any trace has come down to us. Its rulers derived their origin from Woden, through a line of mythological ancestors of their own,[1] and it is not improbable that their island was known as Hälig or Halige, the Holy Isle, before they became Christians, for the Continental Angles and Frisians had a Holy Isle off their coast, and it still retains the name of Heligoland. The Wends of the Baltic coast also had their sacred island—viz., Rügen—where their chief pagan temple was situated. The possession of a sacred or holy isle for their pagan rites was, therefore, probably considered by the pagan Angles who settled in Northumberland as part of their religion; and after their conversion the sacred isle of the pagan time was selected for the site of the Christian monastery.
Some of the old shire and district names in the northern counties were apparently derived from Scandinavian and other tribal names. Hallamshire appears to have got its name from a manor mentioned in Domesday Book as Hallun. As this district is called a shire, and this as a designation for a district is Scandinavian, Hallun may not improbably have been connected in its origin with people from Halland, in the South-west of Sweden, and within the limits of Old Denmark. Gillingshire, also, for Gilling Wapentake in Yorkshire, appears to be a Scandinavian name. Gylling, an island in Halogaland, is mentioned in the Northern Sagas.[2] One thing, therefore, is certain in reference to old settlements in the northern counties, that we find districts which contain many traces of Norse near others in which traces of Anglians have survived. There may have been a connection between the name Rossendale in Lancashire and the Wrosn tribe of the Pomeranian coast. As the settlement of Norse and their allies in Lancashire was probably late, the possibility of such a connection is strengthened by the
