Hi Terje,
There is a place in North Holland called "Sassenheim".
(in the region where they grow all the tulips, just
a short distance from the Ocean)
I have understood this as "the Home of the Saxons".
Supposedly the Saxons lived there before they went
across the sea to live in Britain.

Old English does not have "ham" with a plain "a".
It does however, have "hæm".
"Stanhæme", for example, means the same as German
"Steinheimer", and -hæme means a resident or
a citizen.
hæmed n. means marriage or sex.
-hæming m. is also a dweller/resident/denizen.
hæman is a verb meaning to marry, or to have sex.

There is, however, a word where the "a" has a line
over it:
"ham" m. = home, house, dwelling; estate, village.
I think the line over the "a" means that it is a long vowel.

Best,
Xigung



--- In norse_course@yahoogroups.com, "Terje Ellefsen"
<radiorabia@...> wrote:

> Ham in OE is cognate with the Old Norse "heim", which means home. As

you can

> see, heim and ham are similar, but not exactly the same. AFAIK, ham

excisted

> in OE before the norsemen came to Britain. Other germanic languages

also

> have this word, e.g. modern German Heim. This word is probably very old.
>
> Terje
>
>
> >From: "William Calhoun" <kubrick36@...>
> >Reply-To: norse_course@yahoogroups.com
> >To: norse_course@yahoogroups.com
> >Subject: RE: [norse_course] Jed re Eric Gass and 'ham'
> >Date: Fri, 16 Jan 2004 22:00:59 -0500
> >
> >
> >hamlet:
> >Etymology: Middle English, from Middle French hamelet, diminutive

of ham

> >village, of Germanic origin; akin to Old English hAm village, home
> >Thanks to Merriam-Webster OnLine
> >If ham (or rather hamlet) is of Germanic origin than perhaps it did

come

> >from Norse to Engl.ish through Middle French. The Norse Vikings

did indeed

> >raid medieval France and were the founders of Normandy, where Old Norse
> >mixed a tiny bit with French (I believe there is a French word for

'ring'

> >similar to and rooted in the Old Norse 'baugr'). Normans were

Norse that

> >assimilated into French culture. I don't know if that helps!
> >-Willliam
> >
> >
> >
> > >From: "Gerald Mcharg" <Gerald.Mcharg@...>
> > >Reply-To: norse_course@yahoogroups.com
> > >To: <norse_course@yahoogroups.com>
> > >Subject: [norse_course] Jed re Eric Gass and 'ham'
> > >Date: Fri, 16 Jan 2004 22:55:56 -0000
> > >
> > >Eric
> > >
> > >I'm not too sure about place-names in 'ham' having a Norse

derivation.

> > >
> > >I believe that 'ham' is one of the earlier place-name elements to be
> >found
> > >in Old English charters of the seventh century; 'tons' as a

rule, occur

> >in
> > >later charters.
> > >If anyone is interested in this, the authorities to consult are

Joliffe,

> > >Stenton and Granville.
> > >
> > >I haven't really looked at the distribution of 'hams' in Britain,

so I

> > >can't say whether they predominate in the north. I do know that they
> >occur
> > >far less frequently than the 'ton' settlements and that the

implications

> >of
> > >this could be that they were early administrative or political

centres

> >for
> > >their respective regions.
> > >
> > >Anyhow, if there is a chance for an informed discussion on this,

I would

> > >like to hear other opinions.
> > >
> > >Cheers
> > >Jed Mc Harg
> >
> >_________________________________________________________________
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