A U D R E Y L.

M E A N E Y

Bthelweard, Alfric, the Norse Gods

and Northumbria*
Towards the end of the tenth century two Englishmen, mutually
acquainted and living in the south, made reference independently in
their writings to pagan deities. In the case of one of them, Elfric, it is
obvious that the gods in question belong to the Norse pantheon; in the
case of the other, Wthelweard, it is not so obvious. The purpose of this
article is to examine these references, and to discuss the ways in which
the writers might have acquired the knowledge they display.
Bthelweard
The author of a chronicle in obscure and peculiar Latin describes him-
self in the dedication as patricius consul Fabius quastor Ethelwerdus,
and has most reasonably been identified with the ealdorman Ethelweard
who was a descendant of King Wthelred I of Wessex, and who was
active in the time of Ethelred 1I.l His chronicle ends with a poem on
the death of Edgar in 975, but two chapter headings for the last book
show that he had intended to write about Edward the Martyr et de nece
ipsius and Ethelred the Unready et de actibus eius. Therefore he must
have been writing Book IV after the beginning of Ethelreds reign in
978. In his Prologue, however, he speaks of Arnulf of Flanders, who
died in 988, in the present tense, and Campbell therefore believes that,
taking into account the reference to the deeds of Ethelred in the final
chapter heading, a latish date between the limits 978-988 is i n d i ~ a t e d . ~
This, however, does not seem to me certain: actus is a sufficiently
imprecise word to have been used by Bthelweard at a time when he
was waiting for a boy-king to achieve something that he could write
about. It therefore seems to me that the composition of the chronicle

* My thanks are due to Sydney and Macquarie Universities for assistance in producing
typescripts of this article; and to Professor H. L. Rogers, to Dr and Mrs R. I. Jack and
especially to Professor D. Whitelock and to my colleague, Dr E. M. Liggins, for
reading it in its various stages and offering helpful comments and suggestions. They
have not, however, always agreed with my conclusions, and the responsibility for the
final form of the article must remain my own.
1 . The Chronicle of Wthelweard, Campbell, A. (Ed.), London, 1962, pp. xii-xvi.
Wthelweards career is also discussed by Barker, E. E., The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
used by Ethelweard, Bulletin of Institute of Historical Research, XL, 19p7, 74-91.
There is a new assessment of Bthelweards language in Winterbottom, M., The Style
of Wthelweard, Medium E v u m , XXXVI, 1967, 109-18.
2. Barker, E. E., The Cottonian Fragments of Ethelweards Chronicle, Bull.Znsr.Hist.-
Res., XXIV, 1951, 5 3 . See also Chronicle of Wthelweard, Campbell (Ed.), pp. xi-xii.
3. Ibid., p. xiii, n. 2.
Audrey L. Meaney is Senior Lecturer in English, Macquarie University.
106 JOURNAL O F RELIGIOUS HISTORY

was possible at any time between 978 and 988.

Although it has long been known to and used by Anglo-Saxon
scholars, until recently the loss in the Cottonian fire of the only manu-
script of Ethelweards chronicle to survive into modern times has
combined with the writers difficult Latin to discourage close study.
These deterrents have now been mitigated by Barkers demonstration
of the accuracy of the text printed by Sir Henry Savile in 15966 and
by Campbells valuable edition of 1962 with its facing translation.
As a consequence it has become much easier to assess its importance.
When writing his Germunisches Heidenturn bei den Angelsachsen,6
E. A. Philippson evidently believed that Zthelweard was referring to a
feature of early English heathenism when he said of Vuoddan regis
barbarorum, the ancestor of Hengest and Horsa,
quem post infanda dignitate ut deum honorantes, sacrificium obtulerunt
pagani victoriae cause siue virtutis, diuictusque, ut humanitas saepius
credit hoc, quod videt. (I, 3)
At first sight, Philippsons belief is supported by the form Vuoddan,
since this is a possible spelling of the Old English Woden. Elsewhere
in Ethelweards chronicle, however, except in the place-names Wodnes-
byrg and Vuodnesfelda,s even where he is clearly using the Anglo-
Saxon Chronicle as his source, the form employed is Vuorhen, which is
most probably a compromise form, midway between Old English
Wuden and Old Norse Othin.B The most important passages in which
Vuoihen occurs are the following:
Praefati enim duces eorum inde uenerunt Brittanniam primi: hoe est
Hengest et Horsa filii Vuyrhtelsi, auus eorum Vuicta, et proauus eorum
Vuithar, atauus quidem eorum Vuothen, qui et rex multitudinis
barbarorum. In tanta et enim seductione oppressi aquilonales increduli

4. Barker, Bull.lnst.Hist.Res., XL, 1967, 86-7, wishes to equate one of Bthelweards

titles for himself-patri+us-wifh his position as leading ealdorman; a position which
he could not have attamed unhl 992. However, the arguments for supposing pqtricius
translates heahealdormun do not seem to me to be capable of outweighing the evidence
of the reference to Amulf. Campbell, Chronicle of Bthelweard, p. xiii, n. 2, explains
the two titles patricius and qurestor as translations of the e!ements of Zthelweards
own name, i.e. noble public servant, and compares +s renderm of the name Eadgar
as contim beatam, noble spear. In the Revised Medieval Latin bord-List from British
and Zrish Sources, prepared by Lath.am, R. E., British Academy, 1965, patricius is
recorded as found m documents datmg from 686, the eleventh century, and before
1110, and is glossed simply nobleman.
5. Barker, Bull.Znst.Hbt.Res., XXIV, 1951, 46-62; esp. 51-3.
6. Leipzig, 1929, pp. 149-50.
7. I, 5; Chronicle of Bthelweard, Campbell (Ed.), p. 14.
8. IV, 4; Chronicle of Wthelweard, Campbell (Ed.), p. 53.
9. The form woben appears in an early continental manuscript of Bedes Ecclesiastical
Hisfory (British Museum, Cotton MS, Tiberius A XIV); see Sweet, H., The Earliest
English Texts, London, 1885 p. 133; and Strom, H., Old English Personal Names in
Bedes History, Lund Studiesin English, VIII, Lund, 1939; but this has little relevance
here. Nowhere else is the name of the Old English god found with a fricative in place
of the dental plosive; and the Norse cognate would have lost its initial w by the ninth
century (Noreen, A., Geschichte der Nordischen Sprachen, Strassburg, 1913, p. 14, 6,
12; p. 105, 82, 2).
 T H E NORSE GODS AND N O R T H U M B R I A 107

ut deum colunt usque in hodiernam diem viz. Dani, Northmanni

quoque et Sueui. (I, 4)
Hengest , . . Cuius pater fuit Wihtgels, auus Wicta, proauus Wither,
atauus Wothen, qui et rex multarum gentium, quem pagani nunc ut
deum colunt aliqui. (11, 2; AD 596)
. . . Cerdic . . . cuius pater fuit Elesa, auus Esla . . . septimus
Brond, octavus Balder, nonus Vuothen, . . . nonus decimus Scef . . .
(111, 4; AD 8 5 5 )
In addition, there are other references to Woden/Othin (hereafter
called Wothen for convenience) as the ultimate ancestor of the royal
lines of the Mercians (11, 19; AD 755), the West Saxons (11, 3; AD 597-
but note the extension back to Scef in the nineteenth generation in
111, 4; AD 8 W 0 ) and especially of the Northumbrians-Idas family is
said to derive the beginning of its royalty and nobility from Wothen
(I, 5 ; AD 547), and for Elles kin Wothen was the generalissirnus
(I, 5; AD 560). In the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle the genealogies are
taken back to Woden and beyond without comment.ll
Particularly noticeable in Ethelweards version of the Anglo-Saxon
Chronicle genealogies is the replacement of two English names of sons
of Woden by two names of Scandinavian deities not otherwise found in
English sources-Vithar and Baldr. This, and the statements in I, 4
to the fact that Wothen was worshipped by the northern peoples-
specifically the Danes, Norwegians and Sueui, by whom Kthelweard
probably meant the Swedes, and in 11, 2 that some pagans now worship
Wothen as a god, lead one to suppose that Ethelweard might have been
applying what he knew of later, Norse religion to illuminate earlier
Anglo-Saxon paganism. It is interesting to note that elsewhere in his
chronicle he uses the word puganus exclusively for the Danes: it is
equivalent, in fact, to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles use of haben.12
It is, indeed, very unlikely that Ethelweard would have known
traditions concerning the heathen English gods, for they were fading in
memory already by the end of the eighth century.18 It was at this time
that the genealogies were extended backwards beyond Woden to Geat,l*

10. The writer hopes, at some future date,. to discugs,fully the versions of the Sceaf
story: it does not appear to be Scandinavian in orign, and 1s therefore left out of
account here.
11. 8.11. 547 B and C Chronicles take Idas genealogy five generations beyond Woden to
Godulf Geating: A originall four generations to Finn Godulfing.
S.U. 855 A, B, C and D t d e Bthelwulfs genealogy back to Adam. Asser, De Rebus
Gestis Alfredi, also has this genealo
S.U. 552 (B, C, originally A, not &%weard), 560 (B, C),597 ,(A, B, C),626 (B, C,
not Bthelweard), 755 (for 757, A, B), there are genealoges going back to Woden.
12. Hepen is used substantively and adjectivally in the Parker Chronicle from 832 to
A865 alongside Denisc; pugunus is similarly used by Bthelweard from 832 to 871 and
again in 879 but not always in exact translation. After A866 the Chronicle writer
prefers the sihple word here; and after 871 Bthelweard prefers burbarus. In 942 the
writer of the poem on the Five Boroughs used heden to describe the Norwegians of
Northumbria, contrasting them to the Christian Danes of Mercia; Bthelweard does not
translate this poem.
13. See Meanev. - ,A. L.. Woden in England. Folklore. LXXXVII. 1966. 105-15.

14. Sisam K., Anglo-Saxon Royal Genealogies, Proc. British Academy, XXXIX,
1953, 287z346; pp. 307-14.
108 JOURNAL OF RELIGIOUS HISTORY

and organized paganism must have been long dead, though countryside
superstitions, witchcraft and the like, proved far more tenacious.15
Moreover, although it is quite probable that the heathen English
knew Woden as god of victory, Ethelweards specific statement that
pagans made sacrifices to Vuoddun for victory and courage, and that
the conquered man did also, derives from no known English source, but
is reminiscent of the Norse practice of sacrificing to Othin for victory
and power.lO Snorri says the Swedes believed that he gave victory to
some, and others he invited to himself, and they considered both to be
~ vanquished were needed ip Valholl against the time of
f 0 r t ~ n a t e . lThe
the Ragnargk.
Even Bthelweards statement that Wothen was rex multitudinis
Aarbarorum (I, 4), seems to foreshadow the complete Euhemerization
of the Ynglinga Saga and the Preface to the Prose Edda. Campbell
believes that Bthelweard misunderstood Bedes de cuius stirpe multurum
prouinciarum regium genus originern duxit (or the Old English o f Gres
strynde monigra mregGa cyningcynn fruman lredde (I, 15),18 but quite
possibly Wthelweard, like Snorri, was deliberately rationalizing his
source.
Bthelweard shows other signs of interest in and familiarity with the
Vikings and their language; signs which taken singly would not amount
to much; but which viewed as a group are impressive, and make one
the more inclined to accept a Norse origin for his statement about
Wothen. Campbell lists these points (pp. xxxv-xxxvi and p. lix) : ( a )
old Anglia had a capital city called sermonice Suxonico Slemuic, but by
the Danes H a i t h ~ b y(I,~ ~4;p. 9) ; (b) Northuuorthige is called Deoraby
by the Danes (IV, 2 ; p. 3 7 ) ; (c) the Danish leaders were known as
eorlus;20 (d) he improves the names of the Norse leaders (e.g.
Iguuar ==Chron. Inwzr, Ingwar;21 Sihtric = Chron. Sidroc; GuBrum
= Chron. Godrum).

Elfric
Unfortunately the career of Blfric, perhaps the greatest writer of Old
English prose, is known only in outline, and that is at times rather vague.

15. This is discussed later in this paper.

16. Chadwick, H. M., The Cult of Othin, London, 1899, pp. 5-20; Turville-Petre,
E. 0. G., Myth and Religion of the North, London, 1964, pp. 47, 52-3; see especially
Snorrj Sturluson, Heirnskringla, Saga of Hakon the Good, ch. XIV, Palsson, S. (Ed.),
Reykjavik, 1944, p. 98 (ch. XVI in others edns).
17. Heimskringla, Ynglingasaga, ch. I X (ch. X in other edns), see also ch. 11, Palsson
(Ed.), 1944, pp. 10 and 6 respectively.
18. Chronicle of Brhelweard, Campbell (Ed.), pp. xx-xxi; xxxvi.
19. The merchant seamen, Ohthere and Wulfstan, who talked to King Blfred, knew
it as at Hrebum; presumably later merchants could have been the means by which
the later Danish version of the name was made known to Ethelweard. I owe this point
to Professor Whitelock.
20. This he could have deduced from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, e.g. s.a. 871.
21. We cannot be certain what the form of the name was in the text of the Anglo-
Saxon Chronicle Wthelweard possessed. A has Inwaer(es), B Ingwaer(es), C Inwer(es),
D, E Iwer(es) all S.U. 878; F has Ingwar S.U. 870. Campbell believes that Bthelweards
manuscript was closely related to A; Barker, BuJf.Znst.Hist.Res., XL, 1967, esp. 82,
argues that it was of Mercian origin, and therefore closer to the BC recension.
 T H E N O R S E GODS A N D N O R T H U M B R I A 1809

He was probably born about 955, and was a pupil of Bthelwold during
his episcopacy at Winchester (963-984). At the request of the ealdor-
man Bthelweards son Ethelmaer Elfric went as master of the monastic
school to the house which he had founded at Cerne Abbas in 987. The
acquaintance of the ealdorman and Elfric was evidently of long standing
at the time of the publication of Elfrics first series of Catholic Homilies,
since Elfric made a note for his scribes at the end of his English preface
to the effect that Rthelweard wished for four extra homilies in his copy.
Sisam dates the composition of this series to the first half of 991.22
It is perhaps legitimate to wonder, however, if the Latin of Bthelweards
chronicle-presuming that the writer and the ealdorman were the
same-would have been quite so idiosyncratic if his acquaintance with
Wlfric had antedated its composition; or if his protBgBs superior
scholarship may have been partly responsible for its discontinuation.
Elfric displays his knowledge of the Norse gods in a homily, De
Falsis Deis,23 based on Martin of Bragas De Correctione Rusticorurn
of the sixth century. The part of the sermon in which we are interested
mainly consists of a derogatory description of the classical gods, but to
it he has added the interpretatio romana of the Scandinavian gods,
stating that the sixth day of the week is named for bare sceamlease
gydenan Venus gehaten and Frycg on Denise, that louis is called Dor
among some peoples, and that he is most beloved by the Danes-an
interesting statement for which we have no corroborative evidence-
and that Mercurius is called Obon by another name in Danish. To this
he adds the comment that the Danes said in their error that this Zouis
whom they called por was the son of Mercurius whom they called Obon;
but they were wrong, because we read in heathen and Christian books
that Zouis was Saturns son.
It is also possible, as Philippson pointed outz4 that the picture of the
pagans bringing sacrifices to Mercury to heagum beorgum should also
be referred rather to the worship of Othin than to that of Mercury, since
Elfric regarded them as the same god, and since there is considerable
evidence25 for the worship of Othin in high places. Pope points out,
however, that Elfrics source has a generalizing passage not long before
concerning demons who appeared to men in various forms and were
offered sacrifices on high mountains and in leafy woods. He therefore
concludes: With this generalization to support him and the knowledge
that Mercury was one of the Olympian gods, Elfric would have needed
no more than a vague notion of Odin-worship to bring forth his
assertion.26
22. Sisam, K., MSS Bodley 340 and 342: Blfrics Catholic Homilies, Studies in the
History of Old English Literature, Oxford, 1953, pp. 148-98, esp. 159.
23. Uncollected Homilies of BZfric, 11, Pope, J. C. (Ed.), Early English Text Society,
260, London, 1968, pp. 667-724, esp. 684-5.
24. Germanisches Heidentum bei den Angelsachsen, p. 161.
25. Conveniently summarized in Bethurum, D., The Homilies o f Wulfstan, Oxford,
1957, p. 338.
26. Uncollected Homilies of Bljric, 11, Pope (Ed.), pp. 715-16. I am grateful to Pro-
fessor Pope for allowing me to see this in proof form before publication.
110 J O U R N A L O F RELIGIOUS HISTORY

In his Life of St Martin Elfric similarly tells how the devil used to
appear to the saint in the form of these same heathen gods, sometimes
as Zouis who is called Por, sometimes as Mercurius or Obon and some-
times as Venus or F r i ~ g . ~
Elfric also shows some knowledge of heathen practices in his homily
De Auguriis,28 since in passages not derived from his source, the Pseudo-
Augustine De Augurii9 he speaks of auguries from horses and dogs
(as well as from birds and sneezing). Although the casting of lots does
appear in his source, he emphasizes that it was only sinful if it was
practised mid aces deofleJcrefte, with the devils art.30 The Lives of
the Saints, which includes the De Auguriis homily and the Life of St
Martin, is dated by Sisam to soon after 993. To it is appended the
homily De Auguriis which was probably written about the same time or
a little earlier.31
It is quite possible that Rlfric could have gained his knowledge of
Norse gods and customs from Ethelweard himself, or from the same
source as Ethelweards, or from one very similar to it. Their oppor-
tunities of obtaining it are, on the other hand, not precisely alike.
At the time when Ethelweard and Elfric were writing there were
two possible sources within England from which they might have
obtained their information: the Eastern Danelaw and Northumbria; or
it might have come direct from the more distant areas of the Scandi-
navian world. Which of these was in fact the source, and how the
necessary contacts were made are questions which it would be vain to
imagine could be answered conclusively, but which must at any rate be
examined more closely.
The Settlers in the Eastern Danelaw
It would have been easy enough for Ethelweard, although perhaps not
for Elfric before 1005, to have come into contact with descendants of
the original Danish settlers south of the Humber. The ealdormans
estates lay substantially within the old Mercian kingdom, and some were
within the diocese of Dorchester, which stretched into Danish M e r ~ i a . ~ ~
There can be little doubt, too, that at the end of the tenth century
sufficient remained of Danish language and nomenclature, especially in
Lincolnshire and the area of the Five Boroughs, to account for much

27. Klfrics Lives of the Saints, 11, Skeat, W. W. (Ed.), EETS, 114, London, 1900,
pp. 218-313, esp. 264.
28. Klfrics Lives of the Saints, I, Skeat (Ed.), EETS, 76, London, 1881, pp. 364-83,
esp. 371.
29. Forster, Max, Altenglische Predigtquellen I, 2: Pseudo-Augustin und Blfric,
Archiv fur das Studium der neueren Sprachen und Literaturen, CXVI, 1906, 307-8.
30. Other added passages refer more probably to superstitious practices current in south
England than to Norse heathenism. See the discussion of the laws on pp. 120ff.
31. Sisam, Studies in the History of Old English Literature, pp. 167-8, notes that
Zlfric kept a copy of short works by having them entered at the end of a suitable
codex. See also The Chronology of Blfrics Works, The Anglo-Saxons; Studies . . .
presented to Bruce Dickins, Clemoes, P. (Ed.), London, 1959, pp. 212-47, esp. 220-2.
32. Barker, Bull.lnst.Hist.Res., XL, 1967, 90.
 T H E N O R S E GODS A N D N O R T H U M B R I A 111

if not most of his linguistic kn~wledge~~-thename of Derby at the

very least.
Yet it is also clear that by the time Bthelweard and Elfric were
writing the settlers in the Eastern Danelaw had abandoned their
paganism long since. In fact, it probably never had much hold in this
part of the country, and the only pagan cemetery in the area is that at
Ingleby, D e r b y ~ h i r e . ~Elsewhere
~ only an occasional burial is found,
and all date probably to the closing years of the ninth century and not
later.35 Miss Whitelocks valuable article gathers together the evidence
for paganism and Christianity in the East; and she is led to the con-
clusion that Christianity already had a wide acceptance there by the
end of the ninth century. The term pagans used as an opprobrious
epithet by their enemies at the very beginning of the tenth century is the
last indication of any continuance of their ancestral religion. Although
the ecclesiastical organization of the area had been much disturbed by
the Danish invasions, towards the middle of the century it was affected
by ecclesiastical re-organization, and some of the great abbeys of the
Benedictine Revival were founded in the fen land^.^^
Although it is possible that these southern Danish settlers maintained
an antiquarian interest in the gods of their fathers, it does not seem very
likely. There are no monuments such as appear elsewhere in the
Scandinavian orbit after conversion, with representations of heathen
deities or of heroic legends; and in the legal Code IV Edgar, directed
especially at the Danelaw, heathen practices are not listed among the
sins which had caused the plague of 962. After this time it is doubtful
if the Benedictines would have tolerated anything of the kind in an area
where they had established themselves.
Northumbria
In Northumbria, however, things were rather different, partly because
of the traditional separateness of this part of England, which caused
even Englishmen there to dislike submission to a southern but
mainly because of the prolonged contact of southern Northumbria with
the Norse kingdom of Dublin; a contact which might have been first
made very soon after the Danish settlement of Yorkshire in 876.g8

33. See Stenton, Sir Frank, The Danes in England, Proc. British Academy, XIII,
1927, 3-46.
34. Accounts of the excavation of this cemetery are to be found in the Derbyshire
Archaeological Journal, LXVI, 1946, 1-23; LXXV, 1955, 140-4; LXXVI, 1956, 40-56.
35. See also whitelock, D., The Conversion of the Eastern Danelaw, Saga-Book of
the Viking Society, XII, 1941, 159-76.
36. Stenton, Sir Frank, Anglo-Saxon England, 2nd edn., Oxford, 1947, pp. 444-6.
37. See Whitelock, D., The Dealings of the Kings of England with Northumbria in the
Tenth and Eleventh Centuries, The Anglo-Saxons: Studies . . . presented to Bruce
Dickins, Clemoes (Ed.), pp. 70-88.
38. See Shetelig, Haakon, Viking Antiquities in Great Britain and Ireland, part 1 ,
A n Introduction to the Viking History of Western Europe, Oslo, 1940, p. 63, and
Stenton, Anglo-Saxon England, p. 251. Archaeological, material from the Viking Age
found in York is considered in Waterman, D. M., Late Saxon, Viking, and Earl
Medieval Finds from York, Archaeologia, XCVII, 1959, 59-105, and is consistent w i d
the historical evidence.
112 JOURNAL OF RELIGIOUS HISTORY

Yet for a while it seemed that Christianity might soon win over the
Northumbrian Danes; for them, as for those settled south of the
Humber, the pantheistic nature of Scandinavian religion, and the pro-
longed contact of Vikings with Christianity [would have] made the
acceptance of a Christian god easy.3s In York the archiepiscopy con-
tinued almost ~ninterrupted,~ and in Northumbria north of the Tees,
which remained English at least in government, S t Cuthberts see was
re-established at Chester-le-Street about 883.41 About the same time,
the Danes of York accepted a Christian king, G ~ t h f r i t h ,and ~ ~ his
successors4~iaround the turn of the century issued a coinage Carolingian
in inspiration, Christian . . . in conception . . . original in design
and competent in execution44 which shows them coming to terms with
their environment and with a money economy, even although one of
them, Sigeferth, had led a fleet raiding southwards in 893,46 taking
advantage of the threat posed to King Elfred by new Danish invaders,
and the other, Cnut, minted coins also at the French port of Quentovic
and is therefore supposed by Stenton to have been the ruler of a
~ ~ of the coinage
genuine Viking state, maintained by ~ e a - p o w e r .Most
of the following years appears to have had the reverse legend SCI
PETRI, and was therefore perhaps issued under the auspices of the new

39. See Wilson D. M., The Vikings Relationship with Christianity in Northern
England, JourAal of British Archaeological Association, XXX, 1967, 38-47. F o r the
following brief account of the interrelationship of Vikings and English, heathenism and
Christianity, reference has chiefly been made t o the sources translated in vol. I of Eng-
lish Historical Documents, Whitelock, D. (Ed.), London, 1955, particularly to the
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, the History of St Cuthbert, and the History of the Kings
attributed to Simeon of Durham. Miss Whitelocks introduction, especially pp. 35-45, and
Stenton, Anglo-Saxon England, pp. 259-61, 317-20, 322, 325, 327-30, 334-6, 338-9, 352-8,
have also been consulted. Scottish and Irish annals have been used in the translations
in Anderson, A. 0. (Ed.), Early Sources of Scottish History, A.D. 500 to 1286, Edin-
burgh, 1922, vol. I. Dates given are as English Historical Documents, vol. I, White-
lock (Ed.).
40. According t o Roger of Wendover, Archbishop Wulfhere was driven out in 872,
and according t o Simeon of Durham he was reinstated in 873. English Historical
Documents, vol. I, Whitelock (Ed.), pp. 251, 256.
41. Deduced from recorded Durham traditions. I am indebted t o Professor Whitelock
for pointing out t o me the facts in the last two footnotes.
42. Historia de Sancto Cuthberto, 13; English Historical Documents, vol. I, Whitelock
(Ed.), p. 261 and n. 1 .
43. Or successor-see Lyon, C. S., and Stewart. B. H. I. H., The Northumbrian Viking
Coins in the Cuerdale Hoard, Anglo-Saxon Coins: Studies presented to F . M . Stenton,
Dolley, R. H. M. (Ed.), London, 1961, pp. 96-121, esp. 114-18.
44. Ibid., p. 100.
45. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (A, B, C, D ) says that a fleet came in 894 and
besieged Exeter and a fortress on the north coast of Devon. This is quite possibly the
same as the fleet of one Sigeferth, piraticus, which according to Wthelweard (who
apparently possessed an otherwise unknown Northumbrian account of the last years of
the ninth century-see Stenton, Sir Frank, Bthelweards Account of the Last Years of
King Alfreds Reign, EHR, XXIV, 1909, 79-84), came from the Northumbrians in
893 and ravaged along the coast bis tempore in uno.
The chronology of these events is very obscure. Although WJhelweard dates
Sigeferths expedition after (his ita gestis) the fall of Benfleet (whlch he mentions
after the encounter at Buttington) it seems improbable that there should have been two
large fleets raiding from Northumbria at roughly the same time one ignored by the
Chronicle and the other by Wthelweard. I n view of this, we may b i justified in supposing
that part of Wthelweards. confused chronology derived from the difficulty of inserting
material derived from a different, Northumbnan, source into the Chronicle narrative.
46. Stenton, Anglo-Saxon England, p. 260. See also Dolley, R. H. M., Viking Coins of
the Danelaw and of Dublin, London, 1965, p. 19 and plates V and VII.
 T H E N O R S E GODS A N D N O R T H U M B R I A 113

archbishop; yet a rare contemporary secular type of coin is marked by

a symbol usually taken to be the Thors hammer.4
Heathenism received something of a boost from the arrival in the
northwest of settlers, basically Norwegian in origin but with some
admixture of Danes, who had been considerably Celticized both by
contact and intermarriage after decades in Ireland. They probably
included among them numbers of Gael GhaidhiZ4s-Irishmen who had
taken up Norse customs and had the reputation of being even more
implacable enemies of the churches than the Scandinavians themselves.
Settlements took place in the Wirral, Cheshire,49 and in what are now
northern Lancashire, western Yorkshire, Cumberland and Westmorland,
in areas at that time partly English, partly British, and also in Galloway.
Place-name evidence indicates that this immigration began about 9 0 0 , 6 O
and this is confirmed by Irish and Northumbrian recorded tradition-
Englishmen, formerly living west of the Pennines, fled from the pirates
to English north Northumbria about this time.61 Ethelflred, the Lady
of the Mercians, opposed them by fortifying English townsv2 and
encouraging Scots and Britons to attack Viking settlement^.^^
Edward the Elder won a decisive battle against the Northumbrian
Danes at Tettenhall in 910; but in 914 the Viking Ragnald defeated
an army of Scots and Northumbrian English, killing many. Northum-
brian tradition tells that he divided the estates of St Cuthbert between
two of his followers, who imposed heavy taxes. Those of Scula to the
south were still appealed to as a precedent by the church of York
hundreds of years later; but the greater exactions of Olaf Ball to the
north were suitably avenged. He swore that his gods Thor and Othan
were more powerful than the dead saint who, however, miraculously
killed him as he left the church.54 Mr Binns points out that instead of
being converted, Olafs followers simply resolved to exact no more in
future than the law allowed. They gave Olaf his nickname, which
appears to be ballv stubborn, implying that their own attitude was
much less fervent.65
47. Ibid., p. 21.
48. Wainwright, F. T., Ingimunds Invasion, EHR. LXIII, 1948, 158. See also Walsh,
A., Scandinavian Relations with Zreland during the Viking Per-iod, Dublin, 1922, p. 1 1 ,
n. 5.
49. Wainwright, EHR, LXIII, 1948, 145-69.
SO. Ekwall, E., Scandinavians and Celts in the North-West of England, Lunds Uni-
versitets Arsskrift, N.F., Avd. I, Bd. 14, Lund and Leipzig, 1918.
51. Historia de Sancto Cuthberto, 5 22 certainly, 5 21 probably, English Historical
Documents, vol. I, Whitelock (Ed.), pp. 261-2.
52. Stenton, Anglo-Saxon England, pp. 322-3, and Campbell, A., Two Notes on the
Norse Kingdoms in Northumbria, EHR, LVII, 1942, 86. See also Wainwright, F. T.,
Bthelflzd Lady of the Mercians, The Anglo-Saxons: Studies . . . presented to Bruce
Dickins, Clemoes (Ed.), pp. 53-69.
53. MacFirbis, Duald, Fragment 111; Early Sources of Scottish History, Anderson (Ed.),
J, 402.
54. The story is found in three only slightly differing versions in the Hisforia
Dunelmensis Ecclesire, the Historia de Sancto Cuthberto and the De Archiepiscopis
Eboraci, edited in Symeonis Monachi Opera Omnia, vol. I, Rolls Series, 1882, pp.
72-3, 209, and 239-40 respectively.
55. Binns, A. L., Tenth Century Carvings from Yorkshire and the Jellinge style,
Univer.ritets i Bergen Aarbok, 1956, Hist.-antik. rekke Nr. 2, 19 and n. 1 .
114 J O U R N A L O F RELIGIOUS HISTORY

In 918 the York Danes submitted to Wthelflad, but the opportunity

of a rapprochement was lost by her death, and by the storming of York
by Rzgnald in the following year.56 In spite of strenuous efforts, Edward
was apparently unable to dislodge him, and acquiesced in his rule, in
return for an admission by Rzgnald of his overlordship.
The York coinage during Rzgnalds reign continued more or less as
before. A third group of St Peters coins, with a Viking sword on the
reverse begins probably about 9 15 and continues until the beginning of
the reign of his successor Sihtric. The supposed Thors hammer symbol,
noted on earlier secular coins, is also found on the earliest of this third
group of St Peters coins, and on some of the rare coins of Sihtric,
and according to Dolley provides a piquant commentary on a society
where pagan and Christian elements co-existed without undue
difficult^'.^^
After Edward the Elders death in 924 Ethelstan came to terms with
Sihtric, who married his sister and must therefore have been at least
nominally Christian; but when he died in 927 Wthelstan drove out his
successors. One of them fled to the king of the Scots, who, however,
met Ethelstan with other northern and Welsh rulers and not only
promised to deliver the Viking, but joined in giving oaths to keep the
peace and to suppress idolatry. This surely indicates that at this time
Norse paganism was still very much in evidence.
Ethelstan destroyed the fortifications of York, and thenceforth had
direct rule over southern Northumbria. In his time the progress of
Christianity there would have been hastened. Egils saga says of him
that he liked those in his service to be at least prime-signed, which
meant that they could have full intercourse with Christian men and
heathens also, and kept that as their religion which they liked best.
Unfortunately, one cannot trust the saga narrative; but one can hardly
believe Wthelstan to have been more tolerant of heathens than this,
and English sources suggest that he would have been much more
exacting in his demands.5s He bought the province of Amounderness
from the pagans with his own money, and gave it to the church of
York, probably organized against attack from the west.6e He was also
generous to the church in northern Northumbria, and it appears that
during this time the Archbishop of York had more suffragans than the
one that was usual, though the exact number at any one time is
doubtful.60
Viking attempts to regain York in Ethelstans reign were unsuccess-
ful; but when he died in 939 Sihtrics nephew Anlaf Guthfrithsson
56. This date is certainly to be preferred to the 923 of the D and E Chronicles,
<special1 since A implies that Riegnald was already king in 920 (s.a. 9 2 3 ~ 9 2 0 ) .
Campbee however, EHR, LVII, 1942, 88, places the capture of York in 920.
57. Dolley, Viking Coins of Danelaw and of Dublin, p. 22; see also his An Un-
published Irish Hoard of St Peter Pence, Numismatic Chronicle, sixth ser., XVII,
1957, 123-32.
58. I owe these points to Professor Whitelock.
59. Ibid.
60. English Historical Documents, vol. I, Whitelock (Ed.), p. 95.
 T H E NORSE GODS A N D N O R T H U M B R I A 115

occupied York, and was regarded as sufficiently formidable to be ceded

at least the area of the Five Boroughs in Danish Mercia.*l He was
apparently an opponent of Christianity, since Simeon records that he
ravaged the church of St Bealdhere and burnt TyninghameT2 and more-
over he sported a raven on the obverse of some of his When,
after his death in 942, King Edmund recaptured the Five Boroughs, the
Chronicle used as the entry for this year an alliterative poem, which
implies that the Danes long settled there preferred English rule to that
of the pagan Norsemen. In the next year Edmund reduced all Northum-
bria and drove out Anlaf Sihtricsson and Raegnald Guthfriths~on,~~
both of whom had previously submitted to him and accepted, respec-
tively, baptism and confirmation. In 944, presumably because of
Viking settlers and sympathies, Edmund ravaged Cumberland and
gave it to the king of the Scots.
In 947 Archbishop Wulfstan and the Northumbrian leaders pledged
themselves to Edmunds successor, Eadred; but the D Chronicle records
that in the next year they accepted as king Eric Bloodaxe, son of Harold
Fairhair of Norway. Faced with the threat of destruction by Eadred,
the wiran prudently deserted Eric; but in the next year received back
Anlaf Sihtricsson, only to drive him out in favour of Eric in 952. Erics
second reign ended in 954, and he was probably killed soon after.86
Thenceforth, the kingdom of York was incorporated within the English
realm, and administered by earls as northern Northumbria had always
been.
The Scandinavian element in the north, especially at York itself,
however, would appear to have been strongly rooted. Mr Waterman
has remarked on the number of parallels between the York archaeologi-
cal record and that of Scandinavian towns from the ninth century
onwards.+16 This combines with the picture of Erics sojourn in the
north as it appears in Egils saga to lead us to suppose that the culture
and society of York in the tenth century would have closely approxi-
mated to that of contemporary Norway. Nor are there any signs that
this Norseness of York was eradicated after Erics departure. A
passage in the Vita Oswaldi, frequently quoted, describes York about
the year AD 1001) as having a population of 30,00087and as a meeting
place of merchants, principally Danish. Stenton has suggested, indeed,
that the Scandinavian element as late as the eleventh century was being

61. Beaven, Murray, King Edmund I and the Danes of York, EHR, XXXIII, 1918,
1-9.
62. Historiu Regum s.a. 941; English Historical Documents, vol. I, Whitelock (Ed.),
p. 253.
63. Dolley, Viking Coins o f Danelaw and of Dublin, p. 25.
64. Ethelweard attributes the reduction of the two desertores, Rregnald and Anlaf,
to Wulfstan and the ealdormen of Mercia, but under too late a date.
65. The second part of Campbells article in EHR, LVII, 1942, deals with the events
of Eadreds reign (91-7).
66. Waterman. Archaeologiu, XCVII, 1959, 70 and passim thereafter.
67. Estimates based on Domesday Book would suggest the number was closer to 7,000,
ibid., 67-8.
116 J O I J R N A L OF RELIGIOUS HISTORY

augmented by new immigrants.s The place-names of York also have

abundant signs of the Scandinavian occupation, beginning with the name
of the city itself-a Norse corruption of the Old English corruption of
the originally Celtic name. The general Scandinavian gata, street, and
the East Scandinavian geil, lane, are frequently found,Bg for example.
Elsewhere in Northumbria, the evidence that some place-names were
affected by late Old Scandinavian sound changes proves that the con-
nection between the two areas continued close.70
Until the mid-tenth century, apart from the brief interval of Ethel-
stans reign, it is possible that the progress of Christianity in the north
could have been somewhat halting. Although, as already mentioned,
Anlaf Sihtricsson was baptized-and tradition says also that Eric was
a Christian, it seems improbable that either of them would have been
able to impose Christianity on unwilling Norse subjects. The poems
written to or for Eric: Egil Skallagrimssons HpfuBlausn, and the
memorial Eiriksmcil, presuppose considerable and sophisticated know-
ledge of Norse mythology on the part of the audience. The HQfuSlausn,
apparently composed and recited to Eric in York, is full of mytho-
logical kennings-poetry is the sea of the stormrulers breast, Othins
mead, warriors are Othins oaks and gold is Frothis meal. Yet the
poem is metrically a tour de force; its use of rhyme supposed by many
to reflect Egil Skallagrimssons knowledge of Anglo-Saxon or, more
probably, Latin verse forms, gained while in England.?l
Although we can be fairly certain that the Eiriksmcil was not com-
posed in England, it is nevertheless relevant, since it was composed for
his widow. Its depiction of Othin and his warriors in Valholl and its
foreshadowing of RagnarQk must have been meaningul to her, and it is
unreasonable to suppose that it would only have become so after she
had left England. Eiriksmcil is particularly important for our study of
Ethelweards statements concerning Othin, and his use of the names of
Vithar and Baldr as Othins sons. In the poem Bragi tells Othin that
the bench boards are cracking as if Baldr were returning, but Othin
answers that it is Eric who is coming, and sends Sigmund and Sinfjotli
to greet him. Sigmund asks why Othin robbed Eric of victory, if he
thought him brave; and Othin answers cryptically that no one knows
when the grey wolf will come against the gods dwellings.
Some have argued that other Norse poems were composed in
England, since we are told not only of Egil Skallagrimsson but also of
Gunnlaug Serpent-tongue who is said to have later composed poems for
Ethelred. One poem which has been claimed is the Rigsbula, and

68. Stenton, Sir Frank, York in the Eleventh Century, York Minster Historical Tracts
627-1027, Thompson, A. H. (Ed.), 1927, quoted in Waterman, op. cit., p. 70.
69. Smith, A. H., The Place-Names of the East Riding. of Yorkshire and York, Eng-
lish Place-Name Society ~. (hereafter EPNS). _ . 1937.. _PP.
. . XIV. Cambridge. _ xxv. 280.
70. See especially the introductions to the English Place-Name Society volumes on the
East Riding (EPNS, XIV, pp. xxv-xxvi), and West Riding (EPNS, XXXVI, pp. 62-3),
and Westmorland (EPNS. XLII, P. xlii).
71. Turville-Petre, G., Origins if-Zcelandic Literature, Oxford, 1953, pp. 41-2.
 T H E N O R S E GODS A N D N O R T H U M B R I A 117

another the YglundarkviSa, the first because of its Celtic affinities, the
second because the Weland story is evidenced more in England than
elsewhere; but the ascriptions are more than doubtful and it would be
unwise to base any arguments on these poems.72 It is perhaps worth
remarking that Sophus Bugge believed the idea of RagnarQk to have
been derived from Christianity which the Vikings had encountered in
Britain, but his ideas were not generally accepted, and it seems much
more probable that the twilight of the gods was an integral part of
Norse paganism-evidently a part with which the Vikings in England
were very familiar.
Yet it would appear that some of the Hiberno-Norse settlers, especi-
ally those in north-western England, had been converted before they
came across the sea from Ireland, to judge from the names of Irish
saints imbedded in church dedications and place-name^.^^ Moreover,
D. M. Wilson has argued cogently that the Vikings, whether of Danish
or Norwegian extraction, soon gave up their practice of barrow burial
and began to inter in Christian churchyards. From Northumbria only
about a dozen Viking burials with grave goods in the pagan manner
are known and about half of them have been found in churchyards:
more if one assumes that other isolated finds in churchyards were also
from burials. The move to churchyard burial, and the subsequent
termination of the practice of supplying grave-goods, would explain the
great rarity of identifiable Viking burials in the n0rth.7~
On the other hand, the occurrence of the place-name element -haugr
hill, burial mound with a Scandinavian personal name in the genitive
case as the first element points to the opposite conclusion. Although in
some of the place-names -haugr may mean simply hill, and although
in others the genitive will indicate ownership, a fair number of them
are likely to refer to the actual burial place of the named person, as is
the case in S ~ a n d i n a v i a .This
~ ~ is illustrated most graphically by pairs
of neighbouring names which occasionally occur, when the same man
gave his name to both homestead and barrow-for example Grimes-
thorpe and Grimeshou, Haggenby and Haggandehow, and possibly
Clareton and Claro, all in the West Riding.7e Such p l a c e - n a m e y e
common in the West and North Ridings of Yorkshire and in Cumber-
land and Westmorland, less common in Lancashire and the East Riding
where they are found chiefly on the Wolds, and not recorded at all in

72. See Smith, A. H. The Early Literary Relations of England and Scandinavia,
Saga-Book of rhe Viki& Society, XI, 1928-1936, 215-32, esp. 222. See also Binns, Univ.
i Bergen Aarbok, 1956, 13.
7 3 . See Collingwood, W. G., Christian Vikings, Antiquity, I, 1927, 172-80.
74. Wilson, J.Brit.Arch.Soc., XXX, 1967, 44-5. See also the list in Shetelig, H., The
Viking Graves, Viking Antiquities in Great Britain and Ireland, part VI, Civilisation
of the Viking Settlers in relation to their old and new countries, Oslo, 1954, pp. 65-111,
esp. 75-7.
75. Smith, A. H., English Place-Name Elements, part I (A-IW), EPNS, XXV, Cam-
bridge, 1956, sub haugr.
76. Smith, EPNS, XXXVI, 1962, p. 66 and n. 1.
118. JOIJRNAT, O F RFLIGIOUS HISTORY

Northumberland and Durham which were always under English

government.
The tumuli are said to be sometimes still visible in the North Riding;
and it would be interesting to know if the excavation of any of these
would disturb Wilsons picture.
In yet another way the archaeological evidence points to an early
acceptance of Christianity by the Viking invaders, in the appearance in
the north in the late ninth century of memorial crosses in which the
sculptural traditions are those of the Anglo-Saxons, but in which the
ornament is largely of Scandinavian in~piration.~ Their pictorial repre-
sentations are mainly of Christian character, but are occasionally
ambivalent. Binns has pointed out that three of the crosses at Middleton,
two miles northwest of Pickering, Yorks, bear representations of a
Viking warrior in his grave. These crosses, decorated in crude and
early Jellinge style, are dated to the period of Norse rule (from 919 to
954) by B i n n ~ , mainly
~ on the evidence of the weapons depicted, but
to within a generation of the settlement . . . by Healfdene by
Wilson.8o
There can be no doubt, however, that the great cross at Gosforth in
Cumberland was erected after the Norse occupation of the area-
probably between about 930 and 950. On each face of the squared-off
upper part of the stone are representations which have been interpreted
as scenes from the destruction of the gods, described in literature in the
Eddic poem V ~ l u s p u and
, in Snorris Gylfuginning, and referred to
obliquely in the Eiriksmd aforementioned. Among these scenes is one
of a warrior in conflict with a monster, which is usually taken to be
Vithar killing the hell-hound Garmr.*l There is possibly another repre-
sentation of RagnarQk on the roughly-carved hogback tombstone at
Heysham in north Lancashire.82 And also at Gosforth is a small stone,
probably from a large cross, which possibly illustrates Thors fishing
expedition when he attempted to catch the world serpent. If so, this
stone would show that interest in Norse myths lasted very long in the
north, for also on the stone is a panel in the Urnes style of decoration,
which belongs to the late eleventh century.83

77. See the Place-Name of the North Riding (EPNS, V ) , pp. 314, 320: . . . o f the
East Riding (EPNS, XIV) pp. 305, 313, 324; . . . of Cumberland, I11 (EPNS, XXII),
pp. 477, 502; . . . of W&t Riding, VII (EPNS, XXXVI), pp. 201-2, 277; . . . of
Westmorland, I1 (EPNS, XLIII), pp. 259, 305.
78. Wilson, J.Brit.Arch.Soc., XXX, 1967, 46.
79. Binns, Univ. i Bergen Aarbok, 1956, 26-9.
80. Wilson, op. cit., p. 38.
81. Descriptions and discussions of the Gosforth Cross are to be found in Davidson,
H. R. Ellis, Gods and Heroes in Stone, The Early Cultures of North-West Europe,
Chudwick Memorial Studies, Dickins, B. and Fox, C. (Eds.), Cambridge, 1950, pp. 123-
39, esp. 130; Berg, Knut, The Gosforth Cross, Journal of Warburg and Courtauld
Znstirutes, XXI, 1958, 27-43. The latter article has an extensive bibliography. Most of the
stones mentioned here are discussed and illustrated in CoUingwood, W. G., Northum-
brian Crosses of the Pre-Norman Age, London, 1927.
82. Davidson, op. cit., pp. 131-2.
83. Kendrick, Sir T., Lare Saxon and Viking Art, London, 1949; Wilson, D. M. and
Klindt-Jensen, O., Viking Art, London, 1963, pp. 147-60.
 T H E N O R S E GODS A N D N O R T H U M B R I A 119

The only other god who has been recognized on the stones is Loki,
who has also been suggested as the original for other bound
Several explanations have been put forward for the occurrence of
these heathen scenes on Christian crosses-ranging from Sir Thomas
Kendricks idea that they were due to the Christian liking for ornamenta-
tion and indifference as to the subject matter,s6 to Mrs Davidsons that
parallelism between the Norse and Christian ideas of the end of the
world, or the desire to commemorate an ancestor were responsible;s6
and to Knut Bergs that the representation of RagnarQk illustrated the
fall of the old gods and the establishment of the church through the
Crucifixion.87 It has even been claimed that the scenes from the sigurd
story, occurring on crosses on Man and at Halton in north Lancashire
and at Leeds have obvious parallelisms with certain parts of the Gospels
and with the whole Christian philosophy of evil.ss
Yet, even accepting that Norse myth remained inspirational in art and
literature in Britain until the millennium at least, it seems quite possible
that for the Vikings, as for Radwald, it would not have been unthink-
able to have had a temple with one altar to Christ and another to their
old godss9-even if it would have been completely unthinkable to the
archbishop and the other churchmen in northern England-or, as for
Helgi the Lean, to have believed in Christ, but have called on Thor
when in peril or on the sea90-or to have buried their dead in a pagan
manner in Christian churchyards, and adorned their crosses with scenes
from pagan myth and story. As Binns puts it:
c
The m ntal background of the Viking in contact with Christianity
[was] . . . of two worlds which did not at all shade off into one
another, but existed in their most characteristic forms on each side of
the boundary: it was not the less firmly either for being both.s1
After Northumbrias final incorporation within England, however,
Christianity would have been encouraged there, not only for pietys
sake, but also to help in the assimilation programme. After Wulfstan I,
no archbishop of York was himself a Northumbrian, but was usually
chosen from the southern Danelaw. For long periods the archiepiscopacy
was held in plurality with a southern diocese, usually Worcester, and
Miss Whitelock points out that this would help to break down the

84. Collingwood, op. cit., p. 158; see also Davidson, op. cit., pp. 124, 132-3.
85. Late Saxon and Viking Art, pp. 59-60.
86. Davidson, op. cit., pp. 133-5.
87. The Gosforth Cross, Journal of Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, XXI, 1958, 35.
An interesting parallel is afforded by the use of Pagan Motifs and Practices in Christian
Art and Ritual in Roman Britain: see Toynbee, .I. M. C., Christianity in Britain 300-
700, Barley, M. W. and Hanson, R. P. C. (Eds.), Leicester, 1968, pp. 177-92.
88 Wilson J.Brit.Arch.Soc., XXX, 1967, 41. For a description of these scenes see
Eliis [Davidson], H. R., Sigurd in the Art of the Viking Age, Antiquity, XVI, 1942,
216-36; see also Collingwood, op. cit., pp. 159-63, and Davidson, op. cit., 124-6.
89. Bede, Ecclesiastical History, 11, 15.
90. EyfirCIinga SQgur, Kristjansson, J. (Ed.) Reykjavik, 1956, lslenzk Fornrir, IX, 3,
n. 1; a reference is there given to Landndmabdk, 264-5.
91. Binns, Univ. i Bergen Aarbok, 1956, 11-12.
 120 J O U K N A L OF RELIGIOUS HISTORY

isolation of the north and bring it into contact with the new
but no monasteries were established there, and the church at York in
the later Anglo-Saxon period was impoverished. Since one would have
supposed that the area would have contained at least a few lords, whose
ancestors had been enriched by Viking plunder, it may be legitimate to
assume that the church was not popular enough in southern Northum-
bria to attract the generosity of such men as it did in the East Midlands
and East Anglia. Even Wulfstan IT, Archbishop of York, was a bene-
factor of Ely rather than attempting the establishment of a monastery
in his archdiocese, and this may have been because of a fear of northern
instability : that the Northumbrians might, given the opportunity, again
choose for themselves an independent ruler, even if he were a pagan,
in preference to the southern king.93
Other place-names, in addition to those with -haugr already men-
tioned, illustrate Northumbrian heathenism. In the North Riding of
Yorkshire occurs the one English place-name containing ON Othin-
Roseberry Topping, earlier Othenesberg, a large conical hill;94 and in
Westmorland the name Hoff descends from ON hof heathen
In the remoter places of the countryside, too, one might occasionally
come across a Norse alfr, skratti, skyrsi, troll or burs in place of an
equally terrifying and supernatural English Elf, scinna, scucca, grendel
or b y r ~ While
. ~ ~ all these place-names were probably established well
I
before the mid-tenth century, their survival depended on their ability to
remain on the tongues of the later inhabitants.
The element lundr which occurs in Northumbria about fifteen times
is particularly interesting. In the southern Danelaw it appears to mean
no more than grove, but Reginald of Durham, writing c. 1290,
explains it as nemus paci donatum, a grove given to peaceQsand thus
it seems to have been equivalent to the English fridsplot, peace-spot,
which appears in the so-called Canons of Edgar. Karl Jost has shown
these to be a compilation of Wulfstan 11, Archbishop of York from
1002 to 1023, probably written soon after his translation there.QYThe
passage in which it occurs runs
16. And we teach, that each priest should zealously exalt Christianity,
and fully extinguish and forbid every heathen practice ( h e j e n -
dorn) : the worship of wells (wiiweurjunga), and necromancy
(Zicwiglunga), and augury (hwata) and incantation (galdra) and

92. Whitelock, The Anglo-Saxons, Clemoes (Ed.), pp. 72-6.

93. Ibid., pp. 87-8; cf. the events of 948-952, outlined above.
94. EPNS, V, 164.
95. EPNS, XLII, xiv; XLIII, 11, 97.
96. Most of these monsters are to be found in field and minor names, and probably
only the Place-Names of the West Riding VII, EPNS, XXXVI, provides anything like
a complete record of their occurrence within the county.
97. Whitelock, D., Saga-Book of the Viking Society, XII, 1941, 161-3.
98. See Smith, A. H., Old Scandinavian lundr, Leeds Studies in English, 11, 1933,
72-5. The Place-Names of Bedfordshire and Huntingdonshire, EPNS, 11. 220. and
English Place-Name Elements, 11, EPNS, XXVI, under lundr.
99. Einige Wulfstantcxte und Ihre Quellen, Anglia, LVI, 1932, 288-301.
 T H E N O R S E GQDS A N D N O R T H U M B R I A 121

worship of human beings (manweorjunga) and those errors which

are practised in various spells (gewiglungum) and in fritjsplottum
and at elders and also at various trees and at stones and in many
various delusions of which men perform several, which they should
not.lOO
A similar word, fribgeard, occurs in a similar context in the Northum-
brian Priests Law which is probably to be dated c. 1020 to 1023-
that is, at the end of Wulfstans episcopacy. The passage runs
54. If there is on anyones land a fritjgeard round a stone or a tree or
a well or any such foolishness, he who made it is then to pay
luhslit, half to Christ and half to the lord of the estate.
References to these superstitions also occur, in various forms and
wording, in two homilies which Wulfstan wrote in his earliest years at
York.lol
These passages, however, illustrate some of the problems involved
in deciding what is, or what is not, specifically applicable to Northum-
bria. The Northumbrian Priests Law is dated after the accession of
Cnut, which may have been responsible for the reintroduction of some
pagan observances which could not have been known to Bthelweard
writing forty years earlier. The similarity of the fridgeard passage to the
earlier fridsplot passage might, however, have been regarded as clear
evidence of pre-Cnut heathen practices in Northumbria, had it not been
that these passages can be traced even further back and wider afield.
Blfrics homily De A uguriis has something very similar, which does
not derive from his source :
Some men are so blind that they bring their offerings to stones fast in
the earth, and also to trees and springs as witches teach.102
In his Passion of St Bartholomew the Apostle moreover, Elfric
writes
The Christian man who is afflicted with any [illness] and who then
seeks health by forbidden practices, or in accursed incantations, or by
any witchcraft is like heathen men who made offerings to devils for
bodily health and so destroyed their souls. . . . it is not allowed to
any Christian man to get his health from any stone, nor from any
tree, unless it be the holy sign of the cross, nor from any place, unless
it be the holy house of God: he who does otherwise undoubtedly
commits id01atry.l~~
The exact force of this passage is, however, doubtful. Although
Elfric likens the Christian using superstitious practices to the heathen

100. Jost, Karl, Die Institutes of Policy, Civil and Ecclesiastical, Swiss Studies in
English. 47. Bern. 1959. 1). 184.
lOi. In probable order of composition: Bethurum VI, 11. 85-7; Bethurum VIIIc, 11.
166-8; see also Bethurum, Homjlies of W d f s t a n , p. 103. In Homilies Bethurum Xc, 1.
105 and XII, 1. 66, the prohibitions of heathenism are general.
102. d3lfrics Lives of fhe Saints, Skeat (Ed.), I, 372.
103. Elfric, Sermones Caiholici, Thorpe, B. (Ed.), London, 1844, I. 474-6.
122 JOURNAL OF RELIGIOUS HISTORY

sacrificing to devils 0.e. pagan gods) he clearly distinguishes between

them. It is therefore not improbable that the heathen men he refers
to are those with whom he appears to be most familiar-the Vikings.
However, very similar ecclesiastical prohibitions are traceable at least
as far back as the sermons of Caesarius of Arles,lo4 from 470 to 543,
and paralleled frequently in the Penitentiuls.lo6 Both Elfric and Wulf-
stan probably used the Penitential of Pseudo-Theodore, a ninth-century
compilation which may have been available at Worcester,lW and which
includes a penance ( 18) for making vows at trees, springs, stones or
cancellos enclosed places.
But it is difficult to believe that a practical man like Wulfstan would
have included either passage in works intended for the guidance of his
Northumbrian clergy, and of working out penalties graded according to
rank,lo7 without good reason. It may be significant that nothing similar
is found in the Old English Penitential, the so-called Pseudo-Egbert,
possibly of the late ninth century, even although one of its sources was
Halit$& Roman Penitential, which has it.lo8 Moreover, there is
nothing that forces us to reject the idea that a superstition current
among the Gallo-Romans in the south of France in the early sixth
century when Caesarius was preaching was also a religious practice
among Norsemen 500 years later, provided that there is good evidence
for it among both.
Other problems relate to passages in the law codes which Wulfstan
drew up. The general code Ethelred V, issued in 1008 and the first
one datable in Wulfstans style, includes a prohibition against heathen
practices (unspecified) in its introduction.109 The Latin paraphrase of
it, which was compiled by Wulfstan from memory and which was
probably intended for the king and higher clergy1l0 here specifies
incantatores, magos, ghithonicos et veneficos necm idolorurn cultores,
enchanters, magicians, sorcerers, murderers and worshippers of idols,ll1

104. Cf. Sermo XIV, 4, Sancti Caesarii Arelatensis Sermones, 2nd edn. Turnholt, 1953,
I, 71.
105. Cf. that ascribed by Albers to Bede, X, 1; Egberts, VIII, 1; the so-called Roman
Penitential of Halitgar, 38 (see McNeill, J. T. and Gamer, Helena M., Medieval
Handbooks of Penance, Records of Civilization, XXIX, New York, 1938, passim).
106. Bethurum, Homilies of Wulfstan, p. 70.
107. Whitelock, D., Wulfstan at York, Franciplegius; Medieval and Linguistic Studies
in Honor of Francis Peabody Magoun.Jr., Bessmger, J . B. and Creed, R. P. (Eds.),
New York, 1965, pp. 214-31. This article deals briefly wlth Wulfstans references to
paganlsm.
108. McNeill and Gamer, Medieval Handbooks of Penance, pp. 243ff.
109. As do later codes of Bthelred.
110. Sisam, K., The Relationship of Bthelreds Codes V and VI, Sfudies in the
History of Old English Literature, Oxford, 1953, pp. 278-87, esp. 284.
111. The Latin vocabulary here appears to translate the Old English but it is difficult
;o establish the exact meaning of the words. In Classical Latin pyfhonicus is a
diviner, prophet, with the development of meaning to sorcerer; the connection with
snakes, however, appears to give the word the occasional meaning of poisoner.
Veneficus is literally poisoner, but also develops the meaning sorcerer. It is here
probably rendering the OE mordwyrhtan.
See also Latham, R., Revised Medieval Latin Word-List, London, 1965, sub
pythonissa and venenator.
 T H E NORSE GODS AND N O R T H U M B R I A 123

and Ethelred VI, which Sisam argues112 was a modification of Rthel-

red V made especially for Wulfstans own province, which adds ( $ 7 )
the direction that, among other evil doers, wiccan o86e wigeleras,
scincraftcan & Y e . . . morc3rwyrhtan,l13 witches or sorcerers,
magicians or . . . those who secretly compass death should be driven
from the land.l14 This in turn is paralleled very closely but with the
omission of scincraftigan in the so-called Laws of Edward and Guthrum
which Miss Whitelock has shown were also compiled soon after Wulf-
stans translation to York in 1002,115 and is repeated, again with the
omission of scincraftigan, in the Secular Code of Cnut ( $ 4a)l16 also
attributable to Wu1fstan.l
Yet Wulfstan appears to have based this clause, at least in part, on
those in earlier law codes. The Introduction to Elfreds Laws ( $ 30)
prescribes death for those women who are in the habit of receiving
wizards, sorcerers and witches (gealdorcrceftigan ond scinlatcan ond
wiccan) 118 as does Ethelstans Code I1 (Q 6) for those who kill by
means of wiccecrreftum . . . liblacum ond . . . morsdatdum, witch-
craft, sorceries and deadly spells.l19 Edmunds first code ( $ 6), dated
942-946, ordains that 8a $e . . . liblac wyrca8, those who practise
sorcery, should be cast out from the fellowship of God, unless they
very zealously undertook their penance.lZ0 All of these, including
Wulfstans Latin, appear to have been affected by the penitentials.121
There can be little doubt that the practice of sorcery and magic was
widespread all over England at the end of the tenth century, for as well
as Wulfstans condemnation of them in his homily Bethurum VIIIc,
in a passage deriving from that already quoted from the Canons of
Edgar, Elfric mentions magic and auguries in De Auguriis,ln and as

112. Sisam, op. cit., passim, esp. p. 286.

113. The meaning of mor) is basically death, destruction; it is used as a technical
legal term for slaying with attempt to conceal the deed; and is believed to have special
reference to death by witchcraft or poison. I t is apparently always found in similar
contexts. Bosworth, J., and Toller, T. N., An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, London, 1954,
reprint sub morb, morbdad, morbweorc, morbwyrhta.
114. The Laws of the Kings of England from Edmund to Henry I , Robertson, A. J.
(Ed. and trans.), Cambridge, 1925, pp. 92-3.
115. Wulfstan and the So-called Laws of Edward and Guthrum, EHR, LVI, 1941, 1-21.
116. Laws o f Kings of England, Robertson (Ed.), pp. 176-7.
117. Whitelock, D., Wulfstan and the Laws of Cnut, EHR, LXIII, 1948, 433-52.
118. Liebermann, F., Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen, vol. I, Halle, 1903, pp. 38-9; a
passage adapted, as Miss Whitelock points out (English Historical Documents, vol. I,
p. 373) from Exodus, XXII, 18.
119. The Laws o f the Earliest English Kings, Attenborough, E. L. (Ed.), Cambridge,
1922, pp. 130-1.
120. Laws of Kings o f England, Robertson (Ed.), 1925, pp. 6-7.
121. See the examples given by Philippson, Germanisches Heidentum bei den Angel-
sachsen, pp. 210-11.
122. For example, using sorcery (undescnbed) in marrying, travelling and brewing (or
cooking), (wifunge . . . wadunge . . . brywlace); b seeking pre-knowledge before an
undertaking or a birth, or asking witches about gealth, or (if a woman) pulling
children through the earth at cross-roads ( t o wega gelatum . . . )urh ba eordan) or
using love-potions: 100-158; 41frics Lives of the Saints, Skeat (Ed.), I, 370-5. None
of these is derived from Zlfncs source. See my note 29 above.
124 J O U R N A L OF RELIGIOUS HISTORY

already indicated superstitious healing in the Passion of St Bartholo-

mew the Apostle, and there is a recorded case of a woman drowned at
London Bridge because she and her son had driven iron stakes into
Elsie Wulftanes feder.lZ3 We can be reasonably certain, however, that
real heathenism at this period was confined to Northumbria. For, from
the time of Wihtred of Kent (695) until Wulfstans Latin version of
Rthelreds laws of 1008 there was no mention in the law codes of the
worship of idols, as distinct from superstitious and magical customs;
s already pointed out, if heathen practices had been generally
and2
prev ent in 962, they would surely have been mentioned along with
the withholding of tithes as among the sins which caused the plague
in that year.
In the Secular Code of Cnut, dated from 1020 to 1023, Wulfstan
combines idol-worship and witchcraft to define heathenism thus:
if one worships idols, namely if one worships heathen gods and the
sun and the moon, fire or flood, wells or stones or any kind of forest
trees, or if one practises witchcraft (wiccecrreft) or encompasses death
(mor8weorc) by any means, either by sacrifice (blote) or divination
( f y r h t e ) or takes any part in such delu~ions.12~
Unfortunately, one cannot discount altogether the possibility that some
items of this clause refer to practices current among Cnuts Scandinavian
followers; but on the other hand, Wulfstans writings, after his trans-
lation to York but even before Cnuts accession, show a preoccupation
with heathenism which it is difficult to explain except as a result of his
experience of conditions in his diocese.
In other passages in the Canons of Edgar he forbids the singing of
heathen songs on holidayslZ5 ( $ 1 8 ) , the holding of Sunday markets
and folk-gatherings ( $ 19), and the wearing by men of unbefitting
clothing and silly ornaments and shameful hair-styleslZ6 ( $ 20). In
two of his homilies, also, he refers to heathen beliefs and practices in
such a way as to suggest that he had first-hand or good second-hand
knowledge of them.
There is his great homily, the Sermo ad Anglos, the first version
(BH, which will be cited) securely dated to 1014 and so unlikely to
have been affected by Cnut and his followers. There are references
here to practices current among hadenum beodum, firstly, that they do
not dare withhold anything which was ordained for the worship of false
gods (BH, 11. 22-24, Bethurum, p. 256); secondly, that they would not
take away within or without any of the things which were brought to

123. Philippson, op. cit., pp. 222-3.

124. Whitelock, EHR, LXIII, 1948, 433-52
125. There is also a reference to the singing of heathen songs at wakes in the So-
called Canons of Blfric, XXXV; see Philippson, op. cit., p. 60.
126. This could refer to men dressing as women at the Yule festivities, or, more prob-
ably, to the styles of dress referred to in the fragment of an Old English letter trans-
lated in English Historical Documents, vol. I, Whitelock (Ed.) . p. 825,. and. to the
Danish coiffure with bared neck and, blinded eyes. The Old Engiish text IS printed by
Kluge, F., Fragment eines angelsachs~schenBriefes. Englische Studien, VIII, 1885, 62-3.
 T H E NORSE GODS A N D N O R T H U M B R I A 125

the false gods, or delivered for sacrifice (11. 25-27); and thirdly, that
they dare not ill-treat the servants of the false gods (11. 29-31).
Although one cannot be sure here that Wulfstan was not exaggerating
the virtues of the heathens in order to castigate the Christians (compare
Tacitus praise of the simple Germans and his condemnation of the
degenerate and luxury-loving Romans) it seems most probable that he
had knowledge of heathen customs, especially those pertaining to
sacrifice.
And there is his homily Bethurum XII, De Falsis Deis, which is an
adaptation into his own rhythmical style of Blfrics homily afore-
mentioned. He omits Rlfrics equation of Venus with Frycg-perhaps
only because he does not use his section on the names of the days of
the week12?-but his own introduction to the homily is in many ways
close to his description of heathenism in Cnuts laws, since he says that
the sun and moon were also worshipped as gods for their shining
brightness, likewise the shining stars, fire because of its sudden burning,
also water, and earth because she feeds everything. Unfortunately
Miss Bethurum does not attempt to date this homily, and, as she says,
it seems rather more a piece of learning than a tract addressed to a
current evil.12s In view of the similarities to Cnuts laws it may approxi-
mate to them in date, but neither Wulfstans nor Elfrics use of Denisc
for the heathens need make us assume that their information must
necessarily derive from Cnut and his followers rather than the Norsemen
of York.lZ9
If, however, Ethelweard and Elfric derived their knowledge of Norse
gods from Northumbria, how did it reach them in the south? There
are, in fact, numerous possibilities. Rthelweard, as a member of the
royal family and an important official, was in a favoured position for
gathering information. He attended the kings councils and courts, to
which magnates from all over the country, including Northumbria north
and south, also came. These magnates would have included occasion-
ally the Bishop of Chester-le-Street, and, more often, the Archbishop
of York,laOwho both might well have taken the opportunity to bemoan
the difficulties they encountered with the pagans in their dioceses.
One would suppose, too, that the archbishops would have been
accompanied by southern clergy when they first went to York, who
would have made frequent journeys to the south with or on behalf of
the archbishop, and perhaps have returned to the south permanently on

127. It is noticeable that neither Blfric nor Wulfstan equates Mars with Tyr.
128. Bethurum, Homilies of Wulfstan, p. 334.
129. Binns, Univ. 1 Bergen Aarbok, 1956, 7 , argues fhat OE Nordrnanna meant exclusively
Norwegian and not Dane; but this would not exclude Dene from being used in a more
general sense. The vocabular of the Chronicle entries for the year 787 are interesting:
all except A report that in t&s year three ships Norlirnanna raided on the south coast;
D, E and F add that the raiders were from Hrereba (or Hereba) lande-i.e. probably
Horthaland on the Hardanger Fjord in Norway. Yet the comment in all versions is
that these were the first ships Deniscra manna which had come to England. In any case,
the population of the Northumbrian Viking kingdom is likely to have included many
of Danish descent who also, in the climate then prevailing, maintained their heathenism.
130. I am indebted to Professor Whitelock for this and other points in this passage.
126 J O U R N A L O F R E L I G I O U S HISTORY

his death and the appointment of his successor. Wlfric could well have
come into contact with these men, even if he did not attend the kings
councils, which he may well have done-it is he who gives contem-
porary references to the submission of the rulers Cumera and Scotta,
of the Cymry and the Scots, who came eight kings on one day to
Edgar in 973.13
Another possibility of contact would have been by means of hostages.
Whenever the Northumbrians acknowledged the supremacy of the kings
of England hostages must have been given. The Northumbrians who
accompanied Eadred to A b i n g d ~ n lmay ~ ~ have been such, rather than
magcates attending the kings court. Even after Northumbria came
finally under English rule, it is likely enough that the kings may have
felt it better to keep some hostages to safeguard their hold on this
recalcitrant province. Certainly at the Battle of Maldon in 991 there
was a Northumbrian hostage with Byrhtnoth, ealdorman of Essex; and
if it was a usual practice to billet hostages on ealdormen, there is every
reason to suppose that Wthelweard, ealdorman in the south-west and
of royal blood, would also have provided such hospitality. Yet one
cannot rule out the possibility that Byrhtnoths hostage was part of a
response to the renewed Viking attacks, which would not have taken
place before the time at which Bthelweard was writing (978-988, see
discussion under Ethelweard above).
It is also possible that Bthelweard might have obtained his informa-
tion simply by means of ordinary intercourse with Northumbria. We
are apt to think that any state of enmity, cold or hot, automatically
entails a closing of frontiers; but this is not likely to have been the case
in passport-less Anglo-Saxon England. Although doubtless strangers
would have been viewed with suspicion, there may well have been more
movement by merchants and those rich and powerful enough to provide
some measure of protection for themselves than we readily imagine.
H. R. Loyn has pointed out that there would have been a considerable
amount of internal trade within England at this period.133 Even if the
two most frequently traded commodities, iron and salt, were locally
available to the North~mbrians~~ they may well have needed to
augment their supplies in these and other goods from the more southerly
parts of England. The law code Edgar IV, probably dated 962-963,

131. In his homily for St.Swithuns- Day, &Ifrids Lives of the Saints, Skeat (Ed.),, I,
468, and, less precisely, in the epilogue to hIs Verslon of Judges, The Old Engbsh
Version of the Heptateuch, Crawford, S.,J. (Ed.), EETS, 160, 1922, pp. 416-17. See
English Historical Documents, vol. I, Whitelock (Ed.), pp. 853, 854 for translatlon.
132. Wlfrics Life of St Ethelwold, Stevenson, J. (Ed.), ch. 8, .Chronicon Monasterii
de Abingdon, 11, Rolls Series, London, 1858, pp. 253-66, especially 258. See English
Historical Documents, vol. I, Whitelock (Ed.), p. 834 for translahon.
133. Loyn, H. R., Anglo-Saxon England and the Norman Conquest, London, 1962,
ch. 3, Internal Trade: the Coinage and the Towns, pp. 98-145; see also Loyn,
Boroughs and Mints, A.D. 900-1066, Anglo-Saxon Coins: Studies presented to F . M .
Stenton, Dolley (Ed.), London, 1961, pp. 122-35.
134. Domesday refers to iron workers at Wragley in the West Riding; and salt manu-
facture was of considerable importance in Cheshire. See Loyn, Anglo-Saxon England
and the Norman Conquest, pp. 102, 107, 109.
 T H E N O R S E GODS A N D N O R T H U M B R I A 127

$ 2-11,la5contains clauses concerning one who rides abroad to make

purchases, and it is clear that those most often envisaged are of live-
stock. They also emphasize ( $ 15) that the men of the Danelaw
generally, and Earl Oslac of Northumbria and eall here b e on his
ealdordome wunas, all the army living in his ealdormanry, should
accept these trading regulations along with the rest of the population,
to b y bcet earm and eadig mote agan b@t hi mid rihte gestrynas, to the
end that rich and poor may possess what they have lawfully acquired.
The code ends with the kings praise of his subjects, because they have
been so zealous for the preservation of public peace.
That indeed there was internal trade between Northumbria and
English England in the second half of the tenth century is indicated by
a statement of Roger of Wendover that merchants coming from York
landed in Thanet, where they were taken prisoner by the inhabitants,
and robbed of all their goods. Edgar was so angry, presumably because
of his anxiety to maintain public peace, that he deprived all the pillagers
of their possessions, and even had some executed. This incident is
dated 974 by Roger;136but is probably to be equated with the ravaging
of Thanet reported under the year 969 in the D, E and F Chronicles.
Proof of similar trade is also afforded by about a hundred coins,
contained in an iron-bound chest found just outside Shaftesbury. They
were all of Ethelreds Long Cross issue, which was current only
between about September 997 and September 1003. Although more
than twenty mints were represented, 28 of the coins were from York,
13 from Lincoln, 12 from London and 8 from Chester. Dolley suggests
that they formed the capital of a Danelaw merchant, who concealed it
before taking lodging for the night in the town, and who was never able
to recover it.137
Nor must one forget that in the second half of the tenth century the
mint at York would have been ultimately under royal control, even
although Edgars currency reforms do not seem to have been carried
through so thoroughly there as elsewhere, perhaps because some
measure of archiepiscopal control persisted.1a* In the latter half of the
eleventh century York had ten moneyers-more than any other mint
except London. Yet if one looks at the distribution of mints in Edgars
day, it is noticeable that York and Chester are the only ones north of a
line from the Humber south-west to Shrewsbury, whereas south of that
line they were frequently less than fifteen miles apart.139 This striking
contrast may perhaps represent the realities of English control in the

135. Laws of Kings of England, Robertson (Ed.), pp. 33-7.

136. English Historical Documents, vol. I, Whitelock (Ed.), P. 251.
137. Dolley R. H. M., The Shaftesbnry Hoard of Pence of Bthelrcd 11, Numismatic
Chronicle, ;ixth ser., XVI, 1956, 267-80.
138. Dolley, R. H. M., The Significance of Die-Axis in the Context of the Later
Anglo-Saxon Coinage, British Numismatic Journal, XXVII, 1955, 167-72.
139. See map on p. 151, accompanying Dolley, R. H. M. and Metcalf, D. M., The
Reform of the English Coinage under Eadgar, Anglo-Saxon Coins: Studres presented
to F . M . Stenton, Dolley (Ed.), London, 1961, pp. 136-8.
128 JOURNAL, OF RFLIGIOUS HISTORY

north, where evidently only these two well-fortified ecclesiastical centres

were felt to be secure enough for a mint.
It is also possible, however, that Ethelweards and Elfrics informa-
tion derived directly from the Scandinavian homelands. New Viking
raids were directed against Southampton, Thanet and Cheshire in 980,
Devon and Cornwall in 982, and, after a respite, Devon again in 988.
Some of them, then, would have taken place within the area under
Ethelweards jurisdiction-he was described as occidentalium provin-
ciurum dux in 997. Yet it is unlikely that he or any of his countrymen
would have been able, or desired, to establish friendly enough relations
with these new elusive enemies to have listened carefully to the forms of
their names, or their stories about their gods, unless they had captured
any of them. About this possibility we have no information.
But on other occasions Scandinavian sea-farers may have been better
received. The sagas show the same men, now joining in a mercantile
voyage, now a harrying expedition, and, though specific cases are un-
provable, the idea recurs too frequently to be dismissed out of hand. In
King Elfreds time the goods brought to England from Norway appear
to have consisted mainly of animal skins and furs and dried fish;140and
it is unlikely that the English demand for these products would have
disappeared by the end of the tenth century, even although by this time
the great merchant towns which dealt most in such commodities, Birka
and Kaupang in Skiringssal, were in de~line.~King Ethelreds treaty
with Olaf Tryggvason is concerned that merchant ships should not be
attacked when they entered estuaries with their wares,142 and Olaf
Tryggvasons Saga tells of two men-heathens whom he unsuccessfully
tried to convert-from Halgoland who made a merchant voyage west
to England.143
Numbers of English coins have been found on Scandinavian soil, and,
although the majority of these represent dunegeld or heregeld payments
(since they date from the later part of Ethelred 11s reign onwards),
and others, as Grierson has warned,144 were certainly paid over as
ransom for captives, or as dowries, or in gift-exchange, and so can be
taken as implying only the most minimal of culture contacts, some of
them, to judge from their presence in what appear to be merchants
hoards, probably reached Scandinavia as a result of trade.145 The
Arabian dirhems occasionally found in England point to trade in the

140. See the account of the voyage of Ohthere in King Elfreds Orosius; and Egils
Saga, ch. 17 (trans. Jones, G., Syracuse, 1960, p. 5 7 ) .
141. Arbman, H., The Vikings, London, 1961, p. 47; Jones, G., A History of the
Vikings, London, 1968, pp. 157-74; Hedeby, whjch survived until the mid-eleventh
century, was probably not so directly concerned wlth the products of the Scandinavian
peninsula.
142. Laws of the Kings of England. Robertson (Ed.), pp. 56-61.
143. Ch. 74 in Snorri, Sturluson, Heimskringla, Reykjavik, 1944, p. 194. (In other eds.
ch. 60 or 81.)
144. Grierson, P., Commerce in the Dark Ages: A Critique of the Evidence, Trans-
actions of Royal Historical Society, 5th ser., IX, 1959, 23-40.
145. Loyn, Anglo-Saxon England and the Norman Conquest, p. 95.
 T H E N O R S E GODS A N D N O R T H U M B R I A 129

opposite d i r e ~ t i 0 n . l ~Most
~ of the trade would appear to have been
with the east coast ports of England; but if any merchants had pene-
trated to the southern ports within Bthelweards ealdormanry, he would
certainly have heard of them.14T It is also probable that he might have
met Scandinavian merchants in London; the privileges accorded to them
there and recorded in a document of the time of King John, may well
have originated much earlier.148
Again, if we can trust the sagas, there were Icelanders, moved by the
spirit of adventure, and perhaps with poetic ability as their credentials,
who took service with English kings, and, again, although specific cases
may be unprovable, it was evidently regarded as a normal thing to do.
According to his saga, Egil Skallagrimsson came with his brother
Thorolf and fought for Bthelstan at a battle probably to be equated with
Brunanb~rh.~~~
Gunnlaug Serpent-tongue is similarly said to have come to Ethelred
the Unready and written a singularly inappropriate panegyric to him.15o
One of his later verses (ch. XI) tells how he was delayed in order to
fight for Ethelred-presumably against Swein and his Danes. He does
not seem to have been so addicted to mythological kennings as Egil,
but although he would have shared in the conversion of Iceland in 1000,
being then in his teens, he uses enough kennings in his versesle to show
that he was aware of at least the names of many of the pagan gods, and
that he knew some of Othins heiti and of his connection with warfare-
enough, certainly, for him to have been able to give Ethelweard his
information about them, had he not first arrived in England well after
Rthelweards death.
Moreover, the later Anglo-Saxon period appears to have been a time
of missionary effort in Scandinavia, and although it reached its peak
somewhat later than Ethelweard was writing, it is quite possible that he
or Elfric may have encountered one or two who had been perhaps to
Norway and returned.162
It may also be relevant that a late-tenth-century version of the English
genealogies appears as the basis of a passage in the prologue to Snorris
Eddu ( $ Q 3 and 4) ,153 and there the Old English names are translated
into Norse-Vithar does not appear in the Kentish line, but Voden
whom we call Oain and Beldeg whom we call Baldr do. At first sight

146. Lewis, A. R., The Northern Seas, Princeton, 1958, pp. 305, 329, 334.
147. L o w . ov. cit.., 0.. 99.
_ ,

148. Bateson, Mary, A London Municipal Collection of the Reign of John, E H R ,

XVII, 1902, 499, 502.
149. See Jones, Gwyn, Egill Skallagrimsson in England, Proc. British Academy,
XXXVII, 1952, 127-44.
150. Gunnlaugs Saga Ormstungu, ch. VII.
151. The verses which may be confidently attributed to him and noj,to the thirteen,th-
century author of the saga are listed in the Introduction to the edition in the Viking
Society series, London, 1953, Foote, P. G. and Quirk, R. (Eds.), pp. xi-xii.
152. Stenton, Anglo-Saxon England, pp., 456-7; Jones, A History of the Vikings, p.
378, n. 1 . I am indebted to Professor Whitelock for pointing this out.
153. Finnur Jonsson (Ed.), Copenhagen, pp. 6-7.
130 J O U R N A L O F R E L I G I O U S HISTORY

the equations seem to reflect Ethelweard, but this is certainly illusory,

since they must have seemed obvious to any Norseman and are only
two among many others, such as Friallaf whom we call Frialeif and
FrjQBigarwhom we call Fr6Ba. Unfortunately, too, we cannot be sure
that these genealogies reached the north at any considerable period
before they were used in Snorris pr01ogue.l~~There is, indeed, some
discussion as to whether the passage is Snorris, or a later interpolators.
Names from the genealogies also appear, either individually or in groups,
in the part of Saxos history which is thought to be a Jutish chronicle165
and which deals with the Saxons, Jutes, and Schleswig.
In view of this seeming freedom of movement of men and ideas, one
must remember that there were many Scandinavian areas far closer to
southern England than Iceland or Norway. Norsemen had established
themselves in eastern Ireland first at the beginning of the ninth century.
At first their attitude to Irish Christianity was hostile, and although
many of them were sincerely converted, including most of their kings,
there must have been still some small measure of organized paganism
even at the very end of the tenth century, since Thors ring was carried
off by Maelsechnaill in 994, and in the year 1000 Brian Borumha
destroyed a grove of T h ~ r Trade. ~ ~ between
~ Ireland and England in
the late tenth century is proved by coin-hoards,lK7and by the presence
of Irish merchants selling sugi cloaks in Cambridge in 975.f68
Among the eight kings whose submission to Edgar is recorded by
Florence of Worcester in 973, and who may well have given him
hostages as, or as well as, pledges, are two16s who could have been
Scandinavians : Maccus,160 king of many islands, and Sigfrith. Maccus
was probably lord of Man and the Hebrides.lsl

154. Professor Whitelock queries whether they were taken by the missionaries referred
to above.
155. Lukman, Niels, in Kulturhistorisk Leksikon f o r Nordisk Middelalder, Copenhagen,
1956, I, 142-3.
156. Walsh, A., Scandinavian Relations with Zreland during the Viking Period, Dublin,
1922, ch. VII, The Vikings and the Celtic Church, pp. 47-56. See also Young, J. I.,
A Note on the Norse Occupation of Ireland, History, new ser., X X X V , 1950, 11-32.
157. Lewis, The Northern Seas, pp. 330, 430.
158. Tait, J., The Medieval English Borough, Manchester, 1936, p. 10.
159. Roger of Wendovers unreliable version of this list contains the name Jukil (which
could represent ON Jokell) Westmariae. It is, unfortunately, best ignored. See
Stenton, Sir Frank, Pre-Conquest Westmorland, An Znventory of the Historical Monu-
ments in Westmorland, London, 1936, pp. li-1%.
160. See the discussion of this name in E. V. Gordons edition of the Battle o f Maldon,
2nd edn., London, 1939, pp. 84-5.
161. Anderson (Early Sources of Scottish History, p. 479 n.) identifies him with Mact,
Harolds son, who according to Welsh sources had invaded Anglesey a few years before,
and who is recorded under the name Magnus in the Annals of the Four Masters as
plunderin Inishcathy with the Lawmen of the Islands. His father was probably
Harold, ford of the foreigners of Limerick whose death is recorded in 940 (Walsh,
op. cit., p. 2 5 ) . T h e Hebrides and Man were called the Znnsi-Gall, Isles of the
Foreigners, already by the Irish in the ninth century, and were known to the Norse
as the Subreyiar, the southern isles. Godred, Maccus brother, is called King of
Znnsi-Gall in Irish sources, and Gubrebr, King of Man in Njals saga, chs 86 and 89.
See also Megaw, Basil S. and Eleanor M. The Norse Heritage in the Isle of Man,
The Early Cultures of North-West Europe: H. M . Chadwick Memorial Studies, Dickins,
B. and Fox, C. (Eds.), Cambridge, 1950, p. 157, n. 1.
 T H E NORSE GODS A N D NORTHUMBRIA 131

The Vikings had begun to bury their dead on Man, which was
strategically placed for their activities in the region,lB2from about the
middle of the ninth century.lB3 It shows the same religious confusion
as Northumbria in this period, with burials of pagan character in
churchyards, and Christian crosses with scenes of pagan mythology
and legend.IB4
Brqndsted believes that the occupation of the more northerly islands-
the Hebrides, the Orkneys and the Shetlands-could have begun even
at the end of the eighth century;ls6 and that they served as convenient
bases for the raids around the coast of Scotland which were frequent
at that time. The Hebrides were closely connected with Man and
probably enjoyed a similar culture; they supplied some notable settlers
to Iceland.lBGThe Orkneys had their own jurls and according to the
sagas were often visited by adventurers. The power of these earls
reached its zenith in the days of Sigurd the Stout, whose rule, under
his famous raven banner, extended south as far as Fife. He is supposed
by Anderson to have been the Sigfrith at Chester in 973, before he
became Earl. The Shetlands were more closely connected with Norway,
and presumably shared both its paganism and its conversion.lB7 Viking
graves have been found on all these islands, with a sprinkling of boat
burials.las From the islands an expansion on to the Scottish mainland
seems to have taken place in the tenth century. Coin-hoards belonging
to the tenth century occur throughout these islands, and on the Scottish
mainland, and many of them clearly date from before the time of
clanegeld payment.la9
Any of these areas, rather than Scandinavia itself, or Northumbria,
could have produced the man, adventurer or pirate, who told Ethel-
weard and Elfric the names of the gods of the Norsemen, and the
former that they were accustomed to sacrifice to Othin for victory. It
may be relevant that a man with the Irish-Norse name Maccus,170
who was almost certainly not a hostage, was named as one of the
defenders of the bridge in the poem on the Battle of Maldon (1. 80).
We do not have to assume, however, that Zthelweards source was
necessarily the same as Elfrics, nor that Ethelweard derived all his
Scandinavian knowledge from one informant. The improvement of the
Danish names in the Chronicle need not have been due to the same
person who told him about Othin, Baldr and Vithar. It is surely not
beyond the bounds of possibility that a relative of King Elfred-who
162. Megaw, op. cit., p. 148.
163. Arbman, The Vikings, p. 72; BrQndsted, J., The Vikings, London, 1960, p. 101.
164. Wilson, i.Brif.Arch.Soc., XXX, 1967, 40-2; Davidson, Gods and Heroes in Stone,
Early Cultures of North-East Europe, Dickins and FOX(Eds.), passim,
165. Brendsted, The Vikings, pp. 31-2, 52-3.
166. Arbman, The Vikings, pp. 52-3.
167. Ibid., p. 52.
168. BrGndsted, The Vikings, pp. 217-8.
169. Lewis, The Northern Seas, p. 331; see also Fig. 1 opposite p. 142 in Anglo-Saxon
Coins: Studies presented to F . M . Stenton, Dolley (Ed.).
170. See n. 160 above.
132 J O U R N A L O F R E L I G I O U S HISTORY

got his ecclesiastical helpers from Wales and continental Germany,

whose interviews with a Norwegian and with an English merchant
seaman are recorded, and to whom came three Irish peregrini-should
have sufficient intellectual curiosity to interview and get snippets of in-
formation from anyone who came his way. The ealdormans opportuni-
ties would naturally be less extensive than those of the king, but were
nevertheless certainly very considerable. He is, after all, unique in his
accomplishment-the production of a Latin work-as a layman in his
period; and, however we may deplore his scholarship, his independence
of mind and eagerness for knowledge can surely not be denied. We hear
nothing of his warlike ability, but in other respects he seems to have
been not unworthy of his line.
It remains only to consider whether Ethelweards or Elfrics remarks
about the Norse gods add anything to our knowledge of them. The
answer must be, unfortunately, very little. The conception of Wodan
as the giver of victory is probably general Germanic, as the story of his
espousal of the Langobardic cause in Paulus Diaconus History (I, 8 )
clearly shows. That it was almost certainly known by the Norsemen
in Northumbria is implied by the Eiriksmcil, and the same poem has a
clear reference to the Baldr legend, showing that it, too, must have
belonged to the accepted body of myth by this time.
However, Vithar seems to have been much less widely known, and
earlier scholars believed him to be simply a personification of the idea of
vengeance, only to be found within the context of RagnarQk. His name
does not occur in scaldic kennings, but only in mythological lays171 and
in Snorris Gylfuginning. There are two place-names in eastern Norway,
however, which might contain his name-Viaarshof and Viskj$l. The
second of these is rather doubtful, but is sometimes taken, with a
Valaskioll (i.e. Valis skjalf) in the same region on the east of the
Oslofjord, as evidence for a small local cult of heavenly avengers. It
may, or may not, be relevant that this almost coincides with the area
from which derive some distinctive horse-bits belonging to the ninth/
tenth centuries, found in Y 0 ~ k . l ~However,
one cannot assume from
this that Bthelweards informant might have derived from this area,
since the whole myth of RagnarQk must certainly have taken some shape
by this time, and have been generally current. This is proven not only
by the Eiriksrnd but also by the Gosforth Cross, where, as already
mentioned, one of the figures has been interpreted as Vithar. The most
that can be claimed for Ethelweards notice of him as the son of Othin
is that it is the first recording of his name to which any approximate
date (978-988) can be applied. And the only really original knowledge
we can derive from Elfric is that Thor was the god most honoured by
the Danes. But the value and force of this, considering that he appears
to use Dane in a general sense, is doubtful.

171. Vplusph, Vaf)ru&nisnrdl, Lokaseiina and Grirnrtismd. See Turville-Petre, Myth

and Religion o f the North, pp. 281-3.
172. Waterman, Archaeologia, XCVII, 1959, 75 and n. 4.