SUMMARY
Regionality in Danish place names with focus on torp-, rød-, tved- and holt-names By Birgit EggertIn the author’s opinion there is a connection between the four place-name types in -torp, -rød, -tved and -holt, when we are talking about distribution, age and their situation in settlement history. All the four name types belong to the Viking Age and the Middle Ages. The torp-names reflect a new colonization of the mother town’s land, as well as reclamation of new land. The clearing names in -rød and -tved must reflect colonization of woodland, as the holt-names also do. But where the clearing names signify that the wood has been removed, the holt-names tell either of the former wood that existed before the clearing or that people moved into the wood without clearing it. The four place-name types are all inter-Nordic phenomena which spread out over the national borders. The names in -torp are found in all the Nordic countries as well as in the Viking colonies in the Danelaw and Normandy, but with a huge concentration in Denmark and in the southern part of Sweden. The rød-names are found mainly in the south and east of Denmark, as well as in Sweden and Norway, while the tved-names are found further west in Denmark, the Danelaw and Normandy as well as in Norway. But in Sweden there are only very few tved-names. The holt-names on the other hand are found in large numbers in all the Scandinavian countries, but like the rød-names they are absent from the Danelaw and Normandy. None of the four name types are thus typical just for Denmark, and therefore their regionality has to be seen in a larger perspective than a national one.