Fjellheim v. (Fitjar Islands)
light juniper & pine
Every word tells a story. So what's the tale behind the name of today's soap,
Fjellheim? Let's turn back the clock to the 9th century, when the vikings stormed ashore in northern England and set their hearts not only on rape and pillage but also on crofting and shepherding and trade. The language they spoke, Old Norse, wasn't far different from the Old English spoken by the native Anglo-Saxons. Along with food and animals and clothing, the two groups traded words, borrowing from each other and retooling their languages to make them more efficient for communicating in the market. One of the words the Anglo-Saxons borrowed from their viking cousins was
fjell, meaning
mountain. In Anglo-Saxon mouths this word came to be pronounced
fell, and even today in the Lake District of northwestern England, the rocky hills there are called fells, while those who hike them are known as fell walkers. Now for the second half of
Fjellheim. Old Norse
heim, meaning
home, was never borrowed into Old English because the Anglo-Saxons already had a word that sounded much like it,
ham. These days we pronounce it
home. So today's soap,
Fjellheim (still a common name in Norway), is certainly the source of the English surname
Felham (still found in the north of England), and both names mean 'mountain home'.