FINDING NORSE PLACE NAMES., VIK, ING, VILL

FINDING NORSE PLACE NAMES

ASSINGMENT

Vik, Ing, Vill

FOR the TEACHER:

This activity is intended for upper Elementary and high school students in Ohio Catholic Schools, who have heard MUCHINIPPI 
talk.

The purpose is for the students to learn:

That many of the place names in Ohio were in place BEFORE the English invaded.

How to look up Norse names in a map index.

How to find locations on the map by using the coordinates

Learn Three Old Norse syllables and their meaning.

TEACHER’’S  OPENING WORDS TO STUDENTS

About 1000 years ago, Catholics, who spoke Norse, first named many places in Ohio.  They got here in rowboats, which usually had about sixteen people in a boat designed for twenty rowers

You (the students) can locate some of the places named by the Catholics on maps.

Take for example: the Ohio town called “VIKING, VILLIAGE.”

“VIKING” is a two-syllable Old Norse word.

“VIK” means “VALLEY” in Old Norse.

(The English wanted us to think the VIKING meant a nasty old boogey man, who wore horns.  The English Protestants were fighting a war against the Catholics.  The English propaganda used misleading images like showing horns instead of the feathers the Norse wore to show they were Catholic.  The English also suppressed Norse words by omitting them in publications.

“ING” means, “PLACE” in Old Norse.

(Actually the syllable was spelled “ANG” in Old Norse dictionaries, which brings up an important GUIDELINE.

Old Norse was spoken 1,000 years ago.  As the language evolved the vowels changed the fastest.   So the GUIDLINE for you (students) looking up place names is “VOWELS ARE INTERCHANGABLE.”

In this case the syllable that was spelled “ANG 1000 years ago is printed on most maps as “ING” today.

VILLE was an Old Norse syllable, which meant “VILLAGE” 1000 years ago.

 (The name has survived with the same meaning for 1000 years.  Which proves another GUIDLINE: 
“PLACE NAMES PERSIST EVEN IF THE PEOPLE CHANGE.)

H ere is what VIKING VILLE; OHIO looks like today via Google Earth.  

VIKING VILLAGE
NOTICE THE THREE VALLEYS,
ONTHE SOUTH, WEST, and NORTH

Your students may be able to find the place if they use the driving app in your smart phones

Notice that VIKING VILLE, which meant Valley Place Village 1000 years ago, has valleys on the the SOUTH, WEST, and NORTH.  There should be little doubt that the Norse named the place, “VIKING (valley place) VILL long before the English drove away the Catholics, who spoke Norse.

SUMMARY

The invading English created a MYTH.

“They

Wrote that there were NO Norse in America.  Nobody from the east side of the Atlantic came to Ohio before Columbus.  Everyone, even I, (the teacher) was taught that MYTH.

But if the MYTH is so, WHO placed three Old Norse syllables on an Ohio village that has valleys on three sides?

ASSIGNMENT

Show the students an Atlas.

Count the number of columns for Ohio.

Divide, if possible, the class into groups for each column,

If you have more students than columns assign teams for each column.

If you have more columns than students, then assign two or more columns per student.

Have the students find the towns in their column with one or more of the three syllables in the name.

Because the English used Norse names too, the Old Norse did name every town in America, but the English, who learned the Old Norse names in England, named some places.

The challenge is to figure out whether the Norse named the place directly because they were there first or whether the English named the place after they invaded the Catholics, who spoke Norse.

Have the students make a sub category of towns with two of the three syllables.

(Names with two syllables are more likely to have been Old Norse names.)

Make a third category for names with ALL the syllables being “VIK” “ING” or “Ville.”

                    (Catholics, who spoke Norse, are more likely to have used those names.”

ASSESMENT

Did the students learn how to use the Atlas index?

Did the students learn how to find towns by coordinates?

Could the students find VIKING VILL on their SMART phones?

Did the students find towns with 1, or 2 Old Norse syllables?

Did the students find names with ALL syllables: “VIK” “ING” OR “VILLE?”

Congratulate the class. They have learned to look up towns on a map.

 They learned some towns in Ohio have syllables that may have been spoken by Catholics, who spoke Norse, 1000 years ago.

They learned that the English MYTH does not explain all place names.

If YOU (the teacher) complete this assignment, you may have the satisfaction that Catholic spirits who still speak Norse, are thinking that
“YOU DONE GOOD!”