation to Denmark during their union, as also in Yngvar Nielsen's Swedish-unionist view, but with the greatest force and con- sciousness of aim in Sars' powerful ' Udsigt '. Not until 1905, when Norway finally answered it by plebiscite, could the social and economic factors seriously assert themselves. Such is the prelude to a notable record of a notable achievement. W. F. REDDAWAY. The Place-names of Lancashire. By EILERT EKWALL, Professor of English in the University of Lund. (Manchester : University Press ; London : Longmans, 1922.) THE chief distinguishing feature of Professor EkwalPs book, as compared with other works on the place-names of English districts, is that it is primarily intended to furnish data for historical investigation. The special researches embodied in this volume may be regarded as a portion of a more general inquiry, which the author has pursued for many years, respecting the extent and distribution of the Scandinavian settlements in the north-western portion of England. Dr. Ekwall began his book more than twelve years ago, and had already brought it a long way towards completion when the appearance (in 1911) of a work of smiilar scope by Professor Wyld and Dr. Hirst caused him for a time to abandon his in- tention of publication, although the material he had collected was on the whole fuller than that contained in the other book. In the end, however, he came to the conclusion that neither Mr. Wyld's volume, nor that on the same subject published in 1913 by Mr. John Sephton, had supplied the need which his own work was intended to meet. He therefore decided to continue the preparation of his book, supplementing his former researches so far as he had opportunity, and availing himself of all the light to be found in the two books on Lancashire place-names, and in the writings of English and Scandinavian scholars treating of local etymology and cognate subjects. The task has taken a long time to accomplish, but the delay has been abundantly fruitful. The volume now published jointly by the Manchester University Press and the Chetham Society is beyond all doubt the best existing work on the place-names of an English county.