Fell (fromOld Norse:fell,fjall, "mountain";[1] compareIcelandic:fell/fjall,Norwegian:fjell,Swedish:fjäll) is a high and barren landscape feature, such as a mountain ormoor-covered hill. The term is most often employed inFennoscandia,Iceland, theIsle of Man, parts ofnorthern England, andScotland.
The English word "fell" comes fromOld Norsefell andfjall (both forms existed).[1] It is cognate withDanish:fjeld,Faroese:fjall andfjøll,Icelandic:fjall andfell,Norwegian:fjell, withNorwegian dialects:fjøll,fjødd,fjedd,fjedl,fjill,fil(l), andfel,[2] andSwedish:fjäll, all referring to mountains rising above thealpine tree line.[3]
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In northern England, especially in theLake District and in thePennineDales, the word "fell" originally referred to an area of uncultivated high ground used as commongrazing usually oncommon land and above the timberline. Today, generally, "fell" refers to themountains andhills of the Lake District and the Pennine Dales.
Names that originally referred to grazing areas have been applied to these hilltops. This is the case withSeathwaite Fell, for example, which would be the common grazing land used by the farmers ofSeathwaite. The fellgate marks the road from a settlement onto the fell (see photograph for example), as is the case with the Seathwaite Fell. In other cases the reverse is true; for instance, the name ofWetherlam, in theConiston Fells, though understood to refer to the mountain as a whole, strictly speaking refers to the summit; the slopes have names such as Tilberthwaite High Fell, Low Fell and Above Beck Fells.
The word "fell" is also used in the names of various breeds oflivestock, bred for life on the uplands, such asRough Fell sheep,Fell terriers andFell ponies.
It is also found in many place names across the north of England, often attached to the name of a community; thus the township ofCartmel Fell.
In northern England, there is aLord of the Fells – this ancient aristocratic title being associated with theLords of Bowland.
Groups ofcairns are a common feature on many fells, often marking the summit – there are fine examples onWild Boar Fell inMallerstang Dale,Cumbria, and onNine Standards Rigg just outsideKirkby Stephen, Cumbria.
As the most mountainous region of England, the Lake District is the area most closely associated with the sport offell running, which takes its name from the fells of the district. "Fellwalking" is also the term used locally for the activity known in the rest ofGreat Britain ashillwalking.
The word "fell" also enjoys limited use in Scotland; with, for example, the Campsie Fells in central Scotland, to the north-east of Glasgow. One of the most famous examples of the use of the word "fell" in Scotland isGoat Fell, the highest point on theIsle of Arran.Criffel and the nearby Long Fell in Galloway may be seen from the northern Lake District of England.Peel Fell in the Kielder Forest is on the border between the Scottish Borders to the north and the English county of Northumberland to the south.
In Norway,fjell, in common usage, is generally interpreted as simply a summit or area of greater altitude than a hill, which leads to a great deal of local variation in what is defined as afjell. Fjell is mostly used about areas above theforest line. Distinct summits can be referred to aset fjell (a mountain). High plateaus (vidde landscape) such asHardangervidda are also regarded as fjell.[4][5] Professor of geography at theUniversity of Bergen, Anders Lundeberg, has summed up the problem by stating, "There simply is no fixed and unambiguous definition offjell."[6]Ivar Aasen definedfjell as a "tallberg", primarily referring to aberg that reaches an altitude where trees do not grow, lowerberg are referred to as "berg",ås (hill, ridge) orhei (moor, heathland). The fixed expressiontil fjells refers to mountains (or uplands) as a collective rather than a specific location or specific summit (the "s" intil fjells is an old genitive form remaining only in fixed expressions). According to Ivar Aasen,berg refers to cliffs, bedrock and notable elevations of the surface underpinned by bedrock;berg also refers to the substance of bedrock.[7][8] For all practical purposes,fjell can be translated as "mountain" and the Norwegian language has no other commonly used word for mountain.[citation needed]
In Sweden,fjäll generally refers to any mountain or upland high enough that forest will not naturally survive at the top, in effect a mountaintundra.Fjäll is primarily used to describe mountains in the Nordic countries, but also more generally to describe mountains shaped by massive ice sheets, primarily in Arctic and subarctic regions. There are however dialectal differences in usage, with comparatively low mountains or plateaus, sometimes tree-covered, inBohuslän andVästergötland (e.g.Safjällets naturreservat [sv] andKynnefjäll [sv]) being referred to as "fjäll", similar to how the word is used in Norwegian[citation needed]
In Finnish, the mountains characteristic of the region ofLapland are calledtunturi (plural:tunturit), i.e. "fell". Atunturi is a hill high enough that its top is above thetree line and hasalpine tundra. In Finnish, the geographical termvuori is used for mountains recently uplifted and with jagged terrain featuring permanent glaciers, whiletunturi refers to the old, highly eroded, gently shaped terrain without glaciers, as found in Finland.[9] They are roundinselbergs rising from the otherwise flat surroundings. The tree line can be at a rather low altitude, such as 600 m in Enontekiö, owing to the high latitude. The fells in Finnish Lapland form vestiges of theKarelides mountains, formed two billion years ago. The termtunturi is also generally used to refer to treeless plains at high altitudes in far north regions. The termtunturi, originally a word limited to far-Northern dialects of Finnish and Karelian, is aloan fromSami, compareProto-Sami*tuontër,South Samidoedtere,Northern Samiduottar,Inari Samituodâr "uplands, mountains, tundra",Kildin Samitūndâr, which means "uplands, treeless mountain tract" and is cognate with Finnishtanner "hard ground".[10] From this Sami word, the word "tundra" is borrowed, as well, through theRussian language.[11][12] Hills that are over 50 m high, but do not reach the tree line are referred to asvaara, while the general term for hills including hills of 50 m or less ismäki.[13] In place names, however,tunturi,vaara andvuori are used inconsistently, e.g.Rukatunturi is technically avaara, as it lacks alpine tundra.[citation needed]
The termförfjäll (literally "fore-fell") is used in Sweden and Finland[14] to denote mountainous zones lower and less dissected than the fell proper. However, its more pronounced relief, its often higher amount of plateaux, and its coherent valley systems distinguishes theförfjäll also from the undulating hilly terrain (bergkullsterräng) and the plains with residual hills (bergkullslätt). Generally, theförfjäll do not surpass 1000 m ASL. As a geomorphic unit, theförfjäll extends across Sweden as a 650 km-long and 40 km to 80 km-broad belt fromDalarna in the south toNorrbotten in the north.[15]
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