Lofoten Islands - the lie of the land

Placenames:
To get a better feel for these magical islands as you travel around, map in hand,
we have supplied some basic information on placenames and what to look our for.


Mountains, islands, fjords and lakes

The ‘-en’ suffix to most place names, geographical features (and other words) is simply the Norwegian equivalent for ’the’. Therefore, the mountain marked as Justad-tind-en on the map, means ‘the peak of Justad’, as tind relates to ‘mountain peak ’.

Similarly, the name Lo-fot-en means ‘the lynx’s paw or foot’, although this magnificent animal has long been extinct on the islands.


A close link between man and nature

A few generalizations:
(Including English language equivalents where applicable)

ending	meaning	Lofoten example	British example
-dalen	dale/valley	Tjørn-dal-en	Was-dale, Cumbria
-fjellet	fell/hill	Torv-dals-fjell-et	Sca-fell Pike, Cumbria
-fjord	fjord	Buk-nes-fjord-en
-heia	highland/heights	Vard-heia
-holmen	(island/holme)	Hog-holm-en	Holme (near Kendal)
-jorden	land/earth	Ven-dals-jord-en
-myr	marsh/mere	Borg-fjord-myr-an	Winder-mere, Cumbria
-neset	headland/ness	Kleiv-nes-et	Port of Ness, Lewis
-øya	island	Vest-vagøy
-pollen	inlet/bay/pool/lake	Indre-poll-en	Black-pool, Lancs
-sanden	beach/sand	Skag-sand-en	Sands-end, Yorks
-stad	town	Flak-stad
-straumen	channel/stream	Napp-straum-en
-tinden	mountain peak	Justad-tind-en
-vatnet	body of water/lake	Ternnes-vatn-et	Ulls-water, Cumbria
-vika	beach/bay	Kval-vika	Runs-wick Bay

We see many of these names in British placenames dating from the 8th and 9th centuries when Norwegian adventurers (and other Scandinavian ‘Vikings’) finally came to settle in England after years of rape, plunder and pillage. The majority can be found up the eastern seaboard of England from East Anglia to Northumberland (predominantly Danish settlement, e.g. Den-by Dale) and onwards up and around the coast of Scotland to the Orkneys and Shetlands, to the Western Isles (Port of Ness on Lewis), Man, Cumberland and Lancashire and as far south as Dublin and Ireland (predominantly Norwegian settlement).


'Tinden', 'holmen' and 'straumen'

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