Viking Names
Skardi
The Old Norse male personal name Skarði was originally a byname from Old Norse skarði ‘notch, hack’. A few instances are recorded as a personal name in Norway from the eleventh century onwards. It is also found as a byname in Norway and Iceland and in some Swedish runic inscriptions in the form skarþi. Skarði is possibly found in a Danish place-name and a strong form of the name Skarth appears in Denmark in the fifteenth century. The personal name may also be the first element in Scartho, Lincolnshire.
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Viking Objects
Urnes-Style Brooch (LIN-F79A53)
This brooch has a gilded openwork zoomorphic design in the Urnes style. 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 Names
Aswarby
Aswarby, in the Aswardhurn Wapentake of Lincolnshire, is a compound name formed from the Old Norse male personal name Ásvarðr and Old Norse by ‘a farmstead, a village’. The construction of the place-name is identical with that of Aswardby, in the South Riding of Lindsey in Lincolnshire. Ásvarðr is also the first element in the district name, Aswardhurn, and presumably both the settlement and the district names refer to the same man. Aswarby is now a joint parish with Swarby.
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Viking Objects
Silver Arm Ring Fragment (SWYOR-58AFB4)
A fragment of an Early Medieval silver decorated arm ring with triangular punches each with a pellet in the centre. The object may represent hacksilver, but as it is broken rather than cut, this is not certain. Nonetheless, arm rings functioned as both a means of storing wealth as well as putting the wealth and status of the individual on display.
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Viking Objects
Stirrup Mount (LEIC-113224)
Early medieval copper-alloy stirrup mount rectangular in form and cross section. The main decoration consists of a trilobed motif, cebntrally placed, which sits on a very short wide shaft running to the objects base. The mount is classified under Williams class B, type 1, group 3.
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Viking Objects
Reproduction Viking Silver Penny
This reproduction of a Viking silver penny immitates those minited bu the Vikign rulers of York in the tenth century. Viking rulers in the Danelaw eventually took up the Anglo-Saxon practice of minting coins which helped legitimise their authority.
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Viking Objects
Scabbard Chape (NLM-6C0242)
This possible scabbard chape fragment is very damaged but the reddish tint is often characteristic of Anglo-Scandinavian metalwork
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Viking Names
Thormund
Þormundr is probabably an Eastern Scandinavian make personal name formed from Old Norse Þór- ‘the god’s name Þór’ and Old Norse –mundr ‘protector’. It is rare in Sweden, but a number of instances are recorded in Denmark including the form þurmutʀ in a runic inscription from the early Viking Age. The name was not found in West Scandinavia until the sixteenth century. Some forms of the place-name Thurmaston, Leicestershire seemed to be influenced by Þormundr in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.
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Viking Objects
Copper-Alloy Jellinge-Style Brooch (LEIC-36241D)
This brooch contains two S-shaped zoomorphic Jellinge-style designs around a central boss. 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 Names
Denby
Denby, in the Morleyston and Litchurch Hundred of Derbyshire, takes its name from the Old English ethnonym Dene ‘a Dane’ and Old Norse by ‘a farmstead, a village’. Traditionally, the place-name has been interpreted as referring to a settlement of Danes. 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.
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Viking Names
Gauti
Gauti and the related Gautr are short forms of names in Gaut- or -gautr, or an original byname meaning ‘man from Gautland’. This region comprises the provinces now known as Östergötland and Västergötland in southern Sweden, and is the homeland of the Geats in the Old English poem Beowulf. Gauti is recorded in several Swedish runic inscriptions. Gauti is the first element of the place-names Gautby, Lincolnshire and Goadby Marwood, Leicestershire.