Viking Names
Bothild
Bóthildr, -hilda is a compound name with the first element being Bót- probably to be compared with Old Norse bót ‘remedy, improvement’. While some scholars believe this element is a loan from the continent or England, it is certain that in Scandinavia it was interpreted as bót. The second element of the name is Old Norse -hildr ‘battle’, Both forms of the name are fairly frequent in Norway after c 1300 and it is also found in place-names there. It was rare in Iceland but common in Denmark and also found in Sweden. Bóthildr, -hilda appears as the first element in the medieval field names Botildewellewong in Anston, West Yorkshire, and Botildehau in East Yorkshire. It is also possibly the first element in the field name Botilgarth in Fishlake, West Yorkshire. The name is also well-attested in medieval Yorkshire and Lincolnshire documents.
Read More
Viking Objects
Reproduction Rune Inscribed Rib
Runes were used not only for monumental inscriptions, or to mark ownership of valuable objects, but also in more informal contexts. In this case the animal bone suggests an after-dinner pastime after a good meal in the Anglo-Scandinavian trading centre of Lincoln. The runes read ——l × hitir × stin × … Only two words of the Old Norse inscription can be read with certainty, and even so they are ambiguous. One possible interpretation is ‘[someone] is heating a stone’ the other is ‘[someone] is called Stein’. The bone is fragmentary, but the inscription may never have been intended to make much sense. The original object dates from around the tenth century. It is one of only three runic inscriptions from the East Midlands.
Read More
Viking Names
Claxby
Claxby, in the North Riding of Lindsey in Lincolnshire, is formed from the Old Norse male personal name Klakkr and Old Norse by ‘a farmstead, a village’. There are two other identical formations of the place-name in the South Riding of Lindsey of Lincolnshire, Claxby, and Claxby Pluckacre.
Read More
Viking Names
Spittlegate
Spittlegate, in the Winnibriggs and Threo Wapentake of Lincolnshire, comes from Middle English spitel ‘a hospital, a religious house, a house of the Knights Hospitallers’ and Old Norse gata ‘a road, a street; a right of way; a right of access to pasture-land; a right of pasturage; an allotment of pasture’. The name is first recorded in 1284 and clearly a post-Viking Age formation, though showing the continued use of originally Old Norse vocabulary in name-giving.
Read More
Viking Objects
Stamped Finger-Ring (NARC-031C88)
A stamped copper-alloy finger ring decorated with four double ring-and-dots in a lozengiform arrangement. Ring-and-dot was a decorative technique used at various periods from the later Iron Age onwards, but which enjoyed a Viking Age revival. Rings like this with knotted ends are typically Scandinavian.
Read More
Item
Haverholme
Haverholme, in Kesteven, Lincolnshire, comes from Old Norse hafri ‘oats’ and Old Norse holmr ‘an island, an inland promontory, raised ground in marsh, a river-meadow’. In 1137 the site was given by Alexander, Bishop of Lincoln, to the Cistercians of Fountains Abbey who later left Haverholme for Louth Park and the manor was passed to the Gilbertines in 1139.
Read More
Viking Names
Misson
Misson, in the Bassetlaw Wapentake of Nottinghamshire, is a difficult name. It may be a river name, of which the first element has affinities with Danish mysse, Swedish myssene, or Old Norse mysni ‘a water-plant (?water-arum)’ either as a simplex name or combined with Old Norse á ‘a river’. Alternatively, the name might derive from Old English mos ‘a bog, a swamp; presumably also moss’.
Read More
Viking Names
Scrafield
Scrafield, in the Hill Wapentake of Lincolnshire, is probably an Anglo-Scandinavian hybrid from Old Norse skreið ‘a land-slide’ and Old English feld. The latter element has a wide range of meanings in place-names, including ‘open country, unencumbered ground (eg. land without trees as opposed to forest, level ground as opposed to hills, land without buildings)’ and from the late tenth century it also refers to arable land.
Read More
Viking Names
Springthorpe
Springthorpe, in the Corringham Wapentake of Lincolnshire, is an Anglo-Scandinavian compound from Old English spring ‘a spring, a well, the source of a stream’ and Old Norse þorp ‘a secondary settlement, a dependent outlying farmstead or hamlet’.
Read More
Viking Names
Thorpe on the Hill
Thorpe on the Hill, in the Graffoe Wapentake of Lincolnshire, is a simplex place-name coming from Old Norse þorp ‘a secondary settlement, a dependent outlying farmstead or hamlet’. The affix is self-explanatory.
Read More
Viking Objects
Hooked Tag (NLM-8E96D5)
This example of an Anglo-Scandinavian copper-alloy hooked tag is classed as a Read Class A Type 1 or Class B Type 1. The tag is decorated with a stamped ring-and-dot motif which was a popular style among Scandinavians.