[#31639] Farm Name

[Gjest Mangor Krogstad]

What would 'seiet' at the end of a farm name mean?

[Gjest Espen Grønna Brataker]

An example: Krogseie (or Krogs-eie) does mean a cotters farm or a small farm under the farm Krog. To own = å eie. In the old days the people who lived on a farm did often own small cotter farms near the main farm and rented it to the cotters.

[Gjest Kjell Halvorsen]

Hi MangorThe expression 'smallholder' on a lend/lease basis, may be added to the explanation that Espen gave you. You will also find the ending '-eie' spelled '-eje'.

[Gjest Mangor Krogstad]

Tussen Takk,I had never seen it spelled that way before.Sorry for the english after not useing Norsk for 50years it is hard to relearn.

[Gjest Oddvar Søreide]

Hello MangorYou have a lot of farmnames ending eide/eie/eje, and it is also many explanation to the names. Most of the names ending eide/eie/eje is related to the sea or to the water, meaning “leaving the sea/water and then go over land”. An example: We have the farmname Dals-eide. You here leave the sea and then go true a small passage between to mountain, and then your coming to the sea again on the other side of this passage. So the meaning of eide/eie/eje in this example is not to own the farm, but go through a small passage over land from sea to sea. You spell the word own the same way.

[Gjest Per Håkon Christiansen]

I believe you are confusing two different things here: the majority of the cotters farms under a lend/lease contract go under the name of the main farm which owns the land, that's why they have, first, a name like (say) Vikseie/ Vikseje/ Vikseiet, often written Viksej to save work, expensive ink and paper. These pettyfarms also go under a local name, often quite descriptive of poverty, like Allermere (Neveragain), Sveltihjel (Starvation), or as in my grandparent's case: Tittut (Take-a-peek-out), Bratlie(Steep Hill) and Nøisomheden (Modesty). Eie/Eje/Ej in these cases are derived from their land being OWNED by a larger farm. In the census of 1801 we mostly find these cotters farms 'hidden' under the main farms as family number so-and-so, with a higher number higher than one, and the occupation Cotter (Husmand, hmd), while in 1865, 1875 and 1900 we often find both names.Eid/Eide/Eids- like in Eidsvold are on the other hand place-names derived from the form of the terrain, often a flat tongue of land constituting a land passage between lakes or waters. I do not believe that this has anything to do with ownership at all; Eie(t)/Ej and Eid/Eids have as far as I know two completely different connotations (meanings).