LOWESTOFT AND THE DANES.
The Danes are supposed to have given the town, and island on which the town is situated, a name. The tradition is briefly this:—Lothbroch of royal blood, when hawking on the coast of Denmark, was overtaken by a tempest and driven across the German Ocean, into the Yare, where he was taken and brought before Edmund, King of the East Angles. The King and Lothbroch were pleased each with the other, so much so, that the Dane continued an inmate of the king’s palace. He conceived a great relish for hunting, in which exercise he took lessons from Berno the king’s huntsman, and soon eclipsed his teacher in the chase. Berno, envious on account of his proficiency, secretly murdered him; his body was discovered by means of his Greyhound, which kept watch beside the body, and left it only when, urged by hunger, he occasionally visited the palace for food. The dog was followed, the body found; Berno was suspected, and being found guilty, was put on board Lothbroch’s boat, and committed to the mercy of the winds and waves. He was carried to Denmark, where he affirmed that Lothbroch had been murdered by Edmund, the king of the East Angles. The sons of Lothbroch came over to avenge their father’s death. Edmund was taken prisoner, was bound to a stake, and shot to death with arrows in the year 871, and with him expired the kingdom of the East Angles.
“After the death of Edmund” says Ives, “the Danes settled themselves in Lothingland, to which tract of land they are supposed to have given that name, in remembrance of their ancestor Lothbroch.” The town itself was anciently called Lothu Wistoft, which name may have been given to it as the town of Lothingland—the land of Lothbroch,—at any rate, the three names begin with an L, and that, in an etymological discussion, is something.