Viking Objects
Copper Alloy Buckle (LEIC-917DEC)
This buckle consists of an oval loop with a circular cross section and has an elongated triangular pin rest in the form of an animal head. The animal head has a pointed snout, rounded head with rounded upwards pointing ears which merge into the buckle loop. At the opposite side there are two short sub-rectangular cross-sectioned shafts which would have housed an iron pin that held the buckle pin and possibly an articulated plate.
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Viking Objects
Carolingian Trefoil Mount (LEIC-C5F14A)
This Carolingian trefoil mount has holes drilled through it for affixing to a surface, possibly a book. It is likely to have been brought from the European continent by Viking raiders or traders.
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Item
Crucifix Pendant (NLM-AD60CD)
The settlement of Scandinavians in the Danelaw inevitably led in the end to their conversion to Christianity, though how this process happened and how long it took varied in different parts of the country and is still not fully understood. Finds from Scandinavian-settled areas, like this crucifix with a clear image of Christ on the cross, may well be evidence for this process.
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Viking Objects
Stirrup Mount (LEIC-C97582)
This example of a copper-alloy stirrup-strap mount is decorated with an interlaced design forming two ‘serpents’ interrupted by nine circular holes. It is similar to mounts of William Class A Type 1 but the holes and its large size match Class C mounts more closely.
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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
Abbasid Silver Dirham (CM_773_2008)
This coin was minted at al-‘Abbasiyya. 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 ones wealth and vast trade connections. Millions of Arabic Dirhams would have been imported throughout the Viking world and are mostly found in hoards. Reduction in access to silver coins like this is thought to have been one of the causes of the Viking Age.
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Viking Objects
St Edmund Penny (LEIC-4FC58C)
Between 895 and 915, Scandinavian settlers in East Anglia minted a series of pennies and half pennies with the inscription SCE EADMVND REX (St Edmund the king). These coins appear to have been used widely throughout the Danelaw, and a large number of them were discovered in the Cuerdale Hoard from Lancashire. This coin appears to have been made with a poorly engraved die and features a blundered inscription naming the moneyer. The Portable Antiquities Scheme suggests that the moneyer’s name was Winegar. The inscription reads YVINRE NO.
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Viking Objects
Shield Boss (1989-59/9013)
This is a probable Viking shield boss from Repton, Derbyshire. This shield boss is possible evidence for the Viking Great Army’s overwintering at Repton in 873. The typical construction of a ‘Viking’ shield at the time involved several wooden planks glued together and cut into a circle. The face of the shield was then covered in linen or rawhide with rawhide edging that was either tacked or sewn on. Finally, a metal boss would be attached along with the handle over a hole in the centre. The purpose of the metal boss was to protect the user’s hand in combat.
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Viking Objects
Broken Gilt Vessel (CM.1822.2008)
A broken gilt vessel fragment decorated with a Carolingian motif within a repeated diamond pattern. A single iron rivet provides evidence that this vessel might have been repaired and reused. The vessel will have been brought from Francia to Torksey, Lincolnshire, where it was found, perhaps by a member of the Great Heathen Army or its train.
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Viking Objects
Cast Lead-Alloy Gaming Piece (DENO-646EE0)
A complete cast lead-alloy early medieval gaming piece. 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
Willoughby Waterleys
Willoughby Waterleys, in the Guthlaxton Hundred of Leicestershire, is an Anglo-Scandinavian compound from Anglian wilig ‘a willow-tree’ and Old Norse by ‘a farmstead, a village’. This is a common hybrid place-name and in most cases of usage it is a Scandinavianized form of Old English wiligtun ‘farmsted or village where the willows grow’. Some names of this type may conceal the Old English wiliga-beag ‘a circle of willow-trees’. Willoughby is a well-watered parish and lies on gravel and clay between two arms of the Whetstone Brook and has many large pools in its vicinity. Therefore its affix Waterleys from Old English leah ‘a forest, wood, glade, clearing; (later) a pasture, meadow’ and Old English wæter (Old English) ‘water, a river, a lake’ is appropriate. The affix was likely added at a later date to distinguish this Willoughby from Willoughby on the Wolds just beyond the Nottinghamshire boundary to the north.