Viking Objects
Reproduction Wooden Box
A reproduction wooden box based on examples from Lincoln, York and Norway. The box is decorated with bone strips carved with a circular dot design. Boxes like this would have been fastened with padlocks
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Viking Objects
Reproduction Silk Headdress
A yellow silk headdress based on examples found in Lincoln, York and Dublin. The silk would have been imported from the Eastern Mediterranean.
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Viking Designs
Drawing of the Winteringham Pendant
A drawing of a cast silver, gilded pendant which has been interpreted as representing an image of Odin and his two ravens Huginn and Muninn. 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. With some exceptions, pendants were generally worn by women as part of their Scandinavian dress.
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Viking Objects
Reproduction Trefoil Brooch
A reproduction, copper alloy trefoil brooch of a type that would have been common in the Danelaw. Trefoil brooches were characteristically Scandinavian women’s wear. However, many examples found in the East Midlands were probably made in the Danelaw, and may have been copies of Scandinavian styles, instead of being imported from Scandinavia. This example was found near Lincoln. Scandinavian brooches came in a variety of sizes and shapes which included disc, trefoil, lozenge, equal-armed, and oval shapes. The different brooch types served a variety of functions in Scandinavian female dress with oval brooches typically being used as shoulder clasps for apron-type dresses and the rest being used to secure an outer garment to an inner shift. Anglo-Saxon brooches do not match this diversity of form with large disc brooches being typical of ninth century dress styles with smaller ones becoming more popular in the later ninth and tenth centuries. However, since disc brooches were used by both Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian women they are distinguished by their morphology. Scandinavian brooches were typically domed with a hollow back while Anglo-Saxon brooches were usually flat. Moreover, Anglo-Saxon brooches were worn singly without accompanying accessories.
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Viking Objects
Reproduction Game Board
A reproduction oak game board based on one from Coppergate, York. This is a larger-than-usual hnefatafl board with no significant squares marked out. Gaming pieces have been laid out on it in some of the photographs, but it is likely that a board this size would require more pieces on the outer edges (the attackers).
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Viking Names
Eastwood
Eastwood, in the Broxtow Wapentake of Nottinghamshire, is a hybrid name formed from Old English east ‘east’ and Old Norse þveit ‘a clearing, a meadow, a paddock’. No form of the name has been found going back to Old Norse austr ‘east’.
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Viking Names
Lound
Lound, in the Bassetlaw Wapentake of Nottinghamshire, comes from the Old Norse element lundr ‘grove, wood’. This origin is celebrated on the village sign, and there is also a Grove Farm in the village.
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Viking Names
Nether Langwith
Nether Langwith, in the Bassetlaw Wapentake of Nottinghamshire, comes from Old Norse langr ‘long, tall’ and Old Norse vað ‘a ford’. The affix Nether ‘lower downstream’ distinguishes Nether Langwith from Upper Langwith, Derbyshire, further up the river Poulter.
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Viking Names
Snitterby
Snitterby, in the Aslacoe Wapentake of Lincolnshire, is an Anglo-Scandinavian hybrid from the Old English unrecorded male personal name Snytra and Old Norse by ‘a farmstead, a village’. It is suggested that the personal name comes from Old English snotor, snytre ‘wise’. The same personal name has been attributed also to Snetterton, Norfolk.
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Viking Names
Barnoldby le Beck
Barnoldby le Beck, in the Haverstoe Wapentake of Lincolnshire, is a difficult name. The first element is likely from the Old Norse male personal name Bjǫrnúlfr, rather than the cognate Old English male personal name Beornwulf, especially taking into consideration the heavy Scandinavian influence in Lincolnshire. The second element is Old Norse by ‘a farmstead, a village’. The earliest reference to the Beck, from Old Norse bekkr ‘a stream, a beck’, is Barnoldby upon Becke 1662 Terrier.
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Viking Names
Askham
Askham, in the Bassetlaw Wapentake of Nottinghamshire, probably goes back to an original Old English æschām ‘ash tree farm,’ but the Old Norse cognate askr was substituted at an early date.