Viking Names
Screveton
Screveton, in the Bingham Wapentake of Nottinghamshire, is made up of two Old English elements, scir-gerefa ‘sheriff’ and tun ‘farm, settlement’. However, the modern pronunciation (as if ‘sk-‘) is due to the influence of Scandinavian-speakers. Old English words beginning in sc- (usually sh- in Modern English, like ‘ship’) often have Scandinavian equivalents spelled (and pronounced) sk- (like Old Norse skip and Modern Danish skib for the same thing). Many modern English words beginning in sk- derive from Old Norse.
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Viking Objects
Reproduction Lead Gaming Pieces
Reproduction lead gaming pieces of a type commonly found across the East Midlands, including at the Torksey Viking camp. The reproductions are tin alloy while the originals were made of lead. These gaming pieces would have been used to play hnefatafl or Nine Men’s Morris, both of which are games known to have been played by Scandinavians throughout the Viking diaspora. It has also been suggested that these might have been weights.
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Viking Names
Fiskerton
Fiskerton, in the Thurgarton Wapentake of Nottinghamshire, is from the Old English elements fiscere ‘fisher’ and tun ‘farm, settlement’. The pronunciation has however been influenced by Scandinavian-speakers (compare Old Norse fiskari with the same meaning). There is also a Fiskerton in Lincolnshire, which has undergone the same process.
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Viking Objects
Arabic Silver Dirham Fragment (SWYOR-1AE8AA)
This silver dirham fragment does not provide enough information to determine the ruler or moneyer but it seems to be from the seventh to ninth century. 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.
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Viking Names
Toynton All Saints
Toynton All Saints, in the Bolingbroke Wapentake of Lincolnshire, is probably ‘the farmstead, village associated with or called after Tota’, from the Old English male personal name Tota with the Old English medial connective particle -ing and Old English element tun ‘farm, settlement’. Alternatively, the first element could be Old English tot ‘a look-out’. Thus, ‘farm/settlement at *Toting (= the look-out place)’. The affix is from the dedication of the church.
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Viking Names
Riby
Riby, in the Yarborough Wapentake of Lincolnshire, was originally an Old English compound Rygetun ‘the farmstead or village where rye grows’. The Old English tun ‘farm, settlement’ was replaced by Old Norse by ‘farm, settlement’.
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Viking Names
Fenby
Fenby, in the Haverstoe Wapentake of Lincolnshire, is an Anglo-Scandinavian hybrid from Old English fenn ‘a fen, a marsh, marshland’ and Old Norse by ‘a farmstead, a village’. It is most likely to be a partial Scandinavianization of an earlier Old English place-name, perhaps Fenton, with a similar meaning. Fenby is now a joint parish with Ashby, and the name survives in Fenby Farm, which lies in what must have been a fenny area on the lower slope of the Wolds.
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Viking Objects
Lead Gaming Piece (PUBLIC-67DBE3)
This and similar pieces have also been interpreted as weights although the gaming-piece interpretation is more secure. Pieces like this would have been used to play hnefatafl and/or Nine Men’s Morris, both of which are known to have been played in Scandinavia in the Viking Age.
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Viking Names
Kirton
Kirton, in the Bassetlaw Wapentake of Nottinghamshire, is a hybrid name, a compound of Old Norse kirkja ‘a church’ and Old English tun ‘ an enclosure; a farmstead; a village; an estate’.
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Viking Names
Irby upon Humber
Irby upon Humber, in the Bradley Wapentake of Lincolnshire, comes from Old Norse Íra,the genitive plural form of Íri ‘an Irishman; probably also a Norseman who had lived in Ireland’ and Old Norse by ‘a farmstead, a village’. The reference is probably to an isolated settlement of Norwegian vikings from Ireland, or perhaps Irishmen who came with the vikings to England. However, the exact implications of such a name are not yet fully understood and are the subject of ongoing work by Dr Jayne Carroll of the Institute for Name-Studies, University of Nottingham. Irby upon Humber is to distinguish the place from Irby in the Marsh, also in Lincolnshire.
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Viking Names
Repton
Repton, in the Repton and Gresley Hundred of Derbyshire, comes from Old English Hrype, an Anglian tribe, and Old English dun ‘a hill’. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, The Great Heathen Army wintered in Repton in 873-4.