Viking Objects
Tongue-Shaped Strap-End (DENO-1268B3)
An incomplete, copper-alloy strap-end with anthropomorphic designs. These types of strap-ends were popular in both Scandinavia and on the Carolingian continent between the 9th and 10th centuries and were regularly used to embellish baldrics. 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 Designs
Drawing of Detail from the Southwell Lintel
The lintel above a door in Southwell Minster features the Archangel Michael fighting off a Norse-style ribbon beast. This drawing shows a detail of the ribbon beast. The lintel is probably an eleventh-century grave cover that was recarved and decorated in the twelfth century and placed into a new position.
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Viking Names
Linby
Linby, in the Broxtow Wapentake of Nottinghamshire, comes from Old Norse lind ‘a lime tree’ and by ‘a farmstead, a village’.
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Viking Objects
Copper-Alloy Buckle Fragment (SWYOR-1F57BC)
This copper-alloy fragment is probably part of a flat buckle-frame decorated with Borre-style interlace though very few comparable examples exist.
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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 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 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 Objects
The Hickling Hogback
The Hickling hogback is a type of Anglo-Scandinavian grave cover in St Luke’s Church, Hickling, Nottinghamshire. It is the most southerly grave cover of this type in England. It appears to have been carved from the remains of a Roman column, hence the notch in the end of it. The stone features Scandinavian Jelling-style decoration indicating an expression of Scandinavian identity and muzzled bears on each end which are thought to be indicators of a pagan identity. However, the stone also features a large cross showing that the commissioners of the carving had a strong interest in expressing the Christian identity of the deceased. As such, this stone is designed to show that the person buried under it was a Christian Scandinavian.
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Viking Names
Elston
Elston, in the Newark Wapentake of Nottinghamshire, comes from the Old Norse male personal name Eiláfr or perhaps Eilífr and Old English tun ‘farm, settlement’. It is thus a hybrid name.
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Viking Names
Hickling
Hickling, in the Bingham Wapentake of Nottinghamshire, has a name that was given probably quite early in Anglo-Saxon times in Old English. It is also recorded relatively early, first in a 14th-century copy of a document originally written around 1000. The -ing suffix indicates that the name refers to a group of people, who belonged to or were named after a person called Hicel(a). It is therefore not a Viking name. However, it is included here because St Luke’s Church in Hickling is the location of an early medieval grave-cover that is often regarded as a ‘hogback’ a type of Anglo-Scandinavian monument generally found further north (indeed this would be the most southerly example). It is quite common for sculpture with Scandinavian features or showing Scandinavian influence to be found in villages with English names, and this applies to other forms of material culture too. There is therefore no automatic connection between the name of a place and other evidence for Scandinavian influence, and this raises many interesting questions about the processes of acculturation, integration and diaspora that resulted from the Viking invasions.