Viking Objects
Coin of Cnut the Great (DENO-28F8A6)
This silver penny is a posthumous issue of Cnut, with arm and sceptre obverse type, minted by Thurgrim in Lincoln under the authority of King Harthacnut. Minting coins was a way of controlling the means of exchange within a kingdom and which created a more easily administered standardized system of trade. Moreover, the coins themselves were often used as propaganda, portaying symbols and statements that gave off a desired message. The Vikings later used the minting of coins to legitimize their own rule.
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Viking Objects
Incomplete Viking Silver Penny (DENO-7A0AF7)
An incomplete silver early medieval penny of the Vikings influenced by the Swordless St Peter type and possibly minted in the name of Sihtric Caoch who ruled Dublin between 917-920 CE and was King of Northumbria from 921-927 CE. It is not certain why he left Ireland. The Irish annals state that it was ‘through the grace of God’ and do not elaborate on the politics behind his departure. After the establishment of the Danelaw, some Viking leaders decided to mint their own coins to solidify their legitimacy in the eyes of the local populace. This created a hybrid economy where some members of the Danelaw used bullion and others used coins.
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Viking Objects
Ring-and-Dot Pin (1986/976-SF4)
This copper alloy pin with a ring-and-dot pattern on the head was used for fastening cloaks. It was found on the site of Little Chester Roman fort. Pins like this were common in Ireland and the western British Isles, and spread further afield under Viking influence.
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Viking Designs
Drawing of an Equal-Armed Brooch
Drawing of a Viking Age equal-armed brooch based on fragments found at Harworth Bircotes, Nottinghamshire and reconstructed based on parallels from Birka, Sweden. For more information on Scandinavian jewellery in England check out our blog: Brooches, Pendants and Pins: Scandinavian Dress Accessories in England.
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Viking Names
Aki
Áki is probably a diminutive of *ani, an unrecorded word related to Old Norse ái ‘great-grandfather’. The name is frequent in Denmark both independently and in place-names and likely originated in the Danish islands. It is also frequent in Sweden, but does not appear in Norway until about 1300. It is found in one Normandy place-name. The name is well-attested in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire, although some forms may represent the Old English male personal name Acca. Áki is also the first element in the place-name Oakthorpe, Leicestershire
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Viking Names
Thorlak
The male name Þorlákr is recorded in a number of Scandinavian runic inscriptions. It is rare in England but is possibly recorded in a minor name Thurlowbooth in Crich, Derbyshire. There is a further East Midlands connection, as its best-known bearer, the Icelandic bishop Þorlákr, studied in Lincoln in the twelfth century.
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Viking Objects
Reproduction Men’s Clothing Set
The woollen tunic is in white broken diamond twill. Few Viking Age woollen tunics survive intact, but a number of large pieces of skirts and side gores, and arm-hole and sleeve pieces were found at Hedeby, in Denmark. This tunic is made from a composite of all these fragments. The woollen trousers are dark blue/grey herringbone twill. These are based on the archaeological remains of the crotch of a pair of baggy trousers, found at Hedeby, in Denmark, which also appear on a number of Viking Age stone carvings across the Viking world, but particularly in Sweden. The woollen leg-bindingins are yellow herringbone twill, based on original fragments from Hedeby, in Denmark. The vegetable-tanned leather belt, with a ring-and-dot decorated brass buckle, is based on an original found in a male grave (Grave 511), at Repton, Derbyshire.
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Viking Objects
Northumbrian Styca (LEIC-0D9D6F)
This Northumbrian styca was probably minted in the name of Æthelred II of Northumbria possibly by the moneyer Eanwulf. While Wessex and Mercia were using silver coinage as part of their monetary economy, Northumbria was using copper coins known as stycas, which may have contained trace amounts of silver. The concentration of these coins at sites such as Torksey and ARSNY (‘a riverine site near York’) suggests that they could have remained in circulation after the fall of Northumbria in 866 but were taken to these sites by the Vikings during their campaigning. This particular example was likely brought to Nottinghamshire from Northumbria by means of the Great Army’s overwintering activities in and around Nottingham.
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Viking Names
Ashby Magna
Ashby Magna, in the Guthlaxton Hundred of Leicestershire, is likely an Anglo-Scandinavian name coming from Old English æsc ‘ash-tree’ and Old Norse by ‘a farmstead, a village’. Some spellings may show influence of Old Norse eski ‘a place growing with ash-trees’ or even Old English esce ‘a stand of ash-trees’ on the first element. Ashby is a common place-name, but is is uncertain whether this name is an Old English creation Scandinavianized (i.e replacing Old English tun ‘an enclosure; a farmstead; a village; an estate’ with Old Norse by) or whether the name is fully Scandinavian in origin, with Old English æsc (Middle English ash) replacing Old Norse askr ‘ash-tree’. The affix Medieval Latin magna ‘great’ differentiates the township from Ashby Parva, which lies approximately three miles to the south-west.
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Viking Names
Cosby
The first element of Cosby, in the Guthlaxton Hundred of Leicestershire, is uncertain. It is likely the Old Norse male personal name Kopsi or Kofsi (genitive singular Kofsa) with Kofsa– assimilated to Cossa-. Alternatively the first element could be the Old English male personal name Cos(s)a which appears in such place-names as Cosham, Hampshire, Corsham, Wilshire and Cossington, Leicestershire. The second element is Old Norse by ‘a farmstead, a village’.
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Viking Names
Coston
Coston, in the Framland Hundred of Leicestershire, is a Anglo-Scandinavian hybrid place-name probably coming from the Old Norse male personal name Kátr (genitive singular Káts), presumably an original byname from the Old Norse adjective kátr ‘glad’, combined with the Old English tun ‘an enclosure; a farmstead; a village; an estate’.