Viking Names
Driby
Driby, in the East Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, is an Anglo-Scandinavian hybrid name from Old English dryge ‘dry, dried up’ and Old Norse bý ‘a farmstead, village’.
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Viking Names
Asmund
Ásmundr is a very common name in Scandinavia throughout the Viking Age and later. It is recorded in medieval documents from both Lincolnshire and Yorkshire, in field-names in Lincolnshire, and in major names in North and West Yorkshire such as Osmotherley and Osmondthorpe. It is an Old Norse compound name. Its first element Ás- ‘a god’, frequent in Viking Age names, presumably refers to Old Norse deities such as Odin and Thor, though the latter name appears in its own right in many names, both male and female, while Odin is a very rare element in personal names. The second element-mundr is either Old West Norse ‘protector’ or Old Norse-Icelandic ‘gift’.
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Viking Names
Flixborough
Flixborough, in the West Riding of Lindsey in Lincolnshire, is a hybrid name from the Old Norse male name Flík and Old English burh ‘a fortified place’. It is highly likely, in a place-name with Old English burh as the second element, that the Old Norse Flík has replaced an earlier Old English name or element. An important Anglo-Saxon settlement site has been excavated here.
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Viking Names
Hrafnhild
Hrafnhildr is recorded in a few instances in West Scandinavia (Norway and Iceland) and in the quasi-historical Icelandic text, Landnámabók ‘The Book of Settlements’ which recounts the settlement of Iceland. It is also attested in two field names in West Yorkshire. The personal name is an Old Norse compound, formed from Hrafn- , ‘raven’, combined with -hildr, ‘battle’.
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Viking Objects
Socketed Axe (LCNCC:1906.9661.2)
This large socketed iron axe head was found in the River Witham, east of Lincoln, Lincolnshire. Axes were not only a common implement used for a variety of wood-based activities, such as constructing ships, but also were often used as weapons. Axes came in a variety of shapes and sizes depending on their function. Considering the size and shape, this axe was most likely used for warfare rather than as a tool.
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Viking Objects
Stirrup (LCNCC : 1906.9663)
A large iron stirrup of Viking type with a long slender looped form, rectangular terminal, and a flat footrest. It was found in the River Witham near Lincoln. Stirrups like this were an innovation that Scandinavian settlers introduced to Anglo-Saxon England in the eleventh century.
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Viking Names
Butti
Butti was a rare name in Scandinavia but is attested as an element in Norwegian place-names. It is also believed to be the first element of the place-name Budby, Nottinghamshire.
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Viking Objects
Square Lead-Alloy Weight (NLM-941282)
Weights are an important form of evidence for Viking Age commerce and the use of standards across the different economic systems within which Vikings were integrated. Many of the weights discovered, particularly ones in Ireland and those of Arabic type, suggest that a standardized system of weights existed in some areas. These standard weights, alongside standard values of silver, are what allowed the bullion economy of Viking occupied areas to function. A bullion economy was a barter economy that relied on the exchange of set amounts of precious metal in various forms, such as arm-rings or coins, for tradable goods, such as food or textiles. Each merchant would have brought their own set of weights and scales to a transaction to make sure that the trade was conducted fairly.
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Viking Names
Bild
The Old Norse male personal name Bíldr is originally a byname meaning ‘blade’. It is the personal name of a fictional character in West Scandinavia and is frequently used as a byname there. A Bildus is mentioned in Saxo and the name appears as a byname in Denmark and may be found in some Danish place-names. Bildr is the first element of the place-name of Bilsthorpe, Nottinghamshire.
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Viking Names
Hoon
Hoon, in the Appletree Hundred of Derbyshire, is a simplex place-name from haugum, the dative plural form of Old Norse haugr ‘a natural height, a hill, a heap, an artificial mound, a burial mound’, which gives the sense ‘at the barrows’. One of these barrows is now called Hoon Mount.
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Viking Objects
Harness Fitting (NLM168)
This harness fitting, now broken into two parts, is trapezoidal in shape with two strap loops and is decorated with elaborate interlace decoration. The main element consists of two adorsed animals, possibly horses, set within a field of plant interlace.