9. G. Williams, ‘Kingship, Christianity and Coinage: Monetary and Political Perspectives on Silver Economy in the Viking Age’, in J. Graham-Campbell and G. Williams, Silver Economy in the Viking Age (2007, Left Coast Press), pp. 177–214
10. Alfred-Guthrum, 1
11. Keynes and Lapidge, Alfred the Great, p. 171 (although the dating of the treaty is open to revision: G. Williams, pers. comm.)
12. D. Hadley, The Vikings in England: Settlement, Society and Culture (2006, Manchester University Press), pp. 31–3; P. Kershaw, ‘The Alfred-Guthrum Treaty: Scripting Accommodation and Interaction in Viking Age England’, in D. M. Hadley and J. D. Richards (eds), Cultures in Contact: Scandinavian Settlement in England in the Ninth and Tenth Centuries (2000, Brepols), pp. 43–64
13. ASC s.a. 886 (C s.a. 887)
14. Alfred-Guthrum, ‘Prologue’
15. Kershaw, ‘The Alfred-Guthrum Treaty’; P. Foote, ‘The Making of Angelcynn: English Identity before the Norman Conquest’, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 6th Series, 6 (1996), pp. 25–49
16. Ibid. See also Downham, ‘“Hiberno-Norwegians” and “Anglo-Danes”’
17. ASC s.a. 871 (C s.a. 872); VA, 40
18. The large quantities of ‘Anglo-Saxon’ material culture at a Viking camp like Torksey might even be evidence of this (see following Chapter 13)
19. ‘Sermon of the Wolf to the English’, EHD (240)
20. Ibid.
21. Alfred-Guthrum, 5
22. S362; B. Yorke, ‘Edward as Atheling’, in N. J. Higham and D. H. Hill (eds), Edward the Elder, 899–924 (2001, Routledge), pp. 25–39
Chapter 13: Rogue Traders
1. R. E. Howard, ‘The Dark Man’, Weird Tales (December 1931)
2. VA, 91
3. VA, 91
4. Nor was it any use bothering the king’s ear with humiliating apologies, for – as Asser helpfully pointed out – ‘what use is their accursed repentance, when it cannot help their slaughtered kinsfolk, nor redeem those captured from a hateful captivity, nor even occasionally be of use to themselves who have escaped, since they no longer have anything by which to sustain their own life?’; VA, 91
5. Ibid.
6. VA, 8, 11; see also the notes in Keynes and Lapidge, Alfred the Great, pp. 232, 234; the issues around Alfred’s interactions with the pope are discussed in J. Nelson, ‘The Problem of King Alfred’s Royal Anointing’, Journal of Ecclesiastical History 18.2 (1967), pp. 145–63
7. ASC A s.a. 853; this was evidently a good lesson in the political advantages that could be gained by turning powerful aquaintances into one’s ‘sons’
8. S. Irvine, ‘The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and the Idea of Rome in Alfredian Literature’, and D. Hill, ‘The Origins of Alfred’s Urban Policies’, in T. Reuter (ed.), Alfred the Great (2003, Ashgate), pp. 63–77; pp. 219–33
9. VA, 91
10. It only acquired that name in 1897 thanks to the intervention of the great legal scholar Frederic William Maitland: Domesday Book and Beyond. Three Essays in the Early History of England (1897, Cambridge University Press); D. Hill, ‘The Burghal Hidage – the Establishment of a Text’, Medieval Archaeology 13 (1969), pp. 84–92
11. The relationship of burhs to the territory that sustained them is drawn out in the greatest detail by Baker and Brookes, Beyond the Burghal Hidage; see also papers in D. Hill and A. Rumble (eds), The Defence of Wessex: The Burghal Hidage and Anglo-Saxon Fortifications (1996, Manchester University Press)
12. S. Keynes, ‘Edward, King of the Anglo-Saxons’, in N. J. Higham and D. H. Hill (eds), Edward the Elder, 899–924 (2001, Routledge)
13. N. Brooks, ‘The Unidentified Forts of the Burghal Hidage’, Medieval Archaeology 8.1 (1964), pp. 74–90
14. J. Haslam (ed.), Anglo-Saxon Towns in Southern England (1984, Phillimore)
15. S. R. Bassett, ‘The Middle and Late Anglo-Saxon Defences of Western Mercian Towns’, Anglo-Saxon Studies in Archaeology and History 15 (2008), pp. 180–239
16. G. Williams (ed.), A Riverine Site Near York: A Possible Viking Camp, and Other Related Papers (forthcoming); M. A. S. Blackburn, ‘The Viking Winter Camp at Torksey, 872–3’, in M. A. S. Blackburn (ed.), Viking Coinage and Currency in the British Isles (2011, Spink), pp. 221–64; D. Hadley and J. D. Richards, ‘The Winter Camp of the Viking Great Army, AD 872–3, Torksey, Lincolnshire’, The Antiquaries Journal 96 (2016), pp. 23–67
17. P. Wallace, Viking Dublin: The Wood Quay Excavations (2015, Irish Academic Press); I. Russell and M. F. Hurley (eds), Woodstown: A Viking-age Settlement in Co. Waterford (2014, Four Courts Press)
18. I. Gustin, ‘Trade and Trust in the Baltic Sea Area during the Viking Age’, in J. H. Barrett and S. J. Gibbon (eds), Maritime Societies of the Viking and Medieval World (2016, Oxbow), pp. 25–40
19. Some of the most spectacular finds come from the Danish trading site of Hedeby, near the modern town of Schleswig in Germany; an introduction can be found in V. Hilberg, ‘Hedeby: An Outline of Its Research History’ in Brink with Price, The Viking World, pp. 101–11
20. VA, 91
21. Viking skulls from Gotland and Dorset have been found that display evidence of deliberate dental modification – horizontal striations filed into the tooth enamel of the front incisors; the purpose was presumably aesthetic; C. Arcini, ‘The Vikings Bare Their Filed Teeth’, American Journal of Physical Anthropology 128 (2005), pp. 727–33; L. Loe, A. Boyle, H. Webb and D. Score (eds), ‘Given to the Ground’: A Viking Age Mass Grave on Ridgeway Hill, Weymouth (2014, Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society)
22. Deliberately bent coins are a relatively common feature of silver coins in Viking hoards, as are those with evidence of what is known as ‘nicking’ and ‘pecking’ (deliberate gouges on the surface of the metal); all are methods of testing the purity of the silver: see, for example, M. Archibald, ‘Testing’ in J. Graham-Campbell (and contributors), The Cuerdale Hoard and Related Viking-Age Silver and Gold from Britain and Ireland in the British Museum (2013, 2nd edition, British Museum Press), pp. 51–63
23. R. Gameson (ed.), The Codex Aureus: An Eighth-Century Gospel Book: Stockholm, Kungliga Bibliotek, A. 135 (2001, Rosenkilde and Bagger)
24. Trans. University of Southampton [http://www.southampton.ac.uk/~enm/codexau.htm]
25. Certainly, the concept of the trading settlement (emporium) was no novelty: Scandinavia had several, and they would continue to develop throughout the tenth century until the largest of them (Hedeby, Birka etc) took on major significance for North Sea economy and the wealth of Scandinavian monarchies – but this was little different to the situation that had pertained in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms when the Vikings had arrived (D. Skre, ‘The Development of Urbanism in Scandinavia’ and sub-papers, in Brink with Price, The Viking World, pp. 83–145)
26. G. Williams, ‘Towns and Identities in Viking England’, in D. M. Hadley and L. Ten Harkel (eds), Everyday Life in Viking-Age Towns: Social Approaches to Towns in England and Ireland, c.800–1100 (2013, Oxbow), pp. 14–34
Chapter 14: Danelaw
1. Egil’s Saga, 68
2. ‘And Guthrum, the northern king, whose baptismal name was Æthelstan, died; he was King Alfred’s godson, and he lived in East Anglia and was the first to settle that land.’ ASC A s.a. 890
3. See R. Abels, Alfred the Great: War, Kingship and Culture in Anglo-Saxon England (1998, Routledge) and Lavelle, Alfred’s Wars
4. ASC s.a. 893–7
5. ASC s.a. 897
6. ASC A s.a. 901
7. This epithet was coined in the late tenth century by Wulfstan the Cantor to distinguish him from Edward the Martyr; the proliferation of Edwards in royal nomenclature later led to the adoption, from 1215, of a numbering system for Edwards. This, however, started at the number one, with Edward I, disregarding the three – including Edward the Confessor – who had preceded him. The complex science of Edwardology gave medieval historians all sorts of bother: see M. Morris, A Great and Terrible King: Edward I and
the Forging of Britain (2008, Hutchinson), pp. xv–xvi
8. ‘The Will of King Alfred’ in Keynes and Lapidge, Alfred the Great, pp. 173–8; R. Lavelle, ‘The Politics of Rebellion: The Ӕtheling Ӕthelwold and West Saxon Royal Succession, 899–902’, in P. Skinner (ed.), Challenging the Boundaries of Medieval History: The Legacy of Timothy Reuter (2009, Brepols)
9. ‘The Will of King Alfred’ in Keynes and Lapidge, Alfred the Great, pp. 173–8
10. ASC s.a. 901
11. Attributed to Ambrosius Aurelianus by Gildas and Bede, but to Arthur in British sources of the ninth century. Ex. 26.1; HE i.16; HB, 56; E. Guest, Origines Celticae, Vol. II (1883), pp. 186–93
12. ASC A s.a. 901
13. ASC D s.a. 901
14. ASN
15. Lavelle, ‘The Politics of Rebellion’
16. ASC A, D s.a. 905
17. CA, p. 52
18. The other soft-bearded prince was presumably Beorhtsige, son of Beorhtwulf – whom the ASC describes as ætheling (prince). It may be, as some have argued (see Lavelle, ‘Politics of Rebellion’), that this Beorhtwulf was a scion of the dispossessed royal house of Mercia, a possibility which puts rather a different complexion on the whole affair; one could quite readily frame the rebellion as armed resistance to a tyrannical and overreaching West Saxon regime: an attempt to restore the pre-878 geopolitics of Britain
19. An initiative that took off in 2001 – the Great Fen project – aims to recreate a much more substantial tract of fen habitat over the next fifty years (http://www.greatfen.org.uk/about/introduction)
20. M. Gelling and A. Cole, The Landscape of Place-Names (2014, 3rd edition, Stamford)
21. Kormáks saga, chapter 10 (translated by W. G. Collingwood and J. Stefánsson, The Saga of Cormac the Skald (Viking Club, or Society for Northern Research), pp. 65–7)
22. Olav Bø, ‘Hólmganga and Einvigi: Scandinavian Forms of the Duel’, Medieval Scandinavia 2 (1969), pp. 132–48
23. T. S. Jonsson, ‘Thingvellir as an Early National Cente’ in O. Owen (ed.), Things in the Viking World (2012, Shetland Amenity Trust), pp. 42–53
24. W. Morris, ‘1871 and 1873 Journeys to Iceland’ in M. Morris (ed.), The Collected Works of William Morris, vol. 8, p. 77
25. Völuspá, 57, p. 13
26. J. Byock, ‘The Icelandic Althing: Dawn of Parliamentary Democracy’, in J. M. Fladmark (ed.), Heritage and Identity: Shaping the Nations of the North (2002, Donhead), pp. 1–18
27. A. Wawn, The Vikings and the Victorians (2000, Boydell), pp. 277–9
28. Lǫgsǫgumaðr: the law-speaker was an elected elder/local bigwig whose role was to memorize local law, preside over the thing and impose its judgements
29. O. Olwen, ‘Things in the Viking World – An Introduction’ in Olwen (ed.), Things, pp. 4–29; G. Fellows-Jensen, ‘Tingwall: The Significance of the Name’ in D. Waugh and B. Smith (eds), Shetland’s Northern Links: Language and History (1996, Scottish Society for Northern Studies), pp. 16–29
30. B. Smith, ‘Shetland’s Tings’, in Olwen (ed.), Things, pp. 68–79
31. A. Johnson, ‘Tynwald – Ancient Site, Modern Institution – Isle of Man’, in Olwen (ed.), Things, pp. 104–17 (see also: https://www.thingsites.com/thing-site-profiles/tynwald-hill-isle-of-man)
32. ‘Óláfs saga Helga’, chapter 80 (Heimskringla II)
33. ASC A s.a. 909
34. ASC A s.a. 911
35. See Baker and Brookes, Beyond the Burghal Hidage for the development of Anglo-Saxon civil defence
36. Now a village/suburb on the outskirts of Wolverhampton (West Midlands)
37. CA, p. 53
38. Downham, Viking Kings
39. Ibid. The sources for this period are woefully inadequate, and the historical arguments surrounding the Uí Ímair are complex
40. D. Horowitz, Notes and Materials on the Battle of Tettenhall 910 AD, and Other Researches (2010, self-published)
41. A separate set of annals that provides additional specifics relating to Æthelflæd’s remarkable military leadership, later inserted in the C manuscript of the ASC
42. ASC A s.a. 912
43. J. Haslam, ‘The Location of the Burh of Wigingamere – Reappraisal’, in A. R. Rumble and A. D. Mills (eds), Names, People and Places (1977, Watkins), pp. 114–18
44. ASC A s.a. 921
45. ASC A s.a. 921
46. ASC A s.a. 922
47. ASC A s.a. 922
48. VA, I, see also Keynes and Lapidge, Alfred the Great, p. 225
Chapter 15: Lakeland Sagas
1. W. G. Collingwood, The Book of Coniston (1897, Titus Wilson)
2. L. Abrams and D. N. Parsons, ‘Place-names and the History of Scandinavian Settlement in England’ in J. Hines, A. Lane and M. Redknapp (eds), Land, Sea and Home: Proceedings of a Conference on Viking-Period Settlement (2004, Northern Universities Press), p. 380
3. D. Coggins, K. J. Fairless and C. E. Batey, ‘Simy Folds: An Early Medieval Settlement Site in Upper Teesdale. Co. Durham’, Medieval Archaeology 27 (1983), pp. 1–26; D. Coggins, ‘Simy Folds: Twenty Years On’ in J. Hines et al. (eds), Land, Sea and Home, pp. 326–34; A. King, ‘Post-Roman Upland Architecture in the Craven Dales and the Dating Evidence’ in Hines et al. (eds), Land, Sea and Home, pp. 335–44 (see also the broader discussion in Hadley, The Vikings in England, pp. 81–144)
4. King, ‘Post-Roman Upland Architecture’, p. 340
5. Dawn Hadley (The Vikings in England, pp. 99–104) provides an excellent overview of the issues and literature
6. See, for example, the names of moneyers working during the reign of Æthelred (R.978–1013, 1014–1016); J. J. North, English Hammered Coinage, Vol. 1 (1994, Spink), pp. 162–7
7. K. Leahy and C. Paterson, ‘New Light on the Viking Presence in Lincolnshire: The Artefactual Evidence’ in Graham-Campbell et al. (eds), Vikings and the Danelaw, pp. 181–202
8. J. F. Kershaw, Viking Identities: Scandinavian Jewellery in England (2013, Oxford University Press)
9. J. Geipel, The Viking Legacy: The Scandinavian Influence on the English Language (1975, David and Charles); see also S. D. Friðriksdóttir, Old Norse Influence in Modern English: The Effect of the Viking Invasion (2014, unpublished BA dissertation, University of Iceland) [http://skemman.is/stream/get/1946/17234/40268/1/Old_Norse_Influence_in_Modern_English.pdf]
10. M. Townend, The Vikings and Victorian Lakeland: The Norse Medievalism of W. G. Collingwood and His Contemporaries (2009, Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society), p. 67
11. A. Wawn, ‘The Spirit of 1892: Saga-Steads and Victorian Philology’, Saga-Book of the Viking Society 23 (1992), pp. 213–52; M. O. Townend, ‘In Search of the Lakeland Saga: Antiquarian Fiction and the Norse Settlement in Cumbria’, in D. Clark and C. Phelpstead (eds), Old Norse Made New: Essays on the Post-Medieval Reception of Old Norse Literature and Culture (2007, Viking Society for Northern Research); Wawn, The Vikings and the Victorians, pp. 308–9
12. Townend, The Vikings and Victorian Lakeland, pp. 33–4
13. For his part, Collingwood seems to have felt no sadness at his eclipse, though it was noted by contemporaries (Townend, The Vikings and Victorian Lakeland, pp. 44–5)
14. Ibid., p. 258
15. My own first-edition copy of Scandinavian Britain, I recently discovered to my great delight, is ex libris Robert Eugen Zachrisson, the famous Swedish philologist and place-name scholar: he signed the flyleaf in 1924 and, at some point, added a personalized bookplate. Zachrisson was responsible for a good deal of pioneering work on, among other things, the etymology of English place-names (including their Norse origins) and the Norman influence on modern English pronunciation; he is chiefly remembered today, however, for an ingenious attempt to overhaul the spelling of English with a system which he called Anglic. Although at the time it received considerable support, with reports (in Anglic) noting that ‘leeding eduekaeshonists and reprezentativz of the Pres, who hav been prezent at korsez givn in Stockholm and Uppsala
, hav testified that Anglic is a moest efektiv meenz of teeching English to forinerz’, it was – perhaps mercifully – doomed to fail. A sage voice in the Spectator, commenting approvingly on these initiatives, observed in 1931 that ‘Language can be, and often is, the greatest obstacle to thought, and nowhere is this truer than in thinking about language itself.’ There may be something in that, but it was not, thankfully, enough to overcome the ‘instinct of every educated man […] to rise in revolt against any attempt to interfere with a custom sanctified by long usage’ (A. Lloyd James, ‘Anglic: An International English’, Spectator, 14 August 1931, p. 7: http://archive.spectator.co.uk/article/15th-august-1931/7/anglic-an-international-english)
16. Townend, The Vikings and Victorian Lakeland, p. 157
17. For the tenor of the debate see, e.g., D. Austin, ‘The “Proper Study” of Medieval Archaeology’, in D. Austin and L. Alcock (eds), From the Baltic to the Black Sea: Studies in Medieval Archaeology (1990, Routledge), pp. 9–42; G. R. W. Halsall, Cemeteries and Society in Merovingian Gaul: Selected Studies in History and Archaeology, 1992–2009 (2010, Brill), pp. 49–88
18. Kitchin exemplifies in many ways the late Victorian churchman and antiquary. His improbable list of accomplishments is a record of his talents, but also serves as an indicator of the excellent connections and oodles of free time that his position in society afforded. He was a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and a member of the British Archaeological Society, to whom he delivered learned disquisitions on (among other things) the font at Winchester Cathedral and ‘The Burial-place of the Slavonians’ at North Stoneham Church in Hampshire; he was dean of Winchester Cathedral (from 1883) where he contributed significantly to the restoration of the reredos, and was later dean of Durham Cathedral (from 1894) and chancellor of Durham University (from 1908) until his death in 1912; he wrote the popular hymn ‘Raise High the Cross’ as well as a three-volume history of France and a biography of Pope Pius II; as a young man in 1863 he was private tutor to Frederik, Crown Prince of Denmark (later crowned King Frederik VIII). He also, and probably this is the least interesting of all his many achievements despite being the one for which he is most remembered, fathered Xie Kitchin, the favourite child-muse of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, aka Lewis Carroll; indeed, he was himself photographed by Dodgson and the result can be found in the archives of the National Portrait Gallery. A copy of the same likeness hangs on the wall of my study: I am contemplating his magnificent mutton-chops even as I type
Viking Britain- an Exploration Page 41
