Before attending to the topic of today I would like to present you to the first inhibitants of Ljungby. We like to think that these are the men, shown on the picture below together with a great grandson of mine. They are to bee seen in a central position in the town of 2008 to symbolize those who first lived in this area.We know of them because of a runic inscription where it says that Götrad put the stone up in rememberence of his father Astrad who lived here. We do not know what they looked like exactly but we guess they looked like us. They were Vikings. The inscription was made around the year 1000, so it is more than 1000 years old!
Today a short account of what my secretary found in a book about names of places and their origin. If we start with the most central place in this blog, i e Hovdinge I can tell you that the author Fridolf Jönsson says that the first acknowledgement of the place is from 1460 when it was written hoffdunge. Later in 1543 it was written Hoffdinge. The name should have something to do with a head, a hill in the landscape. My secretary immediately thinks of the mounds from the Bronze age which are to be found where Hovdinge Norregård is situated. Near one of Hovdinge's small farms a place is marked on old maps as a offering grove from times before the christanizing of Sweden after the year around 850.
In a historical map which I have just learned is free for publishing as it is older than 70 years, a Saint Rolf from earth has marked out for me where the North farm was situated in the 1890's, look below. He is a skilful researcher of soldiers in this area and this is the address to his Swedish site of soldiers http://www.ljungbykompani.se/, in case the language is no problem for you! In my life-time the soldier at Hovdine North farm was Isack Carlsson Hult. If you follow the link called Disgen nr you can see a contract written between us farmers and the soldier about duties. The soldier were among other things to see to it that letters were distributed! What you see there is a copy of our signatures at the end of the documents.
I grew up nearby Hovdinge, in Tofta as some of you might remember ;-) Tofta was mentioned as Tofftta somewhere in 1538 according to the author of the book I mentioned, called "Ortnamn i Kronobergs län". Names of places including "-tofta" imply that settlements have arise anew after a period of something fateful in prehistoric age.
I told you that my wife remarried and moved to Kånna. According to this book Kånna is an ancient name which is first mentioned as Quannom in 1388. It has been regarded as impossible to interprete. Some have tried, saying that the word comes from a word meaning marsh.
My oldest daughter Emma moved to Rataryd in the parish of Angelstad. Among older names of places in this area, an ending with -ryd is the most common. Emma's place is not mentioned specifically in the book but close by is Bjärnaryd which comes from bear in plural ending. I am glad she did not meet them! This photo below is taken in Rataryd with Emma standing in the middle and her dear husband Bengt-Johan sitting in the wheel-chair.
Finally, my second daughter Anna Charlotta moved to Ingelstad in the parish of Berga in those days. In 1272 it was spelled Ingelstath in a deed of gift to an Abbey. The first part of the name comes from a man's name, Ingel. Ingelstad is said to have a ring as Old Swedish royalty. Below a picture of the family in Ingelstad.
Well, "there are other things than thinking about old times" and I respect that my secretary now wants to proceed with her life. Until next time she connects to me again, take care of yourselves!
With love, Göran Danielsson.
No comments:
Post a Comment