The Normans and Their World

by Jack Lindsay

  [41] St Olaf, xi-xii (castle perhaps where the Tower was later); xiii for Thing-men, free men entitled to appear at a Thing, as udal-born to land; they hired themselves out as retainers or hired-men. Also vi for operations in Sweden. Musset (9), 46-9.

  [42] Wheeler.

  [43] Olrik, 212ff.

  [44] C. L. Kingsford in Stow, Survey, ii, 373.

  [45] W. of M., II, xii.

  [46] Jansson, 51-53. See E. G. Bowen, Britain and the western seaways (1972) for continuity; Christensen in Hist. of Seafaring based on underwater arch., ed. G. Bass (1972).

  [47] Klind-Jensen (1) and (2); Hagen; Kivikovski; Shetelig; Stenberger; D. Wilson (2) and (3); Kendrick; Arbman; Brønsted; Jones; Turville-Petrie (1); Sawyer (1) and (3), to which I owe much. For norse god Njord and the Nerthus of Tacitus and the bog-sacrifices, P.V. Glob. Ideal landlord: Olaf Tryg., xxi-xxii.

  [48] Olaf Tryg., ix; D. Wilson (3), 143f, 147. Rigsmal; C. P. Boreal i, 236-40.

  [49] Gisli, G. Johnston, 1963; handclasp seals all bargains.

  [50] Phillpotts, ch. iv (problem still existed in 17th c.); oath of compurgation, 99f; saga wergilds, 13-22. Also chs. ii-iii.

  [51] Wilson (3), 42. Pagan themes into Christian art, 44.

  [52] Simpson, 153, fig. 93, cf. fig. 92.

  [53] Grettir, ii. Not till well into 12th c. that even the great pagan temple at Uppsala was destroyed.

  [54] Olaf Tryg., xxiv.

  [55] Olaf Tryg., lxv, ‘the bonders changed the Thing-token into a War-token’, lxxii, cf. xvii, liii; combat, xxxiv, holm-gang, as the fighters went to a holm or uninhabited isle. The quarrel here is over a girl. Marking battle field with hazel boughs, Archery: St Olaf, xx.

  [56] Bor., i, 265f. Heroes are Woden’s Oak; ‘the javelin sought out the life of a man’, etc.; blood is ‘the wave of the sword’. Bor., i, 268-70.

  [57] Olaf Tryg., xxx-xxxi; Njal, xxx and lxi. Stream of wolf: stream of blood. The warrior is the wolf-leader, the breaker of the raven’s fast. Grappling-iron: Olaf Tryg., cxiii, cxvi. Forecastle: Grettir. Use of cable: St Olaf, xxviii (pulley and lever); liv, throws tiller. Walk round ship-rails, juggle with three daggers: Olaf Tryg., xcii. Ships: karfi for coastal waters, langskip for war voyages, hafskip for a seagoer, at times a trader, kaupskip. For Raven: Chaney, 132-4; Chronicle, 878; Krappe (2), 408-11; J. Anderson, 210; Enc. Emmae, ii, 9; Turville-Petrie (3) 57-60; Lukman, 133; W. (3), 687 8; Helm II, i, 161; Colgrave, 116-8, (a raven, as well as boar, stag, wolf, horse, troubled St. Guthlac, ch. 36). The AS raven may go back to days of the Woden cult.

  [58] Flateyjarbok i, ch. 63; N. K. Chadwick (1), 28-31. Davidson, 112ff; Shetelig (1), 166, 280f, 430 etc.; Wilson (2), 47f, and link of Vanir cult and Odin, 119f. Boatgrave in AS England on Snape Common, Suffolk, c. 500: R. A. Smith, VCH of Suffolk, i.

  [59] Jansson, 85ff; Legge (1), 8-13; G. R. Waters, lines 268-70.

  [60] Young; Walsh; Marcus (Faroes); AN, 1958, 407-14 etc.; Gathorne-Hardy; Zechlin; Bronsted 80, 103-8, Greenland: Norlund. Iceland: Gjesset. Eskimos: Oleson. Glyn Daniel, Ant. no 184, 288-92.

  [61] Sawyer, 200, n18.

  [62] Hodgkin, ii, 487f; Brøgger, ch. 4; Shetelig (2), ch. 8; Olsen; Sawyer 200, 166f. Jarlshof: Hamilton.

  [63] Sawyer, 30; N. Chadwick (1), 14. Kendrick, 96f. Sea level; Jansson, 26.

  [64] N. Chadwick (1), 14f. Kiev conquered and refounded by Oleg. In general, M. Rostovtzev, Iranians and Greeks in S. Russia, 1922, 210ff; Vernadsky, Ancient Russia, 1943, and Byzantion xiv, also The Origins of Russia, 1939 179; M. Tikhomirov.

  [65] Jansson, 19ff.

  [66] Shetelig, 352; Salten fiord: Olaf Tryg., lxxxvi.

  [67] Riant, 97-129.

  [68] Jansson, 26ff.

  [69] Olaf Tryg., v, also vi. Tavastland linked with personal name Tafaeistr.

  [70] Jansson, 36.

  [71] Vogel (3), 982, and (1) 16f.

  [72] For Sigtuna scales-box: Jansson 33f; Wilson (2), fig. 32. Swedes like little isles in lakes, but the sites changed: Lillo 7th (c.), Birka (9th c.), Sigtuna (11th c.), Stockholm (13th c.). Lopez (4) gives Birka 35 acres, Paris was smaller (some 20 acres), expanding from the Ile north and south in suburbs. But much inside Birka seems unbuilt on.

  [73] Sawyer, 84f, 178: silver, important in the arts of the Viking period.

  [74] Schoenbeck.

  [75] Hodgkin, ii, 646; Hübener, 39; Malone (1) holds that O. told his tale not later than 871. Also Geidel; Malone (1) (2) and (3); S. H. Cross; Ross.

  [76] Jansson, 50ff; for others, 61ff.

  [77] W. of M., II, xii.

  [78] Crossley-Holland, 30f.

  [79] Sawyer (2), 171-3. Pre-Scandanavian sokes: R. H. C. Davis (4) pp. xliii—vii; Vinogradoff (1), 303. Li. i, 358 (II Cn. 71, 3); Robertson (1), 210; Maitland, 139; Stephenson (6), 305-8. See also ch. 3. & 7 here. Coins: Sawyer (1), 93f & (3); Seaby; Dolley. Assessment of personal names is difficult, because after a while through intermarriage both people used the same names; but it is still significant that in DB 60 per cent of peasants in Lincolnshire have Danish names, 40 per cent in East Anglia. See Clemoes (1) for Cameron on Scand. settlement (A. S. villages possibly annexed by Danes); Brooks on military obligations of 8-9 cs; Loyn, later Saxon town-developments; Page on Scand. language in England. Also E. Okasha, Hand-list A. S. Non-Runic Inscriptions (1971).

  [80] Liber Eliensis, 148; S (20); Cam (1), 9f. Silver coins struck from Edward (Martyr) to 1066 show Cambridge’s trading reputation.

  [81] Latouche, 256; Shetelig (1), 357; Sawyer 60, 66-82, 200f; Bronsted, 130-7; Wilson (2), 35f, 85-91. Warriors getting together for voyage: Njal, xxix. Lagouëlle, 85-8 and 230-50; Prentout (4), 207-49; Musset (12), 606; Carabie, 230-9.

  [82] Olaf Tryg., xcv. See lxxiv for the Crane, a snaekke, a longship probably framed for speed; xx for clash of two vikings (fifteen benches).

  [83] Also Shetelig (1), 352; Olaf Tryg., lxxxii on three men in a boat-note hanging of rudder, butter-kits, bread-chest, big ale keg. Carving: C. E. Gibson, The Story of the Ship, 1948, 87, pl. 9. Needham (3), IV, 3, 608.

  [84] Olaf Tryg., xxv, also lxxxv for dog.

  [85] Wilson (2), 91.

  [86] St. Olaf, lxiv and lxxvii.

  [87] Shetelig (1), 348ff.

  [88] Olaf Tryg., xlvii, song of Sigvald the scald; xxix, Halfred Vandraedaskald on Olaf’s white-winged ocean-horses. Ships are skates that skim on the sea-belt; Njal xc; W. of M., II, xii. Olaf on his serpent’s quarter-deck, cxiv; binding the stems together, cxiii.

  [89] Sawyer (1), 126-8.

  [90] Maréchal 270f; Bouard (5); great Mercian earthworks by Offa against the Welsh; the Dane-Dicke in Yorkshire. Denmark: Olaf Tryg., xxiv, xxvi. In 1160 Valdemar the Great added a brick wall with battlements.

  [91] Jom or Jomsborg: a fortified town on east side of isle of Wollin off the mouths of the Oder.

  [92] Sawyer (1), 129-35 and (2) 132, 249, n5. Illustrated London News archaeological section, 2105, (6 Oct. 1962).

  [93] D. Wilson (2), 60f; Ekekorp, 61f; Pertz (2) lines 156f, 213f, 360-6. No credit to tale of Paris in 886 despite inventive powers of barbarians (Anon: De Rebus Bell., LW (1), 150.

  [94] Complaint: J. Lair, Étude sur la Complainte; Lauer; Becker; Leblond, 173-5; continuity of tenure: Musset (8), 1025; Dudo (Lair), 221; Adhémar ed. Chavanon, 148.

  [95] Rollo’s descent was said to be from Fornjot, king of Finland, through Gorr (settled in Lofoten Islands), Sveithi the Sea-king, Halfdan earl of the Uplands, Eystein Glumra. Sources: Dudo of St Quentin; William of Jumièges; Flodoard of Rheims; Richer; Ralph Glaber; Widukind the German; Chronicles of Rouen and of St Vaast; Benedict of St More; etc., with Haskins; Musset.

  [96] Postan in Hallam (1) p. vii-viii. Olaf, lix; Leblond, 57. Scandinavian element in Dudo: Prentout (5), 83; Borges; also Dudo, iii, 53f, iv, 68 and 81; Steenstrup, 302f; Musset (9), 45ff.

  [97] Dudo 154; Benedict, lines 3299-3303; Loyn (3), 23.

  [98] Sawyer (1); Li. i, 228; Robertson, 64.

  [99] Robertson (2), no. xl; S(11), 505; Sawyer 151f.


  [100] S (11), 504, for more examples.

  [101] S (16), 74f; 82-4 for charters of monastries with grants of land by peasants. Sokeman in Kent and Surrey, 1066, but such sporadic cases south of Thames only stresses the distinctive aspect of Danelaw: S (11), 509ff.

  [102] Hoyt, 192-204; R. H. C. Davis, pp. xliii-xlvii; Sawyer, 164, 238; homines liberi, L. 225f. Against Danish hypotheses for sokeman tenures: Davis (2), S(12), 21-39; F (1), 148f.

  [103] B (1), 57.

  [104] H. A. Ellis; Davidson, 126-30. Andreas stone: 128. Weland: Ellis, 234. Rasmund stone in Sweden with Sigurd theme, dragon as ornamental border.

  [105] B (2), 172 and (4) if; Olaf Tryg., xi. W. of M. says that William near the end of his life sent men to Nicaea to bring back his father’s body, but in Apulia they heard of his death and buried the body there.

  [106] Aelgifu in charge of Danelaw or Scandinavia? She was ultimately a regent in Norway; her father was once earl of Northumbria and owned much land in Northants. Chronicle 1037 on Bruges. Also W. H. Stevenson. Harald’s nickname Harefoot probably contemporary.

  [107] H. M. Chadwick (2), 237f; Chaney, 26f.

  [108] Bede HE., ii, 5 and i, 27; Asser, Alfred, xvii; Frazer, Lectures on Early History of Kingship, 1905, 243f.

  [109] Chadwick (2), 102-10; Chaney, 27, n 79, for custom among the Warni, a tribe closely connected with Angles. Simeon of Durham on maternal as well as paternal descent of King Oswald: Arnold, 18; Bede, ii, 6.

  [110] Chronicle E; C & D add that the enemy went up into Wilts; the gnomic saying echoes Alcuin (Plummer).

  [111] Ritchie (2), 14f; the bishop was pluralist of Crediton and Cornwall.

  [112] Fécamp and Mont St M.: Prentout (5), 90; Gall. Chr., xi, 202f; PL, cxxxvii; Will. Jum., v, 4.

  [113] Prentout (4), 46f; Plummer-Earle, ii, p. cx-cxii.

  [114] Malm. Pont. Angi., v, (PL clxxix 1667); Osbern, Transl. St. Elph., x, (PL cxlix); Plummer, ii, 223; Loth, 176. MSS style: Malm. Life St Wulfstan, 738f; Martin 358.

  [115] Bezzola, 194; Grierson (2), 89ff; Barlow (2), 17, cult of St Oswald, 176.

  [116] Grierson, 95, n3; van Lokeren, no 124.

  [117] Ritchie (2), 5f.

  [118] W. of M., II, xiii; A. Campbell (2), pp. xliii, xlvi, 32 (llxvi); Freeman, i, 735-7. Alfred: Plummer, ii, 211-5. Emma’s marriage-gifts: Campbell, p. xliv. Roger of Wendover says she turned to Flanders as William was still too young to get order in Normandy.

  [119] Formanna Sögur, iii, 63f; B (1), 58; S (5), 421. Ralf the Staller: G. H. White, Complete Peerage, ix, 560-71. S (5), 419f, 561, 553.

  [120] W. of M., II, xiii; Baker, 72.

  [121] B (4), 55.

  [122] Vita Aedwardi, i; W. of M., l.c., year 1065.

  [123] M. Bloch (11), 43-9; Southern (9); B(3), 61f, 123; Delaborde; Chaney, 73.

  [124] Greg. Tours, HF, IX, xxi (Dalton, 1927, ii, 395); Chaney, 73f. The invocation of King Guntram drove out evil spirits and he made blot to cure a plague affecting the groin.

  [125] Ritchie (1), 39f.

  [126] B (1), 39f.

  [127] T. D. Hardy, I, i, 381; Enc. Emmae, ii, 16; S (5), 420.

  [128] Grierson, 103, n2.

  [129] Vita Aed. (402-4) on Baldwin and Godwin as former allies. Chron. C. has ‘Frenchmen’. Harold: Chron. D and S (5) 564f.

  [130] Chron. D & C. Harold seems to have been behind the outlawing of Aelfgar (1053); but after the fighting he reinstated him in E. Anglia; and when Leofric died, he let him become Earl of Mercia, though insisting that E. Anglia should then go to Gyrth.

  [131] B (4), 36. Gilbert was grandson of Richard I; he was murdered at the instigation of kinsman Ralph de Gacé, son of Archbishop Robert of Rouen.

  [132] Loyn (3), 36.

  [133] His sister Adelaide, after the count of Ponthieu was killed at Argues, 1053, married Lambert a count in Artois and younger brother of Eustace II of Boulogne, who may have been married to Godgifu, daughter of Emma and Aethelred, some time after 1035 when her first husband died.

  [134] See later, end of Chapter Fourteen.

  [135] Runciman, i, 85f; Mansi, xix, 89f and xix, 2671; Hefele-Leclercq, iv, pt. 2, 1409; Glaber in Bouquet, RHF, x, 27f; Pfister, p. lx. Odo: Miracles de Saint Benoît, ed. de Certain, 182.

  [136] In general Bouard (4). Mansi, Concilia, xix, 483-8; MGH, vii, 474 and viii, 103. A link with Verdun synod 1016 through bishop of Soissons.

  [137] Schieffer (1); Pfister, 172. The basis has been taken as being the survivals of Roman law in S. France: Huberti (2), 34-51. More likely the movement emerged through the lack of kingly power there: M. Bloch (6), 202.

  [138] Dauphin, 260ff; Bouard, 169f.

  [139] N. legislation against feud (faida): Yver (1) and (2). Truce: Tardif, 596, n5 (Richard, not Odilon of Cluny). Ignis: Du Cange sv; Laporte, 48; Bouard 171. H. E. J. Cowdrey, PP no 46, ignis; also for rapidly widening gap, early 11 c., between milites and pauperes, with burdens falling on peasants; and on the Truce working out ultimately to strengthen papacy; after 1066 helping ducal power over church and nobles.

  [140] Fulbert, Miracula S. Audoeni, 1087-92. In late 1046 William faced a big rising in lower Normandy, so he had no time then.

  [141] Church militia: Ord refers to Gacé as princeps of the militia of the Normans. Marx, 159. Texts: Bouard, 176ff. For N. bishops: AN, viii, 1958, 87-102.

  [142] Excommunications were imprecise before the 13th c.; MS of Douai gives text of imprecation: Huberti (1), 337. The movement was strong where kingly authority was weak: MGH, vii, 74; Lenariginier. Council of Toulonge 1050 recommends additions: Mansi, xix, 1042.

  [143] Mansi, xix, 827-32.

  [144] Already Clovis, 481-511, had done his best to make it easy for a man to cut loose from his kindred, etc.

  [145] Runciman, i, 86f; Alexiad, x, 9, 5f (B. Leib ii, 218, 222). Eastern church had a stronger anti-war tradition, e.g. Basil, PG, xxxii, 681.

  [146] Blair, 297.

  [147] D (11); Foreville; Loyn (3), 56. I find no likelihood in the thesis that the terms of Godwin’s return involved accepting William as heir. S (5), 557f accepts the tale of William’s visit.

  [148] Urry, 11f; Dodswell (2), 59.

  [149] Edwards, 296; Ord., iii, 189; Dodswell, 550.

  [150] Baker, 374, 276; Wormald (2), style and design; Digby, techniques.

  [151] S (2); Janssen; Bertrand; Chefneux; Dodswell etc.

  [152] R. F. Paris, 100; Dodswell 534 n33.

  [153] Eadmer HN I vi-viii.

  [154] W. of M., II, xiii; Freeman, iii, 671ff; H. of H., vi (year 1063).

  [155] Grierson (3), 90-7. S. Fest argues that the Aetheling’s wife was daughter of Stephen king of Hungary and Gisela, niece of emperor Henry II; see also Freeman, i, 483 (Aelfgiva as the woman who deceived Christ, bearing a son by a priest, another by a shoemaker).

  [156] B (4), 60; Aelfgiva is associated with phallic figure in border; for various identifications, even as a witch: Freeman, iii, 696-9 (William’s daughter or Harold’s sister).

  [157] Holmes. Harold and light horse go to Dol via sands, the heavier-armed inland via Rennes.

  [158] Loyn (3), 58; Douglas and Foreville.

  [159] Runciman, I (ii 1); Boissonade, 6-32; Hatem, 43-63; Fliche, 551-3; Rousset, 31-5; Vellay, 71. Baudri: Ord., iii, 248; D (2), ii, 289.

  [160] D (15), 41f; Joransen; Norwich (1); Chalandon, i, 42-57; Amatus, i, chs. 17-20; Leo of Ostia (redaction Peter Deacon); Ord, ii, 53f; Will of Apulia, i, lines 10-45.

  [161] See also Mon. Germ. Hist., SS, vii, 652, note a; Adhémar, ed. Chevanon, 178; Glaber, ed. Pron, 52f. Adhémar completed his work before 1034; Glaber apparently before 1044, may have got information from Odilo abbot of Cluny who was on pilgrimage to Monte Cassino c. 1023. For Rodolf: D (15), 219 n37; D (17), 110f.

  [162] Amatus, I, i, 2; Callen; Chalandoni, i, 81f.

  [163] Norwich, 70; Anna, Alex. i, 10 (Dawes). Amatus, iii, ch. 7; Malaterra i, ch. 16; Will. of Apulia, ii, vv. 320-43; Alex. i, 200, 10f; Ord, ii, 54.

  [164] Jamison, 247f.

  [165]
Norwich, 82.

  [166] D (Is), 58 and 129-32; Will. of Apulia 384ff. If put to it, the papacy would have appealed to its basic weapon, the forged Donation of Constantine.

  [167] Mal., ii, 53.

  [168] Jamison, 243f; Lair, 137; Marx (Interpolation), 163; D (15), 102.

  [169] Jamison, 244. Ord. vol. ii, lib. iii, 27.

  [170] Jamison, 244; Ord. l.c. 56f, 87, 109; Jamison, 279, nn35-37, sources 245. Many MSS of books from S. Italy in monastic libraries.

  [171] Jamison, 248f; Chronicles of Reign of Stephen etc., iii, 186; Historia Anglorum, 261f.

  [172] Ord. Marx, 1968; St Martin de Sées, Bibl. nat. MS Fran. 18, 953f, ix. Caen: Lehmann-Brockhaus, ii, 593, nos 4484f; Musset (3), 286f.

  [173] D (15), 91-103.

  [174] B (1), 7.

  [175] Bouquet, Recueil, x, 463; Ganshof (2), 76.

  [176] Green, 40.

  [177] Loyn (3), 16.

  [178] Guilhiermoz.

  [179] S (4), 12f.

  [180] lb. 14.

  [181] Service d’host (servicia debita) and arrière ban affected all free tenants, but especially the more prosperous, men with knights’ fees and vavasours with more than so acres: H (1), 81. Before 1066 there is no proof the dukes could impose fixed quotas of war service on all tenants, though they probably did so on the great monasteries (always big landowners), and perhaps on bishops. As the church was better organized, it was perhaps easier to force the dues on them. Baronial obligations were generally lighter than later in England.

  [182] Duby (1) 13-5; Genicot, 16; van Winter, 174; Beech, 94; Dhont, 545; Harvey, 27. More south, the knights were earlier drawn from noble families. Ganshof (2); M. Bloch (10).

  [183] Harvey, 27, n104.

  [184] Strayer (1), 56f. And Fauroux, nos 196, 13, 16, 107 and pp. 58-64; Lemarignier (5); Duby (2), 154f; Werner, 186; Halphen (3), 109.

  [185] Bloch (7), 177, 332; Round (7), i, 108f; Guilhiermoz, 184-6; Harvey 28, n105; H (2), 79.

  [186] Vinogradoff (3), 66, finds that drengs usually held about 1 hide.

  [187] B (4), 37f, 48. Robert was kinsman of the abbey’s founder. Also Dodswell, 557; Faral, 275f: archbishop Turpin.

  [188] Phillpotts, 193; Viollet, Hist. du droit civil, 2nd ed., 435. For fourth degree: Law of Northumbrian Priests (c. 1020-30?), 61, 1. Six degrees: laws VI Aethelred and I Cnut.