Viking Names
Spilsby
The name of Spilsby, in the Bolingbroke Wapentake of Lincolnshire, comes from the Old Norse male byname Spillir and the Old Norse element by ‘farm, settlement’.
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Viking Names
Hogsthorpe
Hogsthorpe, in the South Riding of Lindsey in Lincolnshire, is a hybrid name. The first element of the place-name is either Old English hogg ‘a hog, a pig’ or the Old English male personal name Hogg. The second element is Old Norse þorp ‘a secondary settlement, a dependent outlying farmstead or hamlet’.
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Viking Names
Sunnifa
Sunnifa is a Scandinavianised form of Old English Sunngifu, which was the name of an Irish Christian queen who fled to Norway in the tenth century, according to her legend. She was later venerated as a saint and is the patron saint of Bergen and Western Norway. The name appears in Norway from the eleventh century onwards, but it is rare in Iceland and Denmark. Sunnifa is well-attested in medieval English documents notably in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire, as well as some field-names in West Yorkshire.
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Viking Objects
Reproduction Terslev Pendant
Terslev style, where Scandinavian ring-chain patterns are the main decorative component, is a subcategory of the Borre style and takes its name from the silver hoard discovered in Terslev, Denmark. The decoration comprises a series of ring-knots related to the Borre ring-chain. The Terslev style occurs mainly on brooches and pendants, including both high-quality gold and silver jewellery as well as lower-end base metal items. The cast base-metal ornaments, such as those made of copper alloy, were intended to imitate the higher-end gold and silver jewellery, and often employed techniques such as gilding to achieve this. The Terslev designs that occur in England extend the repertoire by introducing new Scandinavian motifs hitherto unrecorded in Scandinavia. 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 Objects
Viking Bird Brooch (NLM-612074)
This brooch is classified as Weetch’s type 30.C and is decorated with an openwork design representing a bird in profile. 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 Objects
Borre-Style Strap-End (NLM-F4E3D9)
This strap-end is classified as a Thomas Class E type 4 with Borre-style decoration. Strap-ends came in various styles and were fairly common throughout the Viking world. They were used to decorate the ends of belts and to stop them getting damaged.
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Viking Objects
Reproduction Norse Bells
Bells of this type are described as a ‘Norse’ bell because of their association with Scandinavian sites though not much else is known about their purpose or origin. However, it seems likely that they were used as harness decorations.
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Viking Objects
Bridle Bit (NLM-4CB914)
This bridle bit plate is decorated with rounded protrusions from its edges, apparently representing the head of a beast combining attributes of horse and dragon. The reddish tint of the metal is a common feature of Anglo-Scandinavian metalwork.
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Viking Objects
Harness Fitting (NLM-0C6D7D)
This copper-alloy harness-link fragment consists of a rhomboid loop and the stub of a lentoid section bar. The metal has a reddish tint often associated with Anglo-Scandinavian material.
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Viking Objects
Silver Ingot (CM.1789-2008)
This silver ingot was made by melting down worked silver cast into a rod and cut into sections. The Vikings arriving in England had a bullion economy where they paid for goods with silver that was weighed to an amount agreed between the buyer and the seller. Hacksilver and silver ingots are the most common evidence for their bullion economy. It took some time for the Scandinavian settlers to adopt a monetary economy like that of the Anglo-Saxons, and both systems were used simultaneously for a while before they fully adopted the new system. They were familiar with monetary economies but they treated coins as just another form of silver before adoption of a monetary economy.
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Viking Objects
Chisel (NLM-79460E)
This chisel fragment has a wrought-iron V-shaped blade and likely had a socket for attachment to a handle. Socket attachment using sockets made of rolled metal are characteristic of early medieval metal-working.