Viking Designs
Drawing of an Arabic Coin
Drawing of an Arabic silver dirham minted in the Middle East and probably brought to Lincolnshire by Viking traders. The dirham was a unit of weight used across North Africa, the Middle East, and Persia, with varying values which also referred to the type of coins used in the Middle East during the Viking Age. These coins were extremely prized possessions not only for their silver value but as a way of displaying one’s wealth and vast trade connections. Millions of Arabic Dirhams would have been imported throughout the Viking world and are mostly found in hoards. Arabic dirhams demonstrate contact between the Viking diaspora and the Arabic world. Arabic coins are especially useful for dating sites, because they carry the date when they were minted. This permits precise dating where the part of the coin with the date survives, whereas European coins can only be dated to the reign of the ruler depicted on them. In western descriptions of these coins, the Arabic dates found on the coins are usually listed in square brackets, as above, and the European equivalent is listed after it.
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Viking Objects
Reproduction Pendant with an Odin Motif
This reproduction of a cast silver, gilded pendant featuring an image of a one-eyed figure with two birds has been interpreted as Odin and his two ravens, Huginn and Muninn. The original pendant was found at Winteringham, Lincolnshire. There are a number of close parallels which establish the wide currency of this subject group. These include numerous examples from Russia and two from Sweden, including some with silver gilding. A silver pendant with a related, but distinct design is known from Sjælland, Denmark.
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Viking Names
Sturston
Sturston, in the Appletree Hundred of Derbyshire, comes from the Old Norse male personal name Stýrr and the Old English element tun ‘farm, settlement’. It is thus a hybrid name. The Domesday Book mentions Sturston Hall as one of two manors held by Ulfkil ‘Ulfkell’ and Wudia ‘Wodi’, each manor being of half a carucate (a Danish land measure) each. Parts of the parish were transferred to Bradley and Offcote and Underwood and the rest to Ashbourne in 1934.
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Viking Objects
Merovingian Denier (DENO-4A202A)
This is a silver denier produced by the Merovingian Franks around 700 to 750 at the mint of Marseille. It is possible that it made its way to England prior to Viking incursions but it is equally likely that the Vikings brought this coin with them as plunder after raiding in Frankia.
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Viking Names
Thorpe
Thorpe, in the Newark Wapentake of Nottinghamshire, is simplex name from Old Norse þorp ‘a secondary settlement, a dependent outlying farmstead or hamlet’. Probably regarded as an outlying settlement from Newark.
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Viking Names
Hawerby
Now joined with Beesby, Hawerby is in the Haverstoe Wapentake of Lincolnshire, which has also been joined with Bradley Wapentake to form Bradley Haverstoe Wapentake. The name comes from an Old Norse male personal name Hávarðr plus the Old Norse element by ‘farmstead, village’. Interestingly, the same personal name is found in the wapentake name, Haverstoe, which combines it with the Old Norse element haugr ‘mound’. As Kenneth Cameron put it, ‘the coincidence is too great to avoid the conclusion that both are named from the same man. The site of the wapentake meeting-place is almost certainly a mound in the parish of Hawerby’. It has been suggested that the mound in question is a prehistoric round barrow (of which there is little or no trace today, as a result of ploughing) at TF 254 977, which has a fine view of the Humberside levels.
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Viking Names
Foston
Foston, in the Appletree Hundred in Derbyshire, has a difficult naming history. The form of the name in Domesday Book, Farvlvestvn, seems to be from the Old Germanic male personal name Farulf with the second element Old English tun ‘farm, settlement’. It is believed that Foston, from the Old Scandinavian male personal name corresponding to the Old Norse male personal name Fótr, was originally a separate settlement site which in the course of time became more important than Farvlvestvn and displaced this name. Alternatively, the name Farulfr was common in Swedish and the first element in the Domesday form of this place-name may well be this Scandinavian name. Foston is a joint parish with Scropton.
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Viking Objects
Viking Silver Penny (LEIC-B230B8)
This silver ‘Cunnetti’ penny comes from the Viking kingdom of York and was minted on the authority of ‘Cnut of Northumbria’. 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, portraying 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 Names
Timberland
Timberland, in the Langoe Wapentake of Lincolnshire, is likely an Anglo-Scandinavian hybrid coming from Old English timber ‘timber, trees; a wooden building’ and Old Norse lundr ‘a small wood’, thus giving the place-name the meaning ‘the grove where timber is obtained’. Alternatively, the first element may be Old Norse timbr ‘timber, trees, wood’.
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Viking Objects
Reproduction Scales
Scale pan set in copper alloy based on fragments of an arm from Cromwell, Nottinghamshire (DENO 0619F7), a pivot from Northope, Lincolnshire (NLM 6A2893), and a suspension arm and pans based on originals from York and St Peter’s Street, Northampton. Scales were a common commercial tool and would have been an important part of any exchange whether using a monetary system or a bullion system such as the one that existed in Viking-occupied areas of England.
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Viking Names
Sutterby
Sutterby, in the Candleshoe Wapentake of Lincolnshire, comes from Old Norse sútari ‘a shoe-maker’ and Old Norse bý ‘a farmstead, a village’.